Stoneleigh Pinot Noir 2006

Marlborough, New Zealand
13% alcohol
$17.99 in Indianapolis
Screw-cap closure

The Little Wooden Guy is not impressed.

Wienmaker's comments:

This wine displays a fragrant bouquet of red berry fruit, coupled with savory spice from ageing the wine in French oak. The palate is soft and supple with lingering fruit sweetness. This is balanced with fine velvety tannins to give the wine depth and structure to mature. - Jamie Marfell, Winemaker

Night One

The nose opens with red fruit, strawberries and cherries. That is followed by the wooden-sweet-spice smell of birch beer, then a bit of caramel.

The palate is just as red, strawberries and cherries again, but a bit more tart than the nose suggested. It was spicy with pepper and cardamom, brightly acidic, and very softly tannic. An hour or two later, as it warmed from the cellar (55 F) to room temperature, vanilla made a powerful appearance.

Night Two

Strawberries, white pepper and a little vanilla on the nose.

Over night it lost a lot of sweetness. Strawberries and cherries are still there, but more like the fruit skins than the fruit itself. It seemed more tannic, again, as if from fruit skins. There is very little to the palate other than that.

On the first night this seemed like an adequate Pinot with a good QPR. The huge drop-off on Nigh Two gives me pause.