14.1% abv. Recent auction purchase (single bottle lot). Strong perfume on the nose which carried through to the palate. Loads of flavor. Plenty of acidity, maybe a bit too tart, as it sticks out a bit. Still, this was pretty enjoyable and interesting. Probably not worth holding on too much longer.
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Alive and kicking. Hartford does Pinot Noir really well. would never be able to tell that this is 12 years old. Stored properly since purchase from winery. All of the Hartford wines seem to age gracefully...
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A light bodied pinot. A bit sharp initially and then softens to a nice, soft finish. Typical pinot nose, but finish has sweet honey and fig and perhaps a hint of cedar. Not as big as some of the Oregon monsters but a more typical fragile entry from Sonoma. Drinking OK now--might have missed its window
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Medium to light bodied, soft, silky, spicy red raspberry, red berry, clove, hints of white pepper and oak on the lingering finish. Nice complement to chicken picata. Good value in this mid $20's pinot - half the price of comparable pinots.
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RPCS WIne Tasting (John Corkran's): My number is low mainly because of the alcoholic finish. After being open in a bottle for about 4 hours, it subsided some, but I still felt the alcoholic finish really took from the wine.
86 after day 2. Otherwise, an interesting complexity of flowery red fruit, pencil, and I guess that's cloves. Without the alcoholic finish, I think it would have been 90. Have just less than half of a bottle left, let's see tonight or tomorrow.
On a side note, I looked on both labels and failed to find an alcohol %. Please post one if anyone finds one.
Refridgerated and vacu-vinned, and tasted again 5 days later. No bad alcoholic finish now. Rating up to 88.
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This is drinking better than pinots at twice its price.Consistent with previous bottles, bright garnet, flowery nose red fruits and the alcoholic finish seems diminished.
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Deep ruby color in the glass. Nose of black cherry and spice. Style is much closer to the traditional Burgundian style than to the newer fruit forward California style. A little hot out of the bottle, but after 30 minutes of air this aspect was gone. A very nice pinot at this price point!
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Dark coloring in the glass. Aromatic nose of Pinot funk and sour cherry. Fruit toward palate with black cherry and game. Plush mouthfeel with little perceptable tannin and medium to full bodied. Long finah with mostly game, red fruit and a hint of chocolate. Plenty of acidity left, drinking extremely well now and very balanced, just doesn't have the complexity of higher scoring pinot. Still a favorite almost 3 years later.
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A full, rich Pinot. Light nose of cherries and barnyard. Immediate pleasure on the palate as the silky texture provides wonderful flavors of cherry and strawberry with a layer of black pepper. Hints of vanilla on the moderate finish. Highly recommend.
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Black cherry, clove, and pepper on the nose. Rich cherry up front, vanilla with lighter cherry on the mid-palate. The finish is complex with black pepper and licorice plus a hint of clove. More tannic than most Pinots. Good, medium weight wine.
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Very good Pinot, with all of the right stuff in all the right places. Fairly dark red. Earthy nose, followed by spice and fruit. Wild strawberry compote. Easy drinking, nice acidity. Light to medium weight, medium finish. Good balance.
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Earthy pinot nose. Interesting effervescence on the tongue right after opening...faded after being open a while. Nice acidity. Cherry and strawberry flavors. Soft tannins and medium length finish.
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Medium silky ruby in the glass. A good nose with an initial whiff of rasberry and then some ripe strawberry and a hint of dark cherry and vanilla. The nose is sweet but the palate is more balanced. Light tannins and zippy acidity with plenty of ripe red fruits. This wine has more to it that the recently tasted Wither Hills from NZ. Very enjoyable.
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This wine was lush, creamy and rich with pretty low acidity, nice hints of spice, and lots of raspberry, cherry-chola and leather. A round, typical California-style pinot.
Might have been slightly corked, as the nose offered hints of mustiness. Better on the 2nd day but not worth $49 CDN at retail. Will try 2nd bottle to compare.
