SOLD OUT! I am constantly hunting for really good Pinot Noir in the lower price ranges, usually with little or no success. It’s a hard grape to grow, as it demands special and expensive sites, and most of the “$15ish Pinots” I try just don’t do it for me.
Then one day my buddy Jody Allen from Small Vineyards Imports came by raving about this Pinot Noir from Macedonia. Macedonia? Really? Mark my words, this is the best under $20 bottle of Pinot Noir I’ve tasted this year. Jody, I’m sorry I ever even thought about questioning your aptitude for wine!
2012 Macedon Pinot Noir
Super tasty Pinot from the unlikeliest of places!
SOLD OUT
So back to that Macedonian thing and why this is so darned good. This wine hails from the Tikves region of Macedonia, which shares its latitude with Burgundy and the Russian River Valley. Add to that the fact that this spot sits at the confluence of two weather fronts – from the Aral Mountains and the Aegean Sea – which produce an almost constant drying wind and very little rainfall, and you have an ideal spot to grow Pinot Noir.
It gets even better though. Who’s looking for vineyard land in this part of the world? Not many folks, so the cost of land is a fraction of what it would cost someone in California, Oregon or France. This allows the winery to cut yields and get really intensely flavored, nicely developed fruit.
So what’s it taste like? I’d say it’s got one foot in Oregon’s Willamette Valley and the other in Burgundy. There’s a fresh and juicy character to the cherry, strawberry and cranberry fruit, but there’s also that savory, umami, forest floor, mushroom thing going on.
In a nutshell, this is classic, elegant, complex and pretty Pinot Noir at a marvelous price! With fall almost upon us, I can think of no other wine in my store that I’d rather be enjoying with a roast chicken and root vegetables than this one. There’s not a ton of this stuff left, so my advice to you would be to come and get it!
Josh Spurling
Owner, Operator, Wine Monger
Table Wine Asheville