Saturday, May 25, 2013

2010 Pierano Estate "The Other," Lodi

Hey, is this thing still on? Anyone out there still reading this blog? I know it's been a while since my last post but I think I'm back. At least I'm back to buying wine. After spending roughly the last five months just drinking wines that I represent in my capacity as co-owner of Amphora Distribution (a small new wine distributor in Kansas), I went out and actually bought a mixed case of someone else's wines. My only criteria were that the wines were all under $15 and that they were all new to me.

Tonight we went to a friend's house for a little pre-Memorial Day cookout. He smoked two pork shoulders and a couple of racks of ribs on his new Traeger pellet smoker. Thinking smoked ribs and Kansas City-style BBQ sauce called for a fruit bomb of sorts, I grabbed the 2010 Pierano Estate Vineyards The Other, Lodi. The wine has a perfectly lovely, clear ruby color; although I was say it stops well short of complete saturation. While the wine is a blend of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Merlot and 10% Syrah, I would say this wine is all about the soft, medium-bodied, plummy aromas and flavors of Merlot. There's a good bit of oak, a trace of nondescript spice and just enough bay leaf to add complexity and spare the wine from the dreaded monolithic descriptor.



Nothing outstanding here, but it did everything I could ask an $11 bottle of California red to do and it was quite nice with the excellent BBQ. The retailer I purchased this from told me his store loaded up on this wine based on the excellent 2010 Pierano Cabernet that they couldn't keep in stock. (But he also told me that the 2011 Pierano Cabernet is a huge disappointment.) I haven't tried anything else from this winery, but if I find a dusty bottle of 2010 still lurking on some retailer's shelf, I'll be sure to pull the trigger.

4 comments:

  1. I love Peirano Estate wines. The Unknown is one that I reach for again & again, & the Cab is really great. I haven't had the '11 yet, but I have my doubts on how much of a disappointment it is. I've been drinking Peirano Cab fairly often for the last 3+ years & have never been disappointed. Admittedly, their Chard isn't my style, & the Other White was a little weird a few years ago, but it's quite nice now.

    One of these days, I'm going to get back on the blog horse. I've just got a ton of crap going on & at the end of the day, I don't feel like it. Eh.

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  2. Bill, looks like all-kinds of people are still read "this blog", and talking about "pulling the trigger"!
    Claire, I love the expression: "get back on the blog horse"!
    I've not seen Peirano wines anywhere about these parts, but the label is enticing;-/

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  3. I hate to disappoint you, Dennis, but the other labels aren't quite that sexy. The wines, however, are really great, especially if you consider the price.

    Rumor has it that Lodi got its name from the founder of Peirano Estate's horse. The winery is one of the oldest - if not the oldest - in Lodi.

    I'm also a big fan of Immortal Zin.

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  4. Thanks for all the additional info, Claire. I've seen the Immortal Zin all over, but I had no idea it was another Peirano wine. There's another new distributor here, Ad Astra, who started about a year ago. They have these Pierano wines case-stacked in every retailer in town.

    And thanks for sticking with me, guys!

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