January 8, 2007

2001 Sadler-Wells Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast

Sometimes I feel like I am becoming Paul Giamatti's character in the movie Sideways. There IS something about pinot noir and it makes me insane. I love Burgundy, I love the Willamette Valley, and I love Sonoma and the Russian River Valley. All of these areas can produce really excellent wines that are so totally different from each other... but distinctly pinot noir. Good times.

Anyway, scored this wine on sale and had never had it before. I had never heard of it before, either, so I was excited to try it. Both Cat and I thought the nose was really interesting. I picked up some subtle sulfur, in a good way, and you can read into that whatever the hell you want. Cat got kind of a soapy scent. The wine was restrained with little fruit. It was dry, and finished quickly but I thought it had a pretty cool cinnamon quality to the finish. You know how cinnamon makes the back and sides of your tongue react? This wine did the same thing. It is a great wine with food and we had it with one of my impromptu curry's this evening, and it held up quite well. I served the curry with beef knowingly breaking all Hindu tradition. We are not Hindu. The beef was from a farm owned by friends of the family and was organic and grass-fed. More on that later in a different post.

cost - $22.00 on sale from $29.99

served with - mixed vegetable chick pea curry with beef

winecommando rating (1-10) - 8.5

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