2015 Carte Blanche Pinot Noir Sun Chase Vineyard Sonoma Coast 750 ml

Single Vineyard Pinot From Sonoma’s Most Exciting Subregion

Helen Keplinger, a 100-point winemaker and Wine Spectator cover star, is the face of a new generation of young vintners in California, and the 2015 Carte Blanche Sun Chase Vineyard Pinot Noir is a silken red that epitomizes the new California.

Backed by true First Growth pedigree, Carte Blanche put out a series of stunners in 2015, including a Cabernet Sauvignon that took a perfect score from Jeb Dunnuck. Cab lovers shouldn’t hesitate today on this bold, full-bodied Pinot Noir. It hails not only from Petaluma Gap, possibly Sonoma’s most exciting subregion, but from one of the Gap’s most sought-after vineyards: Sun Chase, prized by Patz & Hall, La Follette, and Guarachi Family. Loaded with character, and aromas of blueberry, sandalwood, and black cherry spilling over the glass, this is a seductive, gorgeously concentrated Pinot Noir from a producer we can’t say enough about.

Carte Blanche is owned by Nicholas Allen, a whose grandfather, Clarence Dillon, acquired the storied Château Haut-Brion in the 1930s, and the Pessac property has been in the family ever since. Inspired by his ancestor, Allen founded Carte Blanche in 2007, the name referencing the unlimited possibilities of California wine. He brought on Champagne-born winemaking genius and Peter Michael vintner Luc Morlet to craft the first vintages—a move that gave the fledgling winery instant credibility and acclaim. Soon Antonio Galloni was calling it “one of my favorite discoveries” while the wines pulled down a raft of 95+ scores from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate.

In 2014, Allen brought on Helen Keplinger, who went on to snag 98 and 100 point scores from Jeb Dunnuck. That acclaim came on top of her Winemaker of the Year award from Food & Wine and a cover with Wine Spectator. The following year at Carte Blanche was when she really began to make her mark with Antonio Galloni declaring, “The bottled 2015s are terrific.”

The 2015 season also marked the first time Keplinger scored fruit from the legendary Sun Chase Vineyard, whose grapes have minted a slew of high-scoring wines for the likes of Wind Gap, La Follette, and Ancillary Cellars. Situated in a gap between coastal mountains and an inland valley, Sun Chase pulls in brisk, saline-scented ocean breezes from the Pacific, cooling grapes warmed by the hot California sun and extending ripening. The hills reach up to 1,400 feet in elevation while the gravelly clay-loam soils infuse wines with a trademark minerality that nearly every critic has remarked upon. Year after year, Sun Chase makes for some of Sonoma’s most opulent and decadently fruited Pinot Noirs, and 2015 was no different.