Pinot Noir from around the world
With red Burgundy prices going ever higher, there are precious few bargains to be had there but it’s never been a better time to enjoy Pinot Noir from other parts of the world.
Pinot Noir is one of the oldest and most renowned grapes in the world but also one of the hardest to grow. Ripening early puts it at risk of frost and its thin skins make it vulnerable to rot and mildew and a host of other diseases. Timing the harvest to strike the right balance of ripeness and acidity is also critical. Overall, Pinot tends to thrive in cooler climates and soils containing chalk and clay.
While climate change means warmer temperatures in Burgundy with the risk of overripe grapes and the potential to lose the subtlety the region is famous for. But other areas, notable northern Germany, are now able to produce fuller, more rounded wines. And England too has exploited warmer conditions and the relatively light London clay of Essex to produce wines of real note. Try the Lyme Bay Pinot under Recommendations.
Choices in the winery make a big difference to the style of a Pinot – whether the winemaker is seeking a light-coloured, fruit-led style or using oak to produce something more complex and ageworthy. The colour will be dictated by the length of maceration – soaking or fermentation on the skins – the longer, the deeper the colour. Another key choice is whether to destem the grapes or use whole bunches. The risk of the latter in cooler climates is the inclusion of unripe flavours from the stems but stems can add spice and savoury notes as well as tannin. Winemakers may also carbonic maceration where the grapes are blanketed with CO2 and enzymes within the grapes split the skins and release the juice which can then be fermented without the skins. This is a quick way to extract aromatics from the grapes without releasing too much tannin. In practice winemakers often combine various methods to produce their desired result.
So where to look for Pinot Noirs from around the world? There are many options and price points. My personal favourites are South Africa and Oregon, both cool climate areas which both exhibit a more fruity styles than a typical Burgundy but yet retail the savoury, dry finish I look for. More about these below. Germany Pinot is also on a roll at the moment and whereas it could, in the past, have been light in colour and lacking depth things have moved on. A Villa Wolf I tasted recently offered ripe, red and black fruits and smooth tannins from ageing in large oak barrels. Widely available at a reasonable price.
It’s very hard to generalise about Pinot Noir styles in various countries and regions but I’ll have a go. The comments below are intended just as a guide to help you decide where to look for your preferred style. Starting with France, Sancerre rouge tends to be lighter than Burgundy while you can find fuller, richer styles in the Languedoc (Domaine Begude from Majestic is a good example). The Cave St Verny in the Puy de Dôme is also producing some decent, good-value wines. I’ve also had Pinots from northern Italy but they tend to be a little light for my taste.
Moving to the New World, New Zealand offers Pinots with good acidity and pure red fruit, riper tasting from Marlborough where yields tend to be higher and more subtle, delicate flavours from Central Otago, one of the most southerly wine growing regions in the world where Pinot accounts for some 70% of production. Martinborough in the North Island is perhaps between the two in style. The Craggy Range Te Muna Road Pinot Noir 2019 recently won a Gold Award in the Decanter World Wine Awards 2022 praised for its silky complexity with ripe black plum and wild strawberry notes. Available from the Wine Society.
In Australia, Tasmania is probably closest to the Central Otago style producing light- to medium-bodied wines with strawberry and cherry flavours. Wines from the Yarra in Victoria tend to be richer and more fully flavoured. In the Adelaide Hills wines tend to be medium-bodied but with firmer tannins than those from the Yarra. The most intense Pinots probably come from the Mornington Peninsula, especially the Red Hill area), often deeply coloured and with complexity and higher tannins from the inclusion of stems. 10 Minutes by Tractor produce great examples, albeit at premium prices.
There is a vast choice of Pinot Noirs from the US but most are very expensive. All are made with ripe, velvety fruit flavours in mind with some of the most famous from the Russian River Valley in Sonoma. Producers include Williams Selyem and Rochioli. Lighter styles can be found in the Sonoma Coast up to Mendocino where cold ocean breezes moderate temperatures and sea fog affects the lower vineyards. Producers include Hirsch and Kutch. Further south, in Santa Barbara County, the vineyards benefit from cooling breezes from the Pacific resulting in medium-bodied Pinots but again with ripe red cherry and plum flavours.
Oregon
So to Oregon which for me offers a great combination of aromatic, soft fruit and an earthy, drying finish more typical of a European style. Winemaking in Oregon dates back only sixty years to the pioneering grower, David Lett (Eyrie Vineyards) who, with the help of the experts at UC Davis, pinpointed Oregon and in particular the Dundee Hills in the Willamette valley as offering the best terroir to plant Pinot Noir. Temperatures here during the growing season are almost identical to Burgundy, kept in check by the cooling winds coming through breaks in the Coastal Range. Vineyards range up to 325m in height which helps retain acidity and the red, iron-rich clay soils help preserve moisture during the dry summers.
