Our take
Banshee Pinot Noir California Red Wine
- Style
- Red wine
- Size
- 750 ml
- Grape
- Pinot Noir
- Region
- California
- Shelf barcode
- 0853868006024
Our take
What we make of this bottle
Across ten stores we checked in September 2026, this Pinot Noir ranged from $20.99 to $26.99. It turns up in that many places, yet the number of shopper ratings so far is just 1.
The average of those ratings is 5 out of five. A count this small is far too little to trust as a verdict, even though that average would sit above the 4.71 median across the 483 rated wines we track.
This is a Pinot Noir, a red grape with thin skins that grape guides call lighter and gentler in tannin than Cabernet Sauvignon, with cherry, berry and plum among the flavors they mention. The brand's history belongs to the company rather than this specific bottle, and the record is not perfectly settled: Foley Family Wines' account puts Banshee's founding at 2010, while Banshee's own site gives 2009 as the year it started from a Dogpatch, San Francisco bar; the two producer-linked sources do not agree, and we have not been able to reconcile them.
Banshee's own product page adds detail for the specific bottling this record tracks, its entry-tier Sonoma County Pinot Noir: fruit the producer says is 'selected from premier vineyards throughout Sonoma County,' finished at 14.7 percent alcohol with a pH of 3.6 for the current vintage. Banshee's tasting note for this vintage calls it 'bursting with dynamic characters,' with aromas the producer lists as fruit punch, muddled cranberry and forest floor alongside graphite and bay leaf; that is a fuller list of descriptors than the general grape-guide flavors already noted above, and it is specific to this vintage rather than the variety generally.
Our call: this suits a shopper who wants a confirmed Sonoma County Pinot Noir with named vineyard sourcing and vintage-specific tasting notes from the producer, and is comfortable buying ahead of the crowd; the lone rating on record is one shopper's score, far too thin to call settled. Pass if a single, agreed founding story matters to you: Banshee's own site and the account already tied to Foley Family Wines give two different years for the winery's start, and neither has been reconciled.
The Grocery Store Wine Desk · written Sep 16, 2026 from our research file for this wine. Numbers reflect our latest checks.
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Read our take →The prices we checked
Dated store checks, not a promise about your store.
- Kroger, Atlanta suburbs, GA$26.49
- Kroger, Cincinnati, OH$22.99
- Ralphs, Long Beach, CA$23.99
- Fred Meyer, Portland, OR$26.99
- King Soopers, Colorado Springs, CO$20.99
- Smith's, Las Vegas, NV$26.99
- Kroger, Knoxville, TN$20.99
- Kroger, Richmond, VA$23.99
- Fry's, Tucson, AZ$20.99
- QFC, Tacoma, WA$25.99
The regular price can vary by store and date.
From the producer
Brand history
Foley Family Wines says Banshee was founded in 2010 and later joined Foley Family Wines.
Research status
What we are still checking
Our overview above draws on the dated store feed, shopper ratings, our region and grape research, and any sourced producer facts. We are still working to confirm the current release, the full producer record, and the bottle itself, and we update this page as we learn more.
Getting to know California.
California on the label is useful provenance but weak detail about place. For these wines, sourcing disclosure, blend construction and house-style consistency carry more decision value than a generic climate paragraph.
What the name means
A state-level appellation, broader than an individual American Viticultural Area. It permits a multi-region blend and does not by itself identify one climate or soil.
How grapes grow here
The state spans cool maritime zones and hot inland valleys. A California designation alone does not reveal which conditions shaped the fruit.
What lies under the vines
At state scale, sourcing and house-style construction matter more than any single soil story.
How large the region is
- Reusable question
- Which counties or AVAs supplied the blend, and did that mix change by release?
Places within the region
- Resolution limit
- County, AVA and vineyard claims begin only when the release names them.
Getting to know Pinot Noir.
Pinot Noir is a red grape with relatively thin skins. It is used for still red wine and as one of the main grapes in many traditional-method sparkling wines.
Category guide
What to expect in the glass
Regional category guides commonly describe red cherry, berry and plum, with lighter color and less tannin than Cabernet Sauvignon. Site and ripeness can shift it from bright and delicate to darker and fuller.
Sources: New Zealand Winegrowers; Napa Valley Vintners. Checked Aug 10, 2026. See all 105 Pinot Noir wines we cover →
Where this information comes from
- Store listing
- Price, package, product identifier, and shopper rating. Checked Aug 10, 2026.
- Barcode
- The shelf barcode shown here is computed from the store product identifier. It has not been checked against a bottle.
- Method
- Every price, rating and fact here is a dated observation. How we check.