Published on November 19, 2009
Pinot Noir for Every Palate and Pocketbook
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. It’s a celebration of togetherness and sharing that has only one purpose, to give thanks. Thanks for the bounty on our table, thanks for the company we get to keep, and thanks for the time we spend together.
As a wine lover though, it can be a difficult holiday, as I am sure many of you know. The traditional sides, those delicious yams, and the sweet and sour tang of cranberry sauce can make wine pairings a challenge. Fortunately for me, I am very forgiving if the wine doesn’t sing with every element of my meal, and besides that, for me it’s all about the bird, thigh please.
Nonetheless, a lot of thought goes into selecting wines for these types of celebrations. While other wines might be better matches, I’m thinking of Lambrusco and Loire Valley Chenin Blanc for example, those can be geeky and intimidating choices. So what wine is a good choice, will work well with the food, and make a thousand palates sing? Pinot Noir of course.
To help you make your thanksgiving Pinot Noir choices I tasted through three dozen wines searching for examples that will make your holiday table a success. I was very pleasantly surprised by the overall quality of the wines tasted. There were a few wines that struck me as over the top in one way or another, but as a group, these wines exhibited purity, balance, and acidity that many New World, and even some old world, Pinot Noir have not exhibited for years.
A Wonderful Surprise from Argentina
For elegance and finesse the 2007 Barda could not be beat. It just screamed Pinot Noir, with wonderful depth of flavor in a lighter style. The structural elements of the wine were exquisitely balanced, giving this bottle an impression of lightness that allowed the rich flavors to take center stage.
While subtle, this is very complex with a faintly sweet edge to the medicinal herb notes and lovely insinuations of cigarette ash and limestone that gives this real finesse on the nose. Pure, light red fruits dance across the palate.
The Sta. Rita Hills Produce Classic California Pinot
For those looking for a rich, balanced style of wine, may I suggest the 2007 Foley. It exhibited wonderful depth of fruit in a pure, unfettered style that is rich enough to stand up to the full flavored dishes of the Thanksgiving table, yet balanced enough to drink all night.
Silken on the palate, with stealthy tannins and wonderfully supportive acids that keep the slight herb and cocoa toned cherry and strawberry fruit fresh and lively across the palate. Really very fruity on the backend, yet with a refreshing, slightly green edge.
The Central Coast not only produces great wines, but great values as well.
If you are looking for value, the MacMurray Ranch Central Coast Pinot cannot be beat. It’s made in an easy drinking style but doesn’t sacrifice much in the way of richness and depth, and has such pretty, ripe fruit that it makes this one of the stars of the tasting at its price.
Nice cherry fruit on the palate with a slight herbal edge adding freshness and complexity. The tannins are a bit coarse and there is a raw woody edge on the short finish, but the fruit is fresh with good intensity and the feel is fresh, if somewhat chunky.
Below please find the reviews of all the wines tasted for this article.
Hay, birds nest, so soft and subtle it’s seductive with a core of warm raspberry coulis framed by gentle suggestions of baking spice and lovely notes of quinine, porcini, drying flowers an old library, and history, This wine smells of history. It’s light and bright with plenty of acid and tannins that hold up the diaphanous band of raspberry fruit gently flecked with mushroom and spice tones. The structure bullies your palate on the backend a bit but the fruit sneaks under and out with a wild strawberry and violet pastille quality that is fruity and delightfully savory. 94pts
Fantastic on the nose with animal fur, spicy, green herbs and stems, and incredible lift and height. This is a particular expression of Pinot that certain has its followers and dramatic appeal. There’s plenty of fruit lurking under the engagingly high-toned aromatics in the black raspberry and slightly boysenberry toned register. This is smooth and rich with rich strawberry and raspberry toned fruit that has a dusting of cocoa with a real deep core of wonderfully ripe fruit that has a lively, vegetal, rhubarb edge to it. . The finish is still a bit rough with tannin and acid poking out but the fruit is pure, fresh and nicely complex. 93pts
Smoky and reduced on the nose. With air this opens to reveal notes of mineral, eggshell, clay and smoldering herbs over a core of meat, dark, concentrated fruit, smelling a bit like veal reduction. In the mouth this is dense and seamless and manages to combine that rich, ripe mouthfeel with a dense, yet fresh array of fruit flavors. This is decidedly dark, dried raspberry and cherry fruited with a flush of herbs and golden apple tones that rises above the intense fruit on the mid-palate. The finish could use a little more length though it’s primarily fruit tannins that are cutting it short. With time this develops real cut and definition on the finish. A great effort that captures the perfectly ripe fruit.
