This impressive Pinot from Oregon’s Willamette Valley is layered with delicious fruit flavors, and it’s so drinkable now you’ll have a hard time cellaring bottles for the future. It’s a bit tight at first, but it opens up beautifully with expressive aromas and flavors of tangy raspberries, black cherries, boysenberries, and plums, beautifully nuanced with notes of minerals, earth, and spice. While it drinks deliciously alone, it’s a natural for salmon, ahi, steak, lamb chops, or risotto with chanterelles. Available at Tastes of the Valleys Pismo Beach, it’s well worth the $36 price tag for this special treat.
This article appears in Mar 15-22, 2012.