RKS 2025 Wine: An $8.99 USD Pinot Noir in Palm Springs, California

Posted byRobert K Stephen (CSW)Posted inTravel, WineTags:, , , , , , , ,

At one end of Palm Springs at 350 South Palm Canyon Drive there lies a Grocery Outlet a discount grocery store with an interior about as warm as the minus 22 temperatures I left Toronto in.

This section of Palm Springs boasts a Palm Springs Art Museum Architecture and Design Centre and an Eisenhower Medical Centre but it is dotted with failed retail operations. To its right there is a large Mexican family style restaurant and an enormous Brazilian Steak House. Opposite a Bev-Mo high end liquor store, a haircutting salon and a Green Dragon cannabis outlet. Outside the Grocery Outlet invariably there are some raunchy characters but being in the desert the need for water calls. Aside from enormously cheap Cali pistachios there is a somewhat decent wall of inexpensive Cali red and white wines.

I picked up an $8.99 bottle of 2022 Lattitude Sonoma County Pinot Noir as after all with the Canadian dollar the way it is it just about drove me to a $4.99 Blush.

I couldn’t help notice the tyrannical rule of Cali Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel and a smidge of Pinot Noir. I also noticed a few labels at about the third of the price you would pay at the Liquor Control Board of Ontario.

In for water out with pistachios (cheap!!), bottle of Pinot Noir, Kettle potato chips (delicious) and two bottles of still Italian water. What were Canadian chemicalized cinnamon buns doing in the bakery section? Trump tariffs will take care of that.

The sign above my Pinot Noir declared “regularly priced at $30”. A further search on the internet showed this Pinot Noir selling between $12-15 USD.

Aroma: Loaded with black fruit particularly blackberry, super rich black raspberry with a twist of mocha. An aggressive Pinot Noir.

Palate: Somewhat tannic for a Pinot Noir and chock full of black fruit with a medium long finish tinged by white pepper. Smooth.  

Personality: A Pinot Noir for the American mases and the Canadian middle class.

Cellarbility: Consume in 2025.

Food Match: Berkshire Pork.

Price: $8.99 USD.

RKS 2025 Wine Rating: 88/100.

(Lattitude 2022 Sonoma County Private Reserve Pinot Noir, California, 750 mL, 14.3%).

Published by Robert K Stephen (CSW)

Robert K Stephen writes about food ,drink, travel, film, and lifestyle issues. He also has published serialized novels "Life at Megacorp", "Virus # 26, "Reggie the Egyptian Rescue Dog" and "The Penniless Pensioner" Robert was the first associate member of the Wine Writers’ Circle of Canada. He also holds a Mindfulness Certification from the University of Leiden and the University of Toronto. Be it Spanish cured meat, dried fruit, BBQ, or recycled bamboo place mats, Robert endeavours to escape the mundane, which is why he has established this publication. His motto is, "Have Story, Will Write."

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