Information about Black Varietal

Pinot Meunier

Pinot Noir

Pinotage

Overview of Pinot Noir
Pinot Noir is the classic black grape of Burgundy, and the best known member of the Pinot family. Among the other well known members of this family are Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, and Pinot Meunier. Pinot appears to have been one of the first varieties to have been cultivated. It is used to make red wine with the exception of Champagne where it is pressed to avoid extraction from the skins (and of course similarly in the production of sparkling wine elsewhere). There are almost no exceptions to the rule that it is vinified as a single varietal. Not one of the darker varietals, Pinot Noir can be relatively light colored, with a color spectrum tending toward the orange. Typically the wine shows red fruits, raspberries, strawberries, cherries. With age, it can develop more earthy aromas, sometimes tending to show barnyard aromas. It has average acidity, and makes a medium weight wine with medium tannins. The aging potential varies widely; the best wines of Burgundy can age for decades. Unlike Bordeaux, however, Pinot Noir wines can disintegrate suddenly, rather than decaying gradually over protracted periods.

The climate for Pinot Noir
Pinot Noir tends to bud early and to ripen early, making it suitable for growth in cooler, even marginal, climates. (This makes it susceptible to Spring frosts, sometimes a problem in Burgundy, often a problem in Champagne.) It needs warmth to ripen fully, and failure to do so can be a problem in poor years in Burgundy. Because it has a short ripening season, a good vintage requires a perfect overlap with the climate in Burgundy, where the Continental climate makes for sharp transitions in the seasons. A maritime climate extends the growing season, allowing high phenolics, greater color, and more choices for picking, as well as better consistency between vintages. In climates that are too warm, it produces somewhat soupy wines. The ideal conditions, provided on the Côte d'Or, are for a reasonable amount of rainfall, sunshine that is not too constant or direct, and temperatures that are not too elevated, leading to a slow maturation of the grapes that leaves them with sufficient acidity. Good diurnal variation is important, favoring the Continental climate. Pinot Noir likes a heavy soil with good drainage, and does well on limestone content.

Regions for Pinot Noir
Pinot Noir is most important locally in Burgundy, where it accounts for all red wine except Beaujolais produced from Gamay, and in Oregon, where it is 50% of plantings. It is also a high proportion of plantings in Champagne (about a third) and in New Zealand (almost a quarter). Burgundy remains the archetype for Pinot Noir, and the production of similar wine from other regions is considered somewhat of a "Holy Grail". Good attempts have been made in recent years in Oregon, New Zealand, and Germany.

Vinification of Pinot Noir
Because the skin is relatively light in color, Pinot Noir is often fermented at higher temperature to extract color. It is important to extract color and flavor but not too much tannin. Chaptalization is common in Burgundy; acidification is sometimes used. The grapes are usually destemmed, and whole berries are fermented without prior crushing. Prefermentation maceration (cold soak) became fashionable in the 1980s to increase color.

Clones of Pinot Noir
All Pinots tend to mutate and to produce new variants rather rapidly. There are thought to be >1000 clones of Pinot Noir in Burgundy. This partly explains wide variations in features such as color extraction, productivity, etc. Clonal variety is one of the reasons why it is one of the more difficult varietals to pin down with regard to typical characteristics. Changes in clonal varieties contributed (along with changes in vinification) to changing styles of Burgundy. During the 1970s, clones of Pinot Droit were planted that were more productive, easier to crop (because they readily grow upright), and which generally gave lighter wines. Traditional low-yielding clones are Pinot Fin and Pinot Tordu. In the 1990s the Dijon clones became available, which are lower yielding and give better flavors on the middle palate.

Origins of Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, and Pinot Meunier
The members of the Pinot family show several physical characteristics closely related to those of wild grapevines of the ancestral type V. vinifera ssp silvestris, and are therefore considered to be ancient cultivars. The most widely grown members of the family are Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, Pinot Gris, and Pinot Blanc. The majority of individual clones from these varieties have almost identical genetic maps, implying that they all originate from the same ancestral Pinot seedling. Two other varieties, Pinot Moure and Pinot fin teinturier (which has colored juice), are also virtually identical.