sean brendan

This week’s wine is an A to Z Pinot Noir 2005, which we had tonight at Shamiana’s in Kirkland. The food was fantastic, by the way, but thats another post, and I’ll let my wife write about the food.

According to A to Z: Clear and vibrant, this wine has a beautiful dark color and aromas of mixed berries, earth, smoke, violets, Asian spices and minerals. In the mouth, the wine mirrors the aromatics with a succulent texture and good acidity. As the finish unfolds, the individual characteristics of the wine unify and augment one another. Beautifully balanced between richness and power, the wine possesses amazing depth and purity. Classically proportioned while being built with long term potential, the concentrated 2005 A to Z Pinot Noir will be perhaps the longest lived wine we have made.

According to Sean O’Connor: Once again, the story behind the wine is more interesting than the tasting notes.  Not only did I find out that the Spurs coach - Gregg Popovich is a partner in the venture, but also that they are now the largest, by volume produced, winery in Oregon.  I also read that they recently purchased an Oregon favorite of my own - Rex Hill. It’s also most interesting to note that most of their wines are blends from sometimes as many as 40 different wines. From A to Z’s website:

“Even now as we more and more are sourcing grapes as well as wine, we still build our blends to craft balanced wines that aim to be the essence of Oregon rather than reflect a specific single vineyard or A to Z style.”

All that said, I enjoyed this young pinot but found it a little more tart that I would have liked. As the wine had time to open up a little bit on the table it really mellowed out and was able to stand up to the rather spicy, and excellent Indian food.  I’ll be buying this again.