2011 The Dead Monkey Pinot Noir

[djewesbury]

Made by Philipp Kettern of Lothar Kettern, with Gipsy Wines, Frankfurt.

This is very light: 35%. It has a vigorous lively nose, big and peppery, iron and beef, with dry notes beneath, salt, and immense fruit.

It has an initially quiet entry which then explodes in the mouth, a beautiful dryness that mingles with spiced and stewed fruit, swirling around are orange and strong cloves; a lovely, long finish with acidity and tannins in good balance.

A pleasure. I would drink this to accompany any vegetarian meal (for instance, steak).

[djewesbury]

I realise that what I call 'beef' in wine some people more readily identify as leather. I'm happy with either description, but to me the idea of beef conveys a little more juiciness. This is very juicy wine. Perhaps it's quite dry juicy beef though. Or wet leather; in fact I think that might be it, wet leather or wet beef jerky. It's a huge, very iron-rich wine. I'm enjoying it a lot as I sit here encoding video files.

[AW77]

Did you drink it Pop'N'Pour or did you decant it? And if yes, for how long? As you know, I was given a bottle of this too.

[djewesbury]

Did you drink it Pop'N'Pour or did you decant it? And if yes, for how long? As you know, I was given a bottle of this too.

I double decanted simply to aerate it and then started straight away. it is ready to drink and it wants to be drunk. I'm not going to finish this tonight though, I had about a third of a bottle of Stodden Pinot Noir to finish before I opened this (no TN as it was somewhat nondescript) so I'm not in a hurry. Will be very interested to see what this is like tomorrow.