Wine Tasting Notes
Carmel Road Winery
Part of the upper-tier Artisans & Estates portfolio of wines offered by the Jackson family (headed by Jess Jackson of Kendall-Jackson), the Carmel Road wines are produced from the Monterey and Arroyo Seco AVAs. The winery is dedicated to showcasing the terroir of Monterey County by producing quality Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
These are sourced form vineyards in the Monterey and Arroyo Seco AVAs including: Hacienda, Porter, Rancho Tierra, Valley View, and Clark Ranch (in the Arroyo Seco AVA). These vineyards, sitting on a vast alluvial plain, are meticulously farmed in a sustainable manner. The mouth of Monterey's Salinas Valley opens onto Monterey Bay. This allows cooling fog to roll in between the Santa Lucia and Gabilan mountain ranges. Cool winds sweep through in the middle of the day. As a result, temperatures rarely exceed 75 F. Only the southernmost microclimates, in the hillsides, get warmer. There is minimal annual rainfall in this region and the Salinas River provides ample irrigation. The region has one of the world’s longest growing seasons, which allows for wines from grapes grown in the Monterey AVA to have great balance through slow ripening.
Planted over four years, starting in 1993, the Hacienda Ranch vineyard sits on coarse, granular soil of decomposed granite, at the foot of the Gabilan Mountains in the eastern end of the Salinas Valley north of Soledad. These types of soils prevent water reaching the deeper roots of the vines, allowing them to produce more modest crops of concentrated fruit. The Porter is to the north, east of Highway 101. The Clark Ranch vineyard is in the western edge of the Arroyo Seco AVA, at the mouth of the Arroyo Seco Canyon. This area is warmer than the rest of the Salinas Valley and the Chardonnay from the vineyards here are reputed for their finesse and rich texture.
Bill Hammond is the vineyard manager for Carmel Road. Careful attention to appropriate canopy management and crop thinning is part of his contribution to the pursuit of "luxury, world-class wines". Winemaker Ivan Giotenov believes in minimal handling of the fruit: Night-harvested Chardonnay is whole-cluster, small lot fermented in barrel, allowed to go through 95% malolactic fermentation and aged in small French oak barrels for a minimum of 5 months. Pinot Noir is gently de-stemmed and cold-soaked for several days, fermented in small open-top fermenting tanks and aged for at least 10 months in small French oak casks.
The two tiers are subjected to slightly different regimens. The Monterey tier Chardonnays are barrel aged for 7 months and the Monterey tier Pinot Noir is barrel aged for 10 months. The Arroyo Seco tier Chardonnay is 100% barrel fermented, allowed to go through complete malolactic fermentation and barrel aged for up to 15 months before being bottle aged another 6 months. The Arroyo Seco tier Pinot Noir is unfined and aged 12 - 16 months in French oak and bottle aged for at least 6 more.
2005 Carmel Road Pinot Noir, Monterey 88 Points
2004 Carmel Road Chardonnay, Monterey 88 Points
2004 Carmel Road Chardonnay, Arroyo Seco 89 Points
2004 Carmel Road Pinot Noir, Arroyo Seco 91 Points
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