MCBEE'S WINE DIARY: Ice Storms and Pinot Noir

THE MCBEE WINE BLOG DIARY

My mother, Camille McBee, partnered with Bobby G. Smith, Winemaker, in North Texas for over 30 years. Together they worked to develop a National and International name for Texas Wines. In 2009 she passed away too young, but she left behind a Texas Wine Industry that was better because of her dedication and she left a family with a deep rooted love and appreciation for wine and entertaining. This blog serves as a diary of my adventures in wine and as a lasting toast to my mother. -Cheers!

This blog is NOT intended to be the authority on tasting notes, or a professional guide for wine experts; it's simply a place for me to share some of my opinions and findings about wine with my friends and other wine lovers.

I truly hope you will use this blog to help you the next time you are thinking about what to buy at the wine store or deciding what to order at a local restaurant or when you travel to the wine country. ENJOY!

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Ice Storms and Pinot Noir

The entire city is under ice advisory and everyone is hanging indoors and cooking warm dinners. Meredith made a great pasta dish and I chose a 2008 Concannon Pinot Noir Limited Release. This is from the Santa Barbara area. Pinot Noir grows best in cooler, wetter climates closer to the coast. This is why some of the better Pinot are being grown farther North in Washington State and Oregon. You will find a lot of the California Pinot grapes are grown in the the Santa Barbara or San Franssco Valley and some of the better ones in the Carneros District in the lower Napa Valley Region overlooking the Ocean. It is really one of the prettier areas in Napa.

This Pinot Noir has very soft fruit tastes, maybe plum or cherry, and a slight oak aftertaste. It is not to earthy, but has a definite Pinot Noir aroma. 13.5% alcohol and only 450 cases produced. It is alright, and for the money I would say a pretty good value. For $10 more I probably could have been a lot more happy this evening, but who's complaining?