Pyrus vs. Pyrus: Is the Lindemans Pyrus 2000 better than the 2001?

Hello, fellow winehikers! I’m Vindu Goel, a hiking and wine-tasting buddy of the original winehiker, Russ Beebe. Russ was kind enough to allow me to make a guest post on his blog evaluating the merits of two vintages of my “house wine,” the Lindemans Pyrus.

As Russ mentioned earlier in his blog, I’ve been a big fan of the 2001 Lindemans Pyrus, an Australian red blend available for $7.99 a bottle from Trader Joe’s stores in Northern California (and perhaps beyond–TJ’s is all over the country now), ever since I first tasted it. The 2001, made of 64 percent cabernet sauvignon, 29 percent merlot and 7 percent cabernet franc, is a smooth, Bordeaux-style blend with notes of sweet cherry and a bit of grassiness that I just love. For $8 a bottle, it’s an absolute steal. (I told Kimberley Porteous, an Australian wine blogger I know, about it. She wrote back, “$8? that sells for $45-50 in australia! sounds like somebody has made a mistake with the pricing - buy up big!”)

Back in October, when I first discovered the Pyrus, I bought four cases of it, satisifed that I had found my new everyday wine. I even recommended it to a friend for her wedding, where it proved to be very popular.

Then I tasted the Lindemans Pyrus 2000.

Purchased during a sale at Beverages & More a few months ago for $12.52, the 2000 had sat, lost and neglected, in my cellar until a couple of weeks ago. Russ and I decided to do a tasteoff of the 2000 vs. the 2001.

Russ will probably give you his full tasting report at some point. But I found the two vintages to be very close in aroma and flavor, despite the fact that the 2000 is 50 percent cab sauv, 31 percent merlot and 19 percent cab franc.

The differences were subtle, just enough to underline to me the magic of a given year’s harvest and the winemaker’s art: the 2000 had more of a sour cherry note with a hint of citrus and a dusty, tobacco nose. The 2001 was a bit sweeter, with a darker, more cigar-like tobacco nose.

Ultimately, I liked the 2000 a bit more - the finish just went on and on, and I preferred the sour cherry to the sweet. I gave it a 16-point rating on Russ’ 20-point scale, vs. 14.5 for the 2001.

Perhaps Trader Joe’s came to the same conclusion. The store in Campbell, CA, where I shop regularly, recently replaced the 2001 with the 2000, for the same low price of $7.99. Stock up, folks. This is an awesome daily drinker.

Vindu

This entry was posted on Monday, January 1st, 2007 at 8:38 pm and is filed under grape squeezins, wine reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.