Russian River Revisited-Kirkland Signature Russian River Pinot Noir 2024

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Hey, welcome. It's Domain Dave here again. We're got another value price wine we're gonna talk about. We write them up on the cheapwinefighter.com website, uh put uh photos and links and that type of stuff along with information, and then we uh plug in the microphone, which we're doing right now, and we talk a little bit more about it, things we don't quite write about. And today we've got the Kirkland signature Russian River Pinot Noir 2024. It was$10.99, which is a buck cheaper than it has been for the last couple years. And Allison Crow has been the winemaker for the last couple years. Um one thing Kirkland does or Costco does a little bit uh different than other people, like uh Trader Joe's um you know uh reserve wines, they try to hide who made it. You know, I I can sometimes figure that out, but even if I found out who made it, I don't know what the winemaker was. I didn't know if they used the the assistant winemaker, somebody who was just you know apprentice, you don't know who made it. And here, Alison Crow, and she is the a partner in Platta Partners. Uh they're a huge wine company you probably never heard of. I think they have like 80,000 um vines that they're taking care of, which is huge. And uh she's the head winemaker for them, plus she's been around. I don't know if Platta Partner is a part of this wine, they're not mentioned on the label, but Allison Crow is, and she's a legitimate uh top winemaker. Uh and Russian River um runs parallel to uh going north, it goes all the way through uh Sonoma into Mendocino. Uh it runs parallel with the Pacific Ocean. Uh, not that far, maybe 100 miles off altogether. I never been there, so I don't have the lay of the land, but it's not that far away. I think maybe even less than 100 miles, but it's a cool area. It does get, especially in the lower half of the uh the Russian river, it does get a lot of Pacific uh cooling. It's got the uh it's got the fog that rolls in because Napa gets fog rolling in too, but that's from the uh San Pablo Bay. But it gets fog is important because it gets kind of hot in California, but if the fog rolls in in the morning, it usually takes till noon to burn it off, and while it's burning off, the sun can't get to the vines, so the vines don't get the full heat until noon, and then it's as the day goes on, the sun's um kind of fades away and it gets cold at night because it can be 95 during the day and 55 at night, and that just uh you know, the the sun heats the grapes up and gets their little grape engines running, and when the coolant comes in, it just puts them to sleep a little bit, and that's how you keep on getting every day, kind of builds up the flavors and the acidities and the chemicals and the grapes, and that's how that works. Uh, one thing about the Russian River lately uh is that the alcohol's been kind of high. The um riper gets the more alcohol in there, and this 14.5 and 14.5 is more for Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel in my mind than a um than a Pinot Noir, which is more light body and it tends to show the alcohol a little bit more. And this, I think that is um this is a wine that would have been better at 13.5, but I think it doesn't carry the alcohol as well, but it's not a bad wine. It's$11 Russian River Pinot Noir from a good winemaker is not a bad wine. Gonna take a sip. Yeah, just that it might it might have um might have got a little bit too ripe, I think. Maybe. But for my taste anyway, maybe not for yours. I I prefer my you know Pinot closer to 13. You know, back in the day, it was over 12.5, like the connoisseurs would not touch it. Nowadays, 1314, but 14.5, I uh that's my opinion on why I am not crazier about it. But I'm not but it's a decent$11 Pinot Noir from a single AVA, and the one good thing about that is rather have California label, which isn't a bad thing, because they can take grapes from here, grapes and there, and grapes over here, and they blend them all together, and you get something that's greater than its components. But having this wine from one area gives you a taste of what the Russian River is all about and it at a low price. Take another sip. Yeah, it's just fine, it's it's a decent little Pinot Noir. And then also and one of the reasons we also review the 2023, this is a 2024 vintage, because one of the things you have to, because these wines from a smaller area can fluctuate. I mean, if you're if if you're just putting California, you're taking grapes from here and there and everywhere, you're gonna get, you're not gonna take grapes. I mean, you you're gonna get your pick of grapes. If you're just doing Russian River, you're gonna have to deal with what you got. If it was a little warmer that year, if it was a little colder that year, if it rained that year, you're gonna have to deal with it in the in the in the winemaking process. So you should always, that's why we're gonna we go back to it, even though we did the 2023, we're doing the 2024, because the wines do change. And that's something you don't you happen to get in California because the weather had been so steady and now weather's kind of crazy in California. I think it's 100 degrees out there now, and it should be 80, and you know, it's all sorts of things that the winemakers are having to put up with. So there you go. It's a decent, well-worth drinking, inexpensive pinot noir. And I'm I'm and I'm not um I'm kind of treating it as if it's something more because it's got you know, it's not quite what I want, where it's a it's a value-priced wine that's pretty good. Took another sip. Yeah, that's a decent wine. I would actually have this with a cheese tray. It needs some food. It it needs some cheese, it needs some maybe a selection of like uh Spanish sausages or something. I think at that point this thing would be elevated, you know, a whole nother notch. So there you go. Uh, I'm sitting here in front of computer drinking it, and I don't want cheese juice all over my hands. The keyboard's messy enough as it is. So audios, keep it cheap. This is the Kirkland signature Russian River Pinot Noir 2024. Got other wines coming up, so I'll be talking to you in a few days. Adios, keep it cheap, bye bye.