Calera Wine Company

Exceptional Pinot, friendly staff, and a killer view. A bit off the beaten path but well worth the drive for all.

This place is very beautiful, the tasting room staff were very helpful and fun to talk to, and we even got a private tour of their wine cave! Great customer service, tasty wine and awesome views!

Very picturesque. Beautiful views overlooking the Cienega Valley and beyond. Enjoyed our afternoon wine tasting their delicious world class wines! The staff was very knowledgeable and super friendly. Definitely worth the drive. We will be back :)

Amazing wines and amazing staff (Lauren and Judy). The location is absolutely gorgeous and worth the trip. Our organization recently hosted a winemakers reception and we received exceptional support from the Calera team. The tasting team showed up on time, they were friendly and knowledgeable, and the wines were loved by all. They are supportive of nonprofits and the Monterey Bay Region. Be sure to try the Viognier!

Calera was wonderful. Mark (I think that’s his name) was great. The viogniers were delightful as were the pinots. Also amazing and worth the drive out are the views! Tasting fee is reasonable at $ 10 per person and waived with bottle purchase.

Went wine tasting in the Holister area, we stopped at Calera. The wines were very good, Mt. Harlan Viognier was very good as well as the Pinot Noir — I am not a Pinot Noir fan. $ 10 per person per flight is excessive, but the price per bottle is reasonable. One thing it is way the hell out on Cienega Rd.

Wines are OK. been there a few times for tasting & the service is really BAD! Was there today, we were the only ones in the tasting room. 2 girls WAY more interested in the wine maker & his friend who walked in half way thru our tastings, they were poured 3 times as much as us, easily, and when we tried to get their attention to ask questions it was impossible. I asked the same question 3 times, about where the grapes were grown, and no answer, b
ecause the chick pouring was too busy involved with the employee & his friend. All the wines are rather «weak» on the pallet, so if you are a heavy, tasty red, don’t bother. Oh & $ 10 tasting fee for 1 is only waived if you spend $ 75!

If you’re hitting the Hollister wineries, Calera is a MUST DO!!! The wines here are actually pretty fantastic and the wine maker has won a bazillion awards for his pinot. It was explained that the winemaker studied in Europe where he fell in love with the pinot grape. When he began looking for a location to build his winery, he was concerned with only one thing, the soil quality. Hollister had the correct type of limestone soil to grow a superior pinot grape. Because the winery is built into a hillside, they can also boast about having one of the largest gravity fed operations. What does that mean exactly? It means that when they move their wine around, it’s done by the force of gravity, without the use of mechanical pumps. This inhibits «bruising» of the juice. Yeah, it’s pretty badass. Calera also sources their grapes from a wide variety of locations. Any single bottle might be made from grapes that were sourced from 12 — 20 different locations. This is brilliant because it allows the winemaker to control and perfect his «blend». The wines at Calera were hands down the best wines of the day. While the tasting room is rather simple and understated, the staff is friendly and knowledgeable and the wines are superior. You will also be rewarded with great valley views.

Calera was our second stop of the day. Wine was good but our party of 8 was really turned off by the cold welcome we received. Not like they were busy, only 2 other people there. Will probably not be going back.

Great Pinots… and their Chardonnays aren’t bad either if you’re into them. Loved the Harlan Mt. single vineyard selections the best. Well worth the drive.

Have been here many times. Tasting room is a bit Spartan and the tasting fees are a bit harsh, but the Pinots are great and the Chardonnays and my wife loves the Voigniers.

Josh Jensen is a LEGEND. The guy has a book written about him for heaven’s sake… so when people on here complain that they have to pay $ 10 for a flight of some of the most critically acclaimed pinot noirs in the world (let alone California), I find it a little shortsighted.
I really enjoy visiting Calera whenever I am in town. Cheers!

From the PInotFile discussing Owner Josh Jensen’s philosophy:
Jensen abhors what he calls «Smasher-​Blasters,» California Pinot Noir fruit bombs that «are mostly one-​dimensional, simple but potent beverages that will merely lose their fruit, their main if not their only appeal, with the passing years and just turn into …. expensive mud.» His vision for the perfect Pinot Noir is well reflected in the eloquent style of his wines and is one «that is perfectly balanced on the cusp of richness and complexity, of fruitiness and subtlety, and is neither one nor the other.»
Sidney Gets Caught Up On Winery Reviews Part VIII
Made my way out to Hollister to do a cluster of wineries located close to Pinnacles National Monument. I had woken up too late to get to Pinnacles first thing in morning but ended up finishing 8 miles at Harvey Bear. Wine tasting was needed after lunch and since I had visited most of the Santa Clara wineries, off to the small burg of Hollister I went!
Calera was one of the first wineries in California to believe in the potential for Pinot Noir to be grown in the state with the first plantings in the ground in 1975 and first crop in 1978. The wines are definitely not made in a fruit bomb style and require some patience.
The tasting room/​winery has a gorgeous view of the Salinas Valley that stretches all the way out to Pinnacles. The Tasting Room is not fancy, really just a large corner of the facility, but the service was friendly and knowledgeable and you do get to taste a lot for the money (refunded with purchase). Their wines are definitely the class of the area and yes the Pinots are the best of the bunch. I enjoyed the 2010 Central Coast from half bottle (recent Wine Spectator Top 100 pick) and the 2010 Ryan from Mt Harlan. Both were easy purchases for me and the Ryan will definitely need to sit a few years. It had a lovely flavor profile with balance and a nice acidity. With 13.9% alcohol, it will not make you feel heavy either.
The road to get out here is windy but the drive is beautiful. This is a must stop for one of California’s wine pioneers. Highly recommended!

