New to the forums, have been lurking for awhile and decided to go ahead and make my first post a Tasting Note.

Kenwood Pinot Noir 2001 Russian River Valley

Color: like pomegranate or cherry juice, bright.

Nose: like fresh traverse city cherries and a hint of barnyard.

Taste: 1st taste was cherries followed by tobacco and cedar.

Body: Medium to heavy which suprised me for a PN, however I took that as a good thing.

The finish was nice but that barnyard thing just turned me off. I would have thought the wine to be elegant in taste and body except for that smell, seemed out of place for the rest of the wine. Odor diminished when served with food (roasted chicken), and the wine showed much better paired with a meal than alone.

My personal rating for the wine is an 84 based on the unpleasant odor, maybe just an off bottle. Will try again as I found it on sale for $11.00 and see if it shows differently a second time.

ks

K. -

I bought a case of this at Kenwood's annual sale, and have enjoyed every sip. I've yet to encounter a stinky bottle. I suggest you give the wine another taste, and at that price, it's a by-the-case purchase.

K;
Welcome to the boards, and nice to see a first post-TN post.

If you've lurked here for a while, then you should have seen ample info regarding Pinot Noir and its food-friendly mannerisms. It truly is the 'food' wine.

As for the barnyard, that too is quite characteristic of PN; sometimes the barnyard blows off, other times it remains through the entire bottle. I believe the terminology for this naturally-occuring phenomenon is called "brett", which is short for a bacteria (?) that goes by some more lengthy biological name.

I too suggest you try another, and give it some time to breathe (decanted) prior to tasting. The aromas you find offensive may indeed diminish completely, or transform into something more pleasing.

"This wine should be eaten, it is too good to be drunk."
Jonathan Swift

K. Syrah,

Welcome to the WS site. Hope to see more of your tasting notes.
Kybo beat me to the punch about "brett". I might add that it is not always seen as a flaw by many.

Welcome K Syrah. This note is a very good start here, I really enjoyed it.

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Yes, but I came here for an argument.

Oh! Oh! I'm sorry, this is abuse.

and encouragement on posting tasting notes.

I have learned a lot from this forum in the short time I have spent here and look forward to increasing that knowledge many fold, and hoping to give something back to the forum as well.

I really meant that about the encouragement in the TN because I have kept TN's on the wines I try for quite a while now. It helps me keep them all straight in my head, as I try a lot of different kinds of wines (for me) and love the exploration. My favorite wine changes about every 2 to 3 months. When I look back on some of my first TN they were vauge and didn't really help me define what I like or don't like about a particular wine. So, I have tried to get better at putting into words that which I taste and smell.

Looking forward to more posts as I taste.

ks

I tried this wine this weekend.
My impressions were virtually identical to K. Syrah's except that I did not find the barnyard element to be a negative. In fact, I thought the earthy component provided a nice dimension to the wine. Very nice with a meal of country style pork ribs, grilled onions and wild rice. 88. A good value at $13.99.