2002 Goldeneye Pinot Noir

The Goldeneye Winery is Duckhorn's Pinot Noir estate in the Anderson Valley. Despite the high price tag, I purchased a few bottles of the 2002 Goldeneye Pinot Noir one year ago due a strong review (93 points) in Wine Spectator. I love Pinot with a turkey dinner, so I grabbed this wine - one of my priciest Pinots - with high expectations for a perfect pairing with Christmas dinner.

This wine was a very dark cherry or ruby red, and visibly very dense. A very nice nose - very California Pinot Noir - this wine showed lots of interesting, subtle scents: strawberries, cherries, mint, earth, truffle, liquorice, almonds and venison. Very dessert like - my notes refer to Maraschino cherries.

However, on the palate I found the wine somewhat disappointing. Medium bodied, with flavours of very ripe (overripe?) black cherries, the Goldeneye was very rich, heavy and viscous, with low acidity and modest tannins. With modest length, this is a wine for drinking now.

Overall, it was nicely made, but nearly a dessert wine - over the top for my taste and disappointing vs. the price and my expectations. Score 17.5/20, Cost C$79. Note that Parker rates this wine a more modest 89 points.

After the Goldeneye, I opened a bottle of 2004 Ninth Island Pinot Noir. While not at the same level, the price was much more reasonable and paired very nicely with dinner.