Acrobat 2008 Pinot Noir

Wednesday was Peter's 28th, so I invited him over for cake and an awkward/inspiring rendition of Happy Birthday, complete with candles and video footage. When I was in Austin visiting Meg and Mon this summer, I tried an incredible chocolate cake that Mon's boyfriend's mom made for her. Ever since, I've been looking for an excuse to try making it, and this was the perfect opportunity. I tweaked her recipe a smidge - hers called for a layer of amaretto buttercream, and I used creme de menthe instead. To accompany the cake, I went with a Pinot Noir - a birthday gift from the lovely Gregor just a few weeks ago.

Acrobat is a more approachable line of wines from King Estate in western Oregon. The King Estate is devoted to organic and sustainable farming, not only for its grapes, but also for the produce it uses in the Restaurant on premises. One of the ways King Estate manages pests naturally is with a relatively large raptor (including owls!) population. The estate has actually formed a partnership with a local raptor sanctuary, which releases recently rehabilitated birds on the estate. It's a great place for them to thrive, because all the crops are organic, the landscape is diverse, and there are several birdhouses in place around the grounds. Pretty cool.

King Estate only grows Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, and Chardonnay, so I imagine they are skilled at crafting those particular varietals. The 2008 Pinot Noir was aged for 8 months in French oak - a pretty complicated mix of barrels. 17% were new oak, 19% one-year, 33% two-year, and 31% three-year. Does that even add up to 100? Anyway, the wine spec sheet said something about "cooperage", followed by some funny sounding names. I looked it up, and cooperage just refers to the brand of the barrels used for aging. This is a pretty big deal, considering that the quality of the oak essentially shapes the characteristics of the wine. There are a bunch of factors to think about in selecting wood that goes into barrels, like porousness, grain tightness, etc., so cooperage is a bit of an art, it seems.

The wine was a unanimous hit. It was incredibly light - in the glass and on the tongue. It was fruity like a typical Pinot Noir, but so delicate that it reminded me a little of those flavored waters that supposedly have no sugar, artificial chemicals, or calories but miraculously taste like some fruit. Peter was actually enthusiastic about this red, which means it definitely didn't taste like fish or mayonnaise. It went well with the cake, because it was easy to drink and didn't lay claim to my taste buds as soon as it touched my tongue. Instead, it slipped through my mouth quickly, and I had to spend a few sips just getting it to stay in place long enough to think about. In the end, it left a lovely impression and left everyone wanting a little more. Thanks to Gregor for the wonderful birthday gift; I'm so glad I got to share it with someone else on his birthday!