2009 Pinot Noir D'Autrefois

Hello everyone!! I got a new stove this weekend! And to try it out I fixed game hens stuffed with farro. They were little gems of deliciousness. The acid of this wine cut through the richness of the little birds. It was a great pairing! I got this wine at Total Wines in Atlanta for $10. It was listed as a staff favorite, and at this price I just couldn't pass it up. The color was ruby, of medium depth. It had a very nice bouquet that rose up out of the glass to greet me. It contained aromas of plum, blueberry, vanilla and flowers (violets?). The flavor profile was true to the nose. What I really liked about this wine was the bright acidity. It had a freshness to it that was very complimentary to the food. Once again the French win me over with a well balanced, food friendly, elegant wine.

2008 Erath Pinot Noir from Oregon

Hello all!! I am sitting here, right now, enjoying a glass of this lovely pinot noir. I may have blogged it before, I didn't check. It has a nice brick red color that is not too dark (appropriate for a pinot noir). And it has the warm aroma and taste of plums and earthiness. I don't notice the typical strawberry component. Anyway, this is a very nice pinot fro just about $20 at McScrooge's. It should be available at many other stores. We had this wine with salmon and a lightly spicy, rather complex vegetable sauce of tomato, onion, garlic, caper, green olive, and raisin. It was a very nice pairing.

I went to a work related party last weekend. I was asked to bring the wine. I took the advice of a salesperson in a well known local liquor store, and I was very disappointed. I bought Woodbridge wine, the white Zin, the Resieling, the Chard, the Pinot Noir, the Merlot and the Cab blend. We never made it past the Pinot Noir. The wines were completely lacking in character. The varietals were barely recognizable. I was embarrassed to have brought these wines. I was so upset by the whole thing that I vowed "No more plonk!!". Now, what will become of this? Well, I started out by trading the three leftover, unopened (1.5 L) bottles of Woodbridge for two bottles of 2008 new release French Bordeaux. The next night I bought four more bottles of the new release French Bordeaux, a bottle of California Merlot and a bottle of Torrantes. For at least a little while I am going to indulge in some of the promising bottles we have stacked around the dining room. I still have a lot of catching up to do on the blogs, but I'm going to work on making an even bigger backlog of tasting notes. I may not be able to afford really high dollar wine, but I don't have to endure plonk! There is plenty of good wine, and the occasional bottle of really inspiring wine, available in my price-range and I intend to enjoy it! To personality!! To pleasure!! To great wine!!

2009 Leyda Pinot Noir from Chile

We had this wine tonight with pasta and pork chops with peppers. This light red was a nice compliment to the tangy and well seasoned pork chops. The color was brick red. The nose and the flavor profile started with lots of cherry. As it opened the cherry dissipated and strawberry and blueberry emerged. After opening for an hour or so the blueberry and cherry disappeared completely, and we were left with strawberry and plum! This wine also had a nice forest, mulch component and a little bit of spice. I bought this at Ashes for maybe $12. It was recommended as a Burgundian pinot. Honestly, when we first opened this wine I wasn't too sold on it as Burgundian. However, as it opened it developed more of the delicate complexity expected of a French burgundy. This is a very nice wine for the price. Also, it will be even better in a couple of years. I really love having this style of wine around because it is sooooo food friendly. I'll probably keep this around (or set some aside).

Thanksgiving: A tale of two pinots (and an ice wine)

Hello everyone!! I hope you had a terrific Thanksgiving! My older son was back in town and we had a really lovely dinner with just the four of us, myself, my husband Al, and our two grown boys. I served erbazzone with swiss chard as an appetizer. It had a flakey crust and a filling of chard, cheese and eggs. Then we had butterflied game hens with mushrooms and a little cheese over a "nest" of sauteed potatoes. We had cherry tomatoes warmed in butter and herbs, sauteed green beans with a little shallot, and some purchased cranberry-orange relish. We started with 2008 Erath Pinot Noir from Oregon state. Then we opened the 2007 Luigi Bosca Reserva Pinot Noir from Argentina, and finally we had the 2008 Riviere du Chene Monde Vin de Glace (ice wine) from our recent trip to Canada.

