2006 Cambria Pinot Noir Julia's Vineyard

This is the second time that I have had this wine from a half bottle, and for the life of me, I still have not figured out why this was Robert Parker's Wine of the Year, but hey, I am not a professional wine critic in the least, so what do I know. What I can say is that this wine showed a lot better than the last bottle I had. Popped and poured, the nose revealed some really nice hints of cranberry, caramel, some sweet brown sugar, orange, tobacco, and tea. To me, it was hints of orange rind that I found the most intriguing, and the nose was nothing at all like the last bottle. Finally, some subtle hints of strawberry,raspberry, and spice rounded out the nose. There was just much going on with this bottle. On the palate, the fruit profile really opens up nicely with some nice dark red fruits, raspberry, and strawberry, with some nice spice, and subtle hints of pepper. The finish on this wine however seemed a bit over ripe, and over-extracted once again on the back end. It was almost smokey, almost burnt, but not unpleasant. There seems to be a tad bit of alcohol on the back end, but this will settle out with another year in the bottle. In short, this is a nice really nice QPR at under $15, but there seems to be quite a bit of bottle variation. We still have several 1/2 bottles of this, so we'll find out in time. 89 points. Cheers! -F. Scott.