The Wine
This Sonoma Coast vineyard has been in the Sangiacomo family for multiple generations. Knopwn for their generosity in granting favorable prices to promising young winemakers, Rick Davis has been turning their fruit into delightful wines for many years.
The wine still features a deep ruby/violet with the edges revealing its middle age lifestage. Though Pinot can be shy with its aromas, this one enthusiasticLY offers ripe blackberry, black licorice, warm leather and baked rhubarb. Hints of spit-roasted meat lends additional layers of aromatic complexity. Oak-aged in a combination of French and Hungarian oak (80/20), with 2 of the 5 barrels being new.
Teeny production of ~120 cases.
The Winery
Before becoming a winemaker Rick Davis was a professional artist specializing in leather goods - a craft he still enjoys when time allows. Rick started his wine career as a cellar hand for a New York State winery. When the wine bug bit, he moved to California to learn the trade under some of the industry's best mentors - Greg LaFollette at Flowers Winery and with the late Londer Vineyards, Halleck Vineyards and Alcina Cellars, to name a few. Calstar grew out of those relationships. They are known for reliably solid wines at reasonable prices.
About the name - its a portmanteau (a squishing together of two words) of Callie and Star - the two cats who could be found in the ceramic studio of Rick's wife, Lynn, back when the label was started. The critters have passed on now, but live on in memory each time a bottle is opened and enjoyed.
