Twenty years ago, I used to quip that my heart would sink to my boots whenever a winemaker asked, “Would you like to try my Pinot Noir?” The enquiry usually came at the end of a visit and tasting, and a response in the affirmative was the only response. Some polite mutterings would follow before I signaled my retreat with an “Is that the time?” exclamation. Relating this semi-apocryphal scenario to a wine merchant friend, saying how exasperating I found it to taste a fine range of wines, only to be brought up short by a lumpen or vapid Pinot, he counseled, “Well, it took the Burgundians one thousand years to get it right, and sometimes they still make a mess of it, so it is not surprising the newcomers struggle. Give them time.”
Two decades later, the picture has changed markedly, which makes this, the latest monograph from the International Wine & Food Society, well timed to catch the rising tide of quality and interest in the prima donna grape, of which I once wrote, “… fickle as the Irish weather, bewitching as a temptress, enchanting as a nightingale.” Anne Krebiehl MW echoes this in her introduction: “In short, it captivates us, and its best examples transcend mere taste and flavor and let us glimpse something almost divine. For some reason, Pinot Noir engenders obsessiveness, both in those who drink it and in those who grow and make it.” Any Pinot-phile pondering those words—and the slew of rhetorical
This Article was originally published on World of Fine Wine
