Easter with the A Family Part 2 - Between the Lines, 2011 Pinot Noir

After sampling a pre-supper sipper that turned out not to suit the mood, the A family moved to dinner. Like our dinner wine, and truthfully like most of my parent's wine, this wine was a VQA selection from Niagara on the Lake. A Pinot Noir, it is from the small-ish and new-ish Between the Lines Winery, located nearer Niagara than many of the NOTL wineries. It is $14.95, and at this price I may pass. I find Pinots are sometimes hard-pressed to impress me, as they are a little lighter in taste for a red. I concluded that maybe I just don't like Pinots, or at least need to drink cheaper ones. But we had it with our awesome easter dinner of ham, pineapple, asparagus, and scalloped potatoes. We were even joined by a guest reviewer, my non-wine drinking sister.

Sister - This wine is very thin looking and has no legs. It smells very strongly of wine, like very grapey. The taste was much too strong and funny for me.

Dad - This wine is lightly floral smelling, and it truly does have no legs. It is light in colour and was truthfully a very mild wine. It was a very light drinking red, there is not a lot of body or aftertaste to it, which means it is very light for a red wine as they tend to linger. It was truthfully not my favourite pinot.

Mom - (full disclosure: my mom hates red wine and made a face when she drank this) This wine is very dry. It has a bit of a dark berry taste that is both smokey and dry. If I had to say that anything tasted like tobacco (as a non-smoker) I would say that this wine would be it.

A - This wine has a smokey woody smell, and was also kind of damp-ish smelling. It has a bit of a raspberry flavour to it, and is very very dry. It leaves a smokey linger in your mouth that is not unpleasant to me. It is a good red wine for sipping in the winter, but was a bit overwhelmed by the flavours of our dinner. Perhaps the role of Pinot in my life should be as my winter sipper. I would use it again as a sipping wine in the winter, but a full dinner is overpowering to this light dry wine. Maybe I should start exploring Pinots at a lower price point, to see if they end up too dry, or a nicer balance.