{"id":9,"date":"2007-08-02T12:43:39","date_gmt":"2007-08-02T12:43:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kenswineguide.com\/blog\/?p=9"},"modified":"2007-08-02T13:00:48","modified_gmt":"2007-08-02T13:00:48","slug":"alice-white-pulls-off-the-upset-in-pinot-noir-tasting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/?p=9","title":{"rendered":"Alice White Pulls Off The Upset In Pinot Noir Tasting"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AliceThere is a certain football analyst that I am fond of who likes to say “And that is why they play the games.” <\/span>He says that because, just because one team is favored by a lot over another team it doesn’t mean they are always going to win. <\/span>It happens almost every week in the NFL and this month it happened at the KensWineGuide.com tasting panel of Pinot Noir. <\/span>The upset winner was the 2006 Alice White, Pinot Noir from South Eastern Australia<\/strong><\/a>. <\/span>The winning score was an 89.25 which is at the top of our Very Good scale. <\/span>So how did this underdog pull out the victory? <\/span>Consistency!! <\/span>Everyone on the panel except one taster thought the wine was Very Good or better. <\/span>When you throw out the top score and the bottom score, this wine averaged out to be the best. <\/span>It appealed to everyone. <\/span>When the panel found out what it cost, they thought it was a steal. <\/span>So like the old man golfer, who doesn’t hit the ball very far, but he is always down the middle. <\/span>When the scores are all added up, he is usually the winner in the clubhouse because of that consistency. <\/span>The big hitter, sometimes goes in the woods and as a result doesn’t always win.\"2005 The tasting panel reviewed 15 Pinot Noirs and recommended 7 of them. <\/span>You know our upset winner. <\/span>However, for my money the 2 best Pinot Noirs where the 2nd<\/sup> and 3rd<\/sup> place wines. <\/span>So why didn’t they win? <\/span>If the panel was only built of tasters who liked big and structured Pinot Noir, then the Hartford Court “Lands Edge,” $45 <\/strong><\/a>from Sonoma, CA and the 2005 Staete Landt, $23 from New Zealand <\/strong><\/a>would have stolen the show and scored Very Good + or better. <\/span>So why didn’t they achieve such scores? <\/span>They are real big wines, which is not necessarily appealing to everyone. <\/span>They were highly recommended by the panel, but some panel members felt they were a little too big. <\/span>That can happen with Pinot. <\/span>I have found over the years that it is less of a crowd pleasing and appealing wine. <\/span>Tasters tend to have differing and definitive opinions when it comes to Pinot. <\/span>There does not seem to be such a dichotomy with other red grapes. <\/span>Perhaps it is because of the various flavor nuances that Pinot displays. <\/span>In the law of averages, there will be some people that just won’t like some of them. <\/font>This also presents another opportunity to remind readers that the actual number isn’t the most important factor in the KensWineGuide.com scoring system. <\/span>We are building a consensus. <\/span>Whether it is our panel’s score or the accumulation of other professional scores, we believe if 2 or more professionals rate a wine as Very Good or better you are most likely going to be satisfied with the wine. <\/span>The more recommendations the better. <\/span>Will it be Excellent or Very Good? <\/span>That will come down to your individual palate. <\/font>The rest of the results are as follows: <\/font><\/font>The <\/font>2005 Hartford Court “Lands Edge,” $45<\/strong><\/a> came in 2nd place with a solid 89 score. <\/span>I found my review of this wine blind to be consistent with my notes from February when I rated the wine Excellent. <\/span>I rated this wine a 94, but as you can see by the overall score, not everyone necessarily agreed. <\/span>It’s a big Pinot that will appeal to Cabernet and Syrah drinkers. <\/span>It is well balanced, layered, and distinctive. <\/font> <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\"2005The 2005 Staete Landts, $23 <\/strong><\/a>came in third place with a score of 88.88. <\/span>Again, I thought the wine was a (92) or Very Good +, but the panel held back on this wine. <\/span>It is juicy, acidic, and a bit spicy. <\/span>I really liked this wine.<\/font><\/p>\n

Our fourth place finisher was an old standby. <\/span>La Crema has been making consistently good Pinot Noir for a long time. <\/span>The 2005 La Crema, $34 from the Russian\n<\/placetype>River <\/strong><\/a>was a little softer that previous vintages. <\/span>Many panel members would place this food friendly wine on their Thanksgiving table.<\/font><\/p>\n

Recommended wines 5-7 are all value priced Pinots that again have the broad based appeal of the Alice White. <\/span>They are also quite affordable. <\/span>The 2005 J & F Lurton “Les Salices” for $10 <\/strong><\/a>from <\/font>\n<\/place><\/city>Minervois, <\/country-region>France was a very smooth and appealing wine. <\/span>The 2005 Carmel Road Pinot for $16.50 from Monterey, <\/state>CA <\/strong><\/a>would appeal to those that like lower end French Burgundy. <\/span>Finally, the 2006 Robert Mondavi “Private Reserve” for $11<\/a> <\/strong>from California is a round and zesty Pinot that the panel thought would be a satisfying glass pour option at your local pub.<\/font><\/p>\n

In conclusion, if you like more full bodied Pinot Noir, grab the <\/font>Hartford Court and the Staete Landt. <\/span>If you are looking for more of a food friendly and easy drinking Pinot Noir, you can’t go wrong with the Alice White, the Jacques Francis, and the La Crema. <\/span>The bottom line is there is a Pinot for everyone. <\/span>However, you may have to do a bit of experimenting to find the one that is best for you. <\/span>Cheers – Ken<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is a certain football analyst that I am fond of who likes to say “And that is why they play the games.” He says that because, just because one team is favored by a lot over another team it doesn’t mean they are always going to win. It happens almost every week in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kens-wine-guide-tasting-panel","category-pinot-noir"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}