Huge Bear Pinot Noir 3-Pack
$79.99 $153.00 48% off List Price
2014 Huge Bear Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley
Grape debaters needed. Looks interesting.
It’s not necessarily a bad thing, and I tend to overthink these things, but “cellared and bottled by” always gives me pause.
In a year with a large, good crop, there’s often a lot of very good juice, or even wine, for available on the bulk market, which many wineries and negociants purchase to add to blends and/or to finish and sell. Sometimes it comes from very good vineyards.
That all ends up as ‘cellared and bottled by’ or ‘made and bottled by’.
My general (though not absolute) rule is to try such wines in very good years or from producers I trust, but not from complete unknowns (unless for free) or in poor to mediocre years.
And something over $25 a bottle is not, alas, free. It’s more than the sale price we sometimes see for, say, the Winesmith pinot noir that we know and love. So a bit more info would be welcome.
When I wrote free, I meant free, as in someone has given it to me…
this is a new relationship. Very happy to have Huge Bear with us. Note, the parent company is Knight’s Bridge Winery. A respected Calistoga based winery.
a very good price for this wine (and shipping included…)
Thanks for the kind words! We’re excited to be a part of the Woot community.
Thanks for sharing the info! We have partnered with a small family vineyard in Russian River that grows this fruit. They had too much for their needs. It was such great fruit, we purchased it from them and made the wine!
We have a small estate in Knights Valley where it is just too hot to grow Pinot Noir. So…“cellared and bottled by” for us simply means the we didn’t grow the fruit. We did everything else!
Thanks for clarifying. Can you provide some additional info on the fermentation? Whole cluster %? Native vs controlled yeast? Inoculate for malo? Also, RRV Pinots too often lean to the cola side for me. Where does this reside on that front?
Thanks!
This comes in at 14.9 ABV so it’s going to fall into the ripe side of California PN.
I do not claim to be any kind of expert in wine; I drink what I find pleasing, and can always find good wine in the $8-12 range and I’ve on occasion paid $$ for a bottle of top shelf stuff, but my palate simply cannot justify $26+ for a bottle of wine. I suppose an expert might disagree.
If you’re happy with the wines you’re drinking at $8-12 and can’t tell much difference between them and $25+ wines, then you should drink your $8-12 wines and leave the more expensive wines to those who are willing to pay more and think they get more value out of them.
My goal has always been to have the best wine possible for the lowest price possible. My standards are (as rpm Tourists and regulars on the wine.woot boards know) rather high, and I’ve certainly paid plenty for wines I thought were a great value at the price, but I’m always thrilled to find a delicious wine for $10-20. Less and less common - I’m so old I remember when you could get fine classified growth Bordeaux for less than $10 a bottle and the best California Cabernet for $1.50 (and I remember when they doubled the price of Beaulieu Georges de Latour Private Reserve to $3 a bottle in the mid-1960s…).
Drink what pleases you and you won’t go wrong!
Great questions!!! About 20% whole cluster, controlled yeast, 100% ML. About 7 days for fermentation, moved to 100% French oak, 45% new Francois Freres for 11 months. We think it leans a little more cherry and less cola, but like pizza - everyone’s interpretation is different!
I think you may be surprised! While rich, the alcohol on this wine can be deceiving when trying to determine flavor profile.
Okay,I’m in. I’m a pinot junkie and I’m always willing to give a new winery a try.
Had to push the button, New winery, nice back story and participation. Of course being born and raised in CA…Go Grizzly!
Last Wooter to Woot: PLSemenza
Funny how life goes. My wife and I were in that same boat with you about a 1/2 a lifetime ago. We were just as happy with wines in that, and lower price range’s. (Dare I mention some came in boxes.) But something strange happed we splurged for a special occasion and I paid a whopping $25 for a bottle!! That was the mistake that lead to a passion for wine, wine tasting, wine paring and wine cellaring.
I’ll never forget what the ‘Old Crusty Guy’ running the Fess Parker tasting room told us way back when during our 1st tasting (ever). “Wine drinking starts in a box and ends in a decanter, and the journey takes a lifetime” So true…So true
That’s the spirit! I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.