Diora La Petite Grace Pinot Noir Red Wine, Monterey, California

La Petite Grace ends with Monterey, California, and Delicato Family Wines places Diora at its family-owned estate there. That word tells you less than it seems to: our regional research treats Monterey as a county used as a wine origin on labels, not a single growing area, one that holds the Monterey AVA along with other smaller recognized areas.

Our regional research describes a long valley that pulls cool air and fog inland from Monterey Bay, an influence strongest in the north that eases toward the warmer southern districts, with wind and temperature shifting through the day. Because the county reaches from that cool coast to warm inland valleys, it notes, a county name gives real context, but the exact vineyard or narrower area is what would fix the growing site.

La Petite Grace is a Pinot Noir, a red grape our grape research says regional guides tend to describe as red cherry, berry and plum, lighter in color and lower in tannin than Cabernet Sauvignon. We do not have a shopper rating for this wine. One store we checked in September 2026 had it at $20.99.

Diora's own product page gives this wine a full technical account. The winemaker, James Ewart, sources about half the fruit from the family's San Bernabe Vineyard and half from the Santa Lucia Highlands, both within Monterey County, and describes the two sites' contributions differently: San Bernabe's afternoon winds and sandy soils build red-fruit complexity, while the Santa Lucia Highlands' cooler temperatures and dense morning fog add darker fruit character and tannin. The producer's account of the 2021 vintage, the release this sheet describes, calls it an excellent-quality harvest, with mild temperatures and overnight fog giving the fruit extra hang time to develop flavor, and lists the finished wine at 14.5 percent alcohol.

The winemaking notes are specific too: after a cold soak of up to five days for color, the fermented lots spend about twelve months in French oak barrels, roughly a third of them new, made in part by the cooper François Frères, before blending. The producer's own tasting note describes dark cherry, raspberry and licorice aromas leading into a full-bodied palate of dark cherry and chocolate, the maker's words for a style built for heartier food; the producer pairs it with a dry-rubbed porterhouse steak or roast duck.

Our call: a reasonable pick for a shopper who wants the winemaking spelled out, since Diora publishes the split between its two Monterey vineyard sites, a five-day cold soak, twelve months in French oak from a named cooper, and lab numbers down to alcohol level. Pass if you want a shopper track record too; no rating has reached our record yet, so the producer's own account is carrying the case alone.

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