Another excellent eminently drinkable Pinot Noir.. Man, do I like me some Pinot, Sideways’ annoying commentary notwithstanding. It’s apparently a very tough grape to grow. Takes care, attention, the right soil, drainage, sun, moon, wind, rain. Too much or too little of anything and the year’s crop is down the drain, spat freely by tasters who can’t be bothered to drink the stuff. The two-buck-chuck guys buy it all up for a song and add sugar and make a decent, but not that great wine. Or else it turns into airline wine.

I don’t really care, though: If I can get a good bottle of wine for ten bucks, I figure I’m all set.

I’m in Atlanta for work. The trip might be a waste of time, but I get to see my friend Em. She pulls this wine out and tells me it’s 8 bucks at Kroger. Kroger is Safeway Peachtreeland. Her roommate Sudesh asked why we always talk about wine by price, not grape or region or whatever. What could we say? We’re cheap bastards and we like to drink wine. You can drink twice as much 10 dollar wine as you can 20 dollar wine, with the added bonus that it’s like going on a quest.

That’s why I do it, after all: The quest. I want to find the perfect ten dollar wine to suck down to my heart’s content. I think I may be at this for a while.

I think I had earlier incarnation a couple of years ago from Trader Joe’s. You still might be able to get it there, I’m honestly not really sure. I did visit this Kroger place, and it was there for $7.99. And they had an empty spot on the shelf which said “Pepperwood Grove Syrah, $6.59.” If there’s one thing I like more than a tasty Pinot for 8 bucks, it’s a decent Syrah for under 7.

I’m a cheap bastard, after all. Plus, I like Syrah. Stands up to more food. Pinot is a wine for drinking with friends, maybe some light food, but it tends to lose out when it starts to battle strong flavors in your mouth. At least the ones I buy do. Just a little bit, mind you. It’s still enchanting and delicious and all fermented grape juicy.

It goes down smooth-like It has some legs, but not a whole lot of legs. It smells a little thin, and when you get it in your mouth, you just swish it around a little before you swallow it and then reach for the glass again. It might be a little thin, a danger that Pinot Noir dances with. That’s OK. You’ll still want to drink it down until you run out of wine and throw your friends out and fall in bed with your lover. It has hardly any tannins at all which strikes me as odd, however, it means that you can feel just fine about cracking this 2004 wine open right now and drinking it down. It might develop a little bit in the bottle, but it’s really ready to suck down right now. I may try to lay in a few bottles for drinking later, but what’ll happen is that Katawin will come over and then we’ll just drink it down.

This might be the best value I’ve had in Pinot Noir in quite some time. Either that, or else I should start writing the reviews before I’m at the end of the bottle. I dunno. At eight dollars and easy to drink, you’re not going to go wrong.