Pinot Uprighted
The
Pinot Noir story is a remarkable one. It’s amazing what “the
movie”, whatever you happen to think of it, has wrought in
the wine business. What’s more amazing is how long wine
professionals have been patiently sniffing, tasting, talking
and writing about their pet grape variety to virtually zero
effect versus the sales landslide one whining celluloid
neurotic has precipitated. Are there that many people that
actually want to be like Miles? Do we see him as a role
model to emulate? Weighty questions beyond the scope of a
humble wine column. The net effect, however, is that Pinots
that purveyors all along the production chain were virtually
begging their customers to buy not long ago are now
allocated.
Usually, when
there’s success of this magnitude in a category there is
dilution of quality as everyone rushes to cash in. With
Pinot Noir prices have risen but, interestingly enough,
quality has not suffered. In fact, recent tastings of Pinot
Noir from around the globe in moderate price ranges have
revealed that the quality level we’re seeing today in this
ever fickle grape variety is better than ever. In
California, where a great proportion of the crop has
traditionally been diverted off into sparkling wine
production because there have been too few buyers for the
table wine, there are delicious Pinot Noirs being made today
at reasonable prices. Oregon, New Zealand, Chile, Australia,
they’re all producing their fair share of outstanding Pinot.
Even the French. Somehow we’ve figured this grape out, we’ve
gotten the message about which clones to plant, where to
plant them, how to manage yield, how to handle the fruit,
how to ferment and age it. This is the golden age of Pinot
Noir and all hail Hollywood for inadvertently turning the
public on to it.
This is all by
way of introduction to the fact that there were very few
dogs in my recent blind tastings of popularly priced Pinot
Noir, and quite a few absolutely delicious wines. Some even
qualify as run-don’t-walk bargains. They are listed in
ascending order of quality. While there is a rough
correlation with price, please note that there are some gems
that you can buy for the price of the average watery Pinot
Grigio.
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