Lester and Linda Schwartz discovered their love of wine in their native homeland of Cape Town, South Africa. A lawyer and an artist, respectively, the couple found themselves living in California, and it wasn’t long before Lester got the itch to build himself a countryside home reminiscent of his roots. So they purchased a plot of naked land along the craggy cliffs of the Pacific Ocean in what would eventually become the Fort Ross-Seaview AVA. The couple custom-built their own home, featuring traditional South African architecture; just a few years later they planted their first grapevine rootstocks and saw near immediate success. Alongside legendary winemaker Jeff Pisoni, today Lester and Linda craft beautiful Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and — as a nod to their heritage — Pinotage. (Fun fact: Lester and Linda were the first private grape growers to import Pinotage vine cuttings.)
Tag: red wine
The Pinot Noir Style Spectrum
Made famous by the movie Sideways, Pinot Noir has become the favored wine in popular culture. But Miles wasn’t kidding when he said it’s a difficult grape to grow. It’s thin-skinned, susceptible to disease, and can’t bare too much sun-exposure. And because of this fragile quality, Pinot Noir has become known as the “headache” grape amongst vintners. But if those vintners practice patience, and pay attention to those tight clusters and petite buds, it will produce a red wine that speaks eloquently of soft tannins and subtle fruits. Indeed, it is the great grape of Burgundy, used in such famous wines as Pommapd, Nuits-St-Georges, Gevrey-Chambertin, and is one of the primary grapes used in traditional Champagne. Now a staple single-varietal in the New World winemaking culture, our New World has its own Pinot Noir voice expressed differently from region to region.
Left Coast Cellars Latitude 45° Estate Pinot Noir
We can’t talk about the Pinot Noir style spectrum without a trip to Oregon, where some of the most refined, Burgundian Pinot Noirs are created — most notably from the Willamette Valley. Coincidentally, this part of our country shares the same latitude as some of France’s most prestigious winemaking regions. And so it is that Left Coast Cellars has named their most notable Pinot Noir vineyard Lattitude 45°.
Desert Hills 2012 Syrah
The lone Rhone in the Canadian wine profile seems to be Syrah, and yet this is the first grape planted to the Desert Hills Estate Three Boys Vineyard along the Black Sage Bench. Here, due to glacial retreat, the land is made up of gravelly limestone soils — perfect for a grape that enjoys a bit of forced rigor, like Syrah. The Toor family purchased their Three Boys Vineyard back in 1988, planted their first grapes in 1994, and is today the 25-acre home vineyard site for Desert Hills. 
Anthony Buchanan Pinot Noir
When Anthony Buchanan decided to embark on his winemaking career, he decided to return to his native British Columbia roots. Indeed, it is in the heart of BC that Canada’s wine scene seems to truly flourish. The sprawling Okanagan Valley, with its diverse microclimates and soil types, is home to over 60 wine grape varieties. But, undoubtedly, the cool-climate-loving Pinot Noir is the red wine king. The delicate fruit presents a crispness and acidity unknown to many New World regions, and Buchanan’s expression truly exemplifies what Canadian Pinot Noir is all about.