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Grabbed a couple of bottles retail. Had one last night. Just reread previous tasting notes. Pretty consistent experience; although the whole spice thing that seemed so prominent previously wasn't really evident. Not sure where that came from. Last night's experience: super ripe, creamy, low acid, black fruit, cherry-cola and spice. Stupid good at < $25. 2/3s bottle left for tonight.
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Had 3 glasses with and after dinner at Great Bay in Boston. Complete upside surprise. Restaurant too dark to comment on color, but nose is sweet and smokey. Graham cracker? Cloves? It's a little heavy handed. Reminds me of a Ken Brown 2004 pinot tasted in SB. Theres' something too sweet about it, brown sugar and pumpkin pie... However, in the mouth flavors are irresistable. Black berry and bing cherry, tobaco and cola and clove. Soft and round. Finish is leather, vanilla, smoke and more fruit. Flavors are a lot like '04 Seasmoke Ten. Aromatically the wine's a little disjointed, but mostly a pleasure to drink. The more it opens up, the more pronounced the pumpkin pie element, which is a negative. At $25, this is awfully good.
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Bright cherry, pinot nose. Really good acidity, lovely fruit, and low tannins make this a very enjoyable pinot right now. This has a fairly light body. It's a a very drinkable pinot, very clean, if a but simple. Nevertheless, it's a great deal, as not many pinot's I drink at this price offer such a nice experience. 87-89
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A tiny step down from earlier in the year. Still a lot of cherry, with some raspberry and strawberry in the mix, maybe a touch of licorice. Creamy with a little spice and earth on the end. Still very nice, just not quite as fruit forward as earlier in the year. Still a great value.
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Ruby in color. Rich bouquet with notes of black cherry and strawberry that draws you into the wine. The front end of the tasts mirrors the the nose with strawberry and rasberry. A bit overly sweet but quite enjoyable. The finish was suprising short and bit to soft to me reducing my rating of this wine.
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Requisite ripe red raspberry aromas. Seemed very young, fairly tannic, and very sweet with somewhat of a medicinal quality that detracted a bit and made it seem slightly unbalanced. This wine will probably improve over time. 84-87
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Originally nice, with good fruit. But after open for a while, there was way too much oak on the nose and palate. Pop and pour and don't let it open up too much...
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A tiny step down from other bottles before and after. On the nose, cherries, strawberry and oak, maybe a floral note in the background. On the palate, strawberries dominate, with some vanilla creaminess and some spice on the modest finish. The finish dropped off a bit too quickly to rate this as high as other bottles I have had. Maybe it got shaken up too much after a two hour drive to the mountains. Two bottles tasted this weekend, both were consistent, so I am leaning towards that as a possible explanation.
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I picked up a bottle of this wine on a recommendation. I was curious whether paying an extra $5 (top $15 pinot stepping up to $20) would make a discernable difference. The answer is, "Yes." I'm comparing this bottle with Rodney Strong's 2004 Russian River Pinot Noir. Rodney's wine is one of the best in the $15 category. The nose on this wine was immediately pleasant. The nose is inviting! Strawberry with rasberry notes and no alcohol bite, which is present in Russian River PN for $30 or more. There is some spice on the finish. This is going well with Smoked Salmon, Insalata Caprese, and a bagette. This is certainly an end-of-the-week treat. Enjoy!
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Seemed typical of the Sonoma Coast AVA. Ripe black cherries that turned into cola on the finish. Some spice on the finish, but not hot at all. Beautiful garnet color. Need to get some more of this.
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Highly enjoyable once again. Very little bottle variation in the eight bottles I have had so far.
The most recent is beginning to show more strawberry notes to accent the cherry flavor. Nothing complex, but showing very well with pure fruit and a bit of earth on the medium finish. Not a long ager, but three more to enjoy this summer.
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The first bottle of Pinot I really enjoyed. Thin nose with fruity overtones. A velvety meaty palate with oak background with medium to long tannins. Sitting on another bottle to have later this year.
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Decanted ½ hr. Nose of spice, red fruit and cranberry. Bright flavors of dark cherry and cranberry with a clove spice backbone. Medium to light body with a good smooth texture and a consistent palate, this has reasonable depth for it’s price. Well balanced and highly recommended.
