The Love Noir Pinot Noir 2018 is one of the new, bolder styles of Pinot Noir sourced from grapes farmed in several regions of California. This Pinot Noir is one of The Wine Group's families of wines.Love Noir Pinot Noir 2018, as a brand wine, is not tied to a single winery. Brand wines are typically aimed at a certain niche of wine drinkers in terms of style and price. If you are the focus group, they are looking to reach, and you may well have an enjoyable wine at a very nice price.I would say that the Love Noir Pinot Noir 2018 is aimed at folks who helped make Meiomi Pinot Noir a huge success. The new style is bigger, bolder, juicier Pinot Noir.Bigger, bolder, juicier Pinot Noir is fighting words for old-school Pinot Noir aficionados. Traditional Pinot Noir is all about the small details, which grape clones are used, which vineyards in what AVA. Aromas such as crushed fall leaves and mushrooms are priced. Flavors like tea or tar looked for.The new bold Pinot Noir ain't about any of that. They are rich, juicy, and full of flavor, not full of nuance. Me? I really love old-school Pinot Noir, but I also have some love for rich, bold, juicy wines. It is hard to complain that a glass of wine has great flavors.I picked up a bottle of Love Noir Pinot Noir 2018 for one reason. Valentine's Day is coming up, and the Love Noir's two main flavors are black cherry and chocolate. I have absolutely no problem with chocolate-covered cherries, so I wanted to see how well Love Noir pulled off its flavor profile.The Love Noir Pinot Noir 2018 is not the kind of wine with detailed production technical notes, so I do not have much to rely on how the Pinot Noir was made. The tech notes, mostly marketing notes, made me very interested; cherry, chocolate, espresso, toasty vanilla, and spice sound good. Let's hope they pull it off.The last tech notes available on the Love Noir website were for the 2016 vintage, not for the 2018 vintage, we are discussing here. But if the 2016 details remained the same, this is a dry wine, and often juicy wines slide into the off-dry sort of sweet category. The alcohol content is 13.5%.Love Noir Pinot Noir 2018 Tasting NotesThe color is a clear, see-thru garnet red with some black highlights. The nose is black cherry, vanilla, soft spice, light chocolate, and light herbs.This is a medium-plus bodied wine with bold flavors and a generally smooth character. It tastes ripe cherry, coffee, and chocolate (so here is truth in advertising), and vanilla. The mid-palate mirrors the wine's body but adds a sharp stab of orange zest, tart cranberry, and baking spice.The tannins are soft and sweet and the acidity does its job and otherwise stays out of the way.The SummaryThe Love Noir Pinot Noir 2018 Is not the wine I would choose if I wanted to enjoy a California Pinot Noir. But it is a wine I would consider if I wanted a smooth, tasty, rich Red wine. This is not a flavor challenged wine.This wine would do well as a Valentine's Day red wine. It has the word Love in the name, and the flavors would really pair well with a box of chocolates.
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