Recommendation: Not Recommended.
Winery/Producer: Meiomi Wines; St. Helena, California.
Grape Variety: Pinot Noir.
Geographic Region, Appellation: 40% Monterey County, 27% Sonoma County and 25% Santa Barbara, California.
Vintage: 2014
Price: $15.97
Purchased From: Total Wine; Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Paired With: Chicken in orange sauce over basmati rice, roasted green beans with almonds, cranberries; kale, romaine and tomato salad with oil and basmatic vinegar dressing.
Tasting:
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He said: Opened 30-minutes before drinking. Slightly opaque, with a dark garnet color and the same color rim. Light, musty red fruit aroma. Fairly heavy mouth-feel although it’s only a medium body. Than we come to the taste…right from the first sip it was smooth and OVERWHELMINGLY sweet, so much so that the fruit flavors get lost. The tannins are almost nonexistent, but the finish actually ends a little tart. Well, we bought this wine for only one reason. After reading Matt Kramer’s July 7, 2015 article “The American Way of Wine” in Wine Spectator that describes the exploding production numbers of Meiomi Pinot Noir, a wine that was developed and marketed to satisfy the growing American demand for sweet wine and the fire-storm of letters that followed, we simply couldn’t resist trying a bottle. And in a nutshell it was sweeter than we thought it would be!!! We have been down this road before (see our post: Blind Tasting: Apothic Red, Ménage à Tros California Red and Cupcake Red Velvet) and we can’t say many good things about this wine either. It is just disappointing and over-priced Pinot Noir…period!!! But, maybe most surprising is the 92 rating Wine Spectator gave this sweet Pinot Noir. There is clearly a segment of the American wine market that likes sweet red wine and Meiomi Pinot Noir meets that specification “in spades”!!! With all that said we don’t recommend Meiomi Pinot Noir.
She said: Opaque, dark garnet red, with lots of the regularly spaced speedy legs. After all the hoopla in Wine Spectator I expected a WOW Pinot Noir and was very disappointed. The aroma was so mild I was not sure it was even there. The flavor was no better, but boasted sweetness to a nauseating degree. The medium body was accompanied by a syrupy sensation as the wine passed over the palate. The finish was fairly long. but had only sweetness to offer. It was way to sweet for the dinner, so I ignored it until I finished and could sip it alone. It fared no better…way to sweet. Perhaps if I had drunk Cokes all my life I would appreciate what this wine had to offer, but I didn’t, so I didn’t find anything about it to recommended. The sweetness is overwhelmingly and at $15.97 it is no bargain. Truthfully, it would only be a bargain at 97 cents, as it would give an alcohol alternative to Coke. It bears no resemblance to any Pinot Noir I have ever had and I am amazed people continue to buy it. I put it in the category of White Zinfandel and don’t recommend it.
Alcohol: 13.7%
UPC Code: 8 55165 00507 6
Imported by: NA
Photo from Wine Spectator.