I shared with my friend, Luis Montoto from Wine41 here in Miami, that I was tasting Pinot Noir wines. “It’s our theme for March,” I told him. He asked me if I had ever tasted any South American Pinot Noir wines. If you’ve been following me, you know this Pinot Noir thing is a recent thing for me and I’m open. I speak Spanish so I can do this.
Luis walked over to this Alpataco Pinot Noir for Patagonia and said, “This isn’t the best I’ve had from Argentina, but it’s good.” Even if it’s NOT the best Luis has tasted, him saying, “It’s good,” carries a lot of weight with me.
My wife, daughter Monica and her boyfriend were having dinner last night and it was the perfect time to try. It’s Friday during Lent so we couldn’t eat meat so we settled for Eggplant Parmesan and cheese pizza. (Not really a sacrifice, but we just gotta do this Catholic thing.) This Pinot Luis recommended was a perfect selection.
This one had a fruity, cherry aroma. It smelled really nice, but not too strong that way. It was really smooth and silky like I’ve heard a lot of people describe Pinot Noir. It’s a lighter red and it’s the finish that I like the most. You don’t get a acidic ending. There’s no burn. It’s a dry, fruit filled ending that I really like. And with the red sauce and cheese from the Italian food, it was perfect.
Pull out a Pinot Noir next time you have some Italian and share with me what you think. Does it work for you?