Neither Mike nor I have been drinking much wine lately, so it was very deliberately that I opened this bottle of pinot noir to accompany dinner last night. We have the wine, we should be drinking it.

I don't know how I obtained this bottle in the first place, but I'm definitely glad I did. Drinking it by itself, before dinner, this pinot noir was close to a perfect sipping wine. It had the right proportion of fruitiness to oak, a medium body that did not leave you looking for more, and a smooth finish. It tasted very balanced, with a limited amount of acidity. I'll definitely be on the lookout for other bottles. This may very well be the first wine I have from Monterey county - yet another area I had dismissed as marginal to the California wine world - but I'll definitely try to visit the winery if I'm ever in the area.

All this said, the wine didn't go well with dinner. I made Braised Lamb Shanks with Coriander, Fennel, and Star Anise, an unusual tasting dish with bold pepper & fennel flavors, and this wine lost its smoothness, edge and oakiness in the face of such spice. I'm also not sure it'd stand up to other strong flavors. I think it'd be great with a chicken stew, some milanesas or fetuccini alfredo.