I hardly ever think about Pinot Noir. If any Pinot has a problem with that, then that thin-skinned little grape can go in the corner and cry about it.
It’s a relief, actually, to not care that much about Pinot Noir. From what I’ve observed, the Pinot bug seems to be an especially virulent strain of the wine bug, and you’re lucky if you never catch it. Confirmed patients can be seen out there buying Burgundy glasses the size of fishbowls and poring over increasingly detailed terrain maps. It is an awful, progressive disease, and probably incurable.
I don’t know whether I have a natural immunity to the Pinot bug, or maybe I inoculated myself by drinking too much Meomi and Sea Sun at airport bars. Maybe I haven’t found the right one yet, the truly infectious Pinot that changes everything.
It’s just that 90% of Pinot Noir seems…kind of wimpy. I don’t crave it in its absence, and most of the time I forget that it even exists.
Enter Row 503 from the Willamette Valley in Oregon. This is a bottle that’s unlikely to change your mind if you’re Pinot-indifferent like me.
But it’s pretty good. I’d drink it again.
Pale to medium with raspberry, vanilla, red plum, red cherry. Soda-fountain aromas of strawberry soda and cola or root beer, with a dash of oregano and cinnamon.
Flavors are youthful and fruit-driven led by strawberry. High acid, light-ish body, medium tannins. Nothing really earthy or leafy about it. The palate is very similar to the nose and overall dry, but with a candylike, herbal note that I decide is sarsparilla. The finish is tidy and sequential. Red berry, vanilla, herbs, and smoke–all discretely, and all in that order. Overall, an approachable by-the-glass type of wine, with abundant fruit balanced by fresh acidity.
The Row 503 Pinot Noir was a blind tasting bottle purchased by Sarah. It had the most obvious typicity of any of the reds she’s thrown at me so far and therefore was the easiest to call. (That’s right, I knew it was Pinot Noir in the glass–I just didn’t care.)
Bottle: Row 503 Pinot Noir (2022)
Variety: Pinot Noir (100%)
ABV: 13.5%
Suggested retail: $22.99
My rating: 7.9 (out of 10)
Review disclosure: I was not compensated or provided any free products for this review. Opinions expressed on The Wine Fairy blog are entirely my own.
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