Freixenet is a pretty big name in the bubbly wine aisle as they are a pretty reliable brand for tasty-yet-affordable sparkling wines.  They are known for their cava, which in simple terms is Spanish sparkling wine made in the traditional champenoise method… yes, there are more specifics to cava, but let’s keep it simple for now.

While Freixenet is best known for their black bottle sparkling wines, my eye was caught by the elegant bottle design of their Elyssia Pinot Noir Brut.  It’s simple, sleek and stylish with a ribbon connecting the neck to the label.  The color of the wine inside this bottle makes this one stand out.  And fortunately, the taste of that wine is also something that stands out.

This sparkler is made of 85% pinot noir and 15% trepat.  Resulting in a tasty sparkling rosé brut.

Tangy raspberry aromas and a touch of yeast give this wine a pleasant and intriguing bouquet.  The palate continues the raspberry theme, but also offers a bit of blackberry and some white pepper.  The bubbles and acidity give the wine a vibrant mouth feel.  It’s quite a harmonious and elegant wine and a bargain at this price.

Wine: Freixenet Elyssia Pinot Noir Brut Cava
Variety: 85% Pinot noir, 15% trepat
Vintage: N/V
Alcohol: 11.5%
Rating: 88
Price: $18.00

Find Freixenet Elyssia Pinot Noir Brut with Snooth

Disclosure: This wine was received as a media sample.

Robert Mondavi was one of the most important pioneers of Californian wine, if not the most important.  He is know for his tremendous contributions to technological advancements and marketing of California wine.  And it’s a shame that this the first time we’ve reviewed a wine bearing his name, although we have reviewed other wines from the Mondavi family.

Although started as a family company, the winery was acquired by Constellation Brands in 2004, where it resides today.  There are a few different brands that bear the Robert Mondavi name and the Robert Mondavi Private Selection brand is a mid-level brand — despite the fact that “private selection” might imply that it’s the best stuff, selected for a private few, lucky consumers.  That’s good marketing!  While it’s not the cheapest wine you can find with the Robert Mondavi name on it, it’s far from the most expensive.

Now while I’m being a little bit snarky about the name, I’m not going to complain about the wine in this bottle.  It smells and tastes like what I expect from an inexpensive, Californian pinot noir — in a good way, I know some folks would say they expect an inexpensive, Californian pinot noir to suck.  But it’s not bad, and for the price it’s a steal!

The nose on this wine is pleasant, with aromas like nutmeg, vanilla, cherry and a subtle frankincense.  At least that’s what comes to mind.  I honestly haven’t smelled actual frankincense in some time, but the wine has a perfume / incense fragrance that made me think of frankincense.

In the mouth it offers tart cherry flavors up front, with some strawberry flavors and spice coming into play on the mid-palate.  The finish is a touch bitter, but not offensively so.  The acidity is good and the tannins are subtle, but sufficient.  All told, this is a decent, although somewhat predictible, pinot noir.

Wine: Robert Mondavi Private Selection
Variety: Pinot Noir
Vintage: 2010
Alcohol: 13.5%
Rating: 86
Price:  $11.00

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Disclosure: This wine was received as a sample.

Carmenet wines are part of the Bronco Wine Company portfolio, one of the biggest producers of bargain-priced wines in the US.  The appellation noted on the bottle is California, meaning the grapes could have come from any part of the state, or multiple parts.  I don’t have a whole lot of story to tell about this wine other than that, so let’s get right to the tasting notes.

This wine has a soft nose, with plum, cola and oak aromas.  And when I say oak aromas, I don’t mean vanilla, coconut, nutmeg or other spicy nuances that oak can impart on a wine.  In this case, I mean it smells like a wet board.  An oak board, to be specific.

