My secret guilty pleasure is anything Jersey Shore. I can watch it and not feel like I’m going to cry or have to analyze some type of social condition. Sometimes, I just want to relax and enjoy something without thinking too hard about it. The 2019 Underwood Oregon Pinot Noir does this for me. The pale ruby color is beautiful and the smell is happy. It smells fruity, like a bowl of cut up strawberries and cherries, with some sour rhubarb and sprinkled with baking spices and rose petals. It relaxes you right away and allows you to settle in to a good evening.
The taste is more earthy and will make you think for only a second before you only start to think about how enjoyable it is. It does have the strawberry, cherry, rhubarb flavor but less ripe-along with a black currant note. It also has a mushroom component and a flavor that reminds me of the smell of what disturbed dirt from the forest floor smells like. It also is low in tannins, so it is very easy to drink. I found that the alcohol content was also a bonus-at 13 percent, which helped get me through election night.
What foods to pair it with
Pinot Noir is a light bodied wine that goes well with lighter meats like pork, chicken and turkey. If you want a red wine that goes particularly well with fish, like salmon and tuna, this is it. This wine will make your fish taste like you have cherry sauce on it, without having to go to the trouble of actually making one. Another favorite pairing of mine would be mushroom risotto. The mushroom character of the wine complements this dish completely and has enough flavor to balance out the Parmesan, without dominating the rice.
On the night I opened this, I paired it with a roasted pork loin and a side of roasted apples and potatoes. This wine just melded in with the food, not standing out on it’s own but enhancing and complementing the other flavors.
For a couple of nights after I opened it, I found myself going back to it. I had other bottles open, but this was the one I wanted to drink. The stresses of election week were still there but after a glass, I felt relaxed and more like I was watching Jersey Shore.