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Benton-Lane Pinot Noir Willamette Valley

Bright ruby-red in color with enticing aromas of red berries, baking spices, vanilla and rose petals. The palate, with bright cherry, raspberry, cinnamon, and floral flavors, is classic Willamette Valley.  Pinot Noir with duck is a no-brainer:  Its silky smooth texture mimics the duck’s mouth-feel, while sufficient acidity balances out the fattiness.  But this wine, with its pronounced spice-box undertones, is particularly well-suited to Greg’s Duck Satay, because those spice flavors pair so beautifully with the dish’s grilled peach flavors, and enhance the spicy bite of fresh ginger.

I view Pinot Noir as my “Swiss Army Knife” wine, because it is useful in so many food and wine pairing tasks. Besides being wonderfully fruity, soft in tannins, and often fairly light in body, I like to focus on three particular components which make Pinot Noir so food-friendly: acid, earth and spice. Acidity is useful in contrasting foods that are rich, oily, salty, fatty, or mildly spicy; earthiness pairs with the earthy and herbal flavors of mushrooms, onions, garlic, and herbs found in so many dishes; and Pinot’s inherent spiciness picks up on the cool-spice flavors such as allspice, coriander, cumin, ginger, coffee and mocha flavors featured in Asian, Middle Eastern and Latin cuisine. GRANT

Benton-Lane Pinot Noir

Pairs With I am a Bird Lover I Eat Duck (Breast Satay) and Other Tails (Tales)

Price $22

Also pairs well with beef, soft cheeses, chicken, game & game birds, lamb, pork, salmon, tuna, veal

  • Category Red Wine
  • Varietal Pinot Noir
  • Region Willamette Valley OR