WTN: 2000 Brogan Cellars Pinot Noir

[Brad Ballinger]

2000 Brogan Cellars Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley. As I was bringing the Yukon River King Salmon to the table last night, planning on drinking water, I asked my wife, “Should we have some pinot noir with this?” She thought it was a great idea, which isn’t always the response to my suggestion of opening a bottle of wine for a weeknight dinner. The color of this wine was brick red. The nose showed raspberry, black cherry, a boatload of cola, some cinnamon, vanilla, and wood. Flavors of plums, vanilla coke, and allspice. Not much happening in the acidity department, the tannins were soft, and the wine had a tough time cutting through the oil in the fish. Actually, it just sort of laid there, then apologetically disappeared quickly on the finish. Not much complexity in the wine, and I’m not sure it will develop any. It may have been more interesting upon release, but it just seemed like a wine that was in the middle of breaking down.