8th Annual Pinot Noir Shootout
&
Summit Results

Pinot Noir Is Meant for Lovers

A supple and sexy wine, Pinot Noir, at its best, is a luxuriously exquisite and elegant wine. Pinot Noir is the ultimate red wine for pairing with food. The celebrated red wines of the French district of Burgundy are Pinot Noir.

Pinot Noir lovers are seldom at a loss for adjectives to describe the flavors and aromas captured in this hauntingly intoxicating wine. Flavors and aromas run the full spectrum of fruit including black cherry, raspberry, cranberry, fresh strawberry, Bing cherry, and blueberry. Often found in the nose of finer offerings are rose petal, cinnamon, vanilla, anise, black pepper, lavender, mushroom, forest floor, and an array of assorted spices.
The aromas and flavors are only the beginning...the mouth feel of good Pinot Noir is often rich and silky if not outright velvety.

Don't expect deep inky colors like you find in Cabernet Sauvignon. The color of Pinot Noir ranges from a light red almost rose to a deep garnet. The flavors are very different, too. Pinot Noir at its best is sexy; elegant, smooth and velvety on the tongue..." satin sheets in a bottle."

Pinot Noir should be delicate with deliciously ripe, concentrated strawberry and/or raspberry flavors and can have barnyard overtones and luscious spices. It is difficult to describe all the flavors and styles of Pinot Noir because there are more than 1000 different clones that produce a wide variety of styles from heavy, jammy, "in your face" wines, to light, delicate but complex wines and all possible combinations in between.

When drinking Pinot Noir, look for elegance. Enjoy the bouquet. The balance and the layers of flavor will envelop you. Let this sexy wine entice your senses! Let the wine caress your tongue! Experience Pinot Noir and you will be seduced!

There are many other wonderful wine varietals but we can't think of any other wine type which captures so many flavors, aromas, and sensations as Pinot Noir.
Part of the enormous growth in the popularity of Pinot Noir can be attributed to its remarkable versatility in being paired with food. Pinot Noir can be paired with fish, lamb, poultry, and some game. For holiday meal pairing, Pinot Noir is the perfect match to roast turkey and the "trimmings".

Producing great Pinot Noir is no easy task for even for the most accomplished of winemakers. No single grape type is more temperamental or difficult to work with than Pinot Noir. Several top winemakers have turned prematurely gray attempting to coax the hidden beauty and potential from this finicky grape.

There is a saying within the wine industry that states there are only two kinds of Pinot Noir; good Pinot Noir and bad Pinot Noir. Fortunately for wine lovers, the choices of good Pinot Noir continue to grow as your experience today will reveal.

Begin an Affair with these great wines tonight!