1986 Kalin Cellars Pinot Noir Cuvee DD

Kalin Cellars is known among wine cognoscenti for small-batch, unfiltered wines that age at least a decade before release and continue to improve with age. Robert M. Parker Jr. has written that Kalin “wines have incredible aging potential, and I’ve got many an old vintage of Kalin in my cellars – the Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir – to attest to their ageability.” Kalin wines are made by the husband-and-wife team of Terry and Frances Leighton, two micro-biologists who in the 1970s responded to a newspaper advertisement offering free grapes from a Livermore vineyard to anyone who would take care of it. The pair started tending the vineyard and making wine. Working with very old Semillon vines the couple’s first commercial release was a 1979 Livermore Semillon, and today they also made Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, sparkling and dessert wines. The Leightons continue do all the work themselves, working with carefully sourced grapes in a small Marin County winery. They were early California advocates of unfiltered wines made with a minimalist approach, aged white wines and single vineyard wines. Kalin produces just 7,000 cases a year and has an adoring following among wine writers. In 2007 Vinous reviewed Kalin’s just-released 1997 Livermore Semillon like this:” Yes, this is a current release from the unhurried Terry Leighton. I'd love to serve this blind next to a bottle of Laville Haut-Brion.”

This red wine is relatively light and can pair with a wide variety of foods. The grape prefers cooler climates and the wine is most often associated with Burgundy, Champagne and the U.S. west coast. Regional differences make it nearly as fickle as it is flexible.