Cline County Collection Pinot Noir California Red Wine

What does a California Pinot Noir taste like? For Pinot Noir, category guides commonly point to red cherry, berry and plum, and note that it carries lighter color and less tannin than Cabernet Sauvignon; it is a thin-skinned red grape, and guides say the flavor can run from bright and delicate to darker and fuller depending on where it grows and how ripe it gets. Cline Family Cellars says Fred and Nancy Cline founded the winery in Oakley, California, in 1982.

We do not have a shopper rating for this bottle. It is a California Pinot Noir, and in our September 2026 checks we saw it priced from $14.49 to $16.99.

Cline's own page for the County Collection narrows that California origin further. It places the majority of this Pinot Noir in Potter Valley, Mendocino County, where the producer says hot inland days and cool, crisp nights encourage "vibrant acidity, refined structure, and expressive character," with a smaller portion from the Cline family's own vineyards in the Petaluma Gap, where coastal winds add freshness. The producer's own style description calls the result a "bright, Burgundian-style Pinot Noir." As brand-level context rather than a claim about this bottle alone: Cline says its vineyards have been Certified California Sustainable and Sonoma County Sustainable since 2018, and that the winery has run on solar power since 2005.

Our call: a fair pick if named vineyard regions carry weight for you; Cline ties most of this Pinot Noir to Potter Valley in Mendocino County, with a smaller share from its own Petaluma Gap vines. Pass if you want a shopper record behind that story; none has reached ours, so the producer's account of the fruit is the only evidence on file.

The Grocery Store Wine Desk · written Sep 16, 2026 from our research file for this wine. Numbers reflect our latest checks.