Crush Course: Pinot Noir
your favorite wine lovers favorite wine grape
Wine Ideas Crush Course is here to simplify your favorite (and my favorite) wine grapes.
We’ll be diving deep into a specific grape once a month. If you have a grape you want featured in this series, leave a comment and let me know, or argue in the comments with someone else about why your grape is better than their grape. Go crazy!
Today’s grape is Pinot Noir.
Why? I’ve been studying Pinot Noir for 10 years and I’m still working it out. Winemakers insist it’s extremely hard to grow, and even the most fanatic wine drinkers (me) find it extremely hard to comprehend.
How can a grape be so transportive? How can it express where it’s from in such a pure way? How does it feel somehow the most romantic of all wines?
The most expensive wines on the wine list at The Modern are 100% Pinot Noir. They come from ancient limestone soils in Burgundy, in Eastern France, from tiny parcels of land, historically farmed by monks, and aged in French oak barrels. You can find some for $25,000, but most exist between $400-$600.
I’m giving you Pinot Noir suggestions today far below these prices, but come in to The Modern and drink these wines if you want to!
TLDR on Pinot Noir:
It tastes like bright and fresh red fruits, like strawberries and cranberries, with earthiness and florality depending on where it comes from.
The grape produces dry red wines with medium alcohol, medium body, and high acidity.
It’s a thin-skinned grape, producing wines of light color that are translucent in the glass with low tannins.
It’s grown all over the world, but most famously in Burgundy in France, California, and Oregon.
As always, there are exceptions to every wine rule.
Most Pinots feel like this and would benefit from these rules, but I’ve had some 20-year-old examples that are mind-blowing, and some 2-year-old examples that need more time. In general, however, these are my Pinot rules:
Serve it just below room temperature. Try putting it in the fridge for about 15 minutes before serving.
Drink it from a wide wine glass. You can buy a specialty “Burgundy glass” or just use the biggest glass you can find.
You don’t need to decant it.
You don’t need to age it. Most Pinot Noirs are designed to be drank immediately.
Pinot Noir is my bestie for sales at The Modern because it is versatile with all sorts of food.
For my tables with one guest getting salmon and one guest getting steak? Pinot Noir.
One guest is getting truffle pasta and one guest is getting lamb? Pinot Noir.
All guests are vegetarian but they love red wine? Pinot Noir.
You can find Pinot Noir grown all over the world, but today’s most iconic styles come from:
Burgundy, France
The cultural homeland and birthplace of Pinot Noir, Burgundy is home to the most luxurious, expensive, and exclusive examples of this gorgeous grape. “Red Burgundy” as pros would call it, is about site expression. It’s nerdy, it’s about intricacies, details, and tiny nuances. Less about fruit impact, more about tension, minerality, and age-worthiness, and luxury.
Domaine Bitouzet-Prieur Bourgogne Pinot Noir 2023
Domaine Pierre Guillemot Savigny-les-Beaune Aux Gravains Premier Cru 2022
Domaine de l’Arlot Nuits-St-Georges Clos des Forets Saint Georges Premier Cru Monopole 2023
California
California Pinot Noir tends to emphasize fruit and texture. It’s confident, open, immediately charming, and a total crowd-pleaser. California is huge, and wine is grown everywhere, resulting in a huge range of Pinot Noir styles from tart and translucent Santa Maria Valley examples, to ripe and purple Napa Valley styles.
Lioco Mendocino Pinot Noir 2023
Occidental Freestone-Occidental Pinot Noir 2023
Calera Reed Vineyard Pinot Noir 2021
Oregon
Oregon sits stylistically between California generosity and Burgundy restraint. It often delivers energy and purity without heaviness. Elegant, lifted, restrained, and earthier than California counterparts.
Faila Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2023
Cristom Mt. Jefferson Cuvee Pinot Noir 2024
Bergstrom Silice Pinot Noir 2019
Do I think most wine drinkers should spend $600 on French Pinot Noir?
No, unless that cash is burning a hole in your pocket.
If you have the resources, however, you should absolutely drink it. Sometimes these bottles are epic. They have been some of the most remarkably profound wine experiences of my career. Transportive and poetic and emotional are some of the many romantic words I can use to describe spectacular Burgundy wines.
There is a reason they are so sought after - they truly are that good.
For those of us who don’t have that kind of disposable cash, or just feel like spending that much is silly, I hear you! Much like with Sauvignon Blanc, I think we can all benefit from a little adventure, a little creativity, and a little curiosity.
One of my favorite questions to get is, “I normally drink French Pinot Noir. What else do you recommend?”
You’re a Wine Ideas reader. You love adventure, creativity, and curiosity.
Instead of French, Cali, or Oregon Pinot, drink Pinot Noir from Germany where they call it Spatburgunder, drink Pinot Noir from New Zealand, Garnacha or Mencia from Spain, Gamay from California or from Beaujolais, or Nerello Mascalese or Frappato from Sicily.
What grapes should I feature next?
What Pinot Noirs do you love the most?
What do you drink instead of Pinot when the budget just doesn’t allow?
Debate in the comments <3
I like this series! Sangiovese next!
Chardonnay plz!!! Dispel the myth it’s just for suburban moms!