New date for Pinot Noir Tasting and changed to some less expensive Pinot Noir

New Date for the virtual Pinot Noir tasting is Wednesday May 11.

I have gotten some feedback that the wine selection originally suggested added up to a significant cost so I have changed it to a selection that is jut a little over $100 total. The approach will be to compare Pinot Noirs in the same price range from the four regions that are the top producers of Pinot Noir wine. We will start with a basic Pinot Noir Table Wine from Oregon and cover some Pinot Noir fundamentals while we sip that wine. We will then move to a California Pinot Noir from the Russian River area, the first of four wines in the $20-30 range so it should be an apples-to-apples comparison. We will then move up the coast to the Oregon Willamette Valley for one of the excellent Pinots they are producing. The next wine will be from New Zealand. For the final wine we will go back to France and taste a Burgundian Pinot Noir.

This is not intended as any kind of blind tasting or contest and we will not be scoring the wines. Each of the four regions has built a strong reputation for excellent Pinot Noir with lots of followers. Trying well regarded wines from each and comparing the tastes should be interesting. I will suggest that you use multiple glasses so you can go back and forth to compare tastes. Depending on how many people are participating I plan to leave some time for participants to provide some thoughts on each of the wines.

The biggest challenge in putting this together was picking just 5 wines to taste. I am sure many of you would have picked some different wines that are at least equally as good as the ones that I selected. I will be providing a list of other Pinot Noirs that I enjoy from each of the four regions and at some different price points while we enjoy the last wine from Burgundy. These recommendations are my opinion only. I am not licensed to sell wine and do not have any agreements with any vineyards to endorse their products. The goal is an enjoyable and educational evening.

The only cost to you is going out and purchasing the wines for the tasting. Details on the tasting and the specific wines, including suggested source, are below.

• Castle Rock Willamette Valley Pinot Noir – $12-15. Castle Rock makes a number of Pinot Noir wines – be sure to get the one from Willamette Valley. Out of stock at Wine.com at the time of this writing but usually carried so check their web site. Total Wine carries this wine for $15 and you can have them ship it to you from their web site. Calvert Woodley in DC has it for $13. You can have it shipped to you from Saratogawine.com at a price of $12, http://www.saratofawine.com/Castle-Rock-Pinot-Noir-Willamette-Valley-2020-750ml.html.

• Raeburn Pinot Noir from California – $24. Available from Total Wine for $25 and from wine.com for $26, http://www.wine.com/product/raeburn-pinot-noir-2020/799068.
• Willamette Valley Vineyards (WVV) Estate Pinot Noir from Oregon – $28-30. Available from the WVV web site for $28.50 and from wine.com for $30, http://www.wine.com/product/willamette-valley-vineyards-estate-pinot-noir-2019/745009.
• Mud House Central Otago Pinot Noir from New Zealand – $18-20. Available from Total Wine for $18 and from wine.com for $20, http://www.wine.com/product/mud-house-central-otago-pinot-noir-2019/719933.
• Bouchard Pere & Fils Reserve Bourgogne Pinot Noir – $23. Available from wine.com on sale marked down from $28 to $23, http://www.wine.com/product/bouchard-pere-and-fils-reserve-bourgogne-pinot-noir-2019/712067.

If you are interested in joining this virtual tasting, please email me so I can send you the Zoom calendar invite.  If you don’t have my email address, you can reach me at  bill@billwinetravelfood.com.  If you would like more information on this or have a question, please respond in Comments and I will get back to you.  It would be interesting to know the number of people that you are planning on having at your location so I can assess the total level of interest if you want to include that in your email to me.