I love Pinot Noir. Maybe its because I know just how darn hard it is to grow the grape. Maybe its because I know just how darn hard it is to make great wine out of the grape. Maybe its because it tends to be softer wine which on many occasions I prefer. In any case, I was rather looking forward to tasting a pinot noir from Australia, a place where big, bold wine seems to be king.

I feel especially lucky to be trying this particular pinot from Yeringberg because apparently they made only 20 cases of it. Only 240 bottles and I have one of them! Yeringberg seems to be a small family winery who has been making wine in the Yarra Valley for 150 years. I say seems to be because I barely have more than the label from which to glean my information. If you click through to their website you’ll see what I mean. Winemakers, yes; website-makers they are not. A local wine website tells me they have 4 employees, all in the de Pury family. I’m a little amazed this bottle of wine has managed to land in my Northern California home!

This is probably one of the oldest pinots I’ve had, a 2004. Seems silly, but I’ve really only discovered pinot in the last few years. It never used to help that good pinot was out of my price range. This one was showing its slight age in the brick red color of the wine.

On the nose it was smokey with a hint of black pepper. I sensed dark berries, almost like jam- blackberry jam. It was light to medium-bodied and had the spicy pepper taste I expected given how it had smelled. It was earthy and round and tasted like nice smokey bacon. Now there’s a wine I can get behind!

I thought it would go well with food, as pinot noir often does, and I was right. We poured a bit more with dinner: baked sweet chili salmon, apricot and raisin bread and a side of steamed broccoli. I would also like to publicly give myself a shout-out for making salmon that turned out awesome! A great meal with great wine.

The Score: ★ ★ ★ ★