July 23, 2025 – Looking out over the bleached Hollister hills, Abraham Corona directed parking for Calera Winery’s 50th anniversary event and reminisced about his former boss and friend Josh Jensen.
“Josh was so kind,” he said. “He was always so positive, no matter what. We would work hard together and then drink wine together. He was always so generous. I miss him.”
Corona is the cellar master at Calera and has worked at this icon of Pinot Noir for 38 years. “My first task was putting labels on bottles,” he told me. “Then I started doing everything else.” I asked if he ever thought he would spend pretty much the bulk of his life at this place. He looked wistful.
Later, I mentioned to the shuttle driver, Romeo Martinez, who has been there for almost 20 years, that when I met Josh, we had tea in his kitchen and I had admired his beautiful blue Vermont Castings stove.
“Oh, it is still there, in that house where Josh lived,” Martinez assured me, pointing towards it as we drove to the exclusive party. If only Josh had been there to see this milestone come to pass.
Visionary Pinot Noir pioneer, the late Jensen was on the minds of most in attendance. Almost all had a direct connection to the man and his wine. It’s not often you get to celebrate 50 years of a winery’s existence, although winemaker Mike Waller put this in perspective by noting that many of the European wine houses he’s come to know have been around for hundreds of years. We will always be playing catchup.
Attendees were handed a glass of 2023 Calera Vin Gris of Pinot Noir (presently on sale for $28) as a welcome wine, and its bright acid was certainly refreshing. Held outdoors, with seating beneath the trellises that border the steep drop off to the canyon below, the event was blessed with utterly perfect weather, and a high of 78. An occasional breeze came up to tease the napkins. Food was prepared by Golden State Caterers, owned by Nate & Jackie Maeda-Smouse, and leaned in the direction of Japan, one of Jensen’s favorite destinations, and a market that embraced his wines early on.
It’s worth flashing back on the genesis of Calera Wine Company, founded in 1975, the dream of one stubborn, well-educated man who chose a life of hard labor when he could easily have put his fancy Italian loafer-clad feet on the desk of a bank, while sporting silk shirts and Versace ties.
Jensen still wore those things: just not to an office in a high rise. Instead, he chose a remote, desolate place with no water or power to plant vines in limestone, where he set about proving that California could produce world class Pinot Noir that could go toe to toe with his Burgundian idols. Jensen’s tale of toil, travail, triumph and terroir, was chronicled by South African writer Marq DeVilliers in The Heartbreak Grape.
The first vintage Jensen bottled with that iconic limestone kiln on the label was a 1975 Zinfandel. We actually got to try it, as Waller, who has been there for 18 years now, produced a magnum of the 1975 Zin from the library to share with attendees. While fading fast, it still had a modicum of fruit, a lovely brick red color and acid holding on by a thread. I remember seeing it on sale in a clearance bin at a wine shop in 1986. It was absolutely brilliant back then.
Much more impressive were the magnums of older Pinot Noirs and a totally stunning 1993 Chardonnay that associate winemaker Amy Gill was pouring. I can’t stop thinking about the way that wine literally made all my tastebuds snap to attention, in awe of its brilliant color, abiding orchard fruit and lemon, with a glorious hint of butterscotch and shortbread on the finish. To have tasted that wine was to have watched a slow, warming smile spread across Jensen’s face as he recalled years later the sweet satisfaction of becoming a beloved international celebrity, after his naysaying friends assured him he would “lose his shirt.”
Of the older Pinot Noirs we enjoyed, the 1985 Reed and 1995 Selleck were the most memorable to me by far, gorgeously alive with the patina of age and lasting loveliness that Calera Pinots embody. The Selleck Vineyard has always appealed to me for its inherent, nervy acidity, depth and red fruited core. It feels absolutely alive. It’s remarkable how distinctive these vineyard voices remain, all these decades later.
Here are the wines we tasted from magnums with their various layers of dust.