93pts
Cola and sassafras on the nose with a cool, deep quality to the fruit that draws you in the glass to discover the notes of perfumed wood, crayon, sand, and coco butter. This is very bright up front with a lovely leafy quality that serve to draw out the deep, dark black raspberry with it touch of coffee grinds and bitter earth component that add another layer of contrast This finishes with very fine bitter cherry fruit and some small but stiff tannins that add a fine touch of mouthgrab. There’s a lot going on here and this is still young but it show’s incredible poise on the palate. 93pts
Gorgeous nose, full of women’s perfume, underbrush, nutmeg, earth, sapwood, wild berries, and licorice root with wonderful intensity. On entry this is pretty big and a touch matte like a sandwich of acid with fruit serving as the bread. It’s packed with succulent fruit gently edged with spicy cinnamon and nutmeg tones though the fruit gently release the acid adding lift to the mineral laden wild raspberry fruit on the mid-palate. This needs another year to really open up but has all the ingredients to be a stunner. It ends with a subtle persistence, like the waves on the bay continuously grinding ashore. 94pts
Very floral at first with a light, whispery character that gains a soft, lightly vanilla and tamarind-scented edge to the soft strawberry fruit. There are backing notes of mocha, oaken spice that gain intensity but don’t cover the fruit. Silken on the palate with stealthy tannins and wonderfully supportive acids that keep the slight herb and cocoa toned cherry and strawberry fruit fresh and lively across the palate. Really very fruity on the backend yet with a refreshing slight green edge that yields to some more oak spice and some obvious, yet integrated wood tannins. This should benefit from another year or two in bottle but is already delicious and very well balanced with impressive length to the finish. 92pts
Dark tootsie roll, earth and herb scented fruit greets the nose and slowly opens to reveal a tight, menthol inflected core of baked black cherry fruit. On the palate this has a silky, open feel to it with integrated acids and ripe tannin only obvious on the edges. The fruit is fresh and deep with a slight medicinal tone that yields to the fruit on the backend. I rather like this though it is subtle; it is eminently drinkable and has a sneaky low intensity complexity that grabs your interest. The finish is quite strong with a wonderful herbal/stemmy character floating over the candied raspberry fruit. 92pts
This opens slowly and cautiously with notes of pollen, licorice, and roasted ligonberry fruit. While subtle this is very complex with a faintly sweet edge to the medicinal herb notes and lovely insinuations of cigarette ash and limestone that gives this real finesse on the nose. This is an odd wine, fairly plush at once and then loose and with faded flavors but the intensity of the fruit grows on the palate and as opposed to getting bored with this I find myself being drawn in to it’s subtlety. The finish is quite long with vibrant acids and the scratch of minerality that sets this apart from much pinot. The fruit is really wonderful with burnt cherry tones framed with tea and chalk. 91pts
Gorgeous notes of leaves, stems, and moist soil push back against the nicely judged oak giving the wonderfully ripe juniper tinged, wild berry quality that evolves in the glass. This is just classic Sonoma Pinot noir with a rich mouth feel, a touch of glycerin adding that round, luxurious feel, yet it offers wild cherry flavors spiced with mint and oak that yields to a return of the lovely herbals, vegetal top notes of the nose before fading into a gently vanilla tinged and slightly exotically fruited finish. 91pts
This actually has some ass in the glass with a lovely, initial feral note that is joined by notes of sweet gum, wild raspberry, jasmine, and subtle oak. Really slinky on entry this glides into the mouth with the weight of a feather. It’s got lovely cherry pit and black raspberry fruit tones on the palate but with a lovely transparency that allows the wonderful, aromatic forest floor elements of the wine to percolate up in the mouth. The finish is subtle but fairly spicy with good length and fine balance though it does end with a little heat. 91pts
Classic nose of cola, coriander, baked red berries, and mocha, spice, oak spice. Citrussy up front with a rich yet transparent feel this offers up very nice sappy and wild red berry fruit tones in a style that is a little hard and taut, in a good way and finishes with a refreshing, transparent, slightly jammy raspberry tone. Still youthful this could use another year in bottle to soften but I like it now for it’s strict mouthfeel and fine balance 91pts
Cola, earth, musk, tea and blond tobacco add depth and complexity to the dried strawberry and cherry fruits of the nose. This is velvety, rich and round with the seamless character of the best domestic Pinots. It lacks some of the brightness I prefer but has lovely depth and a layered feel on the palate. It’s a soft yet intense with an earthy complexion that makes this on outlier for the style, though it is a wine that has something for just about everyone. 91pts
