[NautiNurse]

Attended a Pinot Noir tasting yesterday. Honestly, it was disappointing. Perhaps my tastes have changed, or there is a lot of mediocre Pinot Noir out there these days. Bought one bottle only (and my rule is to buy minimum two of any selection worthy of purchase). The rest of the purchase was spent on Shiraz, Zin, and Cab.

[VRWCmember]

A few years ago I was on a business trip to France. The first day there, we stopped at a little Chateaux for lunch and they served an outstanding red table wine. I thought we might have better wines later in the trip, but since this was the BEST wine I had ever tasted to that point, I bought a couple of bottles of it to take home with me. (As it turns out, the wine was from a local vinyard and was only sold to a couple of restaurants locally and not available in stores, so I was fortunate that I asked there.) Over the next few days, we had some very good wines and some very mediocre wines, but none that I enjoyed more than that first one. Thus, I was very glad I went ahead and bought my take-home souvenir wine the first day.

[johniegrad]

I've gotten some bargains locally lately.

1997 Opus One Magnum for $147
1998 Opus One Magnum for $147
2001 Rosenblum Monte Rosso Zinfandel for $10
2000 BV Clone 4 and Clone 6 for $80 each
2000 Columbia Crest Reserve "Red Wine" for $15
2001 Columbia Crest Reserve Syrah for $15

[quantim]

Perhaps my tastes have changed

Maybe it's a seasonal thing and you never noticed.  Pinot Noir always seems bland to me whether it is from WA, OR, CA, or even Burgundy during summer months.  However, the varietal seems so much more palatable during the cold, icy winter months up here.

Ironically, I like the big reds during summer months because they seem to go well when the air-conditioning is cranked up... ;-)