When La Crema was founded in 1979 as La Crema Viñera, meaning the Best of the Vine, the name was intended as an unabashed boast: These vineyards produced the very best grapes in the region. Today, the name has been shortened to mean, simply, the best, and La Crema’s wines represent the best grapes from preeminent cool-climate regions in California and Oregon.
La Crema wines—inspired by Burgundian-style Chardonnay and Pinot Noir—are made in small lots that nurture distinct flavors and balance. The end result is elegant wines that are unswerving in quality over time.
La Crema began at a time during which few wineries in California were making Pinot Noir, and even fewer were doing so with a single-vineyard focus. A group of wine lovers ran the show back then using old-world techniques such as whole-cluster pressing and open-top fermentation. This was a great foundation for winemaking, but with stellar fruit from exceptional vineyard sites, there was always the opportunity for more.
That evolution took shape in the early 1990s when Jess Jackson and Barbara Banke imbued the winery with the artisan ethos it retains today. Their vision for the future was simple: That Pinot Noir should be as popular as Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, and La Crema could be the vehicle to do just that. They also loved that the winery was a pioneer of single-vineyard designate wines, and saw this as an important differentiator.
Jackson and Banke purchased La Crema in 1993 and produced the first vintage in 1994. Two years later a new winery was constructed in the fog-shrouded, redwood-lined Russian River Valley appellation. Jackson’s daughters, Laura Jackson Giron and Jenny Jackson Hartford, along with his sons-in-law, Rick Giron and Don Hartford, took on leadership roles at La Crema: managing the day-to-day operations and representing the winery out in the market. With a renewed vision, resources, and leadership, a new era had begun.
Initially, La Crema focused efforts on developing wines from the Sonoma Coast, deemed the next great appellation for Pinot Noir, using artisan, boutique-style production techniques, like gentle handling, precision sorting, and crushing grapes in small batches. The winery then set its sights on bringing in the best talent available at the time. Some of the winemakers during this period included Rod Berglund, Jeff Stewart, and Dan Goldfield. The list was an all-star lineup of winemaking greats and experts in Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
Right after the new millennium, La Crema set out to nurture an estate vineyard program comprising the best cool-climate sites along the West Coast. The winery began working extensively with fruit from appellations such as Sonoma Coast, Green Valley, Anderson Valley, and Los Carneros, extending its reach into Monterey in 2008, and then to Oregon’s Willamette Valley in 2012. Though these growing regions are different, the vineyards themselves all fall within cool-climates with well-drained soils that restrict yields and produce distinctive, balanced wines. For La Crema, these technical similarities were keys to delivering the best of the best to its customers.
“Jess always felt that if you could grow your own grapes, you have a much better chance of really being successful in controlling the quality of your wines,” Don Hartford says, noting that farming the vineyards sustainably also helps grow the very best fruit.
Over the course of the last decade, the winery has continued to add wines from cool-climate vineyards in California and Oregon. Perhaps the most notable of these spots is the iconic Saralee’s Vineyard in Russian River Valley. As a result of their long-term grower contract, La Crema had been receiving coveted Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from the renowned vineyard for years and developed a close relationship with Richard and Saralee McClelland Kunde. When the Kundes approached them about buying the historic property in 2013, La Crema jumped at the opportunity. The winery launched a three-year rehabilitation of the circa-1900 barn on the property and reopened it as the La Crema Estate at Saralee’s Vineyard in 2016. Today, the convivial hospitality center that looks out on undulating hills of vines serves as the yin to the yang of the new and modern tasting room in downtown Healdsburg.
La Crema Fog Veil Pinot Noir is made from 100 percent Pinot Noir.
A lush, earthy, and balanced Pinot Noir from select estate vineyards in California's famous Russian River Valley. This red wine opens with aromas of wild strawberry, blackberry, and cardamom. Flavors of boysenberry, raspberry, and sassafras with hints of baking spice. Soft tannins are balanced by vibrant acidity. This Red Wine has a Cork closure. Alcohol Content: 14.8% Pair with grilled filet mignon, bacon wrapped pork tenderloin and camembert. Aromas of wild strawberry, blackberry, and cardamom. Flavors of boysenberry, raspberry, and sassafras with hints of baking spice. Soft tannins are balanced by vibrant acidity.
Review:
Tremendous energy is conveyed through a guiding light of spiced cher- rywood and notes of tea leaves and flint. Rich and concentrated, with a hint of smoked cedar on the finish. The grapes come from neighboring estate vineyards in the Santa Rosa Plains region of the Russian River Valley.
-Tasting Panel 94 Points
Ottella Lugana DOC Le Creete is made from 100% Turbiano (clonal type of Trebbiano di Lugana)
PRODUCTION AREA: S. Benedetto di Lugana. The grapes are harvested exclusively from our own vineyards; harvesting is strictly manual in small 17kg-crates
TRAINING METHOD: Guyot, double arc
Golden, warm, intense straw yellow. Immediate exotic notes.
It develops in a very pleasant fashion, good mineral impression Rich, succulent and well balanced for a truly
satisfactory mouthfeel. Mineral on the finish with just enough acidity to
provide lift and depth.
FOOD: Sea or lake fish to bring out its outstanding features; goes well with white meat and soup, and has quite a surprising affinity with tasty cheese
ALCOHOL BY VOLUME: 13% vol
SERVING TEMPERATURE: 10-12 degrees Celcius
Review:
Elderflower, tropical fruit and citrus aromas mingle with a whiff of crushed tomato vine. The bright, tangy palate offers white peach, gooseberry and grapefruit before a bitter almond finish.
-Wine Enthusiast 91 Points
Chavy-Chouet Volnay 1er Cru Sous La Chapelle is made from 100 percent Pinot Noir.
Total acreage for this wine: 0.1 hectare (0.25 acres)Planting density: 10 000 vines per hectares
Age of the vines: 10 years
At the bottom of the slope in the heart of Volnay, this plot lies on clay-sand soil.
Volnay is located on the steep sloping hill of Chaignot in the Côte de Beaune, where the southeast facing vines have been valued for centuries. These vineyards have been valued and exploited for centuries. Long before the French Revolution, the harvests of Volnay went to the Knights of Malta, the Abbeys of Saint-Andoche d’Autun and Maizières, or to the Dukes of Bourgogne and their successors, the Kings of France.
Volnay has a reputation for being among the most delicate, feminine of the Bourgogne wines. Limestone soil dominates the area, with deeper, gravelly soils at the foot of the slope, where Chavy Chouet’s vines are located.
This Volnay is full of character; broad and fruity. Smooth and elegant tannins make it a feminine wine, marked by aromas of black berries and leather.