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Aside from waking up and breathing, I seem to have just two consistent themes in my daily life – my family, and travel. Living out of my suitcase, schlepping through airports, trying to keep up with work and my family responsibilities, I have come to appreciate simplicity and consistency.
In the spirit of consistency, while on the road, I try to get together with other wine bloggers at least once a week, and explore new wine bars or restaurants at least one other night a week. For the remainder of the week, I tend to veg, order room service, put the TV on something mindless like Seinfeld reruns or South Park and just catch up on email backlog. To pair with these stay-in-the-hotel-and-veg-nights, I crave/need/have to have a wine that is economical, reliable and consistently good. Finding such a wine, one that is widely available throughout the US, is more difficult than it may sound.
One such wine – economical, reliable, consistent, and widely available – is the A to Z Pinot Noir. A to Z Pinot seems to be available everywhere – Florida, California, Washington, DC, Virginia, St. Louis, NY – at a reasonable $17 – $21.
A to Z Pinot is produced by Dundee, OR based A to Z Wineworks. A to Z was founded in 2002 by Bill Hatcher, formerly of Domaine Drouhin. According to the A to Z website, they are the fastest growing Oregon winery, and has a current annual production of 120,000.
A to Z 2007 Oregon Pinot Noir – Made from at least 30 different vineyards spread across all of the Oregon AVAs that grow Pinot. Garnet color in the glass, this Pinot has a nose of raspberry, fresh mulberries that you find here in the woods (the red ones), cherry, hints of root beer and mint on the nose. Cherry and earthy flavors dominate the mouth. Mild tannins and fruit work well together. Shorter finish than I would have liked, but at this price point I’m not expecting nirvana. 64,000 cases of this wine produced.
Over the last few years, I’ve consumed a couple of cases of A to Z, one bottle at a time, on veg-out nights and this wine has always been consistently good. Looking for a nice, reasonably price, consistent, Tuesday night wine? Check out the A to Z Pinot.
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Drink What YOU Like 
Ok, so you know how picky I am with my Pinots (and consequently NOT my Cabs)… would I like this one?
I have not tried this. Will we be seeing this on Saturday? Good photo. You’re getting better at the pics. We can talk about why it’s good tomorrow if you want.
I doubt we’ll have this one… I have a couple of higher-end Pinot’s tomorrow night… (nothing wrong with lower end tho). Hey that one ‘close up’ tip that you gave me last time has liberated me to expand my picture taking creativity. Now all I need is a decent camera. Looks like we’ll have a few others tomorrow night so hopefully we’ll get a broad range of good Pinots to try.
I noticed and I like! 🙂
My first Oregon wine was AtoZ Pinot Noir and it has remained one of my faves. Nice review.
Hi Joe: A to Z definitely delivers consistency… I appreciate that level of consistency… Thanks for stopping by!
Frank,
Do you sometimes re-taste a wine you have previously blind tasted a second time blind?
Hi JenGC – i’ve done that a few times… i’m about 75/25 on ranking that wine the same… it’s always interesting to retaste…