It seems like only yesterday that we couldn\u2019t turn around without another higher-end Pinot Noir producer hitting us with some crazy deal on a seriously good bottling at a greatly reduced price.\u00a0 Actually, it wasn\u2019t that long ago that the COVID-19 pandemic closed restaurants and gave producers a sense of urgency in finding homes for their wares.\u00a0 The market is slowly returning to some sense of normalcy now and, in fact, is starting to swing the other way thanks to the California and Oregon wildfires that are beginning to cause serious gaps in the supply chain moving forward.\u00a0 For that reason, labels like this have much greater relevance for those looking for authentic, value-priced Pinot Noir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As we have made the point on many occasions, Pinot Noir is a fussy grape that doesn\u2019t respond well to the kind of increased crop loads it takes to produce at lower price points.\u00a0 To that end, producers and \u2018negociants\u2019 often beef up the \u2018value\u2019 Pinots with other varietals (Syrah, for example) to give the wines deeper color and more punch.\u00a0 The downside is that it often results in the wine losing a bit (or a lot) of its varietal identity.\u00a0 Maybe we\u2019re purists, but when we\u2019re looking for value Pinot, one of the main requirements is that they taste<\/em> like Pinot.\u00a0 Something like that is harder to find than one might think so when we find something that fits the bill, we\u2019re pretty pleased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mignanelli Pinot Noir 50\/50 Grand Appellation 2019<\/a><\/strong> is our latest discovery in this limited category.\u00a0 Their \u2018program\u2019 highlights \u2018all the right stuff.\u00a0 Dry-farming single vineyards, hand harvesting, sustainable farming, native yeasts, whole cluster fermentation and minimal additions are all part of their stated mantra.\u00a0 This is certainly our first experience with this value bottling, with the \u201850\/50\u2019 speaking to the blend of two distinct and respected Pinot Noir appellations, Santa Lucia Highlands and Santa Cruz Mountains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The \u2018marriage\u2019 seems to work well here with the classic macerated strawberry fruit of Santa Cruz playing nicely with the intense cranberry\/cherry fruit and chunky demeanor of the Santa Lucia Highlands.\u00a0 There\u2019s intense Pinot character here and surprising freshness and purity, particularly given the very modest price ($11.98<\/strong>).\u00a0 We hadn\u2019t seen the winery before and, frankly, wonder how they are going to continue this kind of quality\/price performance at this kind of fare given the wildfire-affected market over the next two years.\u00a0 But we are on board for as long as it lasts.\u00a0 Delicious, honest Pinot, super value.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It seems like only yesterday that we couldn\u2019t turn around without another higher-end Pinot Noir producer hitting us with some crazy deal on a seriously good bottling at a greatly reduced price.\u00a0 Actually, it wasn\u2019t that long ago that the COVID-19 pandemic closed restaurants and gave producers a sense of urgency in finding homes for … Continue reading “SOMETHING TASTY AND NEW IN VALUE PINOT NOIR”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[921,12,922,97],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4247"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4247"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4248,"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4247\/revisions\/4248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}