July 14, 2023 – Each year the Lucy family of wines, a Pisoni brand, adds another member. The label began with vintage 2003 of the flagship Lucy Rosé, traditionally made from Pinot Noir. The story is that the Pisoni family learned about breast cancer survivor Lucy Millman, who was browsing the wine shelves of a local store looking for something special when she spotted the Pisoni Lucy Rosé.
The wine’s rare color spoke to her—as did its name, which she shares. Learning of this particular Lucy’s fondness for this particular Lucy wine, they began donating to Millman’s fund for The Susan G. Komen 3-Day event. More than a decade later, they continue to contribute to Lucy’s fund and others, now with new wines for new causes and organizations.
At the close of 2022, Lucy Wines had donated more than $200,000 to charitable causes.
For the 2021 vintage, the family added a lovely blend of Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc to the lineup, called Pico Blanco. Sourced from vineyards in Arroyo Seco and the Santa Lucia Highlands, and done in neutral oak to accentuate its attractive creaminess, only 500 cases were made. It proved so popular, they made more for 2022. A portion of the proceeds from Pico Blanco are donated to ocean conservation projects run by the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
This year sees the inaugural release of the Lucy Gamay Noir, along with the second vintage of Pico Blanco. Sales of the Gamay Noir will benefit local firefighters, notably Big Sur Fire. It seems fitting, given the repeated impact of wildfires on this region.
Lending even more loveliness to these three new releases is the artwork on the cover of the Lucy Wines release brochure. Done by local artist Erin Gafill, it depicts the spectacular union of ocean and mountain that occurs on the Big Sur coastline.
Evoking the coolness of the ocean, the warmth of the sun and the power of the waves, this image encapsulates the breadth of emotions reflected in the wines. Her serene oil landscapes are available in prints and notecards, as well as originals. Her painting workshops include The Passion of Painting, Awaken The Art Within, and her Art of Now series exploring the connection between art-making and mindfulness. She teaches regularly at Rancho La Puerta in Tecate, Baja California, Mexico, and at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California.
Cheers to the Pisoni family for supporting these great causes with three absolutely terrific wines, and for sharing the artistic talent of Gafill as well. If you want to drink good wine and feel good about too, check these out.
Lucy 2022 Rosé of Pinot Noir, Santa Lucia Highlands, $24 Another gem of a rosé from Jeff Pisoni, this one, with its gleaming coral pink hue, has even more depth than the prior vintage, with more fruit and complexity. The acid, though, is spritely and pumps up the strawberry and blood orange flavors. This wine is made from both directly and gently pressed clusters using the saignée method, where the juice is bled off prior to fermenting the grapes into red wine. This gives the wine more body and fruit, to complement the delicacy of the direct pressed wine, which is prized for its delicate aromas. Lucy Rosé is then cellared in neutral barrels for three months to build texture and add roundness to the wine, without adding any wood flavor.
2022 Pico Blanco, 85% Pinot Gris and 15% Pinot Blanc, Santa Lucia Highlands, $24 This luminous blend of neutral barrel-fermented juicy Pinot Gris and fleshy Pinot Blanc, offers up aromas of white peach jam, gardenia, white lily, candied ginger, baked biscuits with clotted cream and even toasted marshmallow. Flavors of ripe baked comice pear, juicy baked apple strudel with white raisins and white peach compote are wrapped around the raw silk core. It’s got such a tangible texture, not quite chalk, but definitely a bit of powdered limestone. Which fits right in with its namesake: Pico Blanco, a famous limestone peak in the Santa Lucia Mountain Range in Los Padres National Forest.
These two varieties have a long history in Monterey County and thrive here. Winemaker Jeff Pisoni reminds us that Pinot Gris is a real standout in the cool Region 1 climate of Monterey County, and is planted in both Arroyo Seco and the Santa Lucia Highlands. While Central Valley counties like San Joaquin, Fresno, Sacramento, Yolo and Madera have 11,000 acres of Pinot Gris combined, most of it is made into thin and facile Pinot Grigio. This is done by avoiding skin contact entirely. What makes a Pinot Grigio different from Pinot Gris is that bit of skin contact prized by Alsatian winemakers. After all, Pinot Gris has a very pretty coppery gold hue over its silvery pink skin. As you might expect, Pinot Gris is indeed related to Pinot Noir; it is considered a mutation. Monterey has more than 1,000 acres of Pinot Gris, while Santa Barbara has 500, and Sonoma 397.
Interesting fact: there is more Pinot Gris planted in Oregon than Chardonnay: some 6,000 acres compared with less than 3,000 acres of Chardonnay. It has become the official white grape for its aromatics, green apple, white nectarine fruit and cinnamon spice.
In Monterey, J. Lohr winemaker Kristen Barnhisel, who is in charge of making all the brand’s white wines, prizes the varietal for its intense ripe pear fruit and texture. The J. Lohr Pinot Blanc from F&G Vineyards in Arroyo Seco is a great example. She also uses it as a dosage of ripe fruit in the J. Lohr Bay Mist Riesling. It’s versatile and pleasing, like the viola section of the orchestra.
In a recent conversation with Saul Levine, who owns Cobblestone Vineyard in Arroyo Seco, he revealed that he is toying with adding some Pinot Blanc to his Chardonnay. It’s not an outlandish idea.
Lucy 2022 Gamay Noir, Santa Lucia Highlands, $30 This grape is gaining steam, even though it’s a mere blip on the Grape Acreage Report, with less than 250 acres planted in all of California. The Lucy Gamay Noir is from a Kirk Williams vineyard in the Santa Lucia Highlands that contains some of the granite soils typical of the Beaujolais region where this grape is the star. Yes, it’s that Gamay, which makes the fun fruit-forward festivity that the French often do carbonically, bottling it quickly after harvest. Hence, the big rush of Beaujolais Nouveau that occurs each November.
This is not that, although it could be, if picked a little less ripe and done with carbonic maceration. This 2022 Lucy Gamay is absolutely riveting, with a translucent purple-gentian color, spicy nose of clove and sage, and flavors of cranberry, blueberry, sage and peppery red licorice. It’s utterly fun and yet serious enough to warrant that nice red wax cap it’s wearing.
This Lucy Gamay Noir represents the collaboration so prevalent among grape growers in the Monterey region. In fact, Jeff Pisoni says. “We asked Kirk Williams to plant Gamay Noir specifically for us. It’s from one of his sites in the Santa Lucia Highlands.” We hope Kirk is pleased with the results, because this wine is surely fun and exciting.
Doubtless. there will be more of it planted in the SLH. Caraccioli Cellars planted some in a granitic site at Escolle Vineyard and the results are a home run.
Mark Chesebro also planted some at Cedar Lane in Arroyo Seco a few years ago, which became all the rage with winemakers looking for something unique, and what little he makes for the Chesebro club sells out instantly. No wonder the French make such a big deal out of this wine. It’s the first wine to be released each vintage, and sets the stage for the holiday season. This Lucy Gamay sets a great tone for fun summer fare, especially pulled pork and carnitas, or a roasted trumpet mushroom and caramelized green onion pizza.
To learn more about Lucy Wines and to make a purchase, go to lucywines.com
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.
