East Hill Bottle Shop 4 January 2023

Everyone is aware how much the price of just about everything has gone up over the last two years. Yet every now and then you come across a pleasant surprise. The 2018 Farmstead Long Meadow Ranch, Anderson Valley Pinot Noir, from California, was a great surprise. The Pinot Noir grape is hard to grow mostly due to its thin skin. It is finicky and can be susceptible to many kinds of grape diseases. Therefore good Pinot Noirs are usually fairly expensive. To get a “cheap” bottle of Pinot Noir, something less than $40, sometimes involves shortcuts, whether in the vineyard or the barrel. But what if that vineyard has just the right terroir, and the vintner had the right level of skill? The result is a varietally correct Wine of Note, at only $13 a bottle! A nose of spice, light pepper and a mouth of strawberry and light raspberry with no off flavors. Truly a pleasant surprise!