While I like a good Pinot Noir, the Vinagoth rarely buys any. Why? It is really hard to find a cheap Pinot that is a GOOD Pinot, that is why. There are lots of cheap Pinot Noirs out there, but they are generally unpalatable swill. There is however an exception: Momo Pinot Noir from New Zealand. I’ve mentioned it before and as I tasted some recently it is worth mentioning again. I generally buy a few bottles of Momo every year, as Mrs. Barbarian likes Pinot Noir and this one from down under has yet to let me down. This bottle cost me a mere $14, yet was every bit as good as every other bottle of Momo Pinot I’ve tasted over the past half-decade or so since I first tried it. I don’t know what those Kiwis are doing to make Pinot so consistently good, but let’s hope they keep on doing it.

Repeating myself from an earlier post:
“While dining at our favorite local bistro, I saw a Pinot on the wine list from New Zealand. Being a fearless barbarian I gave it a go. It was wonderful. Light, fruity, very different in character to a French, Oregon, or California Pinot Noir. It was so good I ordered a case.”

This is the wine in question: Momo.

I strongly recommend giving this wine a try. Momo 2004 Marlborough Pinot Noir www.seresin.co.nz The price varies from $12.00 to $19.99, depending upon vintage. We’ve been drinking it since 2002 or so, with vintages going back to around 2000. It has been consistently good, and a great value.

I still buy a bottle or two whenever I see it on the shelf at my local wine merchant or grocer. Can’t lose with this choice.

While dining at our favorite local bistro, I saw a Pinot on the wine list from New Zealand. Being a fearless barbarian I gave it a go. It was wonderful. Light, fruity, very different in character to a French, Oregon, or California Pinot Noir. It was so good I ordered a case.

This wine however, proved to me that not all New Zealand Pinot Noirs are created equal. My notes, stabbed into my Blackberry say: “Kiwi red pinot noir 2006 Nelson NZ $13.99 awful.”

Those words just don’t do it justice. This stuff tastes like a brown-eyed mullet. It is as if the Grape Cocky flogged some from a kiore in the tip and crushed it with his ute and tossed it in the bottle. Rough as guts mate. It is puckeroo. You’ll chunder.

This stuff is BAD. I can’t even blame it on the cork! (It features a screw top.)

If it were under ten bucks I’d probably poured it down the sink. But since it was Pinot, and a penny shy of $14, I saved it and last weekend used it to make Coq au Vin. It was certainly up to that task. So if you want to blow fourteen bucks on a cheap bird, by all means buy this wine. Otherwise, avoid it like the plague.