The William Wright Monterey Pinot Noir 2020 is a $9.99 Aldi wine sourced from estate vineyards in coastal Monterey County, California. The estate in question is the Scheid Family Vineyards a large sustainably farmed family-owned wine company founded in 1972.
This wine is available in Demark for the equivalent of $18. Scheid owns 12 vineyards in the Salinas Valley. The Monterey Bay brings cool Pacific breezes into the valley along with morning fog to give the vines a very favorable climate for Pinot Noir.
The front label of the William Wright Monterey Pinot Noir 2020 is from a Reserve Lot, which does not have a legal definition. It typically refers to lots of grapes that are rated to be of higher quality. The label says the grapes are hand-selected. Modern grape sorting equipment can mechanically sort the grapes, hand sorting is the old-school method and it shows extra care was used in the production of this Pinot Noir.
The grapes were not crushed but placed whole into small batch in open-top fermentation tanks. OPen-top tanks help regulate the temperature of fermentation. The grape clusters are transformed into grape must (juice, skins, seeds, stems, etc.) and then yeast is added and fermentation starts.
The William Wright Monterey Pinot Noir 2020 is then racked (removing most of the dead yeast and grape bits) and aged on French oak for 12 months. I see the word “on” used in aging wine with oak instead of “in’ oak barrels. I do not know if on and in are interchangeable or if on French oak refers to aging wine with a method other than barrel aging.
The vineyard selection and the production methods seem to be a cut above the typical ten-buck Pinot Noir. The alcohol content is 13.5%.
The William Wright Monterey Pinot Noir 2020 Tasting Notes
The color is a see-thru garnet red with a hint of plum. The nose is cherry, spice, vanilla, herbs, dried strawberry bits, mushroom, and plum, an excellent California Pinot Noir aroma. The William Wright Monterey Pinot Noir 2020 has a rounded smooth mouthfeel with excellent old-school funky-cool Pinot flavors.
This Pinot Noir tastes like sour cherry, licorice, sharp spice, black pepper, and cranberry. The mid-palate offers juicy raspberry, light herbs, a different hit of slightly rough-edged spice, vanilla, and strawberry. The tannins are light and a little chewy and the acidity is well-balanced.
The Summary
- The William Wright Monterey Pinot Noir 2020 is a lot of Pinot Noir for $9.99.
- This is a ten-buck Pinot that is worthy of your Thanksgiving table.
