Pinot Noir Taste Off – Episode #221

April 20, 2007

Wines tasted in this episode:

Gary Vaynerchuk and four different wines made from the Pinot Noir grape.

Having trouble seeing this video? Click here for the Quicktime version

168 Responses

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April 20, 2007

3dvw
QOTD: I loved the first hour it was fun. The second half made me really mad.

Love pinot but not to into most california pinot too high alcohol.
April 20, 2007

Tom N., Soo, ON
Nice Video Gary,
My favorite variety and my tastes go from burgundy to big CA pinots so you could call me an equal opportunity drinker. Black pepper! How unusual for pinot! I usually get that from syrahs.

QOTD: I liked Sideways a lot. I was a pinotphile before the movie so it only deepened my interest. A bit perturbed by the price increases perhaps, but since my tastes and Miles are similar I could identify with his palate preferences.
April 20, 2007

Matt the Lurker
QOTD – Talk about changing the wine world… Sideways and 2 Buck Chuck changed the industry nearly overnight. Loved the movie, but what it did for me was got me to rediscover merlot. I’ll drink pinot 10 years from now when everyone is calling it a has been fad.
April 20, 2007

Scott S.
Hi Gary, been a while for me to comment so here your go. Have been a Pinot Noir fan so many years I can’t remember when I experienced the first bottle. You know ” The Holy Grail” is truly Pinot Noir no matter what Davinci Code suggest. When a Pinot vintage is good it is as we all know “Liquid silk”. When a vintage is off the stuff is un-drinkable. This is the true pleasure of this most difficult grape. Vineyard manager and Wine makers hate it and love it. So do I.

QOTD: As for Sideways, excellent movie, but it put the spot light on a very complex and refined wine that obviously hammered the QPR but may have introduces people who otherwise may not have tried it. Not drinking much anymore to expensive. Spening much my time with Spanish red, QPR!. Please tell there is not a movie in the works. Last, enjoy Chicago, eat and Charlie Trotters!
April 20, 2007

Jim in Atlanta
I am very mad at Sideways because I have loved pinot for quite a while. But it was a good movie. Thanks for talking about pinot again, and including Anderson valley. I like to visit Anderson valley and especially enjoy wines from Navarro. Keep up the good work!!
April 20, 2007

KenP
A bit of background: http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/interviewpages/0,,1403395,00.html
April 20, 2007

Edward Hafer
Fantastic Show!

QOTD: Sideways pushed the prices of pinot up, but other wine (merlot) are now better QPRs. In addition, some very dedicated people who developed pinot noir viniculture in the United States were justly rewarded.
April 20, 2007

CC_HTown
Another great show, G.

QOTD: I know its embarassing, but my wife and I just watched Sideways a month ago. We really liked it. I am not mad at the movie. Times change, fads change, and so the story goes.

For your next episode, try and spike your hair up a tad with some pommade. Lose the snowski ramp on the top of your forehead.
April 20, 2007

JonE
QOTD: You’re so totally right Gary! Who would’ve thought Sandra Oh would have landed such a sweet role on Grey’s Anatomy, while Paul Giamatti has been almost completely forgot about. So right G-Man, there’s no justice in the world.
But in all truth if domestic Pinot prices hadn’t sored, those of us who were already fans of Pinot would still be bitching about the price of grand crus, Grivot, Roumier and the like. The only difference now is that we have something to complain about more close to home.
April 20, 2007

JustinL
I’m very happy that you liked the Anderson Valley Pinot the best. That’s a seriously underrated region for Pinot Noir (and wine in general).

QOTD: not mad at Sideways. I AM mad at all of these wine posers who have flocked to Pinot Noir because of an insufferable wine snob like Miles.
April 20, 2007

Dave-from-Katonah
Gary – can u do an entire show on just Burgundy?? I can’t recall a single one you’ve liked…surely there must be 3 or 4??
April 20, 2007

dave from Osaka (thunderball)
QOTD: Mad at a movie? Hell no. I imagine that any ‘negative’ effects that may have come from that movie are the fault of the people who watched it and let themselves be swayed…I thought it was a great show.
April 20, 2007

Badger Ann
QOTD: Sideways didn’t affect my opinion of Pinot Noir or Merlot one way or the other. I do like Pinot Noir, and this is one wine where I will pay attention to ratings, as I have had erratic luck with finding bottles that I enjoy. I’ve never really been a Merlot fan, except when used for blending.

The movie was good, but the two main characters were pretty pathetic. I took more than a little satisfaction in watching Sandra Oh beat Thomas Hayden Church to a pulp with here motorcycle helmet!
April 20, 2007

Dave-from-Katonah
GV-another great ep. I knew you wouldn’t leave us without an ep.

