Bread and Butter Pinot Noir 2019

The Bread and Butter Pinot Noir 2019 is sourced from vineyards in California. Their motto is” Good. Honest. Simple. Do not overthink it.” In keeping it simple they do not go into a great deal of detail about the production of this Pinot Noir.

Bread and Butter are one of the WX Brand’s families of wines. They are one of the top 20 largest wine companies in the U.S. They have a full line of wines and the Bread and Butter Pinot Noir 2019 was the largest selling (in its price class) Pinot Noir wines for most of 2020.

This is a wine that I found for around $13 and there is some good completion in this category. You start to find single AVA and sub-AVA wines in this price range.

The Bread and Butter Pinot’s place of origin is simply California and that is not necessarily a bad thing. I would imagine that WX Brands has a network of vineyards available to them and to be able to allocate grapes from multiple vineyards can give you a good wine at a value price.

This is a Pinot that they say is produced in the classic California Pinot Noir style and judging from how the wine looks in my glass it does have that look, but I will get into that more in the tasting notes.

The Bread and Butter Pinot Noir 2019 technical notes do not say much but they do mention that French and American oak was used and the alcohol content is 13.5%.

They do not mention is the French or American oak was barrels or other methods of imparting oak flavoring, but at this price, I suspect barrels were used. French and American oak are two different species of oak and they add different flavors to the wine.

Bread and Butter do not mention this but a wine oak treatment can be a complicated math problem. This percentage of French oak and that percentage of American oak, with so much first use new barrels. And other barrels being second use and still, others being third use, all for caring lengths of aging time.

But Bread and Butter says to keep it simple and don’t overthink it, so I will forget about the details and check out the most important part, how it tastes.

Bread and Butter Pinot Noir 2019 Tasting Notes

The color is clear, clean, see-thru garnet red, it looks like a classic Cali Pinot. The nose is cherry, with herbs, mushroom, dried autumn leaves, chocolate, black pepper, and soft spice, everything both complicated and balanced.

This is a silky smooth Pinot Noir, with rich flavor. It starts with black cherry and chocolate (not sweet), soft exotic spice, ripe plum, and licorice. The mid-palate adds strawberry, orange zest, a sharp, short slap of Altoid’s spice, and late cooling blueberry finish.

The tannins are sweet and smooth and the acidity allows the flavors to do their thing but stays out of the way.

The Sumary

• The Bread and Butter Pinot Noir 2019 is my style of value California Pinot Noir.
• There has been a trend lately for value Pinot Noir to be produced in a heavier, more fruit-forward style.
• I like those wines, but as a glass of Red wine, not as a Pinot Noir. I want more mystery, more complications my Pinot.
• The Bread and Butter Pinot Noir 2019 is a good classic Pinot Noir at a good price.