2017 La Crema Pinot Noir Fog Veil

Community Tasting Notes (13) Avg Score: 91.8 points

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  12/19/2023 - sfwinelover1 Likes this wine: 92 Points

  One off ($29.99) from online wine discounter #4 about a year and a half ago. On the nose and palate, medium+ note of red cherries, pomegranates, rhubarb, red currants, plums, ground, sweet and piquant spice, red licorice, cola and sassafras. Medium garnet, medium bodied medium to thick legs. Lively acidity, light tannins, no heat, tasting 100 bp lower than stated 14.5% abv. VG complexity, persistence and intensity. Short note here, as I return to the land of vin ordinaire. I’ve often stated that the overwhelming majority of my CA pinot choices, regardless of whether I pay $25 or $100, land in the 90-92/3 range, and this is bang on in the middle. This bottling, which I’m having for the first time (other than perhaps tasting at the tasting room, many moons back), comes from a producer I cop to kinda liking, monstrous sized production (at least of the non-SVD cuvees) aside. The key for my CA pinot preferences is at least as much about avoiding what I don’t like—mostly, an overtly sweet, confected quality—than what I do, and while this does have mild notes of baking spice, often the culprit, it has a nice savoriness/salinity and even a bit of underlying spiciness which keeps this on a good path. Pretty much good to go off the pour, this is holding well into night #3, indicating both a good drinking window and some more years of longevity at somewhere around this level. Quite nice freshness made this a good match both for seared salmon one night and a broiled pork chop another. While this wine, these days, falls closer to the bottom than the top, both in terms of quality and price, it’s something I can still really enjoy as the proverbial weekday wine, and wish that this was more the kind of thing my non-winey friends brought over (albeit at what I paid, which is at or above the high end of what they’d pay) rather than what usually comes (and ends up in the Cruset or saucepan). I just picked up my first Aubert pinots, but outside of the occasional better Rhys, my search for transcendent CA pinots continues. CT bang on. 91-92

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  11/23/2022 - wino121 wrote: 91 Points

  Simple PNP, this is certainly a crowd pleaser, no food needed here,
  Ripe subtle fruit, fairly straightforward front to finish Pinot.
  Drink now…2024-6

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  7/14/2022 - quaffnov Likes this wine: 91 Points

  Hour decant, very cherry and earth on the nose, with a little cola going on as well. The palate is well balanced, with the right amount of acidity to accentuate the fruit.

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  6/30/2021 - snarfglk Likes this wine: 91 Points

  very nice over two days

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  6/17/2021 - grdnbrrtt wrote:

  Salmon:

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View all 13 Community Tasting Notes

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