Wine of the week: Pellegrini, 2019, Russian River Valley, Sonoma County Pinot Noir

Charlie Fauroat said he was destined to become a winemaker. He just didn’t know it.

“Most of the time I feel like wine found me rather than the other way around,” said the winemaker of Santa Rosa’s Pellegrini-Olivet Lane Winery. While studying at Sonoma State, Fauroat needed some electives in business.

“I thought,” he said, “doing a concentration in Wine Business could be fun.”

Fauroat is behind our wine of the week winner — Pellegrini, 2019, Russian River Valley, Sonoma County Pinot Noir, 13.6%, $40. It’s a savory pinot with notes of cherry, tobacco and mushroom. Well crafted, this pinot is balanced, buoyed with bright acid, and it has a lingering finish.

“Pinot noir, above all other red varieties, I would compare most to making white wines,” Fauroat said. “Delicacy is absolutely paramount, and pinot quickly reveals the hand of the winemaker. Pick calls, cap management, barrel programming, and ageing routine all shine through this grape.”

The winemaker said he has tangoed with pinot for many years, cultivating his craft over time.

“I spent a fair bit of my informative winemaking time at (Healdsburg’s) Williams Selyem and lean heavily on what I learned there, while doing my best to bring my own spin to the varietal,” Fauroat said. “Working at (Windsor’s) DuMOL, Vavasour in Marlborough, NZ, and Bird in Hand in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia have all provided great counterpoint to that experience.”

Bottling grapes at Pellegrini-Olivet Lane for nearly a decade, the winemaker continues to conduct trials to deepen their understanding of vineyards they already have a wealth of experience with.

The biggest challenge in making pinot, Fauroat said, is developing patience and trust. This includes trusting the call to harvest and the patience to occasionally wait one extra day for pressing to optimize tannin.

“Pinot noir,” he said, “rarely hits its full potential as a wine before the following February, and trust in the idea that it will turn into the vision that started in the vineyard can be trying at times,” he said.

Fauroat, 36, is the winemaker and assistant general manager at Pellegrini-Olivet Lane Winery. Priming his palate for decades, the winemaker was reared on delectable food.

“Growing up in Ventura, CA, a solid grounding in appreciation for agriculture was engrained in my surroundings; with special appreciation for local strawberries, oranges, avocados, and stone fruits,” he said. “Wine was not a prominent feature of our dinner table, but appreciating intricacy in food always was. Asian flavors were always prominent, and on Friday nights, there was always a debate, not on what we were going to have for dinner, but which pizza place and style we wanted that particular night.”

Fauroat said his favorite wine region in California is the Russian River Valley.

“The variety of soils and micro-climates available is immense,” the winemaker said. “Wines from Westside Rd, the Sebastopol Hills, and the Santa Rosa Plains are so incredibly different. They truly run the gamut of what pinot noir can be.”

You can reach Wine Writer Peg Melnik at peg.melnik@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5310.