Picton Bay South Island Pinot Noir – Trader Joe’s Top Picks Wine #6

BULK BUY!

Pinot Noir from Marlborough and Nelson, South Island, New Zealand.

Available exclusively at Trader Joe’s. Purchased for $7.99.

From the bottle:

“This wine is made from grapes grown in Marlborough and Nelson. Picton Bay Pinot Noir is fresh with delicious red fruit flavours, enticing aromas and a smooth, fine texture. Drink now or cellar until 2016.

13.5% Alcohol”

In our opinion there’s way too much over-priced Pinot Noir out there. Unfortunately, inexpensive and easy drinking bottles are hard to come by so when we find them we like to call them out in a series we call Pinot Noir For The 99. And today’s pick from Trader Joe’s fits the bill perfectly.

The 2013 Picton Bay South Island Pinot Noir begins with pleasant aromas of black and red cherry, spice, licorice and strawberry with a hint of earth. Tasting this easy drinking light to medium-bodied wine reveals similar flavors of red and black cherry, a nice bit of spice and some cola notes. We love New Zealand Pinot Noir because of the fantastic value (just check out the #1 ranked wine on our current Top 10 Reds list) and this bottle is half or less of what you would normally pay for a NZ wine of this quality. (Which is in turn less than half of what you’d pay for the same quality from Oregon or California.)

For me where a lot of cheap Pinot Noir falls apart is the lack any well developed spice notes and/or the finish and this wine does well in both categories. At only $8 this is a Bulk Buy! Give it a couple hours decant to experience it at its best.