Old Poets and New Pinot Noir

The unseasonable, beautiful weather has ended and we are now into what November is usually about here.  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said it best in the opening verse to "Catawba Wine"

This song of mine
Is a song of the vine
To be sung by the glowing embers
Of wayside inns,
When the rain begins
To darken the drear Novembers.

It is probably my least favorite time of the year, rivaled only by late February and early March when I'm ready for spring.

The latest shipment from Michel Schlumberger has been partially consumed, in this case the 2008 Le Fou Pinot Noir from the Dry Creek Valley.  Medium color in the glass the wine smells of cherries and dry earth.  Throw in some warming spices and you pretty much have the taste as well.  Full flavored without being over the top and ending with good length and fruit.  I liked this wine a lot, but at the very end there was some alcohol heat that kept it from being everything I wanted.  I preferred the 2007 version of this wine, but I could certainly drink more of this one as well. 

There was a pork tenderloin wrapped in herbs and bacon and grilled over indirect heat to go along with the wine, and two were a good match.  The smokiness in the bacon was particularly delicious with the wine, both had some subtlety that played nicely together and enhanced the total taste.

$32 and 14.5% alcohol.