Community Tasting Note

Metalhorns wrote:

Saturday, April 13, 2024 - It kind of feels wrong to be enjoying such a boldly bastardized iteration of an otherwise delicate, bright and poetic variety this much. Am I just another spectator in the plebeian grandstand after all? Am I just another unwitting round of cannon fodder for the cruel mechanations of our materialistic world? Are my thoughts my own? Should I even care? Belle Glos says, "do not fret, my simple-minded friend" before pouring another glass of their fat-fingered Pinot Noir into my glass, "just try to enjoy yourself, and don't overthink it."

I sit back and start taking notes anyways. An odd suggestion of root beer and cola drape the set in ambient light before the fruit-forward characters come on. Blackberry pie and dried cherry enter stage left and walk to the front while caramel, cedar, vanilla, christmas spices, strawberry jam and chocolate covered blueberries assemble around. Dark fruits antagonize the expectation of a delicate and bright affair, trading silk drapes for a heavy textile and deeper shade cast onto the palate. A nigh medium-plus body takes hold, tip-toeing on a velvety and particularly enveloping mouthfeel. What kind if pinot noir is this? It's certainly not shy to flash some welcome richness, yet the lack of humility and abundance of residual sugars posit a difficult grappling for those particularly inclined towards the traditional throes of what this grape represents in the broader world of red wine. The smooth finish is there, sure, but what else? This isn't really a pinot noir is it? Too big. Too boisterous. Too this. Too that.

It is a pinot noir though, apparently, and much to the purist's chagrin. It is perhaps by technicality only, because it really does play all-elbows like the jammy Cali cabs and regional fruitbombs of the area much more than it does how a pinot noir ought to play - with délicatesse and playful wisdom. Whatever. As annoying as this wine's existence is, it plays a role that many desire, and who are we to scoff? If its good, its good.

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