Soter Pinot Noir, Mineral Springs Vineyard 2007 for Thanksgiving

On Thanksgiving, with many aspects of the meal set by tradition, the exciting decision for us is the wine selection.

It's not often you have the opportunity to ask the winemaker from one of your favorite vineyards to personally select the wine for a special meal.

 

Soter winemaker, James Cahill with Ed

Thanks to Brix on Broad, we met winemaker James Cahill from Soter Vineyards, discussed our menu, and had him select the Soter Pinot Noir that would best complement our food.

He felt that his 2006 Soter Pinot Noir, Mineral Springs Vineyard would go well with the braised turkey recipe we described. (In fact, he liked the idea of this flavor profile so much, he was going to consider the recipe for his own turkey.)

At the Brix tasting, we'd already decided to buy a bottle of the Mineral Springs, but James' recommendation helped us place it with the right meal. It's a superb wine.

Here are Soter's tasting notes for this selection:
"As the second offering from the Mineral Springs estate, this wine offers an impressive combination of power and purity. Its ruby-red hue previews a nose of wild strawberry and cranberry while the palate shows bing cherry, red plum, clove and sandalwood with an undercurrent of black fruits reminiscent of marionberry and crushed blackberry. Layer upon layer of depth and complexity are revealed in a velvety texture and lingering finish. The wine tells the story of the vintage as well as the vineyard, delivering a core of varietally correct Pinot Noir fruit characteristics coupled with a unique personality that can only come from Mineral Spring"

More of our favorite Pinots after our daily Amazon selection.

Here's the wine glass we'll use to serve this special Pinot.

Other memorable Thanksgiving Pinots have come from the following producers:

Robert Sinskey Vineyards:

http://www.robertsinskey.com/Wines/774/Pinot-Noir

Archery Summit:
http://www.archerysummit.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=category_detail&category_id_int=16025

Lange Estate Pinot Noir - Dundee Hills 2005
http://www.langewinery.com/

Patricia Green
http://avalonwine.com/Patricia-Green-Cellars.php

These are all special occasion wines. But, we love Pinot so we do have less expensive favorites. Exceptional values from Oregon are the O'Reilly Pinot Noir wines produced by the famed Owen Roe producers.

http://www.owenroe.com/our_wines.htm

Details:

Writers: Penny & Ed Cherubino

Photographs: © 2009 Penny Cherubino