Way too young . . .
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Josh was a great man. Lover of life and pioneer in California. Sad to hear this news…
The hits keep on coming. RIP.
Calera is an American benchmark. What a truly great and risk taking pioneer Josh Jensen was. The Cienega Valley is remote, wild and still under the radar. Imagine the courage and vision it took not only to establish Calera in the middle of nowhere way back then, but then to also grow and make some truly breathtaking wines of place and character from a piece of land that mostly only he believed in for a long time (and the Enz family of course, and a few others). He made history.
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This is really sad.
First, Sean Thackrey, an American pioneer of Rhône-style wines; now, one of the most important modern Californian “Burgundian” producers.
Here are two older interviews with Jensen: Jamie Goode tasted through a horizontal of Calera’s bottlings; then Catherine Fallis, MS, spoke with Jensen in 2009 at his newly constructed winery.
Wine Anorak
“Josh Jensen and the Wines of Calera”
by Jamie Goode
wines tasted July, 2007
“Josh Jensen’s story is an interesting one. Like many others, he fell in love with wine, fell in love with Burgundy, and wanted to do something similar in his home country. And, to a large degree, he has succeeded. He’s making some really fantastic Pinot Noir, but perhaps because he’s been doing this for a while, he doesn’t seem to get the press he deserves. I met him in trendy Regent Street restaurant Cocoon to taste his wines and talk about where they have come from…”.
Grape Goddess Blog
“Interview: Josh Jensen, Calera Wine Company, Mount Harlan, California”
by Catherine Fallis, MS
December 19, 2014
from The Sommelier Journal, July, 2009
“…Early this year, I met with Jensen at his beautiful new winery, built on the same spot where we had conducted our 1999 interview in a trailer. Twenty years had passed since my introduction to his wines, yet he had held steadfast to the brilliant course he set out for himself. He was a visionary and perfectionist then, and is to this day…”.
I have, of course, followed JoshJensen from the very start. Loved his Pinots quite a lot.
I was first attracted to Josh’s work for the Late Harvest Zin (I believe it was a 1976) that he made
at Dick Graff’s Chalone Cellars (I think from Enz Vnyd grapes). It was labeled La Noche Cellars (a recombination
of the letters of Chalone). Which is where he made his first wines. Extra credit to anyone else old enough around here
to remember La Noche Cllrs Zin. Speak up, or forever hold your peace.
I remember when I made my first visit to Calera. We walked the vnyd and tasted a few of Josh’s wnes from btl. I don’t remember
a whole lot of that visit, other than the expansive views, except the drive to the steep road up to Calera. I passed this huge junk yard area and there were
thousands of abandoned airplane seats stacked 5-6 high under this pole barn. Have no idea what the intended use
of the seats were. Somebody must have got them for a song and had some sort of vision.
Josh was one of the first to plant Viognier in Calif. His Viogniers were always on the ripe & a bit alcoholic side.
In the early '90’s, at the Taste of Vail, they held the first wine Seminar on Viognier. Way off in the corner, pouring his
wines, which included his Viognier, was this young guy. Name was John Alban. I took an instant liking to him.
At the Seminar, they had a panel of these Viognier producers. Included were BobLindquist/JoshJensen/JohnAlban
and one of the first Napa Vlly Viognier producers, LaJota or St.?? Wnry or RitchieCreek. Or maybe Bruce Devlin of Villa St.Helena Wnry.
The Calera stood out for for its ripeness, soft structure, high alcohol, over-the-top character, jiggly,silicone-laden After tasting thru the wines,
the floor was opened up to questions from the audience. Some idiot stood up, addressed his question to Josh: “Josh, how do you
go about making a DollyParton Viognier”, with the appropriate hand gestures in front of his chest. It brought the audience down w/ gales of
hilarious laughter. And thus did the term DollyParton Viognier enter the wine lexicon. Danged if I can recall what Josh’s response was.
Josh was a regular attendee at the Taos Winter Wine Festival. Larry & Laura had a cabin up in the Taos Ski Valley & we’d do winemaker
dinners on Fri & Sat nights. As someone knowledgeable w/ many of the winemakers, I was tasked to invite winemakers to join us for dinner.
I always would invite Josh to join us. He was divorced by then and always wore these flashy/brightly-colored sweaters & really stood out
in the crowd of winemakers pouring their wines. He asked if he could bring a friend to the Friday night dinner. “Sure”. He showed up in this
flashy/colorful sweater and with this flashy blonde lady. He was invited also to the Sat night dinner & showed up in a different flashy/colorful
sweater…with a (different) flashy blonde lady. But Josh was always hugely entertaining and pretty much the life of the party. I gather
he was estranged from his three children. When I’d ask about them, he’d immediately clam up & change the subject.
In addition to being one of Calif’s Pinot pioneers, he was one of Calif’s most entertaining & colorful characters. I’ll miss Josh greatly.
We’ve lost (another) legend.
Tom
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I met Josh around 1978. Becky Wasserman and Jacques Seysses had both told me he had planted Pinot on limestone soil so I figured this guy was worth checking out. We bought his zins–even the ZIn Essence made from botrytised grapes. We wanted to be first in line for his Pinots.
