La Crema

La Crema was founded in 1979 as La Crema Viñera, meaning the best of the vine. At that point the Russian River Valley had yet to establish itself as one of California's most important addresses for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and the first few vintages were devoted to learning how cool-climate viticulture worked there.

The winery has focused exclusively on cool appellations ever since, and the range is built to show what the same two grapes do in different places. Monterey is chilled by fog funnelling in from Monterey Bay, the Sonoma Coast by the Pacific directly, and the Willamette Valley in Oregon is cooler again, sitting several hundred miles further north.

That makes the range unusually instructive: six wines, two grapes, three regions, and the differences are all site rather than winemaking. Willamette in particular produces Pinot Noir closer in character to Burgundy than to California.