WINEMAKER WAS PINOT NOIR PIONEER IN AMERICA

Josh Jensen, who, after a single-minded quest in the 1970s to find the perfect site in California to grow the pinot noir grape, became the first producer of consistently excellent American pinot noir through his Calera Wine Co., inspiring a new generation of West Coast winemakers, died June 11 at his home in San Francisco. He was 78.

The cause was multiple health issues, his daughter Silvie Jensen said.

Good American pinot noir was rarely seen in 1972 when Jensen, enamored with the Burgundy region of France, the source of the world’s great pinot noirs and chardonnays, set out to produce his own version in California. With a few exceptions, most American pinot noir at the time was at best simple and fruity; more often it was stewed stuff from the hot Central Valley.

But Jensen had a different idea. He had worked briefly in Burgundy and saw firsthand pinot noir’s affinity for limestone, the region’s bedrock. He was convinced that if he could find limestone in California, where it was rare, he could make great wines with the complexity and ability to age that was typical of good Burgundy.

It took him a solid two years of monkish devotion — poring over geology charts and mining surveys, scouring the countryside for the combination of limestone and mild climate that might give him the great wine he envisioned.

In 1974, he found his site, 2,200 feet high on the remote slopes of Mount Harlan in the Gabilan Range in San Benito County, two hours southeast of San Francisco. Never mind the isolation, or the lack of paved roads, electricity and running water, or the fact that, as Jensen later put it, the site was “a Frisbee toss” from the San Andreas Fault. His vision outshined the potential pitfalls.

He bought the parcel, on which he found a well-preserved old limekiln. Soon after, living in a trailer with his wife, Jeanne Newman, and her small child, he began to plant his first three vineyards — Jensen (named after his father), Selleck (for a mentor) and Reed (for an investor) — circumscribing the mountain, each with different exposures to the sun. In 1975, Calera Wine Co. was born, taking its name from the Spanish word for limekiln.

The first small crop arrived in 1978, a year after Jensen bought additional land 1,000 feet down the mountain to build a winery, a makeshift facility that was largely exposed to the elements.

“The isolation of Calera was striking,” said Ted Lemon, who worked briefly with Jensen in the early 1980s before working in Burgundy and establishing Littorai in Sonoma County, California, where he continues to make noteworthy pinot noirs and chardonnays. “There was no winemaking community, no one down the road to borrow equipment from if something broke. However, that also contributed to the sense of adventure and to the pioneering spirit.”

In contrast to the prevailing methods in California, Jensen used the ambient yeast on grapes for fermentation rather than inoculating the grapes with commercial yeast. He did not filter the wines. Early on, he needed to supplement his own production, buying zinfandel grapes so he had enough wine to sell to pay the bills.

Soon enough, in the mid-1980s, the Calera pinot noirs began to receive notice. They were classically styled in the Burgundy tradition, not easy to enjoy young yet structured to age well, with the intense fruit flavors that come from California sunshine.

Jonathan Eddy Jensen was born Feb. 11, 1944, in Seattle to Dr. Stephen Jensen, a dentist, and Jasmine (Eddy) Jensen, a homemaker. He grew up in Orinda, where he was nicknamed Josh.