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Belle Glos Clark & Telephone Vineyard Pinot Noir 2017
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By Daniel Min · Tasted 2020-10-16 · Published 2026-09-30 · Updated 2026-09-30
At a glance
In one line
3.5/5 — lower than Vivino's 4.4 average · world avg price US$59 · A Pinot Noir named after the grandmother who co-founded Caymus.
Wine-Searcher aggregate of 3 critic reviews: 90. Vivino lists no critic score for this vintage.
Market note: World average US$59 / 750ml (Wine-Searcher, ex-tax, Sep 2026). Two US sellers list the 2017 at US$55 and US$71 (ex-tax). The house's other single-vineyard Pinots: Dairyman US$48 (90), Las Alturas US$49 (91), Taylor Lane US$114 (90).
Father's note — Daniel Min
Original author of the notes“캘리피노는 버건디피노랑 길이 다르다를 절실히 느끼게 해주네요. 리스 빈야드가 그나마 비슷하다는데. …”
Show original
“cherry oak vanilla blackberry raspberry plum 캘리피노는 버건디피노랑 길이 다르다를 절실히 느끼게 해주네요. 리스 빈야드가 그나마 비슷 하다는데~~ […]”
In the scent column: 'cherry, vanilla, cola candy, red rings on paper.' What I learned today: the same grape can take different roads.
Monday. A quiet evening. Master Seo brought out a bottle whose neck was sunk deep in dark red wax. You don't peel the wax, he said; you go straight through it — and he set the spiral of his waiter's knife into the middle of the wax. Then, for once, he set my glass down on a white paper coaster.
Cherry, raspberry, and vanilla. A sweet, cola-like scent came smiling up first. It was soft. After a sip, when I lifted the glass, there was a red ring printed on the paper coaster. Without thinking, I picked up the coaster and put my nose to the mark. From the dried wine came faint vanilla and cherry. And that smell opened a late night in October.
Twenty-two, the third Friday of October. Dad went out early in the evening and didn't come back until nearly midnight. Where he went and what he drank that night, I don't know. From the inside pocket of his jacket he took a sheet of white paper folded in half and spread it on the kitchen table. It was the paper the glasses had stood on, he said. Pale red rings overlapped all over it — more than ten. Dad pointed at one and told me to smell it. Dried cherry and vanilla. I said it smelled like cola candy. Dad nodded, then pointed at another ring. That one smelled of earth and mushroom and slightly sour cherry. The same red, and a completely different smell. Dad folded the paper again and slipped it into his notebook.
The note for that date was long. Turning it line by line, I stopped here. California Pinot, he wrote, makes you feel keenly that it walks a different road from Burgundy Pinot. They say Rhys Vineyards comes closest. The last line was a question to someone else, so I didn't copy it. Three and a half stars. The bottle was Belle Glos Clark & Telephone Vineyard Pinot Noir 2017. I stuck on the wine-name Post-it. The first ring Dad pointed at was probably this bottle. The second, probably the other road — Burgundy.
Master Seo asked Minjae whose name Belle Glos was. Minjae guessed the winery owner's daughter, and went quiet when the answer was a grandmother.
After closing, I folded tonight's paper coaster in half and slipped it between the pages at page thirty-four of the new notebook. In the scent column: 'cherry, vanilla, cola candy, red rings on paper.' What I learned today: the same grape can take different roads.
What this wine is
Belle Glos is a person's name: Lorna Belle Glos Wagner, who co-founded Caymus Vineyards in the Napa Valley. Her son Chuck Wagner, chasing a long-held Pinot Noir dream, gave his mother's name to the label (Vinography, Prince of Pinot). From 2002 Chuck's son, fourth-generation winemaker Joseph Wagner, took over the vineyards and the winemaking. A grandmother's name, carried into the bottle by her grandson.
'Clark & Telephone' is an address. The vineyard sits by the intersection of Clark and Telephone roads in the Santa Maria Valley. According to Prince of Pinot, it still holds Pinot Noir vines planted in the early 1970s. In 2002 the Wagners thinned hard, harvesting just over a ton per acre, and bottling that concentrated fruit on its own was the start of this single-vineyard wine.
Everyone looks at the neck first. It is dipped long in soft, Burgundy-coloured wax — striking, though a reputation for being fiddly to open has followed it for years. Early vintages were a generous style, with plenty of extraction, oak and alcohol; later ones are said to show more restraint (Prince of Pinot).
What the world says
The three critic reviews gathered on Wine-Searcher aggregate to 90. Vivino lists no critic score for this vintage.
On Vivino the 2017 averages 4.4 from 4,629 ratings: 1,495 fives, 2,659 fours, 378 threes, 48 twos and 49 ones. The label as a whole averages 4.4 from 58,210 ratings, and nearly every vintage from 2000 to 2024 sits between 4.2 and 4.4. Suggested drinking window: 2020–2027.
In the flavour keywords, oak at 3,317 mentions (vanilla 951, oak 913, chocolate 471) outnumbers red fruit at 2,716 (cherry 1,250, raspberry 545) — an unusual order for Pinot Noir. Structure shows acidity 3.4, intensity 3.3 and tannin 2.0: on the soft side.
