The nose on the wine was powerful, with aromas of peat, bourbon, smoke and burnt caramel, but as the wine sat and opened up, eucalyptus and cherry notes were to be found. Tasting the wine initially I was floored as it had a very strong mushroom flavour and a lot of heat. I hate mushrooms and this was not a flavour I was looking for. The lack of fruit and strong mushroom actually caused me to question this wine as to whether it was off or not and I opened a 2010 Catena Malbec as I didn’t feel like drinking this pinot. I opened the wine before starting the lamb and then something amazing happened, when I sat down for dinner 30 minutes later the Pinot’s flavour had changed and now had a nice cherry/strawberry flavour to it and it actually turned out to be a decent pairing with the lamb. The finish on the wine however still came across as harsh and kept this wine from being something truly special.
Here is the group rating for the wine - Mick – 86, Mark – 86, Kathy – 84, Amy – 82, Overall – 85.5.
I have had the Rex Hill Pinot Noir on the rack for a while and there is no LCBO listing for the current Rex Hill vintage. A quick web search put this wine at $18 US so probably the LCBO price would be $30-35. This wasn’t a wine I was enamored with so not really heartbroken that there isn’t any at the LCBO.
The lamb was very good but I probably over-grilled it by 2 minutes or so as it was a little past the medium rare that I was aiming for. That said no one had any left on their plates so it couldn’t have been too bad.
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