Lucky for me, some of my friends share my bad taste in television and good taste in wine. In what’s become a guilty-pleasure tradition, a small group of us have been meeting at my house to indulge in both. The last time we kept it simple—just a pepperoni pizza and some snacks, but I always pull some wines from the cellar to try to wow them.
The wine of the night for me was the Bonaccorsi Pinot Noir Sta. Rita Hills Sanford & Benedict Vineyard 2008 ($50). I felt a little guilty popping the cork on a wine that I know would age beautifully for a few more years, but I’m a sucker for a young California Pinot Noir’s charms. The core of wild berry fruit flavors was spicy and peppery, and I detected a wonderful red licorice note that continued to wow me on my second glass. Perhaps it wasn’t the best match for pepperoni pizza, but when I’m surrounded by some of my favorite people in the world and the wine in my glass is amazing, I can’t complain. I rated the wine 94 points, non-blind.