Wine and Walnuts

Now here’s a wine I resisted buying for years – because it’s everywhere, everyone seems to drink it, and there didn’t seem to be anything really knock-out about it.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing, sometimes you just want a wine to get you through the night.  Meaning, something decent to go with your basic week night meal, or for when you’re hankering for a good, but-non-special-occasion glass of something. 

This fit the bill, and then some. In fact, I thought it was quite good, especially considering there are lots of domestic Pinot Noirs priced lots higher that aren’t nearly as nice.  (I picked it up at my local Harriss Teeter for around $12 bucks.)  Mark West Pinot Noir consistently gets good press for its Pinot efforts, and I understand why.  I shouldn’t have been a snob about this wine all these years.

Mark West Pinot Noir has earned its reputation as a wine “reliably delicious as it is affordable.” So it’s a winner in my book – based on the quality, the price, and the convenience of being readily available at the local supermarket.  I’d buy it again under similar circumstances.  Those being, I was feeling too lazy to drive farther than the Harriss Teeter a mile and a half up the road. 

Winemaker’s notes:

Enticing aromas of strawberry and raspberry with barrel notes of caramel, vanilla and baking spices. Oak aging rounds out the palate and gives the wine its body. The wine drinks of deep, concentrated raspberry, cherry pie with a touch of cola berry. The wine shows juicy fruit texture and subtle oak.

Cheers!

Tags: California Pinot Noir, inexpensive Pinot Noir, value-priced Pinot Noir

This entry was posted by Kimberly Houston on Tuesday, February 15th, 2011 at 9:38 pm and is filed under Wine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.