In honor of National Pinot Noir Day, we’ve released our 2016 Convict’s Reward Pinot Noir, South Eastern Australia—a delicious red that recently received rave reviews from 400 of our Wine Guide tasters at our Grand Harvest Wine Tasting earlier this August. We named it Convict’s Reward because every time you take a taste of this light, sippable red, it will unlock your pure untamed love for red wine.
Let’s Talk Pinot
Pinot noir is known for its versatility. Sip it, pair it, or pour it for a crowd—because it’s a highly accessible red. We’ve even come to refer to it as a “gateway red” because this is the varietal that often wins over white wine lovers and beckons them to the “dark side.”
Missa Capozzo, our director of Sommology, says our new Convict’s Reward is “amazing.”
“I love the lighter red fruit quality … strawberry, red raspberry. It has a lovely herbal quality to it. Our new pinot noir is really smooth and easy to drink,” Missa says. “It’s a very soft wine.”
We’ve been hit by a smooth criminal! Meet 2016 Convict’s Reward Pinot Noir!
Pinot noir’s popularity skyrocketed after the film Sideways (2004), which focused on this varietal as “haunting and brilliant,” a grape like no other.
Here’s more about our 2016 Convict’s Reward Pinot Noir, South Eastern Australia:
- Pinot noir is coming of age in the land down under and we were excited to source the fruit for Convict’s Reward from Cowra, Orange, Mudgee and Riverina appellations. It was our belief that if Chardonnay grew well in the area, then so would pinot noir. When you taste Convict’s Reward, you will know our hunch was CORRECT!
- Right now, pinot noir is the underdog in Australia—which translates into wines of superior quality at a tremendous value, a condition that will likely begin to change once the global wine world takes notice! That makes our new pinot a real steal.
- The name “pinot noir” is said to derive from the French words for pine and black—pine owing to the shape the grapes take together on the vine, like a pine cone. How fun is that?
- Pinot noir can be a diva in the vineyard, requiring intensive attention. The challenges of this varietal are far outweighed by its beguiling and lilting personality. It takes well to oak and develops layers with age.
- Some of the world’s most sought-after (and flagrantly counterfeited) wines are decades-old pinots from France’s Burgundy region.
- The late and legendary August Sebastiani described drinking pinot noir in this way: “Take a rose in bloom and cut it in half, that dying rose is the essence of pinot noir.”
The result of our efforts to create the perfect pinot noir yielded a very beginner-friendly, floral and red berry fruit driven wine that can be enjoyed as a sipper or with everything from salmon to roasted chicken. Our 2016 Convict’s Reward will be an instant favorite among Traveling Vineyard wine lovers. Stock up now for fall with your favorite Wine Guide!
