My good mate, Easto, came over for a barbecue at the weekend and brought a bottle he had stored for too many years (or so he thought).
Having recently bought into my two fundamental theories of life:
a) that wine should be drunk at the right temperature; and
b) that your best wine should be drunk and not left in your will,
he suggested I give this a quick blast in the fridge and get on with firing up the coals.
I’ve been all over this big wide world and I’ve tried all kinds of Pinot Noir, but I never get bored of trying a new one. I am going to learn about a new grape soon, but I will always drink PNs whenever I see an interesting one.
I discovered very late in my virtual journey that Oregon is an excellent source of this varietal.  Lemelson Six Vineyards Oregon Pinot Noir 2005 came from the Wine Society (£12.50).
I smelt plums and wet cardboard, but the taste turned out to be more cherry. A decent wine, but not spectacular value. I would save up a few more groats and go for the glorious Thea’s Selection (from the same Vineyard and equally available in the UK from the Wine Society at about £19.)
The death of Robert Mondavi, in May of this year, caused a wine world reaction akin to the British mourning the death of Princess Diana, the 11th anniversary of which is today.
Credited with transforming the Californian wine industry, I wonder what this “colossus” of the wine world would have been like to meet.
I had a mad dream that I walked into Costco in Leeds and Mondavi was a guest wine guy for a day. Admittedly this is a bizarre dream since I have never seen any sort of wine guy at the Leeds branch. I hear tell of such wondrous myth in the stores of our transatlantic cousins, but here in the UK, Costco wine shoppers are left to their own devices.
There was quite a reaction to my criticism of Costco recently.
Whilst I stand by my slight lack of confidence in Costco’s wine buyers, this does not stop me buying a few bottles every now and again, especially when I see something interesting. This Oregon Pinot Noir, at £9.39, stared at me longingly, “I’m only a tenner” it whispered flirtatiously. “You look bloody lovely!” I replied a decent number of decibels to the wrong side of audibility.  But a few queer glances from bemused fat folk do not deter me. I picked the bottle up and took it home, reasoning that a US owned store ought to know a bit about US wine.
My world tour of Pinot Noirs was starting to look a bit like the baseball world series in reverse. In other words I had covered almost every territory except the US. I even likened Pinot Noir to a French actress (Brigitte Bardot – sexy, flirtatious, but unreliable, and a little bonkers) and insulted American actress, Barbra Streisand who I compared to a Chenin Blanc hmmmm….
As I stand here touching my toes, humbly awaiting transatlantic cyber-flagellation, I offer, in my defence, a review of a PN from about the most famous of US sources – Oregon.
I’ve been a bit healthier than usual recently. Walking up mountains in Switzerland; exercising on my cross trainer at home; eating lots of fresh fruit; cutting down on fried food; and even eating Bran Flakes.
I used to think that Bran Flakes were disgusting but, like a lot of things in life, you grow into them as you get older. Olives, oysters, snails, mustard and Armagnac were all off my list until at least my thirties but now I love them, (not sure I will ever pick up a taste for anchovies though).
You may recall the last time I tried a Zinfandel, it was awful.
So I wonder if Zin is one of the things I will grow into after a number of tastings?
“Original all American wine!”. “Pride of California!”. “Bold and not for the faint hearted…”. “What are you doing lurking around my website?”
Encouraged by various American correspondents, I promised to try a Californian Zinfandel. I had only stopped at Sainsbury’s Supermarket for 568ml of milk (remember pints?) but where there’s a wine stand, there’s a wino.
Apart from the ubiquitous Gallo, the only “Zin” I could find was Ravenswood Lodi 2004 Old Vines Zinfandel. At £8.49 it is one of the most expensive wines at this supermarket but I figured it had to be worth the extra.
Ah! Well a day! What evil looks
Had I from old and young!
Instead of the cross, the Albatross
About my neck was hung.
If you are a regular reader you will recall my previous disappointments with wines from Costco. The Costco philosophy is to stack it really high and sell it really cheap, but, and here’s the thing, they stick to one brand per similar item (to maximise buying power) and generally make it an upmarket quality product. When you translate that to wine you typically get good name wines in bad years.
 
Raymond Burr was considered by some to be a TV genius. Robert T. Ironside was super-attorney, Perry Mason’s succesor (in his acting career). Personally I much preferred cigar slugging Columbo.
Talking of American trash, I’ve had to add a new category for this post which shows how much wine I drink from the world’s only remaining super-power. I have had bad experiences of US wine in the past, perhaps based on the cheap end of the Gallo range, so I didn’t have high hopes from this one:
Ironstone Vineyards 2004 Chardonnay/Viognier from California retails at about £7 a bottle. Surely £6 of that must be shipping costs and £1 duty (or is that vice versa) so exactly how much is spent on the wine?
I was astounded by the quality. Uncle Sam, I apologise, even if you are bald (and especially if you are listening in via spyware or remote listening device). A gorgeous smell of gooseberries led to flavours of pear slices in yoghurt. Fresh fruit salad and natural yoghurt is such a great breakfast starter (as long as it’s followed by bacon and poached eggs). Much superior to taking a cyanide pill.
Stumble It!