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Pinot Noir in California |
 Photo: Patrick Corcoran
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The pinot noir grape has produced some of the finest wines in the world: the great red burgundies of France. Rich and complex, dynamic and lush, these wines are incomparably dramatic at the peak