In my [link2post id=”5935″]last post I was rather positive about the qualities of Riesling[/link2post]; Pinot Noir is even better. A well-made Pinot Noir from an interesting location is titillates every faculty – from the intellectual thrills of its transparent expression of origin and the wine-maker’s ability to the often frankly lubricious delight of its beautiful fruit and satisfying mouth-feel it totally pleasures the enlightened drinker. If you prefer any red grape to Pinot you are not welcome in Elitistreview Towers as aesthetic perverts worry us over dinner.
This Janus Pinot Noir is the second Brooks wine I’ve enjoyed over the past few days and it’s bum-bogglingly beautiful. It is one of the small-scale, low-alcohol wines that are a joy to drink all day and just make you happy, never leaving you feeling even remotely knackered or spent. I recall tasting a 15% Australian Pinot from the Barossa Valley and just kept repeating, “Why? Why?” for the next two hours. How can people abuse Pinot like that? The bastards. Brooks treat their Pinot with delicate, understanding hands.
[image image_id=”5947″ size=”medium” align=”left”]Pinot Noir ‘Janus’ 2007, Brooks
Now this nose does it for me from the first sniff. I’m keeping my hooter in the glass and slowly inhaling to revel in the delicate, intricate array of aromas that bewitch with their comely refinement. The fruit is perfectly ripe and pure with a slight hint of violets to it. There is also a wonderful set of aromas redolent of a carefully-tended physic garden: earthy and herbal aromas bundled together with complexity of the level my sentences reach when I’m having too much fun. I love the low alcohol level, this nose really is a pretty, poised little cracker and I want to kiss and love it as my own. The palate is also a sculpted, elegant experience. The fruit is winningly pretty and kept balanced, bright and fresh by a fine acidity. The tannic structure is just what one wants in a little Pinot, not hard and over-extracted (remember those old de Montille’s?) but silky and polished. Its flavours go on longer than me. An utter joy to drink and I want lots more of it. Regular readers will know I love the exquisite restraint of Mac Forbes’ single vineyard Pinots from the Yarra Valley. This is very much of a similar style but perhaps, and I hope Mac isn’t reading this, it has a shade more complexity – to be certain I’d have to taste them together which would be wizard! Anyway, this is a Pinot that delivers pleasure at badger’s brazen bits levels of brilliance. Get some, you’ll love it. Buy in the UK from Stone, Vine and Sun.