Thursday Virtual Happy Hour: Pinot Noir

The dominant red wine grape of Burgundy, Pinot Noir is now adopted and adored in wine regions all over the world. The variety's elusive charm has carried it to all manner of vineyards around the world and as of 2016, it was the sixth most-planted grape variety.

Pinot Noir causes more discussion and dispute than any other grape, most of which centers around finding and describing the variety's "true" expression. Examples from Santenay are undeniably different from those made on the other side of the world in Central Otago. At the same time they are all unmistakably, unquestionably Pinot Noir. It takes a great deal of care and skill to make Pinot Noir perform. The results vary wildly from watery, acidic candy water to some of the richest, most intensely perfumed wines on Earth. This elusive perfection has earned the variety obsessive adoration from wine lovers all over the world.

As a thin-skinned grape variety, Pinot Noir generally has a moderate to high acidity, a low level of phenolic compounds, low to moderate levels of soft tannins and is generally paler in color than most other red wines. Red wines range from a pale pinkish red through to the darker tones which an interior designer might recognize as Burgundy. Color and body do not necessarily intensify as price and/or quality rises, and even the deepest examples tend to have an appealing translucence and minimal opacity in the wine's core.

The essence of Pinot Noir wine is its aroma of red berries and cherry (fresh red cherries in lighter wines and stewed black cherries in weightier examples). Many of the more complex examples show hints of forest floor. Well-built Pinot Noirs, particularly from warmer harvests, suggest leather and violets, sometimes recalling Syrah.

Pinot Noir accounts for just under 40 percent of Burgundy's vineyards (around 10,500 hectares or 26,000 acres), with Chardonnay at just over half. However these figures include Chablis, where white wine dominates. Pinot Noir's heartland is the Côte de Nuits, where it accounts for around 80 percent of plantings. Fine wines can come from Fixin, Marsannay and Côte de Nuits-Villages.

We have a choice of videos to watch including:

1. https://youtu.be/g04Jn78TwmE?si=ZBUOZ-P9Sz-S50SM - Pinot Noir (Everything you need to know) - Wine Folly (6:22)
2. https://youtu.be/ffj6UM6VW6A?si=c2txNDk75oGVaqve - Pinot Noir - No Sediment (4:54)
3. https://youtu.be/RfsIWnphtzQ?si=PGQficzvvWS22_Zt - An Expert Somm's Guide to Pinot Noir - SOMM TV (11:49)

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So, pick up a bottle and watch a couple of videos. Let us know what you’re drinking and eating, and, if possible, the region from which your wine comes. Do you have any comments (positive or negative) about the videos? And, as always, tell us what’s going on in your life - what's happening with you, how you're feeling about things, updates, successes, challenges - as much or as little as you’re willing to disclose. We are in this together. And - thank goodness - we have wine!

Cheers!!