Clarice Wine Co - Pinot Noir Gary's Vineyard 2023 (750ml)

Price: $94.99

Producer	Clarice Wine Co
Country	United States
Region	California
Varietal	Pinot Noir
Vintage	2023
Sku	202737
Size	750ml

Garys’ Vineyard was planted in 1997 by Gary Pisoni and Gary Franscioni together with their families. The site planted entirely to the famed Pisoni selection of Pinot Noir, mostly on SO4 rootstock, with a small amount planted on 3309 rootstock. Clarice Wine Company sources fruit from both rootstocks with a small section at the top of the vineyard and another nearer the bottom. Garys’ Vineyard is widely known as one of California’s most prized sources of Pinot Noir grapes with over 125 wines from the vineyard rated 90 points or better by Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate.

Clarice Wine Co Description

My name is Adam Lee and I am the founder of Clarice Wine Company. I began working with wine in 1989 at a retail store in Austin, Texas. At the time, I also dabbled in restaurant wine sales, and briefly pulled a bag as a wine distributor sales rep. A few years later, I began working as the Wine Buyer at Neiman Marcus in Dallas, and there I met my wife, Dianna Novy. In 1993, we moved to California and, while working in direct sales at various wineries, we started Siduri Wines in 1994. Siduri Wines quickly became known as one of California’s premier Pinot Noir producers and grew from 107 cases in 1994 to 25,000 cases in 2015. During that time, our family grew as well, with the addition of three children; Christian, Amber and Truett. In January of 2015, we sold Siduri Wines to Jackson Family Winery. Since then, Dianna has gone on to launch her own sparkling wine brand, Flaunt while I stayed on as winemaker for Siduri. In addition to my role at Siduri Wines, I have now introduced Clarice Wine Company as my own small, heartfelt project.

Clarice H. Phears was my grandmother. She was born in 1896 and since I didn’t come around until the mid-1960s, she was already somewhat older by the time I met her. Despite that, she was one of my closest friends growing up. We sat on the swing on her front porch as airplanes flew overhead and imagined that our swing was a plane and that we were traveling to some far-flung location. She played basketball with me in my driveway and, yes, shot free throws “Granny-style.” She let me eat all the charms out of the Lucky Charms and avoid the cereal. And, as this picture shows, she even sat on the floor with me and watched television. Oh, and through her way of cooking she also taught me a lot about making wine. And that’s why it’s called Clarice Wine Company.

Vinous: 2026-2038 Points

"Tasted as a final blend from tank before bottling, the 2023 Pinot Noir Gary's Vineyard feels like it's alredy in the zone. Blue/purple fruit, violet candies and sweet lavender meet with exotic traces of Moroccan spices and coastal herbs. A wine with a mind-bending amount of layers, it's clear that there's an incredibly bring future here-a potential classic in the making" -Bill Norris July 2024

Adam Lee retains his grassroots, bootstrapper, friendly-next-door-neighbor vibe despite the resounding commercial and financial success of Siduri, Lee’s brainchild and former venture with Dianna Novy. He loves what he does, and he’s not afraid to keep pushing himself—not to mention, he’s good at it. Lee loves the Santa Lucia Highlands, which is why it’s the sole focus of the Clarice label. Additionally, he consults on a number of other projects, including Rombauer (he’s responsible for the recent advent of their Pinot production), Morét-Brealynn, Dial Tone and Phone Booth. Where Lee truly shines is in the high-quality, transparent, stylistically outlying wines he makes at Clarice. He’s not afraid of stems, and he’s not afraid to completely turn his own approach on its head from year to year, depending on what the vintage requires. We tasted through four vintages of his three Clarice cuvées—2018, 2019, 2022 and 2023, all of which showed exceptionally well. If one thing is clear, these wines are built to last. The 2018s and 2019s are just beginning to open their eyes. These wines age like molasses, but that’s encouraging to see from such a relatively fledgling region. The 2022s saw Lee adjusting his winemaking significantly to combat the heat, greatly increasing whole clusters in all three Pinots in order to compensate for the structure he predicted the heat would impede. The stems are particularly noticeable in the 2022s, but tasting the 2018s and 2019s confirmed that those characteristics meld into the wines with time in bottle. Most notably, the 2023s are unbelievably great. Mark my words. The 2023 Clarice Pinot Noirs may very well turn out to be among the best wines the region has ever spawned.