With a light dinner tonight of bread, cheeses and salad, I opened:
2000 Byron Pinot Noir "Niellon Vineyard" color: garnet in the center; orange at the rim nose: pencil lead, smoky cherry, dark fruit palate: petillance, medium body, good acidity, dark fruit (Jean got blueberries), long finish
This wine was a mistaken purchase a few years ago, when Jean sent me to a local retailer to pick up more of the '00 Byron PN (regular cuvée, which we had liked) and I came back with this instead. It's still a big wine, but has excellent "Pinosity" for lack of a better term. Although I felt that it was fairly classic and unmistakable PN, Jean guessed a
5-7 year old Pic St. Loup when served it blind, mostly because of the blueberry flavors she was getting. It'll probably last for a few more years, but I'm not sure that this wine will get any better than it is today.
Mark Lipton