Last night at dinner my mother, wife and I had the pleasure of drinking a very nice pinot noir from Oregon: a 2007 Blue Moon from Bridgeview. We dined at a truly exceptional seafood restaurant here in San Antonio called Sandbar, which is run by one of the country’s best chefs Andrew Weissman. I’ve been down to Sandbar a number of times now for fresh oysters, fish and a lobster bisque that absolutely fantastic. Most of the time a white is the wine of choice, but this time around we decided to change things up a bit a have a red.

I mentioned this in my piece about the Ritual from Chile, but one of the great things about pinot noir is its versatility with food. The Blue Moon pinot was great to drink on its own pre-dinner, held up to the creaminess of the bisque and worked well with a selection of both east and west coast oysters. Retail for this wine is around $20. Was I the one that recently said there was no such thing as a good pinot under $20? Yeah, I did and now I’m eating my words.

The moral of the story: there are plenty of great value, excellent wines of all varietals once one is able to get through the massive amount of mediocre big name wines.

On a final (ironic note): I believe this New Year’s Eve there will be a blue moon – the second full moon of the month – in the night sky. If you’re looking for alternative to sparkling this evening, and you too want to be ironical, keep and eye out for the Blue Moon pinot!

Happy New Year everyone.