WTN: Point, set, and match to Penner Ash

In honor of the late, great Arthur Ash, the American tennis player, I have a another great match winner to describe.

Sometimes you get lucky . I hurriedly picked out this wine to go with burgers on the grill after a long trip from Waterloo, ON to Sault, ON, not knowing about the beet relish. I just wanted what I thought might be a good barbeque wine.

Ruby red. Intriguing spicy strawberry, cherry nose. Smooth midpalate with cherry and white pepper notes, juicy acidity and solid but smooth tannins. Nice spicy fruit finish. Really nice balance and a great sipper.

With food. Tonight we had local beef hamburgers with homemade beet-horseradish relish. The wine and the beet relish was just this wonderful match that had the spicy and somewhat sweet beet relish bring out the beet root in the wine and surprisingly some meaty undertones - umami. The wine and food were just a wonderful match that was better than just the wine or food alone. I think one of the keys here was the horse radish in the beet relish that seemed to nicely match with the white pepper in the syrah of the wine. Plus, beets and pinot are a natural match. FYI: Not a bad match with the hamburger, but not great either.

Wine: Penner Ash Rubeo 2009, 13.5% abv. According to the winemaker, an irreverent blend of pinot noir and syrah.

[Jenise]

This may be the first time I've seen pinot and syrah blended and admitted to. Couldn't quite tell from your notes, but the name suggests to me that it's what might be called a heavy rose? Probably a saignee? And if so, probably not spending much time on wood? If all that then I understand your liking this so much, but don't presume that having enjoyed this you'd love her pinots. There, she puts wood on the wood.

This may be the first time I've seen pinot and syrah blended and admitted to. Couldn't quite tell from your notes, but the name suggests to me that it's what might be called a heavy rose? Probably a saignee? And if so, probably not spending much time on wood? If all that then I understand your liking this so much, but don't presume that having enjoyed this you'd love her pinots. There, she puts wood on the wood.

Hi Jenise,

I would not call it a rose, but definitely a light red. What I liked about this wine was the spicy quality that the syrah added to it.

I tried her pinot and I really did not like it much. I thought it quite tannic and maybe somewhat out of balance. Here is my tasting note on it:

Willamette valley 2009 pinot noir 14.5% abv $45
Light ruby. Expressive cherry cola nose. Midpalate shows cherries and red fruit, good acidity but fairly tight tannins. Finish is medium with astringent, grippy tannins. This was probably the most tannic pinot in all of my tastings. Obviously, an ager.