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9/4/2023 - PIntag wrote: 89 Points
14.1% abv. Recent auction purchase (single bottle lot).
Strong perfume on the nose which carried through to the palate. Loads of flavor. Plenty of acidity, maybe a bit too tart, as it sticks out a bit. Still, this was pretty enjoyable and interesting. Probably not worth holding on too much longer.
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12/1/2016 - Bob & Sue Atlanta wrote: 92 Points
Alive and kicking. Hartford does Pinot Noir really well. would never be able to tell that this is 12 years old. Stored properly since purchase from winery. All of the Hartford wines seem to age gracefully...
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1/31/2016 - ungerlei Likes this wine: 90 Points
A light bodied pinot. A bit sharp initially and then softens to a nice, soft finish. Typical pinot nose, but finish has sweet honey and fig and perhaps a hint of cedar. Not as big as some of the Oregon monsters but a more typical fragile entry from Sonoma. Drinking OK now--might have missed its window
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5/13/2012 - jdoakpark wrote: 91 Points
Really beautiful wine...so delicate with fruit forward and floral but then great mid and finish of honey
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5/30/2009 - Double D wrote: 92 Points
Excellent pinot, went well with grilled pork loin.
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5/7/2009 - rmcnees wrote: 91 Points
Medium to light bodied, soft, silky, spicy red raspberry, red berry, clove, hints of white pepper and oak on the lingering finish. Nice complement to chicken picata. Good value in this mid $20's pinot - half the price of comparable pinots.
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4/13/2009 - Larry Brooks wrote: 88 Points
RPCS WIne Tasting (John Corkran's): My number is low mainly because of the alcoholic finish. After being open in a bottle for about 4 hours, it subsided some, but I still felt the alcoholic finish really took from the wine.
86 after day 2. Otherwise, an interesting complexity of flowery red fruit, pencil, and I guess that's cloves. Without the alcoholic finish, I think it would have been 90. Have just less than half of a bottle left, let's see tonight or tomorrow.
On a side note, I looked on both labels and failed to find an alcohol %. Please post one if anyone finds one.
Refridgerated and vacu-vinned, and tasted again 5 days later. No bad alcoholic finish now. Rating up to 88.
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2/21/2009 - Double D wrote: 92 Points
This is drinking better than pinots at twice its price.Consistent with previous bottles, bright garnet, flowery nose red fruits and the alcoholic finish seems diminished.
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1/4/2009 - yellowine wrote: 92 Points
Deep ruby color in the glass. Nose of black cherry and spice. Style is much closer to the traditional Burgundian style than to the newer fruit forward California style. A little hot out of the bottle, but after 30 minutes of air this aspect was gone. A very nice pinot at this price point!
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1/2/2009 - Nutty08 wrote: 91 Points
Dark coloring in the glass. Aromatic nose of Pinot funk and sour cherry. Fruit toward palate with black cherry and game. Plush mouthfeel with little perceptable tannin and medium to full bodied. Long finah with mostly game, red fruit and a hint of chocolate. Plenty of acidity left, drinking extremely well now and very balanced, just doesn't have the complexity of higher scoring pinot. Still a favorite almost 3 years later.
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6/30/2008 - Double D wrote: 91 Points
Bright garnet red, medium bodied pinot, nice flowery nose of violets, great with pork loin. Just a touch of alcoholic heat on the finish.
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12/6/2007 - jdoakpark wrote: 91 Points
again...did not disappoint. fruit and depth...good finish.
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11/23/2007 - BSpdx wrote: 91 Points
A full, rich Pinot. Light nose of cherries and barnyard. Immediate pleasure on the palate as the silky texture provides wonderful flavors of cherry and strawberry with a layer of black pepper. Hints of vanilla on the moderate finish. Highly recommend.
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11/5/2007 - Double D wrote: 91 Points
Rich and smooth.
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10/22/2007 - billyg wrote: 90 Points
Black cherry, clove, and pepper on the nose. Rich cherry up front, vanilla with lighter cherry on the mid-palate. The finish is complex with black pepper and licorice plus a hint of clove. More tannic than most Pinots. Good, medium weight wine.
