2006 Panther Creek Cellars Shea Vineyard Pinot Noir - When I saw this at the store I thought it would be interesting to taste Panther Creek's take on this vineyard's Pinot Noir, comparing it to the St Innocent version. Since I'd had a multi-vineyard cuvee from Panther Creek before, I was expecting a typical Oregon Pinot. That's not what I got.
The first clue was the aroma - I could detect a bit of the underlying stop-bath acidity I get from most Pinots, but it was muted in favor of bramble fruit mixed with hazel nuts. It tasted more like a monster zinfandel (although a bit thin for zin), along with a post palate heat that exceeded the 14.3% abv noted on the bottle. It completely overpowered the pork stew I'd prepared for dinner.
Two nights later it had settled down enough to match ok to a char-grilled burger, but it still wasn't very Pinot-like and was still rather hot. I won't be be buying this again. If I'm called by a Panther, I won't anther.
