Take a trip with your sip: It’s off to California with Talbott Vineyards

Ripe, sumptuous Chardonnay, with bright fruit and some smooth vanilla from the light use of oak; intense and silky Pinot Noir with bundles of oak-laced red and black fruit... Are we in Burgundy? With the bottle shape and traditional labelling to convince you further, you might be forgiven for thinking so, but you’d be wrong: this is cool-climate California.

In the pine, fir and redwood covered Santa Lucia Mountains in Monterey County, you’ll find the prestigious Santa Lucia Highlands AVA, where over 930 hectares of vineyards are planted, some as high as 1,200 feet above sea level. The mornings there are chilly, with fog and breezes coming over from Monterey Bay, but the sun shines warmly in the afternoons onto swathes of berries, ripening them steadily and slowly to lock-in complex layers of flavours and aromas. This incredible micro-climate ensures the ideal conditions for excellent cool-climate Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and the Sleepy Hollow Vineyard is one of the most renowned places for it. Owned by Talbott Vineyards, Sleepy Hollow Vineyard was once named by Wine Enthusiast Magazine as a California Grand Cru because of the exceptionally high quality of the grapes. 

Talbott Vineyards Kali Hart Pinot Noir and Kali Hart Chardonnay

Talbott Vineyards’ Head Winemaker, David Coventry, takes inspiration from Burgundy, but embraces the natural gifts of the Californian soils and landscape. A sense of place is central to his wines, each expressing the remarkable terroir of the Santa Lucia Highlands.

The Kali Hart wines are prized for being the most fruit-forward in the Talbott portfolio. Both the Chardonnay and the Pinot Noir are very approachable wines - and affordable, too, for this level of quality (£24.99, Majestic). The Chardonnay is quite Mâconnais in style, with ripe stone fruit (peach, apricot) and some sunny tropical notes (lime, pineapple, a hint of coconut), with just a smidgen of vanilla. Its creaminess is lifted by the bright, vibrant fruit. The Pinot Noir toes the line between elegance and generosity - the fruit is rich and bountiful, but it is clean, a little green (in a pleasant, herbaceous way) and very slightly mineral, which places me right on the sea-battered craggy coast of Northern California and in the mountains of Santa Lucia.

When most of us are bound by the borders of the home, taking a trip with our sip sounds mighty fine right about now.

Learn more about Talbott Vineyards here and buy Kali Hart Chardonnay and Pinot Noir here.