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10/5/2007 - incident wrote: 88 Points
Very good Pinot, with all of the right stuff in all the right places. Fairly dark red. Earthy nose, followed by spice and fruit. Wild strawberry compote. Easy drinking, nice acidity. Light to medium weight, medium finish. Good balance.
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7/7/2007 - tigerpaw75 wrote: 88 Points
Earthy pinot nose. Interesting effervescence on the tongue right after opening...faded after being open a while. Nice acidity. Cherry and strawberry flavors. Soft tannins and medium length finish.
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5/30/2007 - Bob & Sue Atlanta wrote: 91 Points
Very nice
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5/12/2007 - jds1010321 wrote: 92 Points
Amazing dried cherry, earth, clove, slight vanilla. Give it 30-60 minutes upon uncorking. My favorite pinot noir!
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5/12/2007 - Acousticdoc wrote: 91 Points
Spicy vegital nose, soft red fruit, very elegant.
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5/3/2007 - CAS wrote: 89 Points
Medium silky ruby in the glass. A good nose with an initial whiff of rasberry and then some ripe strawberry and a hint of dark cherry and vanilla. The nose is sweet but the palate is more balanced. Light tannins and zippy acidity with plenty of ripe red fruits. This wine has more to it that the recently tasted Wither Hills from NZ. Very enjoyable.
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2/15/2007 - John McCabe wrote: 91 Points
Soft, caressing flavors. Typical California Pinot. Effortless.
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2/1/2007 - vancouvermatt wrote: 89 Points
This wine was lush, creamy and rich with pretty low acidity, nice hints of spice, and lots of raspberry, cherry-chola and leather. A round, typical California-style pinot.
Might have been slightly corked, as the nose offered hints of mustiness. Better on the 2nd day but not worth $49 CDN at retail. Will try 2nd bottle to compare.
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11/25/2006 - swp3 wrote:
Grabbed a couple of bottles retail. Had one last night. Just reread previous tasting notes. Pretty consistent experience; although the whole spice thing that seemed so prominent previously wasn't really evident. Not sure where that came from. Last night's experience: super ripe, creamy, low acid, black fruit, cherry-cola and spice. Stupid good at < $25. 2/3s bottle left for tonight.
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11/1/2006 - swp3 wrote: 91 Points
Had 3 glasses with and after dinner at Great Bay in Boston. Complete upside surprise. Restaurant too dark to comment on color, but nose is sweet and smokey. Graham cracker? Cloves? It's a little heavy handed. Reminds me of a Ken Brown 2004 pinot tasted in SB. Theres' something too sweet about it, brown sugar and pumpkin pie... However, in the mouth flavors are irresistable. Black berry and bing cherry, tobaco and cola and clove. Soft and round. Finish is leather, vanilla, smoke and more fruit. Flavors are a lot like '04 Seasmoke Ten. Aromatically the wine's a little disjointed, but mostly a pleasure to drink. The more it opens up, the more pronounced the pumpkin pie element, which is a negative. At $25, this is awfully good.
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10/15/2006 - Mahan wrote: 89 Points
Very good pinot for the money.
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10/11/2006 - hutch wrote: 88 Points
Bright cherry, pinot nose. Really good acidity, lovely fruit, and low tannins make this a very enjoyable pinot right now. This has a fairly light body. It's a a very drinkable pinot, very clean, if a but simple. Nevertheless, it's a great deal, as not many pinot's I drink at this price offer such a nice experience. 87-89
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9/29/2006 - rmodak wrote: 90 Points
Vanillla, raspberry, clove. lush and fruit forward with good acid.
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9/27/2006 - SacredCow wrote: 89 Points
Consistent with prior notes.
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9/22/2006 - SacredCow wrote: 89 Points
A tiny step down from earlier in the year. Still a lot of cherry, with some raspberry and strawberry in the mix, maybe a touch of licorice. Creamy with a little spice and earth on the end. Still very nice, just not quite as fruit forward as earlier in the year. Still a great value.
