What makes a humble bottle of Pinot Noir stand out from the crowd? Unlock the secrets behind Trader Joe’s Cotillion Pinot Noir, a $9.99 treasure, as we take you on a journey through its 2022 vintage story. This episode revisits a cherished selection from our past reviews, tracing its origins across the iconic AVAs of Monterey, Santa Barbara, and Sonoma Counties. Guided by the talented winemaker Allison Crow and crafted under the stewardship of Plata Wine Partners, this wine offers a delightful blend of exotic flavors—sour cherries, plums, and herbs—without the overpowering density. We explore how this whimsical wine embodies the essence of a classic California Pinot Noir, thanks to its roots in the same acclaimed regions that birthed the original Miomi.
Join us as we savor each sip and unravel the enchanting tale behind Cotillion’s playful label featuring a fantastical dance of animals donning each other’s hats. Discover how the combination of French and American oak contributes to the wine’s unique profile, striking a perfect balance that appeals to both seasoned collectors and curious newcomers. Whether you’re drawn in by the wine’s intriguing flavors or the charming art on its label, this episode promises a delightful experience for all wine enthusiasts seeking a standout choice that doesn’t break the bank.
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0:02
Hey, there it's Domain Dave cheapwinefightercom. Another wine review, a cheapie. This one's $9.99 at Trader Joe's. It's a wine that we first reviewed the 2013 vintage, which was probably in 2015, 2016. And this is a 2022 vintage. It's the Cotillion Pinot Noir. It's from California, it's actually from Montere Noir. It's from California, it's actually from Monterey County, it's from Santa Barbara County and it's from Sonoma County, which is the same AVAs that were used in the original Miomi. I don't think Miomi's still doing that, but this one is Like I said, it's on $9.99.
Speaker 1:
0:40
It's made for Trader Joe's by Plata Wine Partners. They own 60 vineyards or control 60 vineyards and have like 18,000 acres, and they have a lot of acres in Monterey, sonoma and Santa Barbara, so they have the grapes for this wine and it's a cool climate. Allison Crow is the winemaker. She's been around for a long time, made a lot of good wines. I have links to all this on the cheapwinefindercom website in the review. So if you want to find out more about these people, this is one of the few Trader Joe's exclusive wines that actually has tasting notes for it Not great detail, because it's kind of hard when you I mean that's I'm not even sure how many hundreds of miles from Santa Barbara to Sonoma it is. But to get into detail about the vineyards and stuff it's going to be difficult. I'm going to take a sip and this is actually a really good classic California Pinot Noir.
Speaker 1:
1:55
I mentioned Miomi earlier because that's kind of like the modern style of full-bodied Pinot Noir, which is kind of weird for Pinot Noir, if you ask me. I mean, I know a lot of people love it and that's fine. You know people should drink what they like. But these light to medium-bodied kind of funky wines with these kind of cool flavors, those exotic spices and sour cherries and plums and herbs, that's what this is. It's a classic California Pinot Noir. I mean you can see through it, you can read anything through it. It's that light of color, it's garnet red, it's got a great nose Again, all those weird scents, because it's kind of light-bodied. It doesn't have a lot of the things that overpower you with fuller, bigger red wines.
Speaker 1:
2:55
What first made me buy this wine is the label. You can buy a wine by the label, I mean, especially when it's 10 bucks or so. This has the cotillion is a dance and there's animals dancing and a tiger with a lamb's head hat is dancing with a lamb with a wolf's hat, and then there is a fox with a rooster hat is dancing with a chicken with a fox hat. I have no clue. There's all these weird animals with different heads on them. It looks like, yeah, there's a cat talking to a bird, but the bird has a cat hat and the cat has a bird hat. It's just like I had to buy it. It was like one of those things. And after the 13 vintage, this is uh, this is nine vintages later. I'm still picking it up and it is a solid, well-made.
Speaker 1:
4:02
Santa Barbara, monterey and Sonoma are some great places. They said it's all coastal vineyards, so that means Russian River on in and maybe Sonoma coast, but Russian River on in and maybe Sonoma coast, but Russian River still coastal. Most of Sonoma Pinot Noir places are Monterey Pinot Noir places are all coastal and Santa Barbara is way too hot unless you're coastal to do anything. So yeah, this is a coastal wine. They used both French and American oak. They didn't't say they used barrels, but they used both the French and American oak and did a couple different toasts. They flame the inside of the staves and you don't need a barrel to do that, but you can do it without being a barrel. There might have been a barrel, barrel this, but there might have been a barrel. And that toasting light toast, medium toast brings out the oak flavors because, uh, like the, the oak flavors are just on a very like 1, 16th of an inch of the oak or something teeny tiny like that, where the flavor comes in. The darker the toast, different flavors, lighter the toast, different flavors.
Speaker 1:
5:10
So they put some effort into this wine because they had to. Well, they owned the vineyards, or seemed to have owned the vineyards. Uh, platta um bladder wine partners used a company called ashford court, which is probably a division of theirs or a name. They have to make the wine or to say they uh, I don't think they said they made it, probably bottled by, right, let me double check that and it is, yeah, vinted and bottled by, which means nothing because they bottled it.
Speaker 1:
5:38
So what you got here is a ten dollar pinot noir, and there is pinot noir has kind of like two levels of it and there's the expensive pinot noir, which is really great. I love it, but it's expensive and lately not lately, last 10 years or so the value price Pinot Noir has gotten really good. I mean it's got in their own right. It might not be exactly the same as a $70 Pinot Noir, but it has a lot of reasons to drink it, where, where it used to be just cherry juice, kind of alcoholic cherry juice, which you know sounds good to me, but now it's its own thing. It's maybe more closer to Beaujolais, you know, in terms of how they made it, though I don't know how they made this one, but that's what I think is going on there.
Speaker 1:
6:27
So this is the Cotillion Pinot Noir 2022. It's a Trader Joe's exclusive. If it's $9.99, I'm going to take another sip. You want a very drinkable fun to drink. It's got all the classic California trappings to it the funky nose, the see-through color, the crazy spices, there's licorice in there, all these different things. Yep, it's good, it's worth buying, it's worth drinking. So that's it for me. What else do you want? Adios, keep it cheap. Domain Dave CheapWineFightercom. I'll be talking to you in a couple days.
