A guest brought a 2008 Terrapin Pinot Grigio from Willamette Valley, Oregon, to my Fourth party but it never got opened, so Bob and I had it last night with a cold patio dinner. No prior familiarity with this producer or idea of price. Very pale greenish gold color. We couldn't agree on the faint nose (and we were drinking out of Burg bowls no less, in a smaller glass there'd have been almost no nose at all): Bob thought it smelled like bruised fruit, I thought it very mildly oxidative. Ambiguous fruit on the palate, and a slightly hot finish ends in a sharp note I called "paint store" and Bob refined to turpentine. The bottle claims only 12.8% alcohol but that finish and the big thick legs when I swirled my glass suggest otherwise.
After a first glass, Bob said he couldn't soldier on so we poured the rest on the camellias and opened a 2008 CMS from Hedges Winery in Washington state, another Fourth leftover. Hedges actually makes two CMS quaffers priced at around $10 a bottle that are generally pretty decent stuff. The red is Cab/Merlot/Syrah and the white, what we had, is Chardonnay, Marsanne and Sauvignon Blanc. And indeed it was as expected, very clean, well balanced and flavorful if not especially distinctive (white blends never are, are they), and a reasonable value even if these days there's better competition at this price point.
