Happy Pinot Noir Day!
The Burgundian Queen is pretty much universally regarded as the most elegant of all wines. Whether you love to quaff Meiomi or Romanée-Conti, anything by the name Pinot Noir just feels fancy.
It requires a little more care in the vineyard and in the winery, and winemakers love to use this grape to showcase their skill, their premium fruit, and their unique site characteristics. As such, Pinots can fetch a higher price. Higher end wines usually have more acidic and tannic structure, with earthy and spice notes, and are aged in oak barrels before bottling. But it can be made in a variety of styles, and some producers (and consumers) prefer a fresher, fruitier style with an emphasis on drinkability. Pinot Noir is transparent across different styles, betraying all manner of terroir and winemaking - shortcomings and prestige alike.
Pinot Noir is a very old grape, and has given rise to some other well known varieties - Chardonnay, Aligoté, and Gamay among them. Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris are mere mutations of Pinot Noir, producing different skin pigmentations. In some respects, it could be considered the grand-maman of modern wine. Having been grown for so long, there exist numerous different clones of Pinot Noir, with subtly varying but important differences in ripening, aromatics/phenolics, tannin structure, and more. Thorough research before planting, and some trial and error (and skilled blending), are rewarded with gorgeous wines.
Photo Credit: Wines of BC
As of 2022 there are 1,655 acres of Pinot Noir in BC, putting it at 2nd place of red wine grapes. This is a consistent trend going back to at least the 1990s. Overall, plantings of this variety increased by a massive 52% from 2008-2022. No other grape can match this growth except for Malbec, which only has 150 acres in BC. ln all the cooler regions of the province, Pinot Noir is the most planted grape variety. That’s the number 1 grape on either side of Okanagan and Skaha lakes (Lake Country, Kelowna, Peachland, Summerland, Penticton/Naramata, Kaleden, and Okanagan Falls), the Thompson Valley, Vancouver Island, the Fraser Valley, and the Gulf Islands. Surely this provincial matriarch deserves some kind of trophy.
Speaking of which, BC Pinot Noirs have won plenty of awards in national competitions. BC has swept the All Canadian Wine Championships for years, where we are over-represented. We have also performed extremely well at WineAlign with platinum, gold, silver, and bronze medals galore. The high quality of BC wines is earning international acclaim as well, for example two silvers and a bronze at the 2024 International Wine Challenge. 17 medals have also been awarded to BC Pinot Noirs by the International Wine and Spirit Competition in recent years. The world is paying attention!
Photo Credit: Wines of BC
In BC and abroad, Pinot Noir is used to make rosé, sparkling wine (including Champagne), and still red wine. For this article I will be focusing on the last of these. For some beautiful rosé made from Pinot Noir, see my previous post for Rosé Day. I’ve also written previously about Noble Ridge’s outstanding 66-month aged traditional method sparkling wine made in part with Pinot Noir.
As an early budding and early ripening variety, Pinot Noir grows best in cool to moderate climates that can allow it to ripen gradually and fully - not over and not under. It is also more vulnerable to spring frosts, and can require careful vineyard management in the coldest sites. Its tightly packed grape clusters are at greater risk of fungal infection, necessitating diligent canopy management. With thin skins, its colour and tannin are not plentiful so methods such as cold soaking, or pre-fermentation maceration, are often used, in addition to higher fermentation temperatures to maximize extraction. Destemming and crushing the fruit is common practice in Pinot Noir production, however some winemakers use a proportion of whole bunches, to enhance the wine’s red fruit and floral qualities. Semi-carbonic maceration is sometimes used to initiate intracellular fermentation in an oxygen-limited environment, producing fresh and fruity wines with playful notes of kirsch liqueur, cinnamon, and bubblegum.
Pinot drinkers love its lighter body, its fragrant, fruity, earthy character, and featherweight tannins. The predominant personality of Pinot Noir in the glass is that of red fruits like strawberries, cherries, red currants, raspberries, and cranberries, scented with other monoterpenes along the lines of violets or hibiscus. In warmer regions these fruit aromas can shift towards dark cherries and wildberry jam. Oak maturation imparts flavours of baking spice, toast, hazelnut, or smoke. Acidity is medium to high, more pronounced in cooler regions. Tannins are usually medium to low, with more intense sunshine and extractive methods bringing more tannin. Light- to medium-bodied wines are the norm, although as I mentioned, some are produced in a fuller, more hands-on style. Pinot Noir’s delicate nature generally precludes maturation in a large proportion of new oak barrels. Rather, producers will often use old oak, perhaps a small proportion of new barrels, or a combination of oak and stainless steel vessels. This approach preserves the fruit flavours and aromas. If given a few years of bottle age, wines can develop savoury complexity with flavours of earth, wet leaves, and mushroom, while the primary fruit notes progress towards dried or stewed berries.
