Reserve St. Martin Vin De Pays D’Oc Pinot Noir 2007

In honor of the feast of St. Martin de Porres, this Sunday’s wine is Reserve St. Martin Vin De Pays D’Oc Pinot Noir 2007.

I’ll be the first to tell you that I don’t know anything about French wines. The appelations confuse me, the vintners are inscrutable, and the taste (in my opinion) often leaves something to be desired. But I was in a hurry, and this was a featured wine placed strategically at the front door of my local shop. For $7.99, it fit my budget, and made for a quick trip, helping me to avoid the otherwise bewitching aisles of hundreds of different wines, which typically lure me in like a kid in a candy shop and refuse to let me go.

This Pinot Noir from the south of France fits the profile of other French wines I’ve had. It has round, soft tannins, tart red cherries on the nose and palate, and an otherwise mild flavor profile that leans pretty far in the sour direction. To my uneducated palate, this reminds me of other wines I’ve sampled from France – notably young Beujolais or even Cotes du Rhone.

It’s a pleasant enough wine, and certainly drinkable, but it’s not memorable for me. Keep in mind, I prefer wines that tie your tongue up in knots while they punch you in the face – big, bold reds with crisp tannins or fruit forward reds with juicy, luscious, dark fruit that drips down your chin. This wine tends more toward whispers and caresses than hot, passionate displays of flavor affection. If that’s your style, it might be worth giving a try.

(I’ll upload a picture of the label when I get a chance.)

Rounding out our Sunday afternoon snack was a nice baguette from Balducci’s, Drunken Goat Cheese (pleasant and mild as goat cheeses go, with some nice herbal components) and some Columbus Dried Italian Salami, which was really excellent.

My wife and I often say that wine, baguettes, cheese and cured meats are the kind of things we could live on indefinitely. There’s nothing better.