The oak is also what stands out on the palate.  I have an acronym I sometimes use in my tasting notes, TMO: Too much oak.  It’s not undrinkable, but it’s very heavily oaked.  There is also plenty of ripe fruit on the palate, offering cherry and plum flavors.  It’s very dry on the finish, where again the oak stands out.  There are some enjoyable flavors in the wine, but it’s just thrown out of balance by… you guessed it, too much oak.

Wine: Carmenet
Variety: Pinot Noir
Vintage: 2009
Alcohol: 12.5%
Rating: 80
Price:  $12.00

Disclosure: This wine was received as a sample.

Today we have a double-header from William Cole, with two of their 2010 pinot noir releases.  Both of these come from the Casablanca Valley, a superb cool-climate region in Chile.

2010 William Cole Albamar Pinot Noir

This wine presents some really intiguing herbal aromatics that I would describe as “stalky”.  Think dried grasses and herbs.  That’s the smell.  It also shows some tree bark, rhubarb and raspberry aromas.  On the down side, the alcohol is a bit strong on the nose.  On the palate, this wine brings rich raspberry and cranberry flavors, along with plenty of spice.  I often say that I enjoy the nose of a wine more than the palate, but in this case it’s the palate that I enjoy the most.  The nose is interesting, but the herbal characteristics are almost overbearing.  But still, this is a fun pinot noir.

Wine: William Cole Albamar
Variety: Pinot Noir
Vintage: 2010
Alcohol: 13.5%
Rating: 84
Price: $13.00

2010 William Cole Columbine Special Reserve Pinot Noir

Last year, we reviewed the 2009 vintage of this wine and it was outstanding.  And while the 2010 is still enjoyable, it’s not quite as good as the 2009.  This is one of those occasions when I’m reminded how much difference a vintage can make.

True to form with other Chilean pinot noir we’ve tasted this year, including the William Cole Albamar, the Columbine Special Reserve pinot noir has some very strong herbal notes on the nose.  In this wine, I would describe those aromas as a cross of tomato leaf and sage.  The nose also offers some raspberry and cherry aromas.  In the mouth, this wine is very approachable with a tasty red berry blend of raspberry, cherry and strawberry flavors.  It has a little bit of spice and mineral on the finish.  While I enjoyed this wine, the herbal fragrances are a bit intense and won’t be everyone’s cup of tea.

Wine: William Cole Columbine Special Reserve
Variety: Pinot Noir
Vintage: 2010
Alcohol: 13.5%
Rating: 85
Price: $15.00

Disclosure: These wines were received as samples.

Fat Monk wines are produced by the Villa San-Juliette Winery in Paso Robles.  You may recall a review we did of the Villa San-Juliette Zinfandel earlier this year, when we shared the background of this winery which is owned by the producers of American Idol.  Fat Monk is their bargain brand, although the prices aren’t too out of control on the Villa San-Juliette wines either.

While the winery is in Paso Robles, the appellation designation on Fat Monk is “Central Coast,” indicating that the grapes are not necessarily from Paso Robles, but they are from the same general area.

The nose is slightly on the tight side, but it still has plenty of good stuff to offer.  Baking spice aromas, like nutmeg and allspice, give this wine some real character and those spices are layered over the cherry and raspberry aromatics that you might expect from a California pinot.  The palate is brimming with ripe fruit flavors, like strawberry and cherry.  It gives a touch of spice in the mid-palate too.  And the finish is surprisingly long, although a touch bitter.

Overall, I’m impressed for $15.  The bad news is that they didn’t produce a lot of this wine.  In fact, they’re already sold out on their website.  But you may get lucky enough to stumble across this in your local wine shop.

Wine: Fat Monk
Variety: Pinot Noir
Vintage: 2009
Alcohol: 14.5%
Rating: 87
Price:  $15.00

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Disclosure: This wine was received as a sample.

Continuing the theme of not-so-cheap wines this week, AND continuing our exploration of pinot noir tonight we’re revisiting a brand we love, X Winery.  I know, it doesn’t sound too impartial when I introduce them as a brand we love.  But we love them because they seem to be pretty darn consistent at producing tasty wines.

