The wine world mourns the lack of Josh Jensen of Calera Wine Firm, legendary producer of pinot noir from Mt. Harlan in San Benito, who handed away June 13 at age 78. Jensen impressed many careers within the wine biz, together with mine. I met him again in 1987 when the Silicon Valley agency I used to be working for didn't register its title earlier than one other firm in Texas did so.
Pissed off at makes an attempt to provide you with a brand new one by committee vote, our funding firm, Sevin Rosen, requested me to provide you with a reputation that began with C and had a number of syllables. I requested the lead investor, Steve Dow, who was a wine collector, to enter his cellar and pull out all of the C’s. There was Caymus, Cakebread and Chalk Hill, together with one I didn’t know: Calera.
“Is it any good?” I requested. “Nice pinot noir,” was the reply.
I instantly went to BevMo on the lookout for some, discovering a few zinfandels and one bottle of 1985 Bien Nacido Winery pinot noir within the clearance bin. I've saved all of it these years, planning to share it with Jensen sometime. After his funeral at a desolate cemetery in Hollister, a small group gathered at a neighborhood watering gap known as Tres Pinos Inn, the place magnums of Calera pinot noir, relationship again to 1988, had been opened to toast the person.
The Jensen Winery wines appear to have stood the check of time very well, as did the 1987 chardonnay, the primary classic he created from his Mt. Harlan property. When Calera winemaker Mike Waller opened the 1985 I introduced, the cork was in nice form and the wine was vigorous, spicy, complicated and feisty, similar to Jensen. Seeing the unique price ticket, Waller exclaimed, “$11.98?”
Greatest wine funding I ever made. Godspeed, Josh.
Talking of legends, in case you haven’t watched the “Wine With Invoice” podcast interview with winemaker Jeffrey Patterson on YouTube, he shared a enjoyable story that ties in properly with the present royal obsession over the Queen’s Jubilee. When Megan and Harry had been planning their marriage ceremony, they determined to serve one Previous World and one New World wine. Apparently, they selected Mount Eden because the latter as a result of their London-based importer out of the blue put in a 10-case order for the 2014 Domaine Eden pinot noir. Patterson says the to supply tackle didn’t even increase eyebrows, because it was actually not Windsor fort.