2009 Blason de Bourgogne Pinot Noir, France

Color – Translucent, brownish red

Nose – Cherry, cranberry, pepper, earth, celery?

Taste – Pinot is not one of my favorite red wines. To be honest, it’s down at the bottom of my red wine list only beat out by Valpoilicella and Zinfandel. It’s not that I don’t like Pinot, I just don’t know that much about it and according to those “in-the-know” it can be hard to find a decent Pinot for under 25 dollars. But I have been slowly sampling Pinot at the sub-10 dollar mark for a few weeks now. What I can say about this wine is that it is very light, both in color and in weight. It has a strange nose (to me) with the earth, cranberry and what I can only describe as celery. And the flavor is quite mild as well. The first thing I notice when I take a sip is that this wine tastes much better served slightly chilled. As it warms the tart fruit flavors can feel overbearing and there seems to be a little too much pucker for me. When it’s chilled the flavors play well together going from sour cherry/cranberry to earth and raspberry and finally some pepper on the finish. I am hard pressed to find any tannins, though there is some nice acidity here that keeps the mid-palate interesting and follows through to the finish. The finish is medium in length and has more cranberry and this is where I can also taste what to me resembles celery (you know that clean, slightly bitter taste that celery has?). The texture and mouthfeel are pleasant but there isn’t a lot of depth or character in either the flavor or texture department.

Overall, I would call this an OK wine given my limited knowledge and experience with the varietal. It is inoffensive and subdued but that is what you want some times. It has a pretty darn good price coming in at 6 bucks at Trader Joe’s. I would advise to use this as an aperitif or maybe chilled with salad or hors d'oeuvres. It’s not going to amaze you, but it won’t let you down either. Simply put this is a pretty decent light red wine with a very humble price tag. All-in-all something that’s right up my alley.

Blason de Bourgogne Wines