Baywood's '05 Pinot Noir Monterey Select Vineyard Reserve is truly 'grand' and a tribute to the quality of wines coming from Monterey's Central Coast, a GOLD MEDAL winner in its first Competition.
"Aged in French oak, it exhibits an alluring bouquet of black raspberries, cassis, and ripe cherry scents, with a beautiful medium dark color, lively, vibrant fruit, medium to full body, an excellent texture with outstanding purity as well as symmetry."
"This multi-dimensional Pinot Noir is superbly concentrated and robust, yet very well balanced."
Is Cabernet Sauvignon King of the Reds? Many winemakers would argue that Pinot Noir is the real king of reds. It is definitely the king of Burgundy, France as it is used in the great red Burgundies from that region. From a winemaker's standpoint, it is more temperamental and harder to vinify than Cabernet Sauvignon. Just take a count of how many good Cabs there are versus good Pinots. Let's face it, a good Pinot Noir is hard to produce. We would not even try to grow Pinot outside of a coastal area whereas Cabernet is grown extensively throughout California's interior valleys. The high temperatures of California's Central Valley makes for dreaded growing conditions whereas Monterey County's coastal region is most suited to the Pinot Noir climate where cool ocean breezes maintain temperatures that rarely exceed 89 degrees. This is one of the major factors that has enabled me to produce a Pinot Noir of great intensity using 100% Pinot Noir grapes. I am personally proud of our 2005 Pinot Noir Monterey Select Vineyard Reserve as it has all of the qualities I expect to find in only the best Pinot Noirs. My only disappointment was that I didn't have the grapes to produce more.