{"id":1938,"date":"2021-09-28T14:15:56","date_gmt":"2021-09-28T14:15:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=1938"},"modified":"2021-09-28T14:15:56","modified_gmt":"2021-09-28T14:15:56","slug":"pinot-noir-tasting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=1938","title":{"rendered":"Pinot Noir Tasting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our experience with Pinot Noir has been rather strange.\u00a0 For a long time, we just didn\u2019t care for wines made from this grape.\u00a0 Too thin.\u00a0 Too acid.\u00a0 Too pricy.\u00a0 We would continue tasting Pinot Noirs in our travels but we never got that kick that lovers of Burgundy wines have written and talked about.\u00a0 Then on one wine tasting trip about a decade ago, the light bulb came on.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Pinot Noir grapes.\u00a0 Photo courtesy of LaCrema winery.<\/em><\/p>\n

We were in the Carneros region of Napa Valley at the Etude<\/a> winery.\u00a0 They\u2019re equally well-known for their Cabernet Sauvignons as for their Pinot Noirs, so it was our intent to savor the big California boomers.\u00a0 Since Pinot Noir was included in the tasting, why not try it?\u00a0 That was the moment that changed everything; we became club members from that moment and still are.<\/p>\n

On that trip and since then, we have been all over Carneros and have found many other wineries specializing in Pinot Noir.\u00a0 Saintsbury<\/a> and Domaine Carneros<\/a> (yes, the same maker of California sparkling) are particular favorites.\u00a0 But we have expanded our horizons.\u00a0 We were dining at the late, lamented Hurley\u2019s restaurant in Yountville and they had a weekly special wine from a place we\u2019d never heard of, Santa Lucia Highlands.\u00a0 Another aha moment and we\u2019ve been buying wines from there ever since.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve enjoyed Pinot Noirs from the Santa Rita Hills near Santa Barbara, from Russian River and Sebastopol in Sonoma County, and in Oregon\u2019s Willamette Valley.\u00a0 We enjoyed them in Burgundy\u2019s C\u00f4te d\u2019Or quite a while ago, but then seemingly lost our taste for them (and regained it, too).\u00a0 To this day, we prefer California Pinot Noirs to the originals from France.\u00a0 That may have something to do with the astronomical prices for grand cru<\/em> Burgundies.<\/p>\n

So were we wrong in the days when Pinot Noir didn\u2019t appeal to us?\u00a0 Not really, but did our taste change or did the wines?\u00a0 To this day, we find some very well-regarded wines from Russian River and Green Valley in Sonoma County to be thin, acid and overpriced, just as we did in the past.\u00a0 As you can read in our opening statement on Power Tasting\u2019s<\/em> front page, tasters need to know what they like.\u00a0 That implies that we need to know what we don\u2019t like, as well.<\/p>\n

In general, we go for more robust Pinot Noirs, so some wine educators have told us that we want wines made for Bordeaux drinkers.\u00a0 There\u2019s probably a little truth in that, but we think it misses the point.\u00a0 There are Cabernet Sauvignons that we don\u2019t care for (and Syrahs, and Chardonnays, and Tempranillos and, and, and\u2026) and many others that we love. \u00a0We always appreciate well-made wines that respect the nature of the grapes and reflect the hand of capable winemakers.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t want a Pinot Noir that\u2019s like a Cabernet Sauvignon.\u00a0 We like Pinot Noirs that show the complexity of the grape, with subtle aromas and some deep notes that accompany the overall roundness that Pinot Noir can achieve.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not too much to ask, is it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our experience with Pinot Noir has been rather strange.\u00a0 For a long time, we just didn\u2019t care for wines made from this grape.\u00a0 Too thin.\u00a0 Too acid.\u00a0 Too pricy.\u00a0 We would continue tasting Pinot Noirs in our travels but we never got that kick that lovers of Burgundy wines have written and talked about.\u00a0 Then … Continue reading Pinot Noir Tasting<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1938"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1938"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1940,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1938\/revisions\/1940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}