A January Blessing: A $25 Pinot That Tastes Like it’s $45

Meyer Pinot Noir 2023 $25

Everywhere you turn there’s some gloomy news about wine: consumption is down, prices are up, weather is wreaking havoc… but I opened this bottle two days ago and all seemed right, if only for a glass or two. The conventional wisdom is that Pinot is the most difficult wine to make well, and it’s definitely the most difficult wine to make affordably. Its yields are never that high, it’s not what you’d call “vigorous” and its thin skins need much more care than most of its vinis vinifera brothers and sisters.

All that has translated into a wine that most of the wine drinking public accepts will cost a bit more and often a whole swack more that others. But we accept this because when it’s good it offers that ethereal palate transcendence that make say: “I guess I’ll pay $45 for this bottle of wine.”

But here’s the thing: I don’t want to always have to pay $45 for a bottle of wine. Sorry, not sorry, but I drink a fair bit of wine. If I drank one bottle a week, sure, $45 is fine. But I drink… more than one bottle a week (please no one show this to my GP). So imagine my flipping delight this week when, pizza in hand and Aussie Open on the TV, I opened what should have been cheap and cheerful Pinot and was so pleasantly surprised that I was moved to write about the wine before I secured an allotment for myself. That’s how professional I am.

And to be fair, I wasn’t that surprised: Meyer has long been one of our very elite Pinot producers and their higher-end Meyer Family Pinots ($40-60) are always among the very best bottlings in the country. Proprietor Jak Meyer is a bit of a legend and winemaker Chris Carson  has a focus and a touch with Pinot that so very possess (that’s the two of them above, seemingly happy about selling their wine too cheaply).

But still, $25? For a wine with that endlessly fresh and vibrant, but still has that subtle earthy gravitas that tells you someone fussed and sweated over this wine? There’s some subtle tea leaf notes, maybe some really light tobacco that all gives this wine a distinct handmade vibe that’s pretty much unheardof in a Okanagan Pinot (or any Pinot really) at this price. 23 days and this is the reigning wine of 2025.