Among the areas of France that has provided some surprisingly pleasant treats over the years is the stretch of winegrowing regions south of burgundy that run somewhat near the Alps: the Jura, Savoie, and Bugey.

So it was with some surprise that I didn’t fall head over heels in love with a pinot noir from a Bugey producer I’ve come to respect, specifically the 2008 pinot from the Peillot family in Bugey. As I drank a few glasses, I jotted down the following notes:

All the elegant berry fruit of a decent burgundy but lacking the bracing acidity and/or smoky quality that the best of those have to offer. Rather, there’s a bit of peanut shell in the finish, a dry minerality in place of the tartness I’d hope for. I alternate between loving this and having only modest interest in this.

After another drink later on, I decided that the dusty, fruity nature of this particular bottle was appealing but needed food to round out and cut down the concentrated, saturated flavors. I love elegant berry fruit, and I love the chalky finish that this wine shares with some of its Loire Valley pinot cousins. But without some acid or some food to tame this natural wonder, the wine occasionally wore on me. So I’m left confirming my initial impression: This is really wonderful, well-made wine. But for once, the intensity of a naturally made wine was too much for me to handle on its own.

I wonder if the salmon dish with a bit of lemon I made the day after might not have made this sing to me. I’ll give that a try next time, but if anyone has other ideas, send them my way.

As the wine chilled Michael Meyer’s newly conceived redneck childhood unfolded. A more profound study of the possible causes of his psychopathic behavior in this version was diluted by second-rate acting and Malcom McDowell looking like a tall leprechaun with an impossibly red face and white hair.

We opened the wine just before the cinematic blood spilling began in earnest. From a glass wafted delicate aromas of tiny white flowers, windswept meadows and a touch of tangy, unripe pear. I soon realized the carving of wanton teenagers doesn’t frighten me as it once did and began wondering what the menu of Roast (celebrity chef Michael Symon’s meat restaurant opening in the newly restored Westin Book Cadillac Hotel downtown) was going to look like. One should not be thinking about a nice carpaccio during a slasher film, generally.

Quite in line with a better Muscadet the Savoie wine has a nice texture, bright without being sharp, with a bit of stone running through it. Compared to the Boniface Apremont I can get locally it is more intricate and balanced and has more flesh. Writing this tasting note a few days later I look to see who this Quenard person is and discover there’s a dozen Quenards making wine in the Savoie. I suppose if enough of them were shipped over you might get by memorizing the labels. This bottle happened to be imported by Dressner and sold through Chambers Street. I pray they won’t run out before my next order.

It’s pointless to expound on the movie any further. My friend and I had a short discussion on the state of horror films at present and decided the genre as we know it has been stale for years and won’t be revived by any amount of jittery camera work. Perhaps my next bottle will be better consumed watching something like Teeth or a good existential zombie flick. But I would gladly take suggestions.