Today we look at a $12 pinot noir from California’s 2008 vintage.
Bottom line: Too much alcohol, not enough pinot. Not recommended.
Folks, if you want a very good and affordable California merlot or cabernet sauvignon, you should know about Murphy-Goode. Their beige label with the dark purple capital letters does not vary from wine to wine, and neither does their compelling, very oaky, bold and very California style. With the exception of their pinot noir, which sticks out like a sore thumb among their reds because “bold and oaky” just doesn’t apply very well to this grape.
This pinot is, yes, a bit oaky, very heavy on the alcohol, and doesn’t have much “pinot noir-ness” to it.
Of course if I went to a party and they were serving Murphy-Goode pinot noir, I wouldn’t turn up my nose at it, but I would probably not be longing for glass after glass, either. You figure, at a party, anything better than Yellow Tail or Barefoot is a bonus. But the problem with Murphy-Goode’s pinot is that dang alcohol. At 13.5% it doesn’t look too bad, but once you taste this dark purple medium-bodied red you will feel like you just inhaled a can of sterno.
OK maybe it’s not that bad, but it is quite “hot” as the wine pros like to say. For my $12, or even less, the Mark West pinot noir has yet to be beat. I am sorry to say that a comparison of today’s wine with Mark West isn’t even a close contest.
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