*+ $$ Josephine Dubois Grande Reserve Pinot Noir Bourgogne, 2003, France

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Original Review, November, 2008: One of the regular admonitions in the world of wine is that you simply cannot find a good affordable pinot noir. I keep seeking to debunk this as a myth, but I keep failing. My only exceptions over the last few years have been French Rabbit, Beringer's Founders' Estate and Presidio.

Here's one more attempt at debunking... let's see how we do.

The Josephine Dubois Grande Reserve Pinot Noir, 2003, already has a few years on it. It arrives in a showy bottle, big, thick, fat - looking more like champagne than wine in its wrapper. The label is boisterous, with both the words "GRAND" and "Grande" prominent (yes, spelled both ways).

In the glass it is light dusty brick in color, just edging towards brown at the rim. Aroma is strong of dusty basement, broccoli and chrome steel - a most unusual combo. On the palate, the first thing you note is the acids - they hit you square in the middle of your mouth, not along the sides as you might expect. It seems the broccoli has been garnished with lemon! And indeed, there is little fruit beyond lemon to find in the palate. Oddly, if I didn't think of this as a red wine, but instead thought I was drinking a steely New Zealand sauvignon blanc destined to pair with oysters, then the acids and flavors might make sense. But on a pinot noir, they leave me confused and wanting.

So, I'll offer one star out of five, with a plus for at least being palatable. Somehow, a reviewer at Cork'd offered 90 points. But I notice their description is phrase by phrase identical with a retailer's description of the wine, so I'm not buyin' it. And I'd suggest you avoid buyin' it too.

Sadly, it means the hypothesis about the lack of good, affordable pinot noirs remains a fairly sound one indeed.

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Updated review about a year later, February, 2010, now eight years from vintage date... Now the broccoli and basement smell is still there, but more like you have a bunch of broccoli that you've had stored in the basement for the past eight year.  Whew... funky.  On the palate, there is still that odd, lemony, slightly old-world stingy fruit thing going on.  Tight tannins add to the lemon at the end.  I've still gotta offer a pass.  The one star plus still feels about right, although I will need to really taste a new vintage of this to be completely fair. 

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