"You gotta be out of your mind. Fifty bucks for that? "

Yeah, it is so prevalent that it can really depress you if you are in this business and have to go out and try and sell some of it.

"And what about these pinot noirs?"

Oh Man.I have always held that Pinot is the single most difficult varietal to crack into. Bottle for bottle there are more bad Pinots out there than perhaps any other wine. And you can spend more on Bad Pinot that you can on just about anything else out there.
BUT! When you first discover that one wine that opens the door to what Pinot can achieve it is a revelation like no other. Great Pinot will simply make you swoon. I think it is something about how elusive they are that creates all of the insane Pinot Freaks out there. Once you have that magical one, you'll never go back. You have Cab freaks, Zin freaks, Rhone freaks, ect... But eventually they all get bored and move on to something else. But someone who gets hooked on Pinot will crawl across broken glass just on the chance that the next one will be IT.
The other part of the facination is that there is no other red varietal (to me) that exhibits the Terrior of where it was grown more than Pinot. You can go from one side of a hillside to another in Cote de Nuits or Carneros or Willamette and see such a difference that you cannot believe they are the same grape.
And finally (well as finally as I can get right now... the subject of Pinot Noir is endless!) when you do get that great one, you know that it is a labor of love for the winemaker. You cannot make great Pinot Noir by accident.
Winemakers call it "The Heartbreak Grape" and for good reason. There are so many ways that it can go wrong, all along the way it is not funny. So great ones, truly great ones, are few and far between.
A couple very, very good ones that I have had lately are Cameron "Clos Electrique" 2002 from Oregon and Olssen's 2002 from Central Otago New Zealand. The Olssen's is sold out at the winery, but there might be some left in the pipeline. Both are very, very good.
And if you are looking for an inexpensive one (Pinot is the single hardest varietal to do cheaply) the best I have ever had is the Mark West Central Coast. Simple, but varietally correct, and delicious.
Later,
Tom

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