I recently picked up the from the Fine Wine Source Wine Club, the Tortoise Creek “Mission Grove” Pinot Noir 2017.  Tortoise Creek is part of the much larger Masterwines group which currently has six labels.  Masterwines was started by Mel and Janie Master in 1990 sourcing wines from the Languedoc.  Masterwines now produces wine in France, Italy, California, Washington and Oregon. 

Tortoise Creek is a line of single variety wines and they were originally in the Lodi region of California and the majority of the wines are certified sustainable.  Starting with the 2009 vintage Tortoise Creek has partnered with the Chelonian Research Foundation and they donate a portion of the proceeds to benefit and the conservation of turtles and tortoises, and the Foundation was founded in 1992 to support worldwide turtle and tortoise research.  “Mission Grove” refers to the native Californian Olive cultivar, originally planted at the San Diego Mission by Franciscan Monks, and cultivar refers to the difference of the olive, an olive variety is original, and a cultivar had some human intervention, funny what I learn about.  These Mission Groves are found northward bound from San Diego and it is not surprising to find that often there are vineyards alongside these olive groves, just like what is found in Europe, where the Franciscan Monks came from.  This wine carries a California AVA, because sixty percent of the grapes come from the Clarksburg region and the other forty percent come from the Monterey region.  The juice had a seven- day fermentation process and then was aged for twelve months in French Oak.

There are a couple of tasting notes furnished for the wine, as I have not had a chance to try the wine.  One mentions a nose of violets and ripe cherries with a finish of raspberries and other red fruits.  The other mentioned hints of rhubarb, dried cherries and strawberries and this was from the owner of the Fine Wine Source.  It has been suggested that this wine would be best for salmon, pork or chicken and for others a nice mushroom entrée.  I am sure that this wine will be tried sooner, rather than later.