While my parents were here last week, my De La Montanya club shipment arrived. In the box came an offer to repurchase any of the wines with free shipping! I’m in charge of picking the wine for Christmas dinner, and I thought the deal too good to pass up, so we tried several of the wines to see what we liked for the dinner. Our first pick for reorder is the 2006 De La Montanya Ridgeway Ranch Pinot Noir. It cost me $30.40 in my club shipment, clocked in at 14.2% alcohol by volume, and had a real cork closure.
We all agreed that the wine had an intriguing smoky quality on the nose, which I’m calling sandalwood smoke. I also found cocoa dust, raspberry, slight mint/eucalyptus, red fruit, and cherry. The nose just emanated smoke, I loved it. In the mouth I found tart red cherries, perhaps Bing cherries, red fruit, oak, spice, earth, strawberries, spice, and slight pepper.
Overall, the fruit showed as all red and very tart. We all tasted this wine and thought it would be a real crowd pleaser for Christmas dinner. We’re having beef tenderloin, and I normally wouldn’t pick a Pinot Noir for that, but I really think that everyone will like this wine, and getting something that people will like is more important to me than pairing it exactly with the dinner.
Posted in California, De La Montanya, Pinot Noir, Red, Wine
