Didn't know what to expect: bought these on blind faith direct from the winery, and found a very black, atypically tannic pinot noir. Mark's previous Temperence Hills did not prepare me for this. I bought these for a friend who asked me to add them to my own order and who later got amnesia about that fact (must have tasted one in the meantime!) so I was stuck with them. Disappointed on several fronts, I put them away and forgot about them.
Until last night when I sent the hubby out to the cellar to grab an American pinot noir of his choosing to go with an Asian-themed dinner, and this is what he brought back.
He poured the wine. I sniffed. PINE CONES. I kid you not, pine cones. Like the big ones we used to collect in Yosemite when I was a kid. Pine cones and green pine needles. Then I tasted--ugh, American oak? So we read the label and though it doesn't admit to American oak, the label doesn't entirely rule it out either with "16 months in 36% new French Oak." The piney herb thing prevails on the palate, obliterating the meager fruit which drops out by the end of the bottle anyway. This wine is the dud I didn't think a St. Innocent pinot could ever be. A mistake from the very beginning and largely unpleasant, though strangely it worked with the food and especially well with the fried rice which I'd made out of aged basmati and which otherwise has the unfortunate habit of making any wine it's paired with taste dirty. I'll dump the rest.