Wine of the week: Ram’s Gate, 2021 Estate Vineyard Pinot Blanc, Carneros

It’s the “surprise factor” Joe Nielsen likes most about working with pinot blanc.

“When guests come to our tasting room, they know about our chardonnay and pinot noir, and it’s fun to show them grapes like pinot blanc that are lesser known but just as enticing,” said Nielsen, winemaker and general manager at Ram’s Gate. “Pinot blanc is an incredibly food-friendly wine, pairing well with Asian cuisine, sushi, chicken dishes and more.”

Nielsen is behind our wine of the week winner — the Ram’s Gate, 2021 Estate Vineyard Pinot Blanc, Carneros, 12.6%, $40, 4.5 stars. Stone fruit of nectarine and apricot marry well with jasmine and a hint of honeysuckle in this wine. Buoyed by crisp acid, this layered pinot blanc is striking.

“This summer, our seasonal wine and food experience pairs the wine with a Hamachi tartare that’s just amazing,” the winemaker said. “One thing to note about our pinot blanc is that, while it’s great fresh, it has also been crafted to age beautifully and develop more complex characteristics as it spends time in the cellar.”

Guests, Neilsen said, typically find pinot blanc intriguing because it’s rare.

“There’s not a lot of pinot blanc being made in Sonoma, which means that we don’t have many other examples that we can compare our wine against or draw inspiration from,” he said. “This is both a challenge and an advantage, especially from a consumer perception standpoint, because guests often aren’t familiar with pinot blanc. But once we get them to have their first sip, they’re sold.”

What gives this pinot blanc an edge, Nielsen said, is where the grapes are groomed.

“Our pinot blanc grows at the Ram’s Gate estate vineyard, where the windy climate and foggy mornings impart a brisk acidity that we balance with textural viscosity,” he said. “The estate is positioned at the intersection of three of Sonoma’s greatest AVAs: Carneros, Sonoma Coast and Sonoma Valley.”

Nielsen joined Ram’s Gate in 2018 and said it’s a good fit.

“I often draw analogies between my approach to winemaking and the way a musician crafts an album,” he said. “I consider each vintage holistically, looking across our portfolio to understand how the individual wines together create a story of that year, rather than being discrete bottlings — that is, creating cohesive albums of wines and not collections of disjointed singles.”

Founded in 2011, Ram’s Gate Winery is located in the Carneros American Viticultural Area. In addition to its flagship chardonnay and pinot noir bottlings, the winery also produces rosé, syrah, cabernet sauvignon, grenache-syrah, pinot blanc, sauvignon blanc and sparkling wines. The winery produces about 10,000 cases annually.

What people find most surprising about Nielsen is that his passion growing up was music. He played piano as a child and later cornet in his high school marching band.

“To me there are endless similarities between music making and winemaking,” he said. “Both have vast amounts of math and science involved. Yet, at the end of the day, they are first and foremost art forms. ... You don’t need to know how wine or music is made to enjoy either.”

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