Crave Pinot Noir is a Monterey County red from a family-owned California wine business, made to show bright cool-climate fruit for everyday drinking.
About This Wine
The 2014 is bottled at 13.5%, a moderate level that keeps it fresh. Wine Enthusiast rated it 88 points, noting red cherry, loam and graphite on the nose, a soft texture with cranberry tang and a vanilla-spice finish. It was made to drink young; by now the fruit will have softened and the savoury side come forward, so open it soon.
Tasting Profile
- Nose: Red cherry, cranberry, damp earth and a touch of juniper and graphite.
- Palate: Light to medium-bodied and soft, with easy red fruit, tangy cranberry and a gravelly edge.
- Finish: Fairly long, with vanilla and sweet spice.
Serving & Food
Pour it straight from the bottle at 14 to 16°C into a Burgundy glass; decanting adds little. Drink it now while the fruit lasts. Grilled salmon, Hainanese chicken rice or a mushroom pasta suit it well.
How to Enjoy
Easy midweek dinners and anyone who likes a soft, lighter-style Californian Pinot Noir.
Product Details
Producer: Chateau Diana (Crave label)
Country: USA
Region: Monterey County, California
Grape Variety: Pinot Noir
Vintage: 2014
ABV: 13.5%
Format: 750ml
About the Winery
The Crave wines are released by Chateau Diana, the family winery founded in 1981 by Tom and Diane Manning in Dry Creek Valley near Healdsburg, Sonoma County, and still run by the Manning family. Alongside its own Sonoma wines, the company produces a range of labels sourced from growers across California's coastal regions.
For Crave Pinot Noir the fruit comes from Monterey County. Cold air and fog drawn in from Monterey Bay cool the Salinas Valley every afternoon, which gives one of the longest growing seasons in California. Pinot Noir from here tends to have lively acidity and clear red-fruit flavours.