The 2008 Erath Pinot Noir was a nice pairing for the little birds. The birds were very moist and savory having been marinated in wine, olive oil, and seasonings, then browned on each side under a broiler, then covered with gruyere cheese and roasted in a pan filled with a 1/4 inch of white wine. Mushrooms are added half-way through the roasting step. Of course, the birds are basted multiple times while they are roasting. So, back to our wine. This was a dish that could hold up to a fairly robust wine. The Erath pinot noir was very good with it. It had a nice garnet color with a touch of brick red at the edge of the glass ( unusual in such a young vintage). It had aromas of raspberry and strawberry, with floral notes and a touch of the mulchiness often found in pinot noir. The flavors were true to the palate and it had a nice silkiness to it that complimented the richness of the food. It had a pleasant lingering finish. This wine is about $20 at McScrooges, but is available at Total Wine in Atlanta for $15.

The 2007 Luigi Bosca Reserva Pinot Noir was also very good. This is one of my favorite pinots for sipping. Al and I differ in our opinions on this wine. Al says it is a nice enough wine, but it doesn't taste like a pinot noir. I have to agree, but I like it anyway. This is a pinot that is not to be confused with a burgundy. It is very new world. I don't know if it's because of the use of oak barrels, the approach of the winemaker, or if it really is all due to terroir. It really is very full bodied for a pinot noir. When it was first opened there was a lot of oak on the nose. This dissipated with a little time in the glass. It had a deeper color than the Erath. It was a deep, dark garnet. It was more aromatic than the Erath with aromas of raspberry, cherry, some oakey vanilla and a little spiciness (sweet spice more than pepper). It was nice and velvety on the palate with a lingering finish of cherry and spice. It's unusual for a pinot, but I really like this wine. This was about $18 to $20 at Ashes, and it is also available at Total Wine in Atlanta for $20.

Pinot noir is an interesting varietal, much like chianti in Italy. There is an incredible range of expression for this grape. Before last night, I had 4 very different pinot noirs in my wine rack. They can be very light and delicate in the traditional Burgundian style with aromas of strawberries and flowers and light in body. These wines often are fairly complex with hints of mulch or "barnyard" especially as they age. Pinots can also be fairly robust, as is this Luigi Bosca, with bigger fruit and more oak than the Burgundian style pinots. I think it's fascinating how one varietal can express all this. Also pinots are good companions to a wide variety of foods. They are an excellent choice when the food is too much for a white (or you just don't want to drink a white). A light pinot can be easily substituted for a rose. Really, it's just a matter of matching the weight of the pinot to the weight of the food, especially for fish and chicken dishes without too much hot spice. The burgundian pinots are especially food friendly and pair well with almost any fish or fowl. The more robust pinots pair well with dishes that won't quite take a heavier red, but mostly, I enjoy these as sipping wines. The heavier pinots would compare well with a lighter Cotes du Rhone wine, and could be used in their stead. There may be more pinot reviews this fall. It's a varietal worth exploring over time.

Finally, we had the 2008 Monde Ice Wine with our apple and cranberry tart. My younger son, never having had a dessert wine, kept commenting over and over about how sweet it was! Yes, that's the idea. Also, the alcohol content was low in this wine, only %10. I believe this is also typical of ice wines. When we purchased this wine, I thought it was sold as half or whole bottles and we bought a half bottle. Later, I noticed that it wasn't a half bottle at all, but was only 200 ml. So, in the future, I'll be checking the size of those little "half bottles". I don't know if this is something new, or just something I never noticed before. Anyway, we were just looking for a little sip of something sweet with the pie, so everything worked out well. It had a lovely honey color in the glass. It had aromas of honey, apricot, pear and a little floral component. The flavor profile was similar with pear, apple, apricot, honey and touch of sweet spice. It had a luscious, creamy silkiness, and a lingering finish. It was very good with the apple tart, somehow the pairing made both the pie and the wine taste even better. I love it when that happens! I try to have nice pairings every time, but once in awhile, it really is just magical! This wine was $30 or $35 at the winery in Canada. I haven't found it here, yet.

2009 Lucky Star Pinot Noir (California)

Hello!! We enjoyed this pleasant little wine with rabbit pie tonight. The color was garnet, and as expected with a pinot noir, not too deep or intense. The nose was of raspberry and vanilla. The flavors were raspberry, cherry and vanilla with soft tannins and very soft acidity. It was very fruit forward and pretty sweet when first opened. As it opened in the glass, it softened and the flavors became less intense and better integrated. This wine was $8.79 at Campbell Station Wine and spirits. Considering the price, this is not bad. It's very young and fruity, reminiscent of a beaujolais nouveau. I thought it lacked structure and complexity. Of course, it is a 2009 vintage and what do you expect from an $8 wine? I would prefer this to a beaujolais with my turkey. It would be good for a party, especially if you have friends that are not big wine drinkers. It's so soft and easy drinking that many people would really enjoy it.

