Inexpensive Pinot Noir Transcript
Written By: Anonymous on Mon, Nov 27th 2006
Brian Freedman:Welcome to the Weekly Wine Showdown, brought to you by Classicwines.com. I am Brian Freedman. Today we are tasting inexpensive Pinot Noir. So, the question of course is this; is inexpensive Pinot Noir the same thing as cheap Pinot Noir? Pinot is a tough grade for 00:16, it's a tough grade for 00:21 and that translates to higher cost for you and me. But we know today, both 2005, both 00:27, which means that it is from the southern part of France, not going too much into the geography, the 0:31 are generally overlooking the Mediterranean 0:34. So the question is, can these two wines, there is 00:39 $10 actually give us something that makes us want to go back to them.
So, our first one here, this is the Georges Duboeuf -- be 00:48 Pinot Noir 2005; this one cost me $9.99, absolutely very cheap for a Pinot. Smells like wild strawberries, like those little ones that you get in Farmers Market, but I am not getting all of that earthiness that you tend to get in Pinot Noir. In Pinot, you want to look for things that smell a little bit like the barnyard -- I don't know if you hangout though that much, not so pleasant. It's going to smell like damp onions 01:12 and mushrooms. Something occasionally almost animal to it and as much as 1:19 heading in that direction, and I am not smelling that here, which is concerning me. Let's give it a taste.
Well, 1:36 and nose like, I am getting all that _city from the strawberry fruit in there, which is good; we want good acidity in Pinot Noir. And I am getting something sort of like rose petals and violets, but that's about it. None of that earth that I like -- and good Pinot has a balance between fruit and flowers and barnyard and earth; and this one just seems kind of one dimensional to me; it's not bad, but it is the kind of Pinot that I'd normally rather pay towards.
Wine number two, this one costs $7.99, this is a Barton & Guestier Bistro wine, Pinot Noir. $7.99 is absolutely dirt cheap; this one is also from 2005, but we are concerned about this one just because of the price - I mean, it's a factor, right? So, if you just 2:23 smell. See now, this is a lot more interesting to me. Slightly different from 2:30, this one - I am smelling red and dark berries. I am smelling something heading in the direction of mushroom; this is a lot more interesting than the George Dubose. Let's see what happens.
You know what, that is not a bad little bottle of wine. Is it a great Pinot? No. Is it going to be like any of the other stuff from Burgundy or Sonoma and the Russian River Valley? Not at all; but for $7.99, you get a pizza with some pepperoni or some sausage on it, get yourself a cheese 03:14 Philadelphia, doesn't matter, have this with your breadless pastry. For this price, it's getting us the 3:20 Pinot character, but it is sort of a 3:24 that we have for this kind of wine, but the price can't beat it.
Winner of this week's Smackdown or Showdown -- I think it's Showdown, is the Barton & Guestier Pinot Noir 2005 Bistro wine hands down.
Well, for Classicwines.com and the Weekly Wines Showdown, I am Brian Freedman, and no matter what you pay for your wines, don't get bent out of shape because at the end of the day it's just grape juice. Cheers!
