2006 Holdredge Pinot Noir Wren Hop

Was craving a pinot noir tonight, even though we were going out for Italian.  Probably should have grabbed a nice Italian blend, or even a good cabernet blend, but a pinot was really on my mind, so I grabbed this one from wine board acquaintance and friend John Holdredge.
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I actually picked this bottle up during a special that John ran on the Wine Berserker (http://wineberserkers.com/) one year birthday.  He had a 6 pack of pinot noir ranging from 2006’s to 2008’s for a ridiculous price under $100 if I remember correctly.  Regardless, it was a great deal that could not be passed up.

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Popped and poured this tonight at Rick’s in Lambertville.  This showed a very light strawberry color in the glass, and I gave it a nice long swirl before first sip, and even first smell.  I really wanted to decant this, alas, I didn’t have the time today as our plans were last minute.  At first, the nose was a little closed down, and really wasn’t putting off a whole lot.  This had some nice floral notes of strawberry and a medley of other red berries.  There were secondary hints of spice and oak.
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On the palate, at first this seemed a little thin, but as the wine warmed up, it really started to gain some body. A bit of sour black cherry, crushed red cherry, plum, and strawberry.  This wine was straight forward and classic pinot noir, and there was nothing at all over extracted in my opinion.  This wasn’t fruit forward in the least, and I didn’t find it to have a bunch of cola either.  Call me crazy, but this actually reminded me of some good Burgundy we’ve had in the $50-$100 range.  It seemed refined, and it seem to be a bit aged.  The fruit was subdued, and it was tasty.
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The finish was smooth, although there was a bit of alcohol, that I am assuming would blow off with a decant or more time in the bottle.  All in all, I thought this was a very nice pinot noir, and I am looking forward to more of John’s wines in the future. 
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I saved about a glass to try the following day, and the alcohol is still there a bit, but the wine has really smoothed out, and the fruit is showing nicely.  I sure wish I had some more of these to hold onto for a few more years to see how they develop.  92 points.  Cheers!