Ponzi Vineyards, Willamette Valley (Oregon) Pinot Noir 2008

 This wine is extremely fresh and vibrant, brimming with focused, ripe fruit character that suggests red berries, blood oranges, and tart pomegranate, to start.  Its fruitiness prevents it from being austerely dry.  Some slight prickle of CO2 enhances the wine’s acidity and depth to balance the fruitiness, while the wine’s tannin remains in the background.  Give this wine some air in your glass and/or avoid serving it very cool, to enable the wine to open up from its animated suspension under a screwcap.