Unfortunately though, they’re making an appearance here during our not-so-cheap week.  Meaning that this wine retails for over $20 a bottle.  So while we love X Winery, we’d love them even more if they could bring the price of this pinot noir down just a touch.  And it is just a touch, as it’s not way, way, way over our typical price limit.  There may even be a chance you’d find this on sale for $20, if you’re really lucky.

Now for all my griping about price, it’s understandable why this isn’t a $10 bargain bottle.  The grapes in this wine come from Truchard Vineyard in the Carneros AVA in Napa Valley.  That’s some premium vineyard land.  And quite frankly, the quality is a step above most of the less expensive pinot noir I’ve tasted.

Vanilla aromas jump from the glass and tickle your nose with this wine.  You’ll also find cherry cola, plum and a slight floral fragrance.  The palate is absolutely smooth, offering an exceptionally nice mouth feel.  Rich plum and cherry flavors on the front of the palate make this wine very approachable and a touch of spice on the finish makes it interesting.  Admittedly, it’s not the most exotic pinot noir, but it’s very tasty.

Wine: X Winery Carneros – Napa Valley Truchard Vineyard Pinot Noir
Variety: Pinot Noir
Vintage: 2009
Alcohol: 145%
Rating: 91
Price:  $26.99

Find X Winery Carneros – Napa Valley Truchard Vineyard Pinot Noir with Snooth

Disclosure: This wine was received as a sample.

OK, so we’ve been posting some reviews for bargain-priced merlot lately but how can we really know how these are measuring up if we don’t taste some higher-end pinot noir?  Well, I’m not going to taste any really high-end pinots, but I’ve gotten a couple that are over our typical $20 price limit.  And rather than let them go to waste, why not taste them?

In fact, let’s make it a full week of not-so-cheap wine ratings.  I’ll review a couple pinot noirs that are over $20 and David has a couple pricey merlots to review.  But don’t worry, we’ll get back to the cheap stuff after this week.

The wine I’m reviewing today is from Hahn Family Wines and their SLH Estate, which stands for Santa Lucia Highlands.  This is a cool climate wine region where the vines are planted on the southeast facing terraces of the Santa Lucia mountains, overlooking the Salinas River Valley.  As a cool climate region, it’s particularly good for pinot noir and chardonnay.

Hahn has four different vineyards within this appellation, totaling 650 acres.  These vineyards range in elevation from 200 – 1,200 feet.  And the wine they’re producing from it is nothing short of impressive.

Some people hate this descriptor, but I find the nose of this wine to be nice and round.  By that, I mean the opposite of sharp.  With some wines, the aromas hit you in one spot and have a sharp feel to them as you smell them, but this wine has a soft feel to the aromas.  One that gently hits your nasal passages.  I guess you could call it “smooth.”  The aromas are ripe plum, cherry, tree sap and a little bit of nutmeg.

The palate also has a smooth aspect to it, with a really pleasant mouthfeel and flavors that spread across your whole tongue.  It has flavors of blackberry, black cherry, cola and bacon fat.  The finish is exceptionally long and brimming with mouth-watering plum flavors. This is a really, really nice wine.

Wine: Hahn SLH Estate Pinot Noir
Variety: Pinot Noir
Vintage: 2009
Alcohol: 14.5%
Rating: 93
Price:  $35.00

Find Concannon Central Coast Pinot Noir with Snooth

Disclosure: This wine was received as a sample.

One of the things I like about Irony, the wine producer that is, is that their approach to business is to not spend money on lavish estates and such but they keep their expenses focused on the production of the wine.  The result is good value for us, the consumers.

For a couple years I’ve heard some chatter about Irony pinot noir and what a great value, but until this year I hadn’t taken the time to taste it for myself.  But I’m glad that I finally did.  They actually have two pinot noirs, this one from Monterey County and another from the Russian River Valley, which I have not tasted.

