Calera Goes Screwcap with its Viognier

Harlan Viognier, a wine regarded by many critics as a benchmark for the varietal in California.  The winery bottled approximately half of its 2002 Viognier production, 1070 six-pack cases, with Stelvin screw cap closures and the remainder with traditional cork closures.  Both versions are now available and retail for $36.

Like many others, Calera's Proprietor, Josh Jensen, explains: "I am sick and tired of having even a tiny percentage of our wines spoiled by defective corks."   While speaking at a Viognier conference in Australia's Barossa Valley last summer, Jensen observed that Australian and New Zealand producers are bottling virtually all of their aromatic white varieties (Riesling, Gewürztraminer, Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier) with Stelvin screw caps.  Jensen remarks that they are doing so "to avoid cork taint and because they believe that they keep those wines freshest and most lively."
 
Calera's 6.1-acre Mt. Harlan Viognier vineyard produces a distinctive wine because its vines benefit from limestone-rich soil and produce very low yields averaging 2.3 tons per acre, therefore ensuring concentrated, intense flavors.   Jensen's initial 2.2-acres, planted in 1983 with budwood obtained courtesy of the New York State Fruit Testing Society, a state-run experimental station in Geneva, New York, is one of the oldest commercial Viognier plantings in the United States.   He planted the second, 3.9-acre block in 1989 to total 6.1-acres. 

Calera presently has the only vineyards in the Mt. Harlan AVA (American Viticultural Area).   After an exhaustive two-year search for limestone-rich soils, Jensen purchased his Mt. Harlan land in 1974, and in 1978, harvested Calera's vineyard-designated wines.  He has been utterly devoted to making Burgundian-style Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and excellent Viognier ever since.