2002 Windward Pinot Noir – Paso Robles

Windward winery is a small exclusive producer of Pinot Noir ‘Monopole’ estate wines, located in Paso Robles.

Since discovering this winery about 2 years ago, I have found these wines to be consistently good, and an above average producer of Pinot Noir’s.

Yesterday for dinner of filet mignon, my wife and I opened our last bottle of the 2002 vintage.

I wasn’t particularly pleased with the previous two bottles we had tasted due to a lack of fruit, and a slightly bitter after taste, but this bottle didn’t present in the same manner. Instead of the bitterness in the first two bottles this one seemed to be excessively alcoholic, but with some hints of underlying fruit.

The color was still good, so I decided to decant the wine, in the hope some of the alcohol would blow off.

After about a half hour of decanting I tasted it again, and was delightfully surprised.

There was no more alcohol smell or taste, and the fruit really showed through. There was also a slight bit of acidity to balance out the taste, making it a very enjoyable wine, which went perfect with the filet.

I only wish I had decanted the other two bottles now. I’m sure I would have enjoyed them much more.