Grape of the Month: Pinot Noir

As Summer winds down and the temperatures get cooler but not yet cold, no wine could better represent autumn than a good earthy Pinot Noir. The star grape in the French region of Burgandy, Pinot Noir (which is its own, independant grape varietal) has spread into most wine growing regions, standing out in particular in Oregon's Willamette Valley. This is my personal favorite for Pinot, though many would remain faithful to the French Pinots, which are nearly always bottled as part of a blend, meaning the juice of several different types of grapes go into the wine making process.
Pinot Noir is one of the lightest red wines you can get and is highly recommended for novice wine drinkers. They can range in flavors that remind of earth, moss or mushrooms all the way to strawberry, cherry and currant. These adjectives mean nothing of course to an untrained palate. I often can't pick up everything the label says I am supposed to. What I mean by these words is that each bottle of wine has subtle aromas that you can smell from the glass or gently pulling air into your mouth while sipping. They may not taste exaclty like the assigned adjectives, but I find that the best way to describe wine's taste is to compare it to some other common taste or smell.
It is also considered dry or "off-dry", which is the opposite of fruity or sweet. The word dry can often be associated with bitter or tannic, and dry wines usually have a slightly higher alcohol content than sweet wines. A good rule of thumb when determinign dry or sweet is by the alcohol percentage. A very dry wine will be about 15%, while a sweet wine can be as low as 10 or 11%. Pinot Noir is in the middle, and makes for the lovely complexity of a red wine without the aggressiveness.
Good food pairings for Pinot Noir are salmon, pork or duck with a fruit sauce, mushrooms, veal marsala, bitter greens or creamy mild cheese such as brie or muenster.
Here are my picks for excellent value in Pinot Noir, all under twenty dollars (except the splurge), with a range in flavors.

Best Fruity Value: Scarlet of Paris, France, 11$

Best with Food Value: Aquinas Napa Valley, 12$

Best Complexity for your Money: Soiree, Willamette Valley, 17$

Splurge, if you like Pinot already: Plowbuster by Carabella, Willamette Valley, 27$

If you want to impress someone: Patricia Green Cellars, Willamette Valley, 32$ Talking Point: Patricia Green's estate backs into Beaux Freres' land and their Pinot retails for over 80$ a bottle. Patricia Green is producing equally fine grapes for almost a third of the price. But grab it while the current vintage lasts, the estate was just leased to a Texas wine producing tycoon. That can only mean two things: huge price increase or huge loss in quality.