These days, cheap Pinot Noir tends to be an anomaly, so anything that’s actually decent is truly a treat.  The La Forge Estate Pinot Noir Reserve 2006 is far better than just decent, and with a price tag of only $11, we felt more than justified in selecting it as this week’s Weekday Wine.

We found the style of the La Forge to be more typically European than, say, a big extracted Californian version – at 13% alcohol, the La Forge was, in our view, perfect in body size.  On first sniff, we encountered a nose full of raspberry that, alone, would have been a little much for us.  Fortunately, a sniff or two later we detected a certain woodsy quality that we felt tempered the initially bold fruitiness and, also, gave the wine unique character all the way through to sip and swallow.  Excellent balance and good structure sealed the deal in our minds.

If you like Pinot Noir, you could conceivably enjoy La Forge’s version every day of the week, and twice on Tuesday, and still not feel a pinch.  Now that’s bang for the buck!  

Where to get it: We bought our bottle at Plumpjack Wines in Noe Valley.  They ship.  You can also find it using the Snooth search function under “Wine Locator” in the right hand column of this page, or by visiting wine-searcher.com or winezap.com.