Brij - 'Printemps' - Pinot Noir - SLO Coast, CA - 2025

Notes from the Winery/Importer

100% carbonic fermentation. Élevage for five months in neutral oak barriques. Viticulturist Notes: The 2025 growing season in Edna Valley was cool and steady, with moderate summer temperatures and strong coastal influence allowing slow, even ripening. The extended season preserved bright acidity and aromatic clarity, producing balanced wines with freshness and precision. Cellaring & Tasting: Bright and lively, with aromas of wild strawberry and rose petal. The palate is light and energetic, carried by fresh acidity and delicate tannins, with subtle hints of forest floor and spice. A vibrant, Spring expression of Pinot Noir. Enjoy chilled now through 2030.

Notes on the Producer

Brij wines begin with relationships. The grapes come from friends and neighbors, farmers who tend their land organically and share a common understanding of what it means to grow honestly. There is no chase for trophy fruit or marquee appellations. Just trust, proximity, and the kind of sourcing that only comes from years of working alongside people who care about the same things. In the cellar, the approach carries the same philosophy as Phelan Farm: careful, thoughtful, and hands-off when possible. Native yeasts drive the fermentations. Vessels stay neutral. The wines are not pushed or pulled into shape. What the growers bring in is what the wine becomes. The focus is on clarity and energy, not weight or excess. These are wines built for the table, for conversation, for the kind of drinking that doesn't demand attention but rewards it. Honest and precise, they don't perform. They express. Each bottle a clear reflection of where the grapes were grown, who grew them, and why that still matters. --- Rajat Parr has lived his life intertwined with the vine. The knowledge and inspiration gleaned from his legendary career as a top sommelier, award-winning author and celebrated winemaker has led him to the challenge of a lifetime as a wine farmer on the California Coast. Widely recognized as one of the country’s greatest sommeliers, he built his reputation as a wine director with an extraordinary palate, a rare gift for blind tasting, and an obsessive drive to explore new wines, winemakers, and regions. Now, Parr Wines is his home base in Cambria. Rajat focuses on regenerative farming to cultivate grape varieties suited to thrive in the cool-climate San Luis Obispo Coast AVA.

Grapes & Style

Pinot Noir

Pinot Noir is one of the old noble red grapes of Burgundy, and still the variety most associated with the Côte d’Or’s ability to translate small differences in site into meaningfully different wines. It’s been known under older names like Morillon, Noirien, and Auvernat, and its history reaches back to medieval northern France. Over time, the Pinot family produced or revealed a whole set of mutations — Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Meunier, Pinot Teinturier, Pinot Noir Précoce — but Pinot Noir remains the central red expression.

In the vineyard, it’s famously sensitive. It buds early, so spring frost can be a real issue, and it ripens early enough that warm climates can push it too fast, leaving thin-skinned berries prone to shrivel and sunburn. It prefers temperate climates, calcareous-clay soils, and careful yield control. It’s also susceptible to mildew, botrytis, virus pressure, and plenty of other vineyard headaches, which is part of why great Pinot has such a fragile, hard-won quality.

In the glass, Pinot Noir is rarely about sheer power. At its best, it’s relatively pale, aromatic, and finely structured, with red-fruit notes like cherry and raspberry when young, often moving toward more savory, autumnal, earthy, mushroomy, or truffle-like tones with age. The better examples are compelling because they carry delicacy without feeling thin — fruit, perfume, texture, and place all held in a lighter frame.