Wine & Spirits - Fall 2017 - 57

Pinot Noir
by Sarah Looper

Pinot noir is the botanical equivalent of a radio transmitter. The vine,
through its grapes and its wine, is able to transmit what happened
subsoil, down to the last rainfall, the last heat spike, in each vintage,
making it one of the most expressive red-wine grapes in the world.
It's also a pain in the neck to grow well, as it is sensitive not only to the soils it grows in but also to challenges above ground, such as spring frost and rot. It
can be challenging to find inspired examples on winestore shelves, but when you find one that hits all of
the grape's hallmarks-fine-grained tannins, frisky
acidity, red-berry fruit and truffle-y, stony earth-
it just might make you an addict. Consider yourself
warned.
To get to know the grape, it makes sense to start in
Burgundy: No region in the world boasts a broader
matrix of talented growers and exceptional sites for
the variety, not to mention a deeper history. The
first written documentation of pinot noir as a crop
are found in land leases and ordinances in France
dating back to the late 14th century. At the time,
pinot noir was already deemed a wine of quality by
the church and aristocracy (consider Charlemagne,
who, six hundred years earlier, was himself a Burghound. Myth has it that his wife, Luitgarde, disliked
how red wine stained his white beard and convinced
him to switch to white). Today, Burgundy can be confusing, thanks, in part, to the continuation of Napoleonic inheritance laws, which force all landholders
to divide their vineyards equally among their children. The slicing up of land for more than two hundred years has resulted in dozens of different people,
oftentimes related, owning parcels, or even just a few
vines, within some vineyards.
Also confusing are the numerous designations that
appear on Burgundy labels: Grand Cru, Premier Cru,

names of villages, as well as unclassified but recognized parcels the locals call lieux-dits. These classifications are meant to highlight special plots of land, but,
depending on who grows and makes the wine, you
can find astonishing Burgundy from a simple lieudit, and pretty ordinary wine from a grand cru. It is
the optimal combinations of great land, a vigneron's
care and pinot noir's nuanced transparency to the
site that Burgundy collectors chase.
A defining attribute to pinot noir is its ability to
age. In its youth, pinot noir can be joyfully fruity
and expressive; as it ages, it becomes autumnal and
savory, evoking the scent of freshly raked October
leaves. Its delicacy and definition increase, as well,
the wine becoming more chiseled and fine boned,
the flavors balanced between fruit and savory notes.
Yet Burgundy isn't the only place in the world
capable of producing great pinot noir. The variety is
most at home in temperate climes: If the climate is
too cool, the grapes don't ripen, and if it's too hot, all
sorts of cooked flavors and bacterial beasts can take
over. But there's a range of delicious expressions in
between those extremes: At the cooler end of temperate-like Ahr, Germany-you'll find wines with
notes of barely ripe red berries, game and earth; in
warmer climates like California's Russian River Valley, pinot noir shows its exuberant, outgoing side, the
variety's savory notes playing background to pure,
rich, ripe dark fruit.
This is where our tasting begins, at the pinot noir
crossroads of cool climate versus warm climate.

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