Wine – 2004 Casa Viva Pinot Noir
Sean’s been on a Pinot roll of late, so I thought I’d add to the mix with one that can only be described as surprising.
We first tasted this one during out WSET II course and all but two of the twenty-four in the room picked this one over a $60 Domain Drouhin Pinot in a blind tasting. This is one of those wines that temporarily makes you questions your palate for a second before jumping up and rushing to the store to buy all they have.
Plain and simple, this is a delicious glass of wine with absolutely astonishing value. The first swirl is full of ripe cherry and strawberry with a bit of green stalk. As soon as it hits your tongue, you get more cherry, some earth minerality and great light acidity and toasty pepper through the finish. In general this wine is nicely balanced straightforward and just darn tasty.
Get past the rather purple sparkly 80′s styling on the label and the fact that Chile isn’t a Pinot grower of renown and grab some of this. Summer beckons.
$13.56 at local liquor stores (imagine this would be $5-$6 in the US)
