San Luis Obispo Wine Country Visionaries on California’s Central Coast Debuts New Wine Celebrating Cool Climate Red for the Cooler Season Ahead
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (November 30, 2020) – Chamisal Vineyards, the landmark property that is home to the first vineyard planted in Edna Valley, just outside of the city of San Luis Obispo, on California’s pristine Central Coast, today announced the release of its 2019 San Luis Obispo Pinot Noir, a wine that celebrates the exceptional cool climate and coastally influenced vineyards of the region. Chamisal Vineyards continues to push the boundaries on sustainability with vineyard health and biodiversity improvement as its utmost priority. The 2019 vintage is the winery’s first wine with a San Luis Obispo designation on the label and will be released on January 1, 2021 $22 (SRP) and available in select retail.
“At Chamisal, we’ve always differentiated ourselves with our cooler climate coastal wines, and especially our Pinot Noirs that feature the freshness and vibrancy that has become our signature style,” said Chamisal’s winemaker Fintan ‘Fin’ du Fresne. “We are constantly pushing ourselves to be more innovative, more creative, and more thoughtful in the vineyard and cellar, and this Pinot Noir is a perfect example of these efforts.”
The vineyards for Chamisal’s inaugural vintage of San Luis Obispo Pinot Noir are located in the Edna Valley AVA, just five miles from the Pacific Ocean, known for its very long, cool and coastally-influenced growing season.
For this Pinot Noir, with its emphasis on bright fruit and early approachability that does not require a long cellaring, du Fresne has employed partial carbonic maceration in the cellar to extract exuberant aromatics and lively fresh red fruit notes on the palate. The 2019 SLO County Pinot Noir was aged in stainless steel to ensure a pure, bright, acid-driven wine.
In addition to Pinot Noir and a selection of Rhone varieties, Chamisal Vineyards also specializes in Chardonnay that range from light and refreshing to rich and creamy, conveying the distinct terroirs and styles of the Central Coast. The winery is currently open by reservation only with spacious outdoor seating overlooking estate vines. For more information, please visit www.chamisalvineyards.com.
About Winemaker Fintan “Fin” du Fresne
Originally from the southern end of New Zealand’s North Island, Fin graduated from Victoria University of Wellington at the age of twenty with a degree in geology. He was interested in learning more about and exploring the relationship between land and how it affected grape growing, essentially the concept of how geology affected terroir, so he changed tracks and obtained a post-graduate degree in Viticulture and Enology at Lincoln University in Canterbury. Fin spent a few years learning about wine in Europe; his background in geology allowed him to keep a flat in London, spend six months a year working on oilrigs in Denmark and Scotland, and spend the other six months visiting prominent wine regions including Tuscany, Burgundy, the Rhone Valley and Provence. In 2006, Fin joined Chamisal Vineyards, a premier Pinot Noir and Chardonnay winery in the Edna Valley of San Luis Obispo County, as winemaker.
About Chamisal Vineyards
The historic Chamisal property, the first vineyard planted in the Edna Valley in 1973, has long produced wines of a distinctive character – bold, complex and intriguing. With the region’s ideal climate and the exceptional estate vineyard, the winemaking philosophy is simply to reflect the natural characteristics of this remarkable estate. www.chamisalvineyards.com
