Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Mirassou 2007 Pinot Noir (California)

Some 8.99 wines are gold while others are lead ... tonight I seem to have spun pure gold in my mouth with this wine. I picked this one up in Michigan two weeks ago and lugged it across the border home with me. I had read about it in Wine Access magazine, it was a winner in their Value Wine Awards competition. Sadly we can't seem to get it here in Ontario, and if we could it would be way more than the $8.99 I paid for it. On Sunday I had an $8.99 wine that underwhelmed; tonight's totally over delivers. Now I realize that one is a Cab and this is a Pinot - but the Cab did not come thru with what I was expecting from a Cali-Cab, while this wine has totally come thru with more than what I expected. The nose is full of red fruit, and I figured I was in for one of those typically jammy California Pinots, the kind that delivers lots of fruit with little finesse; but it the mouth it surprised the heck out of me, delivering big fruit while showing a nice touch of earthiness, minerality and restraint of big jammy fruit. It finished dry and had my palate begging for another sip. Absolutely delicious - I see why this was a winner, it sure is a winner in my books; both for flavour and value.

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