Building the Home Bar: Pinot Noir
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Pinot Noir is a huge player in most vineyards around the world, especially in places like Burgundy and Oregon, offering unique characteristics and rich history. This grape, like its fellow Vitus viniferas counterparts, can be enjoyed as table wine or more as a collectible that will surely be enjoyed years after the original harvest vintage.
As a youthful wine, pinot noir tastes like sun-kissed cherries and raspberries who enjoy taking short strolls through a damp forest full of hibiscus flowers. As an older, more matured wine, pinot noir tends to be a riper, almost a jam-like red fruit that still enjoys strolls in the forest, but this time they’re smoking fine Cuban cigars and the forest is full of fresh mushrooms. These are sensations you’ll get when drinking well-made pinot noir, whether you’re a novice wine drinker or a tenured wine professional.
Some of the most expensive and sought-after wines come from Pinot Noir’s birthplace, Burgundy, France. Pinot Noir has been grown here for centuries, so you can bet the wine here is world-class. Some of the few nuances that this wine can offer are like the description of an older, more matured pinot noir, the one that likes Cuban cigars and probably has an infatuation with nice leather. However, there are more inexpensive table wines that are available from the region that can range from $20-$35 dollars, that may express nuances of a younger, newer pinot noir.
Pinot in French means “pine”, a name the French came up with after observing the way the grapes tend to grow on the vine. What they originally saw was how the grapes like to grow into big, plump clusters that formed into a cone shape, really the quintessential grape on the vine look that you may have seen in cartoons. Noir was added to the name because of the grape’s dark hue, and in cinematic terms, for the dramatic and cunning characteristics the wine sometimes displays in the glass.
Pinot noir is known to be temperamental, so most winemakers find the grape hard to grow and just as hard to get it into a bottle. The grape prefers cooler climates that are in sandy or limestone heavy soil, somewhere the grape can grow comfortably and slowly, allowing the grape to not over-ripen too fast. Pinot noir is also known to be one of the friendlier red wines on the palate because the tannin levels are so low due to the thinness of the grape’s skin. However, this gives the grape less protection from certain vine diseases and viruses, adding to the many factors of what can go wrong with this very fidgety fruit.
One of the first things winemakers and vineyard botanists do is hunt down the perfect terroir (soil and other natural earth elements) that is most suitable for pinot noir. A lot of the time, the vines that produce this fruit are already well established, ranging from tens to hundreds of years old. The second order of business in pinot production is to let the grapes ripen just enough allowing a proper amount of sugar for fermentation and the proper amount of acidity so the grapes can express themselves fully. Once the grape is deemed suitable for harvest, it’s goes through a series of manual and natural processes, like most other wines, including crushing, fermentation, filtration, aging, then bottling.
Firesteed Winery Pinot Noir
When it comes to approachability and low-cost pinot noir, there is one that always comes to mind first: Firesteed Winery Pinot Noir. This was a wine that is usually given in a wine class during undergraduate studies, to demonstrate how a cheap wine from a great growing region can have great potential.
From the winery’s main website, they describe this wine as being ruby red in color while having a lively pop of cherry notes, followed by earthy notes with toasted cedar on the nose. Flavors of cranberry and cherry with a mouthwatering acidity on the palate and a smooth and lingering finish. It’s easy to remember this wine as it is a great representation of Oregon’s Pinot Noir growing abilities. You can find this wine at the Firesteed Winery main website or any liquor or wine store near you for about $17.
Melville Winery
Neatly situated amongst the rolling foothills of Western Santa Ynez Valley lies a new but fierce and honest winery called Melville. Founded in 1989, Melville is a trustworthy provider of some of the world’s finest Pinot Noir with humble beginnings sparked by their owner Ron Melville, who’s had his hands in the dirt for quite some time as the Melville’s originally owned and operated an estate in Sonoma County, Knights Valley. Today, Chad Melville is taking full advantage of this beautiful area as the head winemaker, providing critically acclaimed wines while truly honoring the land it was grown on.
Adam Etchegoyen, sales and hospitality director at Melville, can speak whole-heartedly on the Melville mission statement. Adam was a seasoned sommelier in Aspen, CO, and has tasted some of the world’s best wines, however, he states, “I had the Pinot Noir 2020 vintage and could barely swallow it, almost choking because I was so stunned…”. He follows with, “and this was the start of where I am now”, at Melville Winery.
The success of wine can be attributed to the climate and dirt it is grown in, Adam mentions, “The winery is 10 miles away from the ocean, alongside mountain ranges that go North to South down the coastline, but there is a range that opens up going West and East that allows the ocean breeze to naturally flow in with a constant morning fog that stabilizes the temperature of the grapes”.
“You have these long sunny days, the fog and the sandy vines that force the vines to struggle, all of these components allow it to become a complex, structured, and nuanced pinot noir” Adam states.
The Pinot Noir 2020 Vintage from Melville Estates is available at their main website shop for $40.
Domaine Nicolas Rossignol
Monsieur Nicolas Rossignol is a creator of thrilling new steppingstones for the future of masterclass viticulture. Born in 1974, Rossignol represents the 5th generation of vine growers in Volnay, France. After years of experience learning from some of the best winemakers across the globe, Rossignol returned home to his family’s Domaine and began the art of winemaking himself. By 1998, Rossignol had acquired nearly 11 acres in Volnay, Pommard, Beaune, Aloxe-Corton, and Pernand- Vergelesses, giving way to the beginnings of great wine production.
The Volnay 1er Cru 'Clos des Angles' 2016 is a well-rounded and sophisticated expression of Pinot Noir with notes of red cherry, tobacco, and wild mushrooms on the nose. The taste is soft but intense with notes of ripe raspberries, soft vanilla, and juicy plums with a finish of prominent yet shy tannins that linger for a few seconds revealing leather, sweet tobacco smoke, and elegant, sweet red fruits. This wine goes for about $115 and can be found at the vivino.
