Tasting - Stonehedge

Name: Stonehedge

Variety: Pinot Noir

Region: Napa Valley, CA

Country: United States

Year: 2015 

Price:  $17.00

Winery Review: Medium dusty ruby color. Minty aromas and flavors of white chocolate mint fudge, blueberry compote, and menthol mint lozenge with a silky, tangy, fruity medium body and a smooth nuanced, medium-long exotic spices and vanilla nuts finish with well-integrated tannins and light oak. A fun, exotically spicy, juicy pinot.

My Review: Disclaimer #1: I forgot to take a picture of the bottle so the one in the picture is not what I drank. It looks the same except my year was 2015. Disclaimer #2: I didn't read the winery review until I just typed it out. I'm sorry, but this wine sounds ridiculous! White chocolate and menthol? Yuck!

This week's theme was pinots and Stonehedge fulfilled my "red" version. However, I wouldn't really call it a red. It was so light in color it was almost a blush pink. It smelled like cherries and strawberries. It had a very earthy aroma to it as well. Something akin to grass and rose petals. The taste was nothing like it smelled or what the winery review promised. It was very tannic at first and had a cheddar cheese after taste. It had little to no body and didn't really coat my mouth. It was a strange sensation. I tried it with a bit of sharp cheddar to see if it would cancel out the cheese flavor and it only made the wine incredibly sour. After sitting out on the counter for approximately two hours, I tried again. This time is smelled like blackberries and black cherries. It was still pretty sour in taste and STILL had a finish of cheddar cheese. However, it was a lot less tannic. I will admit that I drank this wine and wrote down notes about a week ago. I don't really remember it standing out all that much, so to me, it wasn't that memorable. I probably won't buy this again. I've heard great things about Pinot Noir, but this was a let down. Maybe I'll stumble on a better one next time.