I opened a 2005 Cloudy Bay Pinot Noir from New Zealand last night to enjoy a glass each of before and with dinner, and we both found it too acidic to enjoy alone. Bob also complained that it was slightly vegetal. We've had two other bottles of this wine in the past several years and neither of us remember it this way. Fruit fade? Not sure, but we returned the wine to the bottle for another night, just in case it turns around.
It's replacement was a 2005 Chalone pinot from California, a winery once-venerable to pinotheads (my mentor was a big fan, and he had the largest collection of DRC I've ever seen) but which, since the late 90's has failed to impress me whenever I've had it. So much so that I wouldn't even have it now, but for a large lot of wine won in a fundraising auction for the local university football team. Anyway, the wine was quite dark, a riper and more extracted style than the Chalones of old, with dense black cherry fruit, cola and Chinese cinnamon. Drink now or better yet a year ago: lower than average acidity and a clipped, muddy ending to the finish signals the downhill descent.