Good Morning Gentle Readers,
This New Zealand screwtop Pinot is pushing the sailing image as much as the wine:
New Zealand: It's all about blue skies and sunshine, the great outdoors, fun, and adventure. And racing like the wind on the edge of a sailboat.
Like most cleverly labeled, cutsey wines hawking an image, something is typically papered over. In this case, Spectator parted with an 88, which is a bit generous. Yeah, you may think that my inherent bias against screwtops is coloring my opinions. Not so.
The winemaker has this to say:
Silky elegant fruit flavors of ripe plums, cherries, and raspberries are balanced with earthy characters and delicate smoky oak on the palate.
At $10.00 to $15.00 US, this wine is over priced. However, since Sideways, a movie that could have easily been terrible but wasn't, catapulted Pinot Noir into the lexicon and pushed Merlot into semi-obscurity, all Pinot Noirs are overpriced.
Ooops. I'm a markets guy, can't say that. I'll let Robin Garr say it instead.
But the wine business is also a volatile free market; and the ongoing Pinot craze is having some effects that shouldn't really have been that hard to anticipate: Increasing demand for quality Pinot Noir grapes is driving up prices at the vineyard, and that translates to higher prices at the retail store.
More and more, we're seeing the rule of thumb that has long been true of Burgundy coming to pass in all the world's Pinot-producing regions: The good wines aren't cheap, and the cheap wines aren't good.
The wine gets better with a little air, you may want to decant it first. A little leather and barnyard on the nose. Medium bodied with red fruits and an almost-carbonated Lambrusco thing going on at mid palate that isn't necessarily unpleasant. You could do this wine slightly chilled for a picnic and it goes perfectly with pizza or pasta. Not for laying down, drink it now.
Overall , TWC was less than thrilled but temper that with the knowledge that I prefer a big Cabernet to all other wines and take it from there.
BTW, finishing off the evening with a glass of 2004 Benziger Cabernet. Ahhhh.
UPDATE: Got a couple of emails noting my vagaries and wondering if I'd buy the Jibe Pinot again. Not sure that I would. There are simply too many better wines for less money.
UPDATE: Had a half glass with a slice of pizza for lunch (come on, it's Saturday) and I was truly surprised at how much better it is after sitting open on the counter overnight. This wine definitely needs to be decanted and allowed to breathe.
As Ever,
The Wine Commonsewer
