Trader Joe's $4 Emma Pearl Pinot Noir returns!

Famous Last words: I was at a Hillary Fund Raiser this week and they were pouring it.

"There is too much fruit and too much alcohol to be an old school Pinot Noir, but the Emma Pearl does drink well. At 5 bottles for $20, the Emma Pearl would make an outrageously good party wine, if you have a wedding or a reunion coming and want to impress on the cheap, it is hard to do better. When TJ’s sells out of the Emma Pearl Pinot, it is gone for good, it will not be available at this price again"

Clever Girl Reviews by Erin
 http://instagram.com/clevergirlreviews

 "I don’t drink a lot of red wine in the summer, but we’ve had some dips in the normal temperatures enough for me to start craving it again. The Emma Pearl 2013 Pinot Noir is light bodied and a nice easy wine for a BBQ or simple dishes. At first I thought the wine was off like it had gotten too hot and turned vinegary. Turns out it was just a little to chilled and it got deeper and plusher once it warmed up some.

The Emma Pearl 2013 Pinot Noir  is 14.5% ABV so you might want to reserve this one for the weekend. We chilled this wine down to 55 degrees, but it showed better slightly warmer. We used standard red wine glasses for tasting and our trusty Vinturi to make sure it was ready to drink right away. When I opened the bottle I got a massive note of chocolate and raspberry. The wine is a dark violet with a light red brick rim."

 Full Review at this link:
http://www.cheapwinefinder.com/25846/emma-pearl-pinot-noir-2013/


Tasting Notes
Name: Emma Pearl
Vintage: 2014
Varietal: Pinot Noir
Region: California
A red wine. Clear and bright with medium intensity. Deep ruby color at the core graduating evenly to crimson at the margins (translucent at the core). Very long legs, which is in line with the 14.5% alcohol listed on the bottle.
On the nose: Clean and no issues. When I opened the bottle, poured and smelled straight away the first thing that hits is the alcohol, almost to the point of being over bearing. It is a medium (-) intensity wine . Cherry with a hint of raspberry and cranberry. Definitely appears young on the nose and lacks some complexity. Some hint of clove and minerality. Smells a little like rain on cement. I also get a little orange peel – like something bitter (almost like smelling the remnants of your glass of Cointreau the next day).
On the palate: Dry. Lively cherry/strawberry with a hint of smoke. Some oak coming through but not overbearing. Medium to Medium (+) tannin levels and and medium (+) alcohol, which detracts from the smoothness usually associated with a lot of Pinots. Medium (-) body and and medium to medium (-) intensity. It lacks balance – a quick blast of fruit but then lacks depth. Short to medium (-) on the finish, although, I do get a little (and I mean a little) licorice/aniseed.
Overall observations: reasonably drinkable. Has a good amount of fruit up front. I would probably pair this wine with pork or something with a fairly high fat content. Would work fairly well with charcuterie. I think it is reasonable, given the price but $4.00 would be pushing the outer limits of this wine.

The time has come to buy the Smoking Loon Pinot Noir 2012 at its lowest price and greatest favor at your local store...

Smoking Loon Pinot Noir 2012: Affordable Wine at its best age that is Good for You!

  At $8 a bottle at my local Tom Thumb in Dallas, Texas: This is a real wine value for Texas Democratic gatherings this month....

I liked the Cheapskate Wine Review of this wine...

      "Smoking Loon, it appears, is sort of the Kevin Bacon of the wine world-you know-the game where you can get from anyone to Kevin Bacon in less than five moves. Looking into the family tree of the Smoking Loon brand, it quickly becomes apparent that, in moving up from the roots of the tree, the trunk twists and divides and vees, and the branches go out in many directions. Smoking Loon is the sibling, or half-brother, or cousin of lots of other labels. Its produced by Don Sebastiani and Sons, which also makes Pepperwood Grove, and The Crusher, which I’ve seen on shelves, and a few others I’ve not seen. The company came to be when Samuele Sebastiani, who emigrated from Tuscany to the U.S. in the late 1800′s made his way to Sonoma and started a winery making mostly bulk wine. In the 1940′s, they focused on their own name brand affordable wines. In the 1980′s, with patriarch Samuele’s grandson Don, a former California assemblyman, now at the helm, they grew into an eight million case annual behemoth through a partnership called Cecchetti-Sebastiani Cellar. That companie’s labels include Vendange, Nathanson Creek, and others, plus the Turner Road Winery. All that was sold off to what it is now Constellation, and Sebastiani again became a family owned and run winery in Sonoma. Strangely, the Sebastiani label on wines I see on Store shelves, is not part of Don Sebastiani and Sons, but is owned by Foley Family wines. Their portfolio of around 10 labels, Don and Sons lineup of around 8 names, the Turner Road names, plus their adoptive Constellation cousins make this a nearly infinite spider web of connections. Like Kevin Bacon."

   "Ok, ok., the wine….lighter in color than some, more transparent-typical of Pinot Noir. Reddish, not deep, dark violet. Also light on the tongue. Not without any tannin, but no astringency or bite. Fruity. A wine cliché, which I try like Anthrax to avoid, is “fruit-forward” but that’s the words that come to mind here. Berries. A little spiciness. Very enjoyable. Certain foods scream for Pinot Noir-Salmon, Turkey, the other white meat, grilled tuna. The Smoking Loon makes an excellent candidate. And you can connect it to Kevin Bacon in five steps."  READ MORE REVIEWS of affordable wines at Cheapskates Wine Review: http://cheapskateswineguide.wordpress.com/