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9/9/2006 - rmodak wrote: 91 Points
How delicious! Great young Pinot with firm raspberry, clove, great mouthfeel and firm acidity.
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8/29/2006 - sbwino wrote: 92 Points
Excellent refined pinot noir. Beautifully balanced with great acidity and rich mouth filling fruit.
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8/26/2006 - bstump wrote: 86 Points
Ruby in color. Rich bouquet with notes of black cherry and strawberry that draws you into the wine. The front end of the tasts mirrors the the nose with strawberry and rasberry. A bit overly sweet but quite enjoyable. The finish was suprising short and bit to soft to me reducing my rating of this wine.
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8/26/2006 - win wrote: 86 Points
Requisite ripe red raspberry aromas. Seemed very young, fairly tannic, and very sweet with somewhat of a medicinal quality that detracted a bit and made it seem slightly unbalanced. This wine will probably improve over time. 84-87
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8/9/2006 - collin wrote:
Originally nice, with good fruit. But after open for a while, there was way too much oak on the nose and palate. Pop and pour and don't let it open up too much...
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8/5/2006 - SacredCow wrote: 87 Points
A tiny step down from other bottles before and after. On the nose, cherries, strawberry and oak, maybe a floral note in the background. On the palate, strawberries dominate, with some vanilla creaminess and some spice on the modest finish. The finish dropped off a bit too quickly to rate this as high as other bottles I have had. Maybe it got shaken up too much after a two hour drive to the mountains. Two bottles tasted this weekend, both were consistent, so I am leaning towards that as a possible explanation.
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6/29/2006 - DanSm wrote: 90 Points
I picked up a bottle of this wine on a recommendation. I was curious whether paying an extra $5 (top $15 pinot stepping up to $20) would make a discernable difference. The answer is, "Yes." I'm comparing this bottle with Rodney Strong's 2004 Russian River Pinot Noir. Rodney's wine is one of the best in the $15 category. The nose on this wine was immediately pleasant. The nose is inviting! Strawberry with rasberry notes and no alcohol bite, which is present in Russian River PN for $30 or more. There is some spice on the finish. This is going well with Smoked Salmon, Insalata Caprese, and a bagette. This is certainly an end-of-the-week treat. Enjoy!
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6/25/2006 - Hoya Vinophile wrote: 91 Points
Seemed typical of the Sonoma Coast AVA. Ripe black cherries that turned into cola on the finish. Some spice on the finish, but not hot at all. Beautiful garnet color. Need to get some more of this.
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5/16/2006 - 1800kidney wrote: 90 Points
Classy pinot, not too hot and crisp fruity balance. Nice finish. Good value; has the soft rounded finish that I associate with Sonoma Coast
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4/27/2006 - SacredCow wrote: 90 Points
Highly enjoyable once again. Very little bottle variation in the eight bottles I have had so far.
The most recent is beginning to show more strawberry notes to accent the cherry flavor. Nothing complex, but showing very well with pure fruit and a bit of earth on the medium finish. Not a long ager, but three more to enjoy this summer.
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4/10/2006 - sol wrote: 88 Points
Very pleasant with grilled salmon with soy maple glaze. Easy drinking, fruity nose, clean solid finish.
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4/6/2006 - GreenDrazi wrote: 90 Points
The quality of this wine surpirises me everytime I drink it. Strawberry texture. Consistent with previous notes.
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3/17/2006 - Nutty08 wrote: 91 Points
The first bottle of Pinot I really enjoyed. Thin nose with fruity overtones. A velvety meaty palate with oak background with medium to long tannins. Sitting on another bottle to have later this year.
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11/2/2005 - GreenDrazi wrote: 90 Points
Decanted ½ hr. Nose of spice, red fruit and cranberry. Bright flavors of dark cherry and cranberry with a clove spice backbone. Medium to light body with a good smooth texture and a consistent palate, this has reasonable depth for it’s price. Well balanced and highly recommended.
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10/8/2005 - pinotwinelover wrote: 88 Points
Nice burgundian style pinot that was well integrated.
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