Review - 2010 Sirens Call Pinot Noir

Review – 2010 Sirens Call Pinot Noir

So tonight, after the worlds longest shift at work, I got to take home a bottle of this Okanagan wine. Based out of Summerland in British Columbia this little French clone delight is exactly what I needed.

On the Nose this wine does start off rather European, rustic, deep and earthy, with strong dark cherries and raspberries. It turns to the new world with rich with vanilla, and almost a caramel, and kind of spicy, similar to the Caramel Apple Spice drink at Starbucks - if you could have raspberry juice instead of apple juice. Overall I found it sort of Napoleonic in nature. To me it says,  “hey! I may only be 5 and a half feet tall but I am a force to be reckoned with!”

On the Pallet it shows dark wild berries, black cherries and a fine but sound tannins. I half expected it to be on the watery side, maybe from the marketing on the mermaid in the ocean on the labeling… and some recent previous experiences with French styled new world pinots… but it really held up, and with style too.

I was lucky enough to have this bottle dropped off with some tasting notes from John Schreiner, one of Canada’s most prolific authors of books on wine. He quoted the wine maker, Mark Simpson, as saying, “I started buying fruit and the next thing you know, I tasted in the vineyards and kept saying, ‘Oh my God, I will take it.’ That kept happening. I ended up with 14 tons and $100,000 invested and [made] a whole line of wines.” What a way to start a winery! One of everything! Mr. Schreiner goes on to talk about siren’s Call and the rest of Mark Simpsons labels, I really do encourage you all to read his blog. He goes on to quote Mr. Simpson explaining to label as  “It is from Greek mythology. It refers to the sirens that are these creatures that are half women, half bird. The idea is that these creatures are seductive and alluring. So the wine will be seductive and appealing.” What a way to describe a wine label? Smooth, seductive and inviting. Even the parent company, Artemis, had the tag line of “ Wine is the Blood of Life”. Oh. My. God. What a magnificent line and ideology to have attached to a wine and its company. Not only is that a brilliant marketing idea, albeit not overly original, its still the icon of what the 20 something wine consumer falls in love with. Sex sells, even if its just a ideology.

Over all I think this is a top-notch wine, and for under 30$ in most liquor stores I would highly recommend it. Myself, I had it alone but as for food pairings anything that came with a fine herbaceous or tomatoes based sauce (“hello pesto!”)  would do magnificently. Just be careful that the protein that went with it doesn’t over power the tannic structure. A chicken or turkey breast pesto penne would be perfect.

Cheers!

...but srsly go see http://johnschreiner.blogspot.com/