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Are you looking for a Pinot with lavish black cherry and baked berry flavors sprinkled with baking spice and toasted oak? Or is an ethereal and tense option more your choice, with its brisk red fruit and waves of bay leaf and juniper? You can have either style of Pinot Noir from California’s Central Coast, where the chameleonesque grape reflects a myriad of microclimates and winemaker whims, usually with delicious results.
Given the appellation’s more than 90,000 vineyard acres planted across nearly 300 miles, from the San Francisco Bay to the Santa Barbara coast, the variety shouldn’t surprise.