THE FACTS: Ask any grape grower and they’ll tell you Pinot is the attention whore of all grape varietals. If done right and grown in the right area though it can be brilliant. Burgundy is one of these areas but in the New World (aka not France) there are plenty others and the Russian River Valley AVA (American Viticulture Area) in CA is one of them. Fogs blow in at night off the Pacific through the valley and stay til the next morning creating a giant air conditioner for a grape that whines more than your grandmother about the heat all day. That combined with a diverse set of rich, but well draining soils and you got yourself prime Pinot country where a pretty penny is usually paid for the resultant wine. Fortunately for us, not in this case.
SCORECARD (out of ten)
Look : Red
Smell :
- Intensity : 8.5
- Smells like : cherry, strawberry, vanilla sweet spice. All with a tad bit of…deer?
- Sweetness : Dry
- Acidity : 8
- Tannin : 4
- Alcohol : 14%
- Body : Light-Medium
- Finish : 9.5
- Tastes like : Sweet strawberries, strawberry candy like that kind your grandparents had hanging around, ripe cherry, vanilla, light oak, venison
- Other : The finish kills on this one. Just keeps going with the above mentioned flavors and that fresh acidity. Good mesh with subtle oak, probably French because its not so in-yo-face and doesn’t go overkill on the ridiculous amount flavors raging all over the place.
- Good with : pre-made Acme spicy tuna/philly roll/spicy salmon/california roll sushi, any kind of sushi, raw fish, not raw but cooked deer meat.