Dawn's Dream Carmel Valley Pinot Noir 2010

The wineries around Carmel Valley and the Santa Lucia Highlands are known for Burgundy-style wines of pinot noir and chardonnay. The tasting list at Dawn's Dream included 5 different pinots. They started out very light and fruity and gradually became more full-bodied and complex. The Carmel Valley 2010 was the 4th of the 5 we tasted that day. They were all very good, but this one really jumped out at us.

It pours a pretty color, not super dark but not as light as you see with some pinots. The nose is strawberries, canteloupe, and roses. The floral note is fairly subtle but adds a nice elegance. The taste is really silky with a long finish especially in the mid-palate. There's a touch of spice and tobacco, and lots of strawberry and some cranberry. It's not a delicate pinot, but it hits all the right notes for me with elegance, the medium body, and the long finish. We had this wine with roasted chicken and it was a nice pairing.

When we went wine tasting in Carmel Valley, there were only a few wineries we had planned to visit in advance. The town is really small, and there are a lot of wineries basically next door to each other all the way down the road. We got a recommendation from one place to go to Joyce, and at Joyce they recommended Dawn's Dream. Both were really nice, and I liked that they had different styles. Joyce had a pinot noir as well (it's got to be on the list for wineries there), but they also had a good Riesling and a good Merlot. Then it was nice to head to Dawn's Dream to see what different kinds of style you can get even within the same varietal. Learning what different winemakers like to do is something I really enjoy about visiting small wineries like these.