A pinot noir weekend

For dinner on Saturday we had pheasant breasts stuffed with pâté (no recipe - I buy them ready made from the cheese stall at the market). Looking for a bottle of wine to go with them, I found a Chilean pinot noir - Morandé Pionero) with a pretty label. It worked very well: the wine was smooth and fruity, but felt quite elegant (it was only when I stood up that I realised it has a ridiculously high alcohol level (the label says 14.5%). I'd buy it again, if only I could remember where it came from - I'd assumed Majestic, but it isn't on their current list.

Which reminded me that once in a while, with certain foods, pinot noir is exactly what I want. And last night, to accompany the mushroom risotto, I served the second of the two bottles with no label we had bought as bin ends from Tescos. I'm not completely crazy: they had no label, but they did have a sticker showing price and bar-code, and durham_ramber made us of the technology to read the bar-code and identify them as Marlborough pinot noir. This was also good - leaner than the Chilean, but with the same silky elegance.

So now we're down to one last bottle of pinot (the one from Coiffy-le-Haut). I must buy some more.