Chalone Vineyard 2006 Pinot Noir

The Winery: Chalone Vineyard
The Wine: 2006 Pinot Noir
The Price: $17.99

Thus far, I have been primarily focusing on wines from the Pacific Northwest. There are two main reasons for this. First, I live in Seattle, so the local regional wines are very available and well-priced here. And second, this is a very good region for growing grapes and the wine industry here is flourishing. Tonight I decided that I should expand beyond the region, so I specifically roamed the wine section looking for something interesting from another region. I had two criteria for tonight's wine: 1 - it had to be from beyond the Pacific Northwest, 2 - it had to be moderately priced ($15-30 range).

This is a very harsh wine. It has an extremely astringent taste to it. There are not any well-defined flavors to the wine at all, other than an overpowering alcohol flavor. Since this wine tastes so bad, I thought I'd try to see if my perception would improve based on the smell of the wine. Nope. It smells like plastic and isopropyl alcohol. I am trying to be open minded, and keep going back for additional tastes. For the love of god, this stuff is awful! Thankfully, I only purchased one bottle. With any luck it won't dissolve my pipes as I pour it down the drain. Yuck!