Pinot Noir Tasting

Pinot Noir Facts and Opinions:
1.The most difficult grape to cultivate successfully is Pinot Noir.

2. The finest regions in the world for Pinot Noir are Burgundy, Oregon’s Willamette Valley, and California’s Sonoma Coast and Russian River Valley.

3. The biggest crapshoot in the world of fine wine is finding a good bottle of Pinot Noir.

4. The most over-rated regions for Pinot Noir are California’s Carneros district and New Zealand.

5. Vintages make more of a difference in the production of quality Pinot Noir than for any other varietal.

6. Good Pinot Noir requires minimal intervention by the winemaker (no fining, no filtration, low yields).

7. If a Pinot Noir does not taste good from the date of its release, no amount of aging is going to make it better.

8. The hallmarks of quality Pinot Noir are complex, nearly ethereal aromatics, a silky, velvety palate feel, an uncanny ability to expand on the palate, and depth of flavor.

9. Pinot Noir should never be evaluated on color. Some of the most perfumed and intense Pinot Noirs look like Rosé sitting in the glass.

10. The most important fact to know when buying Pinot Noir is the name of the grower. For example, there are about 80 producers of Clos Vougeot, a 250 acre vineyard with quality ranging from the ridiculous to the sublime in any given year. The top growers (perhaps 6-7 out of 80) succeed almost all the time.

The Wines

1. Cartlidge & Browne Pinot Noir 2001, California $10.99
Known affectionately as “C & B”, this is perhaps the finest value line in California. This Pinot Noir has all the attributes of a more expensive bottling lacking only in complexity. The fruit is soft and ripe, the texture silky, and the finish is surprisingly lengthy.

2. Rutz Pinot Noir 2001, Sonoma Coast $16.99
An under-rated source of quality Pinot Noir, Rutz’s 2001 comes from the prestigious Sonoma Coast appellation. This was a fine vintage in that region with plenty of sunlight and a long growing season. The wine is remarkably opulent for its humble price. This wine has been a featured wine by the glass at Charleston Restaurant for several months.

3. Truchot Bourgogne Rouge 2001 $24.99
Jacky Truchot is a superb winegrower whose Pinot Noirs consistently offer great value. His is one of those which should never be evaluated on color. Its attributes are a sensual perfume, silky palate feel, and outstanding depth of flavor in what is the lowest level of red Burgundy. (Bourgogne rouge).

4. Villaine Bourgogne "La Digoine" 2002 $32.99
Aubert de Villaine is 50% owner of the famous Domaine de la Romaneé-Conti but this is where he lives. While this wine costs 1/10th the price of a bottle of DRC, it delivers plenty of satisfaction, particularly in the superb 2002 vintage.

5. Villaine Mercurey "Les Montots" 2002 $35.99
This is Aubert de Villaine’s most prestigious appellation. The wine offers just a bit more stuffing than the Bourgogne “La Digoine” while revealing the ripeness of the 2002 vintage, perhaps the finest vintage for red Burgundy since 1990.

6. Bethel Heights Pinot Noir 2002, Willamette Valley $17.99
2002 is shaping up as the best vintage EVER for Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Bethel Heights has a 20+ year history (long for Oregon) and their entry level wine in this vintage is juicy and a total turn-on.

7. Arcadian Pinot Noir 2002, Santa Lucia Highlands $24.99
This Central Coast entry is very Burgundian in style. Owner/winemaker Joseph Davis prunes for extremely low yields, picks early before alcohols soar, but gets fully ripe fruit because the low yields mean less fruit to ripen.

8. Mongeard Mugneret Savigny-Les-Beaune "Les Narbantons" 2000 $28.99
Mongeard owns some of the choicest parcels in Burgundy including this Savigny premier cru, one of the top sites in the Cote de Beaune.

9. Claude Dugat Bourgogne Rouge 2001 $26.99
Most Burg-hounds consider Claude Dugat to be one of the top half-dozen producers of red Burgundy. This is his entry level wine but which has the stuffing for 6-8 years of improvement in the cellar.

10. Dugat-Py Bourgogne Rouge 2001 $35.99
Ditto for Claude Dugat’s brother, Bernard. Because of France’s inheritance laws, the Dugat estate was divided a number of years ago. See whose wine you prefer.

11. Paul Hobbs Pinot Noir 2002, Russian River $49.99
Paul Hobbs has the touch with Pinot Noir. He produces very elegant wine without sacrificing the depth of flavor obtained from California’s warm growing conditions.

12. Clos des Lambrays Morey St. Denis 1er Cru 2001 $74.99
This is one of the star producers in all of Burgundy. The winery has been on a roll for several years now and this Pinot Noir has all the characteristics of a wine which should make a lot of people happy.