Talbott Vineyards Kali Hart Pinot Noir 2004

Kali Hart is a line of wines from Talbott Vineyards. Until now I had not heard of or seen wines from either Talbott or the other brand names registered to the Talbott family of the Santa Lucia Highlands, in Monterey County, California.

If your idea of fine Cali wines includes only Napa and Sonoma you owe it to yourself as a wino(sm) to visit the Monterey County wine making region. While there you can visit San Simeon's Hearst Castle, the quaint Danish town of Solvang, and grab a coon skin cap at Fess Parker Winery. Also in the area is the Neverland Ranch now closed, but who cares really! It truly is a beautiful area that you won't want to leave, and it can consume several days to visit it all.

The region is fast becoming an area know for Pinot Noir due to it's climate of warm days, and cool nights needed to grow the Pinot Noir grape. Being over exposed in the movie, Sideways, it has gained a repution and advanced the cause of Pinot Noir from Monterey County. If you haven't seen it, do. And please, stay away from Virginia Madsen. She's mine... Ok not really. But a man can have dreams, can't he?

The Kali Hart Pinot is named after the youngest daughter of the Talbott clan, according to the back of the bottle, and harvested from estate vineyards.

But you want to know if it's any good; right? Well in two words, hell yes!!

This wine is a fine example of a quality, tasty, affordable wine, with all the necessary attributes a wino(tm) wants from a Pinot Noir. Good color, bright clean flavors, a nose that says..."drink me, now!", and a price that says, "drink me often. Available from the winery at $16.00 or from www.amazinggrapeswinestore.com for, holy cow!!, $9.98 (Good luck, the website says 1 left..) this wine is a steal for Pinot lovers on a budget or winos(sm) like me that can't drink a $50 wine everyday. If you see it, grab it. Yum. On the new winos(sm) rating scale, it gets a 3 out of maximum 5 winos(tm). Woohoo. Thanks Jeff!!

Congrats to Amazing Grapes for a great find and a super recommendation! It's not Roar, but it's Damn Fine(sm)!

{Picture found at the Talbotts website. They can request removal at any time. Winos(sm) is a service mark of Don Strickler and donstrickler.com. Any use by anyone else could be construed as trademark infringement. Or maybe not. Same for Damn Fine(sm).

[The winos(sm) scale: 1 Winos - Leave it where you found it or die an untimely death, 2 winos - Drinkable, but not really memorable, 3 winos - A good value, drinkable by the liter if necessary to forget work, 4 Winos - A wine that is a cut above, generally outstanding or very good, 5 winos - A wine to share with and impress friends. Something that probably was bought and stored years ago and cannot be found anywhere now. Original price $50, current value, priceless. You have one bottle and will never see it again. And that makes you sad. Yet happy to have had it. So memorable that if you ever had the opportunity to taste it again it would be like seeing an old loved friend, missing for an extended period of time and thought dead. You will most likely cry. Even if you are a man. A woman will be happy she met you. Virginia Madsen is your soul mate. Oh wait. That's me....