Falstaff Magazin International 01/2021

wine / PINOT NOIR PINOT

wine / PINOT NOIR PINOT NOIR Pinot Noir bunches are harvested into small buckets so that the weight of the bunches does not crush the delicate grapes. A GENEALOGY? The origins of Pinot Noir are lost in the mists of time. It is one of the world’s oldest grape varieties – supposedly Pinot and its ancestors have been around for 2,000 years. Pinot Noir is a global phenomenon: it grows on every continent and shimmers with its indelible sense of ‘Pinot-ness’ in many guises. On all manner of soils, on ancient vineyards or virgin land, coastal or continental – it has an extraordinary hold over those who grow, make and drink it. It comes with more magic and mysticism than all other grapes put together. Pinotphiles have long admitted defeat in the face of this ancient grape: once smitten, we just continue searching for that haunting scent which carries so much more than just fruit. There is something primordial and visceral in Pinot Noir’s perfume, something earthy and eternal, something that encapsulates While Pinot is a parent to many grape varieties via natural crossings, nobody can trace Pinot’s own parents. Early mentions of it under the names of Noirien, Auvernat and Morillon and go back to the 13th century. Robinson, Harding and Vouillamos in their ground-breaking tome Wine Grapes attest that “Pinot Noir was already considered to be a variety of utmost quality in the Middle Ages.” It is its unparalleled continuity of cultivation in Burgundy that explains why Pinot Noir and site-specific viticulture are inseparable. Pinot Noir is distinguished by its thin grape skins. This makes it rather susceptible to rot but it also explains the wine: it has nuance and is never heavily tannic. Pinot Noir loves temperate regions: warm soils with sunny but not hot days. It can and does thrive in marginal climates and it has found convincing homes around the globe wherever these conditions are met. both life and death in its autumnal shades of decay. It can be a floral cloud of hawthorn blossom and tart, red fruit; often it is a deeply infused sense of soil with dimensions of tea leaf, rock and forest; in its maturity it becomes a metaphor for dimming light, spent foliage and fading voluptuousness. Pinot Noir is also the ultimate challenge: it is the red grape that proves a point in the cool sites of England and the windswept wilds of Patagonia. It defies Pacific fog and Arctic winds. Yet in other places it speaks of sumptuous sunshine, of eucalypt and conifer, of cooling limestone and smoky slate. It makes its very own, constantly shifting map of the wine world and we are here to trace it. Photo: Getty Images/Torri Photo 14 falstaff winter 2021

IT IS THE GRAPE THAT PROVES A POINT. IT MAKES ITS VERY OWN, CONSTANTLY SHIFTING MAP OF THE WINE WORLD AND WE ARE HERE TO TRACE IT. in minute quantities from vineyards classified into grands crus and premiers crus. Trying to list the best of them would be folly: too many are outstanding and poetic. They are made in a wide array of styles. Almost everyone who makes wine anywhere in the world passes through Burgundy – to visit, learn, study, taste or work – because it is the place where it all began. BURGUNDY: THE CRADLE Burgundy is the blueprint and Pinot Noir is the medium: wherever anyone makes sitespecific, single-varietal wine, they are channelling what happened in northeastern France hundreds of years ago on a ridge of Jurassic limestone called Côte d’Or, or Golden Slope. Records of named vineyards begin in the 7th century – 1,300 years ago. Feudal lords endowed churches like Nôtre Dame de Bèze and the Abbey of Saint-Vivant with vineyards and land for the planting of vines. Monastic communities did most of the work. Imagine a life without electricity, with few creature comforts, with days measured in canonical hours. Imagine a life where tending vines and making wine is as much an act of devotion as it is work – and imagine the acute sensibilities of the sisters and brothers to their surroundings. They were attuned to the slightest differences in soil and aspect of each hillside – and their wines bore these differences out. Initially, the wines were likely made from field blends. Over the centuries, the vineyards were delineated into hundreds of individually named climats, or parcels, and one grape stood out for its quality: Pinot Noir. But it needed much care and did not produce large yields. The cultivation of Pinot Noir thus remained for centuries in the hands of religious or aristocratic estates who had the means to care for it: feudal and religious structures ensured its development as a quality variety at a time when most viticulture was based on field blends of various grape varieties. This is why Burgundy is where quality viticulture was born. This era only came to an end with the French Revolution in 1789 – by which time Pinot Noir’s quality was undoubted and the vineyards in the Côte d’Or were famous. Today, these ancient vineyards between the towns of Dijon and Beaune are recognised by UNESCO world heritage, their outlines mapped and enshrined in law. Burgundy’s wines are still the most famous, expensive and sought-after Pinot Noirs in the world. Some are made FRANCE: LOIRE VALLEY AND ALSACE France has further outposts of Pinot Noir: both can trace their existence to monastic origins and both have come into their own with climate change. The first one is in the Loire valley in an appellation today famous for its white wines including Sancerre. In fact, Pinot Noir used to be Sancerre’s mainstay long before Sauvignon Blanc became its calling card. In the cool 20th century, much of Sancerre’s Pinot Noir was turned into rosé wines but climate change has turned its fortunes. The wines come with red-fruited elegance and much fragrance – often with that tell-tale conifer scent of the Loire. Pinot Noir is now also planted further afield, around Montlouis and even beyond Nantes towards the Atlantic and sold as IGP Vin de Loire – these are slender, tender reds that take well to being chilled. BEST OF Loire THIBAULT DENIZOT BIORGA BEAUX 92 REGARDS 2019, SANCERRE CHÂTEAU DE SANCERRE TERRE DE 92 CHAILLOUX 2016, SANCERRE SAGET LA PERRIÈRE DOMAINE DE 91 TERRES BLANCHES SANCERRE LA LOUISONNE 2015, SANCERRE DENIS BARDON PINOT NOIR 90 LAFOLLIE 2020, IGP LOIRE DONATIEN BAHUAUD PINOT NOIR 90 NO. 7 2019, SANCERRE < winter 2021 falstaff 15