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Monday, October 23, 2006

2005 Cycles Gladiator Pinot Noir


I’ve heard that a decent Pinot Noir cannot be purchased for under $15. The A-Z Winery Pinot we reviewed a while back was excellent under that pricepoint....so I decided to go a bit further and pick up this $8 bottle.

Cherries and some spice on the nose.

This needed an hour or so to open up, A bit of cherries, berries, plums, spice, and oak on the palate...all are subtle, none overwhelm. This starts with a harsh alcoholic burn that fades away with time in the glass.

Overall...well, it’s not that bad, but it’s also not great. A decent table wine, appropriate for a day to day wine, some nice complexity and acid, but there is a harsh bite that makes it tough to flat out recommend. My other complaint is that I like my Pinot Noirs to have at least some earth and this has just about none. It’s okay, at $8 you can certainly do worse.

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