Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/326040
june 2014 / the tasting panel / 45 K nown for its signature style of Chardonnay and single-vineyard Pinot Noir, Landmark Vineyards has many reasons to celebrate as it enters its 40th year. To mark the occasion, winemaker Greg Stach has released a new Pinot for the winery's highly-regarded Overlook label. "We blended from 37 different lots of Pinot Noir for the 2012 vintage," said Stach, who sourced fruit from Rodgers Creek, Spring Hill Ranch and Flocchini. In the same vein as his meticulously-blended Overlook Chardonnay, Stach has crafted the Overlook Pinot Noir (SRP $25) to be the winery's first Pinot Noir widely available beyond the tasting room. The 2012 is aromatic and varietal with floral, dark, black cherry and baking spice aromas lifting to medium-bodied flavors of cherry, pomegranate and black tea, with round notes of leather and caramel. His first release is California-appellated, but tasting through 2013 barrel samples from sites selected for the program, Stach is clearly pleased. From the smoky, savory black cherry fruit of Spring Hill in Petaluma Gap to the rose petal, graphite and pomegranate from Roy Hill in Sebastopol Hills and dense plum and blackberry flavors from Santa Lucia Highlands, he clearly has some fine raw materials to work with. 40 Years in the Making Landmark's story begins in Windsor, where it was founded in 1974 by a team of investors that included Damaris Deere Ford, the great-great-granddaughter of inventor John Deere. While the Deere family name may have propelled Landmark Chardonnay's rise to fame, with a nod to the winery's origins, Stach and current owners Stewart and Lynda Resnick have a vision for the winery's future. Originally located in one of Sonoma's oldest wooden structures dating back to 1848, the Windsor site suc- cumbed to urban sprawl in 1989 and has since become the Windsor Historical Society. To this day, the Cultural Center displays archives documenting the founding of Landmark Vineyards. When Deere Ford's son Mike Colhoun and his wife Mary began managing the winery in 1993 in the town of Kenwood, emeritus winemaker Eric Stern and consulting enologist Helen Turley (Landmark was one of her first clients) escalated Landmark's reputation for world-class Burgundian-style Chardonnay by sourcing grapes from cool-climate sites throughout California. Landmark has since embodied this philosophy and continues to source grapes from some of the finest vineyard sites in California. Stach, who joined the by Deborah Parker Wong / photos by John Curley Landmark's 2012 Overlook Pinot Noir applies the winery's philosophy of sourcing the best grapes from the finest vineyards in California. TP0614_034-71.indd 45 5/23/14 9:23 PM