Nose – Strawberry, raspberry, cut grass, celery
Taste – I went into this tasting with an open mind mostly because I’d never sipped Pinot Noir previously, I am quite glad I decided to pick up this bottle as it was a very nice wine though different than anything I’ve tried up to this point. The initial sip has interesting flavors, beginning with raspberry, sour cherry, and chocolate. I know chocolate is a little bit strange, and it’s not small hints of chocolate, but quite a decent taste of chocolate right before the mid-palate. The mid-palate itself is characterized by minimal heat and tannins, what alcohol there is manifests more in the form of pinprick tingles and the tannins show up more towards the finish. The finish itself is medium in length and features more raspberry flavors as well as what I can only describe as “spicy fruit”, something like peppered cherries. The spicy flavor isn’t overwhelming just a tinge of pepper towards the end of the mid-palate. This wine is good, but not superb. As I have never tasted Pinot Noir before I reviewed this solely based on what I like and dislike in any wine. This wine makes the grade but isn’t something I am going nuts about, It’s a good wine for 8 dollars with consistent flavor and depth.
Overall, I would say this wine has a good QPR. It’s nothing fantastic or groundbreaking. You aren’t going to taste a tidal wave of flavors or find a lot of complexity here. It’s rather straight forward in its flavor transitions and while the flavors themselves are strange to me they seem to fit the wine. The rather muted tannins and alcohol do well here as the wine is light-to-medium in body and would not do well with large tannins or an overabundance of alcohol. I wouldn’t go out of my way to purchase this wine if I was looking for something light but would probably find a slightly more expensive Pinot Noir, something to judge this against. It’s a decent wine, not bad, just a solid middle-of-the-pack red wine.
Anakena Wines
