Low-alcohol pinot noir

Next time you buy a California pinot noir, look for the ones that keep alcohol content below 15 percent.

A lot of wine critics seem to want to get drunk on pinot noir, said John Mariani in Bloomberg.com. How else to explain the fact that the highest-scoring California pinots are high-alcohol “brutes,” and praised as such? Next time you buy a California pinot noir, look for the ones that keep alcohol content below 15 percent. They’re subtler and “a heck of a lot less pricey” than their beefier cousins.

2009 Vampire ($13). “The silly name tends to put off wine snobs,” but this simple pinot has a “good strawberry nose and a hint of that ‘barnyard’ taste pinot noir devotees love.”

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up