’00 Jensen – Inviting cedar and incense aromas; juicy, zippy red raspberry fruit with a touch of pomegranate balsamic
’93 Mt. Harlan Chardonnay – Lovely butterscotch, vanilla, orange peel and tropical aromas; baked apples, ripe mango, candied citron and baked pear crisp on the finish
’99 Mills – Earthy and provocative, with serious red fruits; still pungent, broad-shouldered, alive and amazing
’14 de Villiers – Dark earth and damp cellar; huge baking spice and massive, driving tannins
’85 Reed – Captivatingly autumnal, with cedar, cranberry and earth aromas; lovely cranberry, candied strawberry, superb acid keeps this insanely alive and fresh
’95 Selleck – So very Burgundian, with warm earth; packed with savory flavors including pickled pepperoncini and capers
’75 Zinfandel – Gorgeous brick red color; aromas of iron filings, damp earth and foliage; fading fast but still a hint of fruit
’88 Selleck – While I did not get to taste this one, my friend Ken Parker, who has been a Calera fan since 1985, described it as “candy”
Current vintages of Calera wines were featured at individual tables paired with Japanese cuisine including a variety of rolls like shrimp tempura, spicy tuna and salmon with ponzu, baked Japanese sweet potatoes, hamachi ceviche tacos, bluefin tuna and spicy Japanese snowcrab bonbon, chilled buckwheat soba noodles, and beautifully lacquered short rib yakiniku skewers, which were pretty much candied meat on a stick (without being bacon).
Of the current releases, Waller is quite proud of the 2023 Chenin Blanc, a new addition to the portfolio, now that the Aligote is no more. His mom, Kris, and his wife, Jennifer, seemed pretty happy about the San Benito County Chenin joining the fold. My preference was for the 2020 Calera Mt. Harlan Chardonnay, a truly stunning wine, despite the cruelty of the vintage, showing aromas of green apple, lemon verbena, white peach and pastry. The poised and polished palate is layered with stone fruit, minerality and spiced pear tart.
Of the Pinot Noir offerings, the 2021 Reed and Mills examples were neck and neck for me. The Reed has a nose of cedar and pepper, and its silky red fruit core of strawberry and raspberry, framed by undercurrents of savory herbs and baking spice. The Reed Vineyard, one of the three planted in 1975, along with Jensen and Selleck, is always the last one over the fence. Its generous red fruits are just starting to wake from slumber, but that texture is just heavenly.
The 2021 Mills, from a vineyard later planted in 1984 to honor one of Josh’s mountain neighbors and treasured friends, also endeared itself to me with even more distinctive aromas of cedar and strawberry fields on a summer day. The elegance of this vineyard is stunning, and the tannins are polished and pure, with racy darker fruit, leaning towards black raspberry and cherry, with a distinctive hit of black pepper on the finish. The acid is lipsmacking.
The 2021 Jensen is pretty intense and generous, reminding me of a drive along the Rogue River of Oregon, at the peak of berry season. Ripping with marionberries and black raspberry, both in the nose and on the palate, it envelops you like a black raspberry jam making kitchen takeover. My mom was famous for those, and her jam was like none other.
The most fruit forward of all of the current wines is the 2021 Ryan Pinot Noir. The Ryan Vineyard, planted in 1995 to honor longtime vineyard manager, Jim Ryan, tends towards darker fruit, like blackberry and ripe Bing cherry, with a sense of root beer or cola. I can see its appeal.
Waller was asked to make a few remarks on the occasion and he acknowledged the vast universe of wine that being part of Josh’s posse had opened up for him. All over the world, people knew and loved Calera wines. And they loved Josh. When Egon Müller IV, winemaker of one of Germany’s most recognized Riesling estates, Weingut Egon Müller, texted an importer asking if he wanted to buy Calera wine, and the man didn’t know the name, Müller simply texted back, “Look it up, dude.” In another instance, Jensen asked a potential buyer to call Aubert de Villaine, co-owner of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, for a reference. “Oh, Mr. Pinot of America!” was the DRC owner’s response.
Mike’s wife Jennifer shared a story of being in England with her husband outside London, visiting friends while on a business trip. They stopped into a small restaurant and met the owner. Mike introduced himself as a winemaker from America, and when the owner asked which winery, he responded reverentially, “Ah, The Heartbreak Grape! I have read it.”
Doors open for great wines and great stories. This one is still being written.
About the author
Laura Ness is a longtime wine journalist, columnist and judge who contributes regularly to Edible Monterey Bay, Spirited, WineOh.Tv, Los Gatos Magazine and Wine Industry Network, and a variety of consumer publications. Her passion is telling stories about the intriguing characters who inhabit the fascinating world of wine and food.