The nose on this wine is nice, with cherry and floral aromas, plus a touch of mushroom giving it an earthy quality.  The palate is filled with rich cherry and strawberry flavors.  The acidity is sufficient and the tannins give a pleasant texture to the mouth feel, although I wouldn’t call this wine “velvety.”  It has a nice, tart spark to it on the mid palate.  The one downfall of this wine is that the finish falls off.  There’s just not much there.  But still, it’s a very drinkable and tasty pinot noir.

Wine: Irony Monterey County
Variety: Pinot Noir
Vintage: 2009
Alcohol: 113.5%
Rating: 86
Price:  $12.00

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Want another opinion?  Here’s what other’s thought of the 2009 Irony Monterey County Pinot Noir:

• Unwind Wine
• Norm’s Tasting Notes

Disclosure: This wine was received as a sample.

When one thinks of wine from New Zealand, sauvignon blanc is typically the first wine that comes to mind.  I’ll raise my hand and say that I too am guilty of ignoring New Zealand wines, other than sauvignon blanc.  But there’s no reason for this.  They produce plenty of other great wines.  But I guess the sauvignon blanc is just so tasty that it overshadows the others.  Well, I have to tell you, if I keep tasting pinot noir like this out of New Zealand the sauvignon blanc will be the one in the shadows.

The Stoneleigh pinot noir comes from vineyards in the northern side of the Wairau valley in the Marlborough wine region of New Zealand.  The area where this wine is produced is covered with smooth stones, which the producers call “sunstones.”  These stones reflect the sun’s heat onto the grapes, which is said to help ripening.

The wine was matured in French barriques, which add a nice spicy characteristic to the wine.

I really dig this pinot noir.  The nose is beautiful, with a lot of spice which I would describe as a combination of nutmeg and rose petals.  It also has plenty of cherry and rasperry on the nose.  The palate is really nice too, with plenty of cherry and raspberry flavors, a bit of spice, good acidity and a nice mouth feel.  But best of all this wine has drikability, which is arguably the most important quality for a wine to have.

Wine: Stoneleigh
Variety: Pinot Noir
Vintage: 2009
Alcohol: 14%
Rating: 87
Price:  $15.00

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Want another opinion?  Here’s what some other folks thought of the 2009 Stoneleigh pinot noir:

• Beau’s Barrel Room
• Craig’s Grape Adventure
• The Wine Marquis
• UnScrewed

Disclosure: This wine was received as a sample.

When I review European wines, I often find myself telling a story of several generations within a family carrying on a tradition of winemaking.  But it’s not often that I have the same story to tell about an American wine producer.  Concannon Vineyard, however, is one American producer with a long history.  The vineyard was first planted and the winery built way back in 1883 and the family is now into their fourth generation of winemaking.

It’s also one of those brands that I think of as being somewhere between the ultra-cheap and premium.  But it’s not much more expensive than the ultra-cheap, with a suggested retail price of $10.  And while it’s not exactly sex in a glass, for the price it’s not a bad wine.

This pinot noir is spicy on the nose with nutmeg, cherry and tree bark aromas.  The palate brings really crisp acidity and a soft-textured mouth feel.  This wine is loaded with fruit flavors like strawberry, cherry and plum.  And while it is fruit-forward, I wouldn’t call it a fruit bomb.  It’s still balanced and structured.  The mid-palate brings a lively burst of strawberry flavors, that just sing.  The finish adds some tea-like tannins to the fruit flavors and is relatively long.  While this is not the most mind-blowing pinot noir I’ve had, it’s a decent bottle of wine for a bargain hunter.

Wine: Concannon Central Coast Pinot Noir
Variety: Pinot Noir
Vintage: 2009
Alcohol: 13.5%
Rating: 85
Price:  $10.00

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Disclosure: This wine was received as a sample.