Every now and then we run across an exceptionally hot deal and we figure it’s only fair to share. It’s the Sonoma Landing 2008 Pinot Noir.
The current super-deal is at BevMo, home of the 5 Cent Sale, currently on now. You buy a featured wine at the regular price and the second matching bottle for a nickel. The stock will probably differ from store to store, depending on sell-outs and if the wine came from a smaller winery, or any of thousand reasons why your local BevMo may not have it.
Our local BevMo is selling this bottle for $14.99 plus the second bottle for 5 cents, and given the fact that when Anne did a Google search on Sonoma Landing Pinot Noir, the BevMo link came up at the top, we’re guessing that we’re not the only ones who think this is a terrific deal.
Don’t expect a super-silky texture or transendental sense of place. This is a very food-friendly glass with balanced raspberry and cherry flavors, good acids, lighter mouthfeel, a good finish and very little overt oak influence. The alcohol is only 12.5 percent, which means two people can enjoy a bottle over dinner (like we did) and not feel it too badly.
The shocker? Apparently, Sonoma Landing is one of the Bronco Wine Company labels – which makes sense since the company also has a Napa Landing and a Santa Barbara Landing. Bronco also makes the infamous Charles Shaw wines, better known as Two-Buck Chuck, because Trader Joe’s sells them for $1.99.
We’ve often said that if you didn’t know you were drinking Two-Buck Chuck, you’d probably like it. Or at least like it a lot more than you would think. Some of the varietals are pretty awful. But the chardonnay is pretty darned good (that’s the one that gets all the medals), and the cabernet sauvignon is pretty consistently decent, too.
Which is the long way of saying that just because Bronco made the o8 Sonoma Landing Pinot is no reason to scoff at it. It’s a darned tasty wine at an even nicer price when you pick it up during the BevMo sale. If you can get there fast enough.