Pinot Noir, Part 2

Pinot Noir: Burgundy

The general consensus is that when people think of Pinot Noir, the first location that comes to mind is Burgundy, France. There are precisely 30 billion different growers, vineyards, appellations, and experts that devote their lives to Pinot Noir. Considering the insane amount of information that is out there covering just Burgundy, let's keep this relatively short and stick to the climate.

Burgundy has the pleasure of dealing with sometimes severe winters, rainy autumns, and hot summers courtesy of a northern continental climate. The soils are generally clayey and limey marl along with a wide variety of slopes be them steep or not... steep... For the sake of being even more vague, they also tend to grow their vines on and around these slopes. Your welcome.

One of the reasons why Burgundy is so well loved for it's Pinot Noir(and chardonnay, but that's not important right now) is because each vineyard can be so different from another in regards to temperature, soil, and topography. Luckily the grape is extremely receptive to such climates and differences, so in the end 1+1 does in fact = 2.


Wine Recommendation

Domaine de Courteillac Dominique Meneret 2005 Grand Vin de Bordeaux $20.99

I could not find any of the winemaker's notes, but from research the general consensus of flavors was: Ripe Fruit, Earthy, Smokey, Leathery, Tobaccoey, Other stuff-y...

Wine-Fitti Opinion: At first taste this was a pretty intense wine. After letting it sit for an hour or so, it really opened up and started showing it's true colors. I paired it with Seared Filet Mignon with a lemon zest/balsamic reduction and horseradish along with wasabi mashed potatoes and this is where the wine really shined. The flavors opened up, the tannins calmed down, and little angels came out of the bottle and kissed us ever so gently on the cheek. This was a lovely wine that I will definitely be purchasing again and keeping on hand for future meals of similar design. I am also pretty sure this wine will get better with age, so for those daring and patient enough to wait, you will be rewarded.