Huge Bear Sonoma County Pinot Noir 3-Pack
$59.99 $153.00 61% off List Price
2013 Huge Bear Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley
Previous offer:
9/8/17 (2014)
Wine.Woot will close on December 31, 2017
I find the huge bear Pinot is a little over extracted for my tastes. The moderately sized bear Pinot noir is just right though.
So is this “Sonoma County” or “Russian River Valley”?
Sonoma County. This is the 2013. The winery’s website only shows a 2014 Russian River Valley Pinot among its offerings.
[grape]
SWMBO loves her some Pinot Noir, so we were pleased when this arrived for our tasting. The timing (the morning after her ‘girls night’ dinner party), the rush of weekend commitments, and her firm declaration “I want some now,” precluded a full blown modified Davis tasting analysis and scoring, for which I apologize.
However: the wine was brightly clear and had a lovely characteristic Pinot aroma - fairly straight forward, but with some strawberry and earthiness that blended nicely. If I had to guess where the grapes came from, I’d say it was combination of some RRV fruit and other Sonoma County area fruit (I’m thinking up towards the Dry Creek Valley or in towards Sebastopol - but it’s a big county). A little heat in the nose.
A very nice, relatively big, entry; good flavors, again fruit, strawberry, earthiness, slightly noticeable alcohol at first, but dissipated. Reasonably firm in the middle, but not sure it’s a wine for long aging.
Nice medium finish with very appropriate mix of tannin. A touch hot.
This doesn’t really convey how very pleasant this wine was, by itself or with a minestrone soup that was more a beef ragout than a soup. SWMBO liked it very much; I liked it.
Looking at the price point: ~$20/bottle delivered, I’d say this was quite a fair value and worth adding to your next year or so’s drinking as a ‘step up’ wine. Quite a bit nicer than a daily drinker, but not a true special occasion wine like an Iron Horse RRV Pinot, a Buena Vista Ramal, a Kent Rasmussen Pinot, or some of the Oregon Pinots (all of which were pricier even on wine.woot, even when seen some years ago). I’d say this compares with some of the Roessler 2008s. And, I’d certainly buy this in preference to a generic $20 French Burgundy or varietal Pinot Noir.
rpm Recommended**
NH isn’t listed as a shipping state, but it was for the previous offer from Huge Bear back in September. Can this be shipped to NH?
[QUOTE=rpm, post:7, topic:721618]
SWMBO loves her some Pinot Noir, so we were pleased when this arrived for our tasting. The timing (the morning after her ‘girls night’ dinner party), the rush of weekend commitments, and her firm declaration “I want some now,” precluded a full blown modified Davis tasting analysis and scoring, for which I apologize.
However: the wine was brightly clear and had a lovely characteristic Pinot aroma - fairly straight forward, but with some strawberry and earthiness that blended nicely. If I had to guess where the grapes came from, I’d say it was combination of some RRV fruit and other Sonoma County area fruit (I’m thinking up towards the Dry Creek Valley or in towards Sebastopol - but it’s a big county). A little heat in the nose.
A very nice, relatively big, entry; good flavors, again fruit, strawberry, earthiness, slightly noticeable alcohol at first, but dissipated. Reasonably firm in the middle, but not sure it’s a wine for long aging.
Nice medium finish with very appropriate mix of tannin. A touch hot.
This doesn’t really convey how very pleasant this wine was, by itself or with a minestrone soup that was more a beef ragout than a soup. SWMBO liked it very much; I liked it.
Looking at the price point: ~$20/bottle delivered, I’d say this was quite a fair value and worth adding to your next year or so’s drinking as a ‘step up’ wine. Quite a bit nicer than a daily drinker, but not a true special occasion wine like an Iron Horse RRV Pinot, a Buena Vista Ramal, a Kent Rasmussen Pinot, or some of the Oregon Pinots (all of which were pricier even on wine.woot, even when seen some years ago). I’d say this compares with some of the Roessler 2008s. And, I’d certainly buy this in preference to a generic $20 French Burgundy or varietal Pinot Noir.
rpm Recommended**
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Thank you for the notes, always helpful!
I served the 2014 Huge Bear Pinot at Thanksgiving. Everyone raved about it. It’s good stuff and a great deal at $20 a bottle. I’m looking forward to trying the 2013 from this winery.
Note this is a different wine: the 2014 carries a Russian River Valley appellation, whereas this is a 2013 carrying a Sonoma County (not Sonoma Coast, which it would if it could, I’m sure) appellation.
IIRC, the cost of the 2014 was actually closer to ~$27 per bottle than the ~$20 for this wine. The price of this offering represents a larger discount than the previous offer. I’m not sure, however, how comparable the two wines are as I did not taste the 2014.
Oh no, it doesn’t ship to Idaho. I thought previous offers had been cleared for our pretty great state?
Yes, I did notice that and thank you for pointing out that I paid more for the RRV on the previous offer. I had forgotten. I do have a preference for most RRV pinots over any other Pinot. I still have some of the 2014 RRV. I’ll have to open them together to compare. That would be fun.
I must say that on first glance I thought this said “Huggy Bear”. That I would buy for the bottle alone…
Since we’ll be having no more Thursday foodie days, wondering what tomorrow will bring.
TT; hint?
my last wine woot purchase…alas as wine no longer sold–I hope they saved the best for last…