The Pinot Noir Grape

(Synonyms: Auvergne, Auvernat, Auvernas, Berligou, Berligout, Black Burgundy, Blauburgunder, Blauer Arbst, Blauer Spätburgunder, Bourguignon, Burgunder, Cerna Styria, Clevner, Cortaillod, Kék Burgundi, Kisburgundi, Klävner, Klebroth, Moréote, Morillon, Morillon Noir, Mourillon, Noirien, Noirin, Orléanais, Touraine, Orléanais, Pineau Noir, Pino Fran, Pino Ceren, Pinot Cernii, Pinot Liébault, Pinot Nero, Plant Doré, Rulandské Modré, Savignan Noir, Servagnin, Spätburgunder, Vaud, Vert Doré)

Background

Pinot Noir is a red-wine grape originating in the Burgandy region of France. It is now widely considered one of the dozen and a half or so “Noble wine grapes” of the world, and was so considered even when that list only included three red-wine grapes.

Pinot Noir is a notoriously fickle grape in the vineyard. In its home, it has had many centuries of intense care, presumably leading to the use of clones that are exactly matched to their soils and microclimates; in other regions, that selection and adaptation is still a work in progress. There may well be more clones of Pinot Noir in vineyards than of any other wine grape.

The French passion for classification reaches its apex in Burgundy. In Burgundy, there are five growing areas, divided in total into fully one hundred AOCs (appellations d’origine contrôlée), and, within each, designations from “Grand cru” through “Premier Cru” and “Village” down to “Regional”. (Take notes: there will be a quiz in the morning.) There is no point in re-inventing the wheel, and Hilarie Larson has a fine introduction to the world of Burgundy (including also Chardonnay) at the Wine Folly web site.

Some of the most fantastically expensive and swooned-over wines in the world are Burgundies of Pinot Noir. So what is this fascinating grape like? Well, once you have tasted it, you will not likely ever mistake anything else for it, or vice-versa (whereas, in contrast, there are several eminent Bordeaux reds that can readily be mistaken one for another). Jancis Robinson states that “Perhaps the only characteristics that the Pinot Noirs of the world could be said to share would be a certain sweet fruitiness and, in general, lower levels of tannins and pigments than the other ‘great’ red varieties, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah.”

The great claim about Pinot Noir is that it is the premier grape for expressing that elusive quality, terroir. The French Wine Guide defines terroir as “a group of vineyards (or even vines) from the same region, belonging to a specific appellation, and sharing the same type of soil, weather conditions, grapes and wine-making savoir-faire, which contribute to give its specific personality to the wine.” That’s really not very helpful; as the Wikipedia article on the word better puts it, “Terroir can be very loosely translated as ‘a sense of place’, which is embodied in certain characteristic qualities, the sum of the effects that the local environment has had on the production of the product.” That is why Pinots from vineyards scarcely a stone’s throw apart (literally) can differ substantially in almost every respect (yet be equally good—or great, or mediocre—wines. Notice that neither definition refers to the wine maker: it is as if the wines magically make themselves from the grapes; obviously, however, the wine maker is, as one might say, the lens through which the the terroir is perceived in the glass.

If we try to get more definite, we can say that cruder Pinots, grown where the climate is really a bit too warm for it, produce relatively simplistic fruit bombs often described as "jammy"; we recall some that tasted like they should be spread on toast. In better circumstances, the resulting wine is light-to-medium in color and body, and pervaded by fruit flavors of the dark-red-berry sort, typically cherry but sometimes raspberry/strawberry. Beyond those basics come the highly variable terroir variations of earthiness, cedar, tobacco, and the usual host of vague words that try to express the subtle and complex red-wine flavors for which there are still really no good words.

Factoid: French wine law allows most Pinot Noir Burgundy to be cut with up to 15% of regional white-wine grapes. In practice, such blending is extremely rare.

Some Descriptions of Pinot Noir Wines

About.com
“Pinot Noir is a dry, red wine that typically exhibits fruit-forward character with strawberry, cherry, raspberry and blackberry fruit taking the cake for palate presence. Notable earth-driven layers are also quite common in a glass of Pinot, with herbal, mushroom, leather, and game-like qualities being fairly familiar. Warm spice notes also make their way into the Pinot Noir palate profile, often in the form of cinnamon, clove and smoky, tobacco nuances.”
Jancis Robinson
“Pinot, as I have said, can vary enormously but its essential characteristic is charm. It tends to be fruity, perfumed and haunting. It dances on the palate rather than overpowering it. Heavy tannins and deep colour are not essential elements in a fine Pinot Noir – not even in a young Pinot Noir. In fact some of my favourite burgundies are not grand, long-living monsters but lively, sprightly essences of place, sometimes just a general village wine – not one labelled with the name of a grand cru or even a premier cru but one carrying simply the name of a village…Wine producers the world over tend to be so smitten by the quality of the greatest red burgundies that they cannot resist trying to make Pinot Noir where at all possible. There are accordingly small plantings all over Europe and beyond. But very few regions can claim to have a real proven affinity with the grape. The Pacific north-west state of Oregon was the first New World wine region to claim Pinot Noir as its own, but its variability of climate (and, it must be said, some less than perfect clones) has made quality extremely irregular. When Oregon succeeds, it makes a particularly fruity style of Pinot. Next to claim the crown were fog-cooled pockets of California such as the Russian River Valley (big juicy Pinots), Carneros (lighter and more fragrant) and the Central Coast between Monterey and Santa Barbara where certain sites have shown over a decade that they can reliably ripen Pinot, just, and make truly appetising examples…New Zealand is setting its cap at Pinot Noir and certain examples from Martinborough/Wairarapa just north-east of Wellington in the south of the North Island and Central Otago towards the south of the South Island suggest that they may well have a real claim to be the next great Pinot region.”
Enology International
“One Pinot Noir winemaker who changed to a more commercial style [picking at higher sugars, lower acidity, dehydration] and saw his ratings and sales take off, remarked ‘Elegant and delicate wouldn’t score more than 82 points. Each year the bar is raised and the further we get from Pinot Noir. But we want to make a wine that sells. What is success: maintaining a style or selling 30,000 cases?’”
The Kitchn
“Pinot Noir should never be described as powerful. The beauty of Pinot Noir wines lies in their elegance, finesse, perfume, silky tannins, and bright fruit character. Pinot wines are seductive, drawing you in with their captivating bouquet. With age they can develop complex aromas and flavors of earthy truffle, leather and dried herbs.”
The Wine Cellar Insider
“Pinot noir produces a heavily perfumed wine with scents of earth, spice, cherries, strawberries and raspberries when ripe. It is a light to medium bodied wine, with high acidity that can age well. Burgundy is an expensive wine region. While great wines are produced in Burgundy, many wine collectors state, finding a good Burgundy is a bit of minefield. While the great wines are amazing, as often as not, the bottles they buy and open do not deliver their desired levels of pleasure.”
Wine Tasting Reviews
“Pinot Noir wine is produced from red grapes but it is much lighter in color than other red wines. Pinot Noir flavors and aromas include roses, fruits, black cherry, berry, and currant. Other Pinot Noir characteristics include high acidity and low tannins. Pinot Noir’s flavor depends heavily where it is grown and how the wine maker treats it, so a good winery can produce exceptional wines. However, Pinot Noir is finicky and can produce poor wines even when the wine maker does things right.”
The French Scout
“The structure is delicate and fresh. The tannins are very soft; this is related to the low level of polyphenols. The aromatics are very fruity (cherry, strawberry, plum), often with notes of tea-leaf, damp earth, or worn leather. Yet pinot noir is very transparent to the place where it is grown. The staggering range of wines produced makes it pointless to define which personality is the best expression of the variety.”
Darryl Rosen
“Pinot Noir is described as tasting like strawberries, black cherries, leather, game, mushrooms, spice and humus. Some simple, straightforward, well-priced Pinot Noirs do taste like strawberries, but for most Pinot Noir, aromas and tastes vary fairly widely.”
Food & Wine
“Pinot Noir can be among the most amazing wines you’ll ever taste, and it can be flat-out anticlimactic. It inspires more rhapsodies—and disappointments—among wine lovers than any other grape. When it’s good, it’s ethereally aromatic, with flavors ranging from ripe red berries to sweet black cherries, and tannins that are firm but never obtrusive. (When bad, unfortunately, it’s acidic, raspy and bland.)”

Some Pinot Noirs to Try

In the process of preparing this list, we perused a great many web pages purporting to present lists of good-quality Pinot Noir at modest prices (most under $20, some under $25). Frankly, we were horrified. True, none of the wines presented were actually dire, but the great majority were, by most critical ratings, thoroughly mediocre—apparently selected on price first with quality a dim second.

We believe we have here escaped that syndrome, and present what we think are good wines. No $20-or-under is going to match a great Burgundy, but that doesn’t mean you have to drink plonk to survive the cost.

For a Splurge

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This page was last modified on Saturday, 30 October 2021, at 11:26 pm Pacific Time.

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