Cartlidge and Browne 2008 California Pinot Noir

We enjoyed this wine a few nights ago with a classic pork roast served with rice and salad. It was very nice with the pork roast but would also be good with turkey or a nice savory roast chicken. The color was a lovely rich plum. It had aromas of plum, blueberry, spice and a little tar. The flavor was true to the nose and it had soft tannins, medium acidity and a silky mouth-feel. It was very nicely balanced and had a lingering finish of blueberry and spice (Al noticed a little ginger). Interestingly, I noticed the finish mainly on the mid-palate, an area that is weak in many wines. I bought this wine at Bob's for $12. I went in and asked for an everyday pinot noir in a Burgundian style. Indeed, it was very Burgundian with the complexity of flavors and a fairly light style. What I like about these wines is that they are so very food friendly. They are perfect for meals where you might feel like reaching for a heavier, oakier white. Nothing wrong with that. But sometimes it's just nice to have a red. That's the perfect time to try a Burgundian Pinot Noir. This wine does have that Burgundian style, although I have had lighter Burgundian Pinot Noirs. This wine is a very nice middle ground Pinot (not too light and not too heavy) and I thought it was very enjoyable. At $12, it was really a find.

2009 Ropiteau Vin de Pays D'0c Pinot Noir (French)

This wine is from a winery established in 1848 in the South of France. It's one of the wines we picked up at Total Wine in Atlanta for $9 a bottle (I just wish I had bought more). We had it with a black and blue salad, but it would have been better paired with the classic duck. Pinot noir is very food friendly and is a good choice when you want a red, but not one that is too heavy for the food. When first opened it had this unique blend of cherry and strawberry with a bit of dry leaf aroma. As it opened over the course of an hour or more, this wonderful leafy, forrest aroma developed and the tannins emerge, giving the wine more structure. It has a very nice balance of acid and tannin and the fruit forward characteristic develops into something more subtle and complex as it opens. I really like this wine. It's one of my favorite pinot noirs ever. I can't believe I paid $9 a bottle for this. I don't know if it's available in Knoxville, but I think I'll look for it.

Dinner guests: 2008 Martin Codax Albarino, 2007 Sebastiani Pinot Noir, 2006 El Coto Rioja, 2005 Las Rocas Garnacha

Hello!! Well, we have been drinking wines this past week, but nothing new until this weekend. We had another couple over Saturday evening. For starters I fixed little crostini with green beans, zucchini, salsa verte, and feta cheese. We had the Albarino with this. It was very quite good. Subtle aromas of jasmine and white flowers. I picked up well integrated flavors of peach, mild citrus and hazelnut. It was very well balanced and had a nice rich body. It was my first Albarino and now I know what all the fuss is about. I'll be keeping one in my winerack. This particular wine was $16 at Ashes. They have one on sale now for $10 or $11 which was rated 90 or 91 by the Wine Spectator.

Next came Italian mushroom stuffed crepes and salad. Our guests brought the Sebastiani pinot noir, and we opened it with dinner. It was a pleasant, soft well balanced pinot, somewhat lacking in complexity, but it was a nice wine with dinner and took a bit of a back seat to the food. It had soft tannins and acids and pleasant, easy to drink fruit flavors of strawberry, cherry, and plum.

The other two wines were after dinner sippers. The Las Rocas is one we have had before, $19 at Ashes. This is one of my current favorites. It's a fairly big wine with a big, aromatic nose which rises right out of the glass to greet you. The aromas are dark cherry and a soft spiciness. On the palate it's dark cherry, blackberry, and cedar with a little bit of pepper. It's fairly smooth and full bodied with firm tannins and a nice balance of acid. It had a pleasant lingering finish. Lastly, we opened the El Coto. To me, this was a bit of a disappointment, but Al liked it better than I did. It had a big, in your face nose, with bright cherry and oak. The taste was pretty much the same. It seemed simple and very "new world" after having had the Las Rocas. It wasn't bad, but was a bit of a fruit bomb and the oak monster was definitely with us on this one. Personally, I think you can find better Spanish wines. To each his own.