Skip to main content

Meiomi Pino Noir 2014

Total Wines and More mailed me a coupon for $10 off from a $40 purchase.  The store rarely offers up to a 25% discount, but perhaps their tracking system somehow knew I had not been in the store as much in the past year as previously.  My strategy was to buy name brand wines (those with prices not ending in 7) totaling just above $40, thus maximizing my discount.  My wife does not think me frugal without reason!  I came home with 3 wines, including the Meiomi Pinot Noir.

Meiomi Pinot Noir is one of the best selling Pinot Noirs in America.  Sales have gone from 90,000 cases in 2010 to 700,000 cases in 2015.  Last year Meiomi was acquired by Constellation brands.

Meiomi Pinot Noir is a blend of grapes from coastal California regions in Monterrey County (4ti8%), Sonoma County (27%) and Santa Barbara County (25%).   Each region brings different characteristics to the blend.  The different lots were aged separately in French oak and then blended.

The first thing you notice on this wine is that the color is darker than the average Pinot Noir.  I found flavors of cherry, black cherry, blackberry  and spice.  The wine is medium bodied and smooth.  There is definitely oak flavor but the tannins are soft.  Although the  residual sugar is a little higher than some wines,  I still thought the wine was more dry than sweet.  This was a well balanced wine that was extremely enjoyable when paired with our grilled pork chops.

The average price for this wine is around $20.  Total Wines regularly prices it at $17.99 and with my coupon I paid around $14. 

SC Wine Joe rating = 91 points


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ken Wright Cellars Pinot Noir Willamette Valley 2018

 I was aware of the reputation of Ken Wright Cellars for Willamette Valley Pinot Noir but had never tried one of their wines.  The winery is most known for single vineyard Pinot Noirs but their entry level wine is a blend from several vineyards.  When I have looked for wine from Ken Wright, I have either found the single vineyard wines costing more than $60 or I have found the entry level Willamette Valley blend priced significantly higher than the $22 price on the winery website.  One well known wine shop in downtown Greenville actually sells it for $34.  I guess that the wine must be really good to command higher than retail prices. Two things have recently happened.  Costco has a Ken Wright premium Pinot Noir for around $40 and Whole Foods Market has the entry level Willamette Valley Pinot Noir on sale for $22 rather than their usual price of $27.  I chose the entry level Willamette Valley Pinot Noir and I am sure glad that I did. Ken Wright Willame...

Dragon Vine, a novel by Steven Laine

It has been a year since I have posted to the South Carolina Wine Blog.  However, I was provided with an advance copy of the latest novel by Steven Laine entitled Dragon Vine   for my review.  Mr. Laine writes novels with a wine focused theme and I reviewed Mr. Laine's previous novel Root Cause  in 2019, which I greatly enjoyed. The synopsis of Dragon Vine is as follows: When his father dies in a wildfire, Carmine Cooper takes over the family winery in the middle of harvest, putting his dreams of becoming an architect on hold. He soon finds himself fighting with a vengeful neighbor, blackmailed by a local gang, harassed by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) authorities, and the target of an ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives) investigation. Carmine’s only hope to solve his problems and finish his first solo vintage successfully rests in identifying an unknown grape variety his father grew and made into wine for a quarter century wit...

d' Autrefois Prestige Pinot Noir France 2017

We are continuing our search for world wine regions with quality wines at value prices.  One such region is Languedoc-Roussillon in southern France.  This is a large wine producing region stretching along the Mediterranean Sea north of the border with Spain.  One third of all wine from France originates from this area but it is not as well known in the US as other regions.  Languedoc has a past history of producing low cost bulk wines, but that is changing.  Because of this history, the region is less prestigious than other regions and wines can be good quality for less money.   Rhone varieties as well as international varieties of grapes are grown in Languedoc. I love Pinot Noir, especially from the Willamette Valley, Oregon.  The problem is that good quality Pinot Noir is expensive and I do not judge it to be a good use of my resources to spend $30 or more on an ordinary weeknight for a bottle of wine.  So, I am constantly searching for qua...