Jackhammer Pinot Noir 2014
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Pair with anything - it's Pinot!
Stephen Dooley and Sandy Garber, have been friends and business associates since they met at Chalone Wine Group in 1987, where Stephen was winemaker for Edna Valley Vineyards and Sandy was director of sales and marketing for the Chalone Wine Group. They have collaborated on many projects over the years.
Sitting together in the fall of 2011, at an undisclosed location in Topanga Canyon, sipping on glasses of Central Coast Pinot Noir, they hatched the idea for Jackhammer Wine Company. They realized that there just wasn't enough good, inexpensive Pinot Noir available -at least, not that actually tasted like Pinot Noir. And so the project began. With all family members intimately involved, from financial management to label design - everything is done in house by the family team.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
A geographic and climatic paradise for grape vines, Monterey is a part of the greater Central Coast AVA and contains within it five smaller sub-appellations, including Arroyo Seco, San Lucas, San Bernabe, Hames Valley and the famous Santa Lucia Highlands. The climate is relatively warm but tempered by cool, coastal winds, allowing the regions in Monterey County an exceptionally long growing season. Bud break often happens two weeks sooner and harvest tends to be two weeks later compared to other surrounding regions.
Monterey’s coastal side, where the cooling ocean fog allows grapes to develop a perfect sugar-acid balance, excels in the production of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Riesling. Warmer, inland subzones are home to fleshy, concentrated and full-bodied reds like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Zinfandel.
Chardonnay, covering about 40% of vineyard acreage, is the most widely planted grape in all of Monterey County.