Understanding Pinot Noir and Wine

Pinot noir has caused more grief to more growers and winemakers than any other grape, but still they persist with this tantalizingly fussy and fickle variety.

Producers in all corners of the world attempt to grow pinot noir because it is the grape of red burgundy - the grape behind Romanee-Conti, Chambertin, Clos de Vougeot, and all the other great Cote d'Or reds - just as chardonnay is the variety behind the great white burgundies. But, while chardonnay will settle almost anywhere, pinot noir is frustratingly persnickety about its climate, its soils, the way it is handled during the growing season, and the way it is handled once the grapes are picked and the wine is being made in the cellar. As the Burgundians say, there is far more to their wine than mere grape variety.

Pinot noir can be coaxed into giving reasonably deep color and significant tannin, but generally it produces light to medium-colored red wines with relatively low tannin and acidity. It takes well to French oak, judiciously used, but not to the more robust, spicy flavor of American oak. In too cool a climate -perhaps an off year in Burgundy or Alsace - it ends up thin and pallid. In too warm a climate - which includes many of the places it has been tried in the New World - it becomes jammy. But, when everything goes right, it has the most seductive of perfumes and silkiest of textures. Raspberries, strawberries, and cherries mingle with roses, violets, incense, and hints of oriental spice. In burgundy, with time, some of the sweet fruitiness gives way to richer, more savory, game and truffle flavors - a gout de terroir, or local taste, that has almost entirely eluded the New World.

Some of the finest red burgundies from the Cote de Nuits need several years to reach their peak and then, gratifyingly, stay there for a long time; but most pinot noirs are ready to drink more or less as soon as they are bottled and don't last nearly as long as cabernet sauvignon of equivalent quality.

Among the New World regions making headway with pinot noir are Oregon, cooler areas of California (such as Carneros, Russian River Valley, and Santa Maria), and New Zealand (including Martinborough, Marlborough, and Central Otago regions). Australia has had some success in the cooler regions of Victoria (for example, Yarra) and in Tasmania, but much is used, as it is in Champagne, to produce sparkling wines. South Africa and Chile are both having a try.

Aside from France, the European countries that take pinot noir most seriously are Germany (where it appears as spatburgunder) and Austria (under the name of spatburgunder or blauburgunder). Pinot noir has also spread across eastern Europe, but the Burgundians need not lose any sleep over that.