Buttercup Pinot Noir Red Wine

The brand name, Buttercup, tells you nothing about what is in the glass. The two words that do are Pinot Noir. It is a red grape with relatively thin skins, used for still red wine and as one of the main grapes in many traditional-method sparkling wines, according to the grape's category guides.

Buttercup says on its official site that its wines are grown in California hillside vineyards, with fruit from areas including Monterey, Paso Robles and Clarksburg. That is a broad sourcing statement, so the origin of this particular bottle remains unconfirmed.

The grape's category guides most often point to red cherry, berry and plum, with a paler color and gentler tannin than Cabernet Sauvignon. Those guides add that where it grows and how ripe it gets can move it from bright and delicate toward dark and full.

We do not have a shopper rating for this bottle. In our September 2026 checks it was $13.99.

Buttercup's own site lists this Pinot Noir at 14.5 percent alcohol, with a vintage of 2019 stated on the page, likely older marketing copy rather than confirmation of what is currently on shelf, so treat the vintage as unconfirmed for today's bottle. The producer's tasting notes describe "red fruit flavors of strawberry, raspberry, and red-cherry with a dry, elegant finish," the winery's words, not ours. The winemaker behind the label, Alyssa Reynolds, is described on the site as a California native with a degree in Viticulture and Enology.

Our call: reasonable if a plainly stated grape profile and a producer who names its winemaker are enough for you; Buttercup lists the alcohol at 14.5 percent and describes the fruit in specific terms, strawberry, raspberry, red cherry. Pass if you want a confirmed vineyard source or a shopper rating behind the bottle: neither is on our record, and Buttercup's own sourcing language covers three regions at once rather than naming which one grew this wine.

The Grocery Store Wine Desk · written Sep 16, 2026 from our research file for this wine. Numbers reflect our latest checks.