"After about 30 to 40 minutes it really opens up and has a wonderful flavor." — Vivino review, Oct 2020, 4.5 stars
The world average price is US$59 / 750ml (Wine-Searcher, ex-tax, Sep 2026).
How I drank it
October 16, 2020, 3.5 stars. I logged fifteen bottles that day. Alongside Burgundies such as A.F. Gros's Hautes-Côtes de Nuits and Philippe Leclerc's Chambolle-Musigny were two California Pinots: Occidental's Cuvée Elizabeth (4.5) and this Belle Glos.
My note read: California Pinot makes you feel keenly that it walks a different road from Burgundy Pinot. They say Rhys Vineyards comes closest. For flavours I left cherry, oak, vanilla, blackberry, raspberry, plum.
The gap between the community's 4.4 and my 3.5 isn't about whether it's well made; it's about which road you prefer. Even in Vivino's keywords, oak and vanilla come before cherry. With Burgundy in the very next glass that day, the difference looked all the bigger. Two days later, on October 18, I compared again, setting Starmont Pinot Noir beside a Lucien Le Moine Vosne-Romanée.
Vivino community data
2017 vintage rating distribution (4629 ratings, average 4.4)
| 5★ | 1495 (32%) | |
| 4★ | 2659 (57%) | |
| 3★ | 378 (8%) | |
| 2★ | 48 (1%) | |
| 1★ | 49 (1%) |
Most-mentioned aromas
| Family | Mentions | Top keywords |
|---|---|---|
| Oak | 3317 | vanilla 951 · oak 913 · chocolate 471 · tobacco 144 · clove 117 |
| Red fruit | 2716 | cherry 1250 · raspberry 545 · strawberry 320 · red fruit 274 · cranberry 126 |
| Black fruit | 1930 | blackberry 559 · plum 411 · dark fruit 210 · black cherry 198 · blueberry 142 |
| Earth & leather | 986 | smoke 228 · earthy 215 · leather 189 · cocoa 46 · minerals 39 |
| Spice | 656 | pepper 216 · cinnamon 148 · licorice 101 · white pepper 31 · gingerbread 21 |
Structure: Acidity 3.4/5 · Intensity 3.3/5 · Tannin 2.0/5 · Sweetness 1.9/5
Average by vintage (all vintages: 58210 ratings, average 4.4)
| Vintage | Average | Ratings |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 4.4 | 32 |
| 2002 | 4.3 | 68 |
| 2003 | 4.2 | 46 |
| 2004 | 4.3 | 32 |
| 2005 | 4.4 | 100 |
| 2006 | 4.4 | 41 |
| 2007 | 4.3 | 118 |
| 2008 | 4.3 | 276 |
| 2009 | 4.2 | 412 |
| 2010 | 4.3 | 525 |
| 2011 | 4.4 | 1760 |
| 2012 | 4.3 | 2714 |
| 2013 | 4.4 | 3096 |
| 2014 | 4.4 | 4001 |
| 2015 | 4.4 | 3802 |
| 2016 | 4.4 | 5879 |
| 2017 | 4.4 | 4629 |
| 2018 | 4.4 | 6924 |
| 2019 | 4.4 | 4137 |
| 2020 | 4.4 | 4837 |
| 2021 | 4.4 | 3283 |
| 2022 | 4.3 | 2341 |
| 2023 | 4.2 | 1723 |
| 2024 | 4.3 | 366 |
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→Frequently asked questions
What kind of wine is Belle Glos Clark & Telephone?
A single-vineyard Pinot Noir from Belle Glos, the Caymus Wagner family's Pinot label, made from the Clark & Telephone vineyard in the Santa Maria Valley. The 2017 averages 4.4 on Vivino (4,629 ratings) with a Wine-Searcher critic aggregate of 90.
How much does it cost?
Wine-Searcher's world average is US$59 per 750ml (ex-tax, Sep 2026). Two US sellers list the 2017 at US$55–71 (ex-tax).
What food goes with it?
The Vivino community suggests veal, pork, poultry and mushroom dishes. Some reviews say it improves after 30 to 40 minutes open.
What does 'Belle Glos' mean?
It's a person's name: Lorna Belle Glos Wagner, co-founder of Caymus Vineyards. Her son Chuck Wagner created the label, and her grandson Joseph Wagner made the wine from 2002.
Links & sources
View on Vivino · Prices on Wine-Searcher
- Vivino — wine page and community data
- Prince of Pinot — Belle Glos: Caymus Genes
- Vinography — 2003 Belle Glos Clark & Telephone Vineyard Pinot Noir
- Wine-Searcher — 2017 Belle Glos 'Clark & Telephone' Vineyard Pinot Noir
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Similar styleClos du Val Cabernet Sauvignon 2019 (Napa Valley)
United States · Napa★★★★★Similar styleStarmont Carneros Pinot Noir 2014
United States · Napa★★★☆☆Same grapeDomaine Leroy Bourgogne Aligoté 2014
France · Burgundy★★★★☆Same grapeDomaine de la Pinte Trousseau Arbois 2018
France★★★★½Same grapeFar Niente Chardonnay 2019
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