Pairing food with Pinot Noir is fairly straight forward and depends on the style of the wine. Just to start, some pairings beginning with P: pizza, prosciutto, paella, pakoras, pupus, and procrastination.
Lighter, leaner wines are best served lightly chilled and with grazing boards, pâtés, terrines, grilled vegetables, rabbit, duck, or salmon.
Fruity, juicy Pinots are very versatile and go great with BBQ ribs, char siu, bao, seared tuna, and roast vegetable dips.
Richer, riper wines can be served at cool room temperature with lamb, steak, sausage, game, glazed ham, mushroom risotto, moussaka, rustic olive dishes, and baked Camembert.
Aged and savoury wines are well matched for game birds, and dishes with truffles.
Here are a few BC Pinot Noirs provided by the producers for this article.
Privato Woodward Collection ‘Tesoro’ 2020 Pinot Noir
A WineAlign 2023 Platinum winner from the underrated Thompson Valley. Aged 18 months in French oak followed by an additional year in bottle before release. The pale garnet colour betrays its age. The nose is suggestive of cherry clafoutis, strawberry coulis, raspberry tart, dried cranberry shortbread, fig jam, tobacco, forest floor, and spice. A pronounced lees character comes through like fresh pastries mentioned. Gorgeously complex and well equipped for further aging with bright acidity. If you have one of these at home, save it for Christmas. In 2028. Or just crush it now, whatever.
Spearhead 2022 Pinot Noir
The white label signifies their ‘everyday’ wines, meant for casual and immediate consumption. It just means a different style - no less quality than you’d expect from the 2024 Winery of the Year AND Best Performing Small Winery (as awarded by WineAlign). This wine won gold at this year’s All Canadian Wine Championships. Hand-harvested and destemmed grapes (from East Kelowna and Summerland) are cold-soaked for 5-7 days before undergoing native fermentation. Pressed wine is aged 13 months in French oak, 25% new. This is a real gem and excellent value. Stunning complexity with distinct and integrated flavours of stewed cherries and red plums, pomegranate, strawberry, earth, leather, tobacco, clove, cinnamon, and Herbs de Provence. All of the above is balanced with elevated acidity and glides smoothly along, resisting the inevitable finish for as long as it can. Spoiler alert: you’ll be waiting a while.
Spearhead 2022 Cuvée Pinot Noir
Production is smaller for this wine (310 cases) as only select barrels are chosen for the final blend. The same East Kelowna and Summerland fruit is sourced for this wine, with each clone harvested and fermented separately. [40% Dijon 667, 30% Dijon 115, 16% Pommard, 7% Dijon 828, 7% Dijon 777] The oak program is the same as for the white label but with a higher percentage of new barrels (40%). Beautiful aromatics of ripe strawberries and cherries, raspberry jam, violets, soil, and thyme. The structure here is more refined (a little higher acid and tannin than the others) and together with a spicy finish will delight a sophisticated palate. Definitely one to show off to the connoisseurs in your circles.
Monte Creek Living Land 2020 Pinot Noir
Exclusive to Wine Club members. Three vineyards of Pinot Noir went into this wine, from Keremeos, Lion’s Head, and Monte Creek estate. 10 months of aging was carried out in French oak barriques, of which 15% were new. That means the fruit dominates, with the usual red suspects. Cherry, raspberry, and strawberry with highlights of toasted oak, spice, and potting mixture. The floral quality is an anomaly, although well integrated - it comes across as orange blossom which gives this wine a unique and memorable personality. A new friend!
This is a wine that will never go out of fashion. It’s just too delicious and versatile. It fills a niche like no other red wine can - it’s not too heavy, not too alcoholic, and can offer such crazy, fascinating complexity, and be enjoyed immediately or patiently cellared for years. How fortunate are we that Pinot Noir performs so spectacularly in BC, and at least until the rest of the world catches on, we get to drink (virtually) all of it to ourselves.
This blog post was written by our contributor: Matt Tinney.