By the time he was releasing his pinots I was selling barrels. Oddly for decades he had SF digs near me, so we ended up (quite naturally) going to a lot of Giants games together.
Games I remember:
1988 vs St Louis…this was after the Cardinals edged us in the league championship…the Giants scored 20+ runs and everyone was quite happy.
1989: the Giants played a double header at the end of the season and the result was they won the division again…
2018 or 2019–after the game we went out for drinks and Josh, thinking he was paying the price of Gosset half bottles, ordered the vintage Gosset…when he discovered his mistake, he finally said. Screw it!..Duckhorn is paying!!
2021: after the lockdown I invited Josh to a game…he arrived, hardly able to walk…what happened?? They say it was covid…
By the way,Josh was estranged from Chloe but not the other two.
The weekend Josh died: the Giants swept the Dodgers. I like to think the G Men were honoring Josh.
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I remember visiting Calera with my father when I was a teen. He seemed happy to have anyone visit and spent all day with us. I climbed on the stacked barrels and got to taste wine underaged. Barrel tastings and bottle tastings. He opened bottles with the corkscrew on a Swiss Army knife. Meeting him was a real treat. I think I still have a bottle of his Zinfandel and several Pinot that my father purchased.
Hmmm, Mel… I vaguely remember him pouring his wines at one event (probably Rhone Rangers) and having one of
his children there pouring as well. But much preferred it when it was one of those flashy blondes helping pour!!
Tom
Wow, a big loss for the world of wine. He/Calera was a big influence on my thoughts on wine and winemaking. I’m hoping I still have at least one bottle of older Calera left in my cellar (should be a 99 Selleck at the very least)!
Legend. Everyone should read his story in The Heartbreak Grape, which is one of the rare wine books that’s a page-turner like a novel.
We lost a Giant. His wines were my introduction to quality California pinot noir. He was a kind host. He could add to any conversation about any topic.
Several years ago (and I mean a LOT of them-it was probably around 2002) I was on a panel with him and Jim Clendenen in California somewhere. That was the only time I met Josh Jensen. Despite my, at the time, relative lack of experience and certainly lack of expertise in relative terms to the other panelists he was gracious and interested.
I’ve tried to remember that execution of state of mind when it comes to dealing with the young ones of today. Probably not as successful as Josh at that.
I paid a visit to Calera and had a long chat with Mr. Jensen a year or so before Duckhorn bought Calera. I was supposed to turn it into an article for another site, but they went belly up before I finished it–there was so much to work with after an hour and a half or so of just bouncing around from wine topic to wine topic that I was having trouble getting it done when the site tanked. My outline for the interview, such as it was, was just constantly being derailed by some wry witticism he dropped with just a hing of a smile. I couldn’t resist following wherever those led, and I could publish a pretty good pamphlet of aphorisms from that one meeting. At the end, I thanked him for taking the time for someone who had published on a few blogs and sites and had a modest following on CT. His reply: “Well, the technology is different, but wasn’t Parker really just a blogger when he started?”
I am so saddened by this. So many have recounted his importance in California wine history, no need for me to repeat all that. My experience of his grace and wit certainly squares with what Jim Anderson said above.
The article did not seem to mention how famous he was in Japan. One of the Japanese comics compared his wine to DRC and he became a legen. If I remember correctly he said he did not know until an importer called asking for 10,000 cases.
I met him for a visit around 2008 and when he found out I worked in finance all he wanted to know and talk about was how could he short the state of California as he was 100+% convinced the state was going to go bankrupt.
After this tasting I ended up going to Chez Panisse for dinner and had some wonderful old Caleras, it was a special day.
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Sometime in the late '90s, we signed up for a local wine dinner featuring Calera. Seating was assigned. Our youthful enthusiasm and friendship with the chef-owner of the restaurant landed us seated next to Josh. We had such a great time with topics ranging from his wine journey (of course) to sports and I can’t remember what else. I still have an (empty) bottle of Chardonnay that he signed with the dedication “Go Niners!”. His influence will most certainly live on for generations.
Sad day.
fred
This is turning out to be a really shitty year. First Sean, now Josh. Two Legends I was fortunate to meet and had hoped seeing again. Sad day indeed… 
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Sad news. Another California wine legend gone. I only met him a handful of times at tasting events but he always seemed like a really good guy.
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When this happens in music I always say we need to remember those that are still here. This is not entirely surprising given the age of the California / U.S. wine industry, still sad. Who are the legends that are still with us?
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Lots of legends still with us, Robert. PaulDraper is the first that comes to mind.
DickArrowood, DarrellCorti, BobTrinchero, HelenTurley, LarryTurley, DickPeterson, CaryGott, LeeSobon, NormRoby, FrankMahoney, CaroleMeredith & SteveLagier, MichaelWeiss, LouisLucas, RichSanford, TomStolpman. It goes on&on.
Some are prolly young enough that they would reject the term “legend”
Tom