© Calera Wine Co.

Josh Jensen at the old lime kiln that gave his winery its name.

The Calera owner used to wonder who would take over his winery. He doesn't have to wonder anymore.

Josh Jensen is one of California's wine pioneers, but at age 73, he didn't have any heirs excited about taking over his winery, Calera.

So, on Tuesday, Jensen announced the sale of Calera to Duckhorn Wine Company. He and Duckhorn president and CEO Alex Ryan celebrated the signing of three dozen documents with a bottle of Billecart-Salmon Brut Reserve on the picnic table outside the Calera winery. The deal includes everything: winery, brand, vineyards, inventory and even Jensen's house. It also includes a nice treehouse that ended up being unsuccessful – more on that below.

"I'm just dancing with joy," Jensen told Wine-Searcher. "I'm very pleased with the sale and the price. They've been wonderful people to negotiate with. It really has been up front and fairly quick. Frankly, for both parties, the fact that harvest is fast approaching gave us a kick in the butt. They want to be in the saddle and making the important decisions during harvest time."

It's an important transaction because Calera has been at the front of the line in proving that California can make world-class Pinot Noir. That concept may be accepted now, but in 1975, when Jensen bought his rugged property on Mount Harlan, nobody believed it.

One of the biggest reasons for doubt was that, unlike Burgundy, the ancestral home of Pinot Noir, few places in the Golden State had limestone underneath the ground. Jensen searched with geologic maps from the Bureau of Mines and found a 324-acre site that he bought for just $18,000. But it wasn't easy to develop: there were no power or water lines, and access came only through a neighbor's property. More than 40 years later, there still aren't any paved roads to the site.

Jensen had worked at Domaine de la Romanée-Conti for two vintages and unlike most California vintners in the 1970s, he believed in low-tech, minimal intervention, gentle winemaking. He quickly determined that his Pinot Noir grapes were different from plots that were in some cases just a few feet away from each other.

Calera wines weren't exactly the first cult California Pinot Noirs: that distinction goes to the initial iteration of Chalone. But they were a favorite for American Burgundy fans for a long time. In the 1990s, the Japanese manga "Sommelier" compared Calera Jensen Pinot Noir to DRC; Calera wines are still popular in Japan as a result.

As iconic as Calera's single-vineyard Pinot Noirs are, they may not be what made the brand so appealing to Duckhorn. Duckhorn is still best known for its brawny Merlots, but its Decoy brand has been extremely successful with a Pinot Noir priced under $20. Calera has been making similarly priced Central Coast Pinot Noir, much of it from purchased grapes, for some time. Now, with Duckhorn's expanded distribution channels, you might see more of it.

"Josh pioneered the Central Coast of California," Ryan told Wine-Searcher. "This is an area we're not involved with. His style of Pinot is different from ours. Obviously there's an opportunity there. We've been intrigued by the opportunity to get involved in the Central Coast. You have an iconic brand, in an iconic growing area."

© Calera Wine Co.

Calera's Mount Harlan vineyards are among the highest, driest and coolest in California.

Ryan said Duckhorn's plan is not to mess with Calera's single-vineyard Pinots.

"He's the exclusive brand on top of Mount Harlan," Ryan said. "They're the soul of the wine culture of California. There's no competing appellations. This is a unique one and Calera owns it. Josh has started a Central Coast brand that could be a little more broadly distributed. It could be a little bit more of a workhorse. Our job is to not screw that up."

The sale could have been foretold by this story that appeared in Wine-Searcher in 2014.

A little over three years ago, I visited Jensen on Mount Harlan. After years of drinking his wines, I had never seen the remote vineyards. We talked about wine, DRC, baseball, books, TV – lots of stuff. Jensen is an intelligent and curious man. We also talked about his succession plan. None of his three adult children was interested in taking over the winery so he had built a treehouse to try to get his grandchildren excited about spending time there.

"I started out thinking about a succession plan," Jensen said. "The top person in the industry was guiding us. I eventually realized that that meant I was going to be working for my kids. I was going to be staying here running the business and interviewing and hiring my successor. It just didn't sound like fun. I was twisting my kids' arms to get involved. The succession plan we were looking at was going to have four annual meetings in nice resorts with mandatory attendance. I didn't think it was going to bring new energy or new vitality to Calera."

So he quietly started asking around for potential buyers. Duckhorn has been owned since 2007 by a Silicon Valley-based private equity firm. Its management has kept its brands separate with different winemakers for each.

"We talked to a few potential buyers. Duckhorn seems to be the perfect fit," Jensen said. "I've known Dan Duckhorn for years. They introduced Merlot to a nation that had never heard of Merlot. We've been friends in the industry for a long time. There's no disputing the quality standards that Duckhorn's evolved. It was a good opportunity to put my life's work in the best hands."

Ryan said Duckhorn plans to keep Calera's entire staff, including Mike Waller, who took over as winemaker from Jensen several years ago. Jensen will join Duckhorn's board of directors, though he does have to move out of his house on the property by 2019.

"I'm going to build on a nearby parcel, a five-acre parcel," Jensen said. "It's a half mile away. I can walk back and forth."

Jensen used to rent an apartment in San Francisco and he said that when he calls his sisters to tell them about the sale, after they get over being angry at him, they will wonder why he's not going to take the opportunity to move to the city.

"I love the open countryside," Jensen said. "It's a magic place. Most people wouldn't want to live here full-time. My commute's 100 feet. It suits me. My oldest child, who's 40 years old, and she has an eight-year-old daughter, she moved back to San Francisco four years ago. I can go up and have meals with her. I can play with my granddaughter and go to movies. I get to do that when I want, but I also want to be able to enjoy the beautiful views here."