I was impressed by the excellent quality of their wines… very nice. Loved the Estate Grown Viognier and Pinot Noir. Too bad they do not keep their white wines cold enough… pity, I would have given them a 5 Star review otherwise.

I been to this winery before and found it to be just ok. But there were several of us who had never been and it was the only other winery on the Wine Trail that was open.
Again it’s ok. I enjoyed one of the single vineyard pinots.
Cost is another story. Tastings are $ 10. I’m used to going to tasting rooms that charge $ 5. I didn’t see the prices but the people I was with said bottle costs were quite high.
There is too much wine in the Morgan Hill /​Gilroy /​Hollister area that I enjoy and will return to. So unless I’m with people that want to go to Calera, I’ll pass.

Calera is an institution among pinotphiles and for good reason (See: The Heartbreak Grape by De Villiers). They make some ridiculously good wine. The tasting room is minimalistic and literally right next to their winery/​warehouse and chemist lab. I actually thought that was pretty cool (the stodgy tasting rooms drive me nuts).
For the Pinots their Central Coast is probably the most reliable bang for buck pinot on the market ($ 20 – 24 for a pinot that has a bit of elegance). Single vineyard pinots are pretty fantastic and, what’s most important, consistently so. They are what some people call burgundian, which means more violets, meatiness, hoison sauce than their Russian River Valley cherry cola and forest floor limited counterparts. Chard’s are always good but not great, malolactic fermented and smooth, but sometimes a bit too much oak for my liking. Their best white is actually the Viognier (the only California Viogneir I’d consistently score 90+). Pinot is expensive because it produces low yield, (often less than 1 ton/​acre) and Jensen’s pinots are perhaps the most ageable pinots in California.
Honestly, I was a little baffled by the poor ratings (see other Unilocal page) until I read the reviews. If you’re not in pinot, then I’m not sure why you’d drive all the way to Hollister to visit a certified bourghound. Yes, the pourer was a little flighty. Yes, the tasting room is in a warehouse. The focus here is the wine and not the snooty ambiance. And yes, $ 10 per tasting is pretty standard (esp. for 8! wines) and nothing like Napa, where’d you pay four times as much just for taste wine from a vine that’s ten times as easily grown and produces five times as much fruit. I’ll let you do the math to see who is gouging you.
Hollister isn’t a luxury vacation spot where you’ll drink bombastic concoctions that actually taste more like coca cola than wine. In France you’d be drinking in a similar facility or a garage and not some douche-​tastic mansion. If that’s what you want, I beg you. PLEASE stay in Napa.
Tasting: 8 wines, (2 chards, 1 viogneir, 4 pinots, and 1 sticky)
Appointment: NOT required for tasting room
Price: $ 10
Overall: This is a California Icon. While a bit idiosyncratic, they can do what they like because this is probably a top 5 pinot house in the New World. Napa types need not apply.

Outstanding winery in a remote location. The winemaker discovered the value of terroir while traveling in France in the 1970’s and went in search of limestone soil in the U.S. He found it in the remote hills south of Hollister. Worth the drive, which is beautiful, for pinot noir and other varietals. Highly recommended by this hard to please wine drinker (over 30 years of visiting wineries/​amateur wine experience).

I tried it once — meh.
I went back — everyone deserves a second chance — meh.
Guess I am insane (cuz isn’t the definition of insane repeating the same act expecting different results?) as I gave them a third try — meh.
Granted they specialize in pinots and chards which are not my faves so maybe it is just me, but — meh.
One star for the amazing view from the parking lot — set your parking brake — one wrong move and you are back DeRose.

Next stop after Leal.
Maybe I was coming off my high from Leal, but I wasn’t bowled over here. The server was nice, but lacking in character. I don’t mind simple, warehouse style tasting rooms, in fact I have written that I like them, but this one lacked real character.
The wines weren’t bad, but nothing wowed me, so in a rare move, I didn’t buy anything. (usually buy something as a courtesy if service was good.)
There are 3 wineries on the same road, so you should definitely stop in. I will give this one another look see later.

This winery has received a lot of good press of late, so I decided to pay a visit.
The parking area has perhaps the most beautiful of any lot I have ever parked in. High up. .. . you can see for miles. Unfrickin’believably gorgeous. Although a part of me was nervous leaving my car car parked on the edge of a mountain in earthquake country.
The wines were very good as well: Chardonnay, Viognier and an assortment of Pinots. We had a very friendly, informative and honest pourer.
Definitely worth the trip.