Sorry I’m late tonight, I was playing my first round of golf for the year.
Nuthing left to do but taste some wine – I know, maybe a Pinot Noir would be nice after I finish this Gravity Hills Zin…

QOTD – I have already forgiven Sideways many times over. I do not appreciate the price hike in PN, but Patty Green PN is seriously delicious PN and then there’s always NZ PN…

Have a great trip to ChiTown. Don’t forget to get some good deep dish pizza, and some garlicky pickles and kielbossa!
April 20, 2007

dublin
WOW, I feel as though my suggestion comment a few weeks ago came through. I loved the show today Gary and I’m jealous you’re in Shytown without me, love that town. It’s my kind of…sorry Frank had to do it. Pinot baby, can’t get enough of it. Just wish I could afford the ‘really’ good ones, like Sea Smoke 10 or Kistler, or the grand daddy Marcassin. But I make do with the moderate one’s, get a stinker here and there but then I get surprised by a $24 one just the same so it evens out.
QOTD: Personally I think Sideways is a pretty funny movie. Now did it inflate Pinot prices and crash the Merlot market, probably some yes, but I think that wine in general has been on the rise in the U.S. and that we would have seen this inflation regardless. I just loved the fact that Miles slammed Merlot the whole movie and in the end drank the worlds best Merlot. Wonder if that was done on purpose, inside joke, or the script writer really didn’t know his wine?
Cheers, time to open a Siduri Pinot.
April 20, 2007

GeneV
Great episode and great QOTD. I love the movie Sideways, but I do hate what it has done to Pinot. I am now having to abandon winery lists because their prices are now out the the league I can drink often.

The difference between the first and second wines sounds very much like the difference in the two vintages from my tasting. 2004 is the big fruit year, and 2005 is the Burgundian year.
April 20, 2007

mas
I didn’t even know Australia made Pinot – I know they make everything, but that must be the first one I saw …

QOTD: Loved Sideways – esp. that scene tasting at Sanford – Gary, ever taste wine chewing gum?!? And I’m sure that Cheval Blanc tasted like sweaty socks, given where he was storing it …
April 20, 2007

Dom
Wowwww, great show featuring my fav varietal. It doesn’t get any better than a good pinot noir. And since I belong to the Oregon Pinot Noir Club, I assumed you would like the Chehalem.

QOTD: I loved pinot noir before Sideways and knew a good thing when I had it and after the movie all I could say was “told ya so.” Plus, it gave me an opportunity to take the Sideways tour last fall. Santa Barbara, now there’s a nice place to live.

TGIF

Have fun in Chitown.
April 20, 2007

JHollo77
Yeah, Chehalem! Just had that the other night and loved it… Oregon pinots are awesome.

QOTD: Loved it. No anger whatsover.

I’m glad someone corrected you on the Ory-gone pronunciation… Those of us in Or-i-gun appreciate it.

Loved the McD reference… Have fun in Chicago!
April 20, 2007

hossgeek
Harley Stan gets it. Sideways with a little bit of movie and a lot of us changed the wine world, didn’t it.
April 20, 2007

WINO
PLEASE CALL YOUR WIFE!!!!!!

QOTD- Not mad at Sideways. Liked the movie and the Pinot Noirs that I normally buy (Farallon and Cartlidge & Brown) have not really gone up in price.
April 20, 2007

Harley Stan
Since there is no couch today, I will take one for the team and flop on the couch and drink wine for the evening.
QOTD- I have mixed feelings on the movie, I was not really into wine until I saw it. Now, I am drinking one to two bottles a week sittinig in front of a computer monitor everyday wearing a wrist band. Actually, I enjoyed the movie because it introduced me to a whole new world, I have been trying everything not just pinot.
April 20, 2007

flavasauce
QOTD: Loved Sideways! Who cares about the “effect” at least it exposed more people to wine and it was funny as hell!
April 20, 2007

KenP
LPapi #62, the problem is that Cal. merlot is often some of the most awful stuff, imho. I’m glad it got slammed. Be that as it may, be aware that the Cheval Blanc vineyards, in addition to growing cabernet franc, also grow merlot! Perhaps as much as third. I’m not sure of the ‘61 Cheval Blanc Miles drank in the film, but I am fairly confident it contained merlot.
April 20, 2007

aktormedic
For the love of God man…you have to try some Burgundy you LIKE on this show!! QOTD: Sideways was just ok…guess I am not a middle aged single guy, which is what the movie seemed geared towards. I do hate that it has created this price inequity in PN, and encouraged the planting of this wine everywhere, even where it tastes more like Syrah than Pinot, and then charging 50 bucks as the price of admission!!