Wine Asylum

Pinot noir tasting for Thanksgiving and more...

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...our wine tasting group of six tasted 6 pinot noirs, 5 from the Russian River or Sonoma County.

I had just returned from 8 days in New Zealand and had done some wine tasting there. The most popular wine there is sauvignon blanc and the most popular red is pinot noir.

But the wines are a little different than what we find here. Most of their pinot noirs tend to be more minerally and a little higher acid than the fruit forward California or Oregon pinots which means they tend to go better with food.

The pinots from the Marlborough region tend to be lighter and from Otago have a little more body.

I tasted over 20 pinots while I was there and picked out my favorite to bring home for the tasting.

Here are the results with the lower points being the more popular wine (ranked with 1 point for the one you like best and 6 points for the one you like least).

In past tastings there have been ties where two wines got the same number of points but this time the top 3 wines had the same score and the bottom 3 the same score - meaning everyone liked different ones.

6. Tuli - $15 - 25pts - no firsts, 3 lasts - this is a new wine from one of the people involved in Meoimi. It tasted different than the others but was fruity and velvety.

5. Olema - $15 - 25pts - no firsts, 2 lasts.

4. Papatiero Perry Peters $58 - 25 pts - no firsts, one last.

3. River Road - $16 - 17pts - 1 first.

2. River Road Stephanie's Vinyard - $23 - 17pts - 2 first, two 5ths (my first place).

1. Maude Otago New Zealand - $42 - 17pts - 2 firsts, one 5th (not available here and hard to find in NZ).

If you're looking for a nice pinot noir to go with your Thanksgiving dinner, I would suggest the River Road Stephanie. This is available at a new chain called Total Wine which has great prices.



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