2007 Bogle Russian River Valley Pinot Noir

My first love of wine is bubbly, which should be obvious for any of my regular readers. For those who are relatively new, just click here to see how much I love the bubbles and all the great folks who are helping me out in 2010.

My wife’s true love of wine is Pinot Noir, so we drink a lot of it. The challenge is finding good wines for the money, a treasure hunt worthy of Lara Croft or Dr. Jones’ finest efforts. For both of us, Russian River Valley is usually a good bet. For value, I always think of two brands who produce a wine from this region and Bogle is one of them. You can read my review of the 2006 vintage here.

Bogle is a large production label, but not what I’d call a mega-label. According to what I can find, their biggest production wine in a vintage comes in around 250,000 cases. 3 millions bottles of one varietal isn’t small, but neither is it on the scale of Charles Shaw (the infamous Two Buck Chuck). I don’t have a figure on this particular wine, but the 2006 vintage of Pinot Noir from Bogle weighed in at 30,000 cases. It was a good value and while I’m sure some Pinot-philes may think it wasn’t that great, for $15 I think it was a steal. The 2007 is no different in terms of being a great value, but definitely different in style.

First off, the color is lighter, more in line with a wine labeled as Pinot Noir. Honestly, many Cali wines come out much darker than one might expect. It is like reaching into the box of 64 Crayola Crayons looking for red and getting mahogany, close but no cigar. The aromas were quite pronounced, as it emanated from the decanter at a good meter’s distance. A good cherry cola came to mind, but one without the obligatory sappy sweetness.

On the palate, this wine walks a tightrope between vibrant fruit and tart acidity. Sour cherries mix with pinches of violet, under-ripened raspberry and spice, wrapped around a precise core of palate refreshing acidity. For the technical of you in the audience, this wine weighs in at 14.2% ABV, 3.62 pH and acidity of .56 mg/1ooml. This is definitely a leaner and more finesse oriented style than the 2006. I’d guess that the percentage of Pinot Noir is higher in the 2007 than previous vintages, not surprising considering the overall quality of Cali Pinot Noir in 2007.

This is once again, an above average wine deserving of your attention. I paid $14.99 at Bullock’s in Woodstock for this and in the under $20 category, there are few producers of Pinot Noir as reliable as Bogle. We paired this with teriyaki glazed salmon, sweet potato, roasted cauliflower and asparagus that were tossed in olive oil, sea salt and fresh ground pepper medley.

Haiku
Tart goes the cherry
Add a floral note and spice
Out comes something nice

Here are some alternative blogger reviews, some of which like the wine, some don’t. As in all things wine, you and you alone know what you like and your personal taste is all that matters.

Ethan Prater

Wine Peeps

Drink What You Like

The Iowa Wino

Vin O’Clock

Thanks for stopping by. If you like what I’m doing, please share it with your friends. If you have comments, I more than welcome them. I dig on questions or suggestions too. Have an awesome day and remember, life is too short to drink bad wine. Plus, good wine doesn’t have to cost a lot.

Cheers,
Kevin