Pinot Noir

Pinot Noir has been called the “heartbreak grape” because it is so difficult to get right. It is a finicky grape that only grows in selected cool climates. It buds early making it very susceptible to frost. Its thin skin makes it highly susceptible to grape pests and diseases. Pinot Noir needs regular sun during the growing season to ripen, but it will quickly over ripen if the weather is too hot. If there is too much rain at harvest, the grapes will rot or burst or both. In the winery it will only respond to loving and gentle handling and is “transparent” in the sense that it will show every fault or flaw that results from anything other than meticulous winemaking. When Pinot Noir is grown in the right place and in a year with the appropriate weather and put into capable hands, it can produce the most sensual and sublime wine of all.

Everyone can recognize a great Pinot Noir when they drink one, but it has no specific flavor or style. It is one of the few species of vitis vinifera that tastes like the place or terroir where it is grown. Pinot Noir often has an aromatic red or black fruit character, with hints of baking spices like a cherry pie just pulled from the oven, nuances like roasted coffee or tea, and often smoky, leathery, or earthy accents as well. Even truffles, barnyard and game are not beyond its reach. Great Pinot Noir has serious layers of flavor and complexities and a silky mouth feel. It is perfume mixed with power, sensual yet dominating, and pure pleasure from the first smell to the velvety, mouth-coating finish.

Noted wine writer Oz Clarke put it most eloquently: “The flavors of the great Burgundies are sensuous, often erotic, above rational discourse and beyond the powers of measured criticism as they flout the conventions in favor of something rooted in emotions and passions too powerful to be taught, too ancient to be meddled with.”

Pinot Noir is also versatile and arguably the most food-friendly red wine. Although it is so highly perfumed, complex and soft that it is outstanding without any food at all, it has enough acidity and richness to marry with a diverse menu of foods. It couldn’t care less if the filet is salmon or lamb or beef or the roast is veal or pork or chicken. Lush textures in the mouth and soft tannins keep bringing the drinker back to the glass all night.

Probably the best endorsement for Pinot Noir is the fact that Pinot Noir is the wine that winemakers want to make and the wine that winemakers want to drink. They say you can tell a good winemaker by the number of bottles of Pinot Noir in his or her cellar.