TN: 2009 Castle Rock Pinot Noir Mendocino County

WINE TALK
1
  • 2009 Castle Rock Pinot Noir Mendocino County - USA, California, North Coast, Mendocino County (2/27/2011)
    This wine (at least the bottle I have) appears to have VA to the point of covering up whatever good traits may have been there. Not super severe, but bad. It seems strange that a wine would be over the hill this early, but I couldn’t drink it. OK, if there was nothing else, I could hold my nose… Sour on the nose and sour on the back of my throat. I know some have said this was a good value wine, but I say: bleh. I have a second bottle, and I will check to see if they are the same. (79 pts.)

Posted from CellarTracker

Another from the Prince of Pinot’s Trader Joes tasting. Either I had a bad bottle, or I don’t know what others see in this stuff.

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I picked up two from Costco for around 5 bucks. I’m with you on this.

A few sips in, I couldn’t find any quality that made the wine remotely enjoyable. That bottle went down the drain. The other into the recycling bin after being opened and poured down the drain. Even for $5 it was bad.

3

Too bad. Costco would have refunded your money. Grab the empty bottles unless you have your receipt. Either way . . . no problem.

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I thought about it, but $10 wasn’t worth standing in the return line for me, our Costco is busy.

5

Thanks for your comments.

Question:

How does a wine this bad average almost 85 pts. on CT?

It makes me wonder if there is more than on batches with the same label.

6

I returned a Cameron Hughes to Costco. It was a few years ago – think it was Lot 36…IIRC I loved Lot 34 and hated 36. Anyway…they gave me huge attitude about returning alcohol (roughly 2/3 bottle of the Lot 36 and a completely unopened bottle of same). They said they don’t return alcohol, I countered by saying their policy is that they take back anything and if they don’t take back alcohol, they should post a sign by teh liquor or make the exception otherwise known.

Costco eventually told me it was illegal to return alcohol in Chicago – but they refunded my money anyway and supposedly put a notation in the system, as if I was some kind of con artist who liked to drink vodka and fill it back up with water.

Pissed me off.

Umm, wait, this thread is about Castle Rock, right? Someone else suggested the Willamette Valley bottling was better in another thread. Will probably try very soon for comparison’s sake.

7

Get ahold of Linda Lindsay at Stone Wolf/Great Oregon Wine and see if her Rascal is distributed in Chicago. If so, buy that. There’s no way the Castle Rock will come close.

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Thanks for the heads up on the wine. I saw this at the grocery store, so you saved me that $10. I’ve been enjoying the '07 Central Coast for a while now.

When Castle Rock gets it right, they’re about as good a value as pinot gets, but consistency is an issue. Could be different lots, or just a few dozen bottlings that are probably sourced from changing places year to year.