The big break for Oregon came in the 1979 Wine Olympics when Eyrie’s Reserve Pinot was ranked 10th in the world. This attracted the attention of the famous Burgundy winemaker, Robert Drouhin, who arranged a re-match at which Eyrie came second only to Drouhin’s Chambolle Musigny. So impressed was Drouhin that he purchased land there and the family continue to produce wine under the Domaine Drouhin label. Drouhin wines are currently available in Waitrose.
Chief winemaker at Eyrie is now Jason Letts, son of David,and they continue to make wines in small quantities – just 9,000 cases per year. He is passionate about preserving the quality of his soil using cover crops and encouraging mycelial, fungus growth. He explains how fungi, unlike plants, can break down minerals in the soil and help the vines better express their terroir. With his estate wine he uses native yeasts, a tiny amount of whole cluster, foot treading of the grapes and 24 month fermentation in tight grain, light toast oak barrels, only 5% of which are new. The result is a well-balanced wine with aromatic red fruit and a certain spiciness (said to be from the iron in the soil) and good tannic structure. The finish is long and dry. Eyrie wines are available from The Wine Society.
At a more affordable price, I’m also a fan of the Lemelson Thea’s Selection Pinot (also from The Wine Society) which also offers ripe (mainly) red fruits and spice with fins tannins and that earthy finish.
South Africa
Much of South Africa is too hot for Pinot Noir (hence it comprises just 1.3% of total acreage under vine) but conditions in the Cape South Coast region – Walker Bay, Elgin and Cape Agulhas – have proved ideal. Here you have a cooler climate given the proximity to the Atlantic, slightly longer days given the latitude and the average hottest days in the growing season similar to Burgundy. Tim Hamilton Russell, a lover of Burgundy wines, left his career in advertising in 1975 looking for the best place to plant Pinot Noir. He first considered Stellenbosch but there wine production was not allowed in a non-designated area. He liked Hermanus and bought an old mixed sheep and arable farm about 1,500m from the sea where he felt that he’d be able to ripen grapes at lower alcohol levels and retain acidity. South Africa’s soils are some of the oldest in the world – said to be 350m years old – and here, as in Oregon, the soil is a “Bokkeveld” shale top with iron-rich clay below which can retain moisture and enable dry farming which helps to concentrate the flavours in the grapes.
Hamilton Russell created the boundaries of the Walker Bay district and, with David Johnson of Newton Johnson, the three wards comprising the marvellously named Hemel-en-Aarde area (Heaven and Earth in Afrikaans) below the Babylon’s Tower mountain. These are: Hemel-en-Aarde Valley, Upper Hemel-en-Aarde and Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge. It’s generally held that the deepest, most concentrated wines come from the Valley area with lighter more aromatic wines from the mix of granite and clay in the Upper Valley and the most perfumed and “mineral” wines from the granitic soil of the Ridge.
The style of Hamilton Russell wines is definitely Burgundian but with slightly riper fruit. Some element of whole bunch is used, perhaps 10%, typically with a short cold soak which is reflected in the colour of the wines. they use natural yeasts but do inoculate as required. Ageing takes place in 228l French oak barrels from François Frères in Burgundy which, according to Anthony Hamilton Russell, are close to untoasted but around 25-40% new. The result is wines with tannic grip underpinning red berry and cherry fruit and savoury/spicy notes and a lingering, dry finish. Sadly a fire in 2019 caused the loss of 84% of the Hamilton Russell wines due to smoke taint and so grapes needed to be bought in but normal service was resumed in 2020.
There are many excellent producers in the Hemel-en-Aarde area and Tim Atkin MW, whose annual South Africa report is highly-regarded, identifies Crystallum, Hamilton Russell, Newton Johnson and Storm Wines as “first growths”. Of the 2019s, he singles out Crystallum’s Cuveé Cinema and Creation’s Emma from the Ridge, Newton Johnson’s Family Vineyards Pinot Noir from the Upper Valley and Storm’s Vrede from the Valley. I would add to this my personal favourites in terms of quality/price balance – Bouchard Finlayson’s Galpin Peak and Crystallum’s Peter Max- see Recommendations.
On a sadder note I recently tasted an excellent, deep, toasty 2018 Cape Chamonix Pinot Noir from Franschhoek with great flavour concentration. But South Africa’s endemic leafroll virus has decimated yields – down to a miniscule 1 hectolitre per hectare – and the decision has been made by new owners to grub up all the vines and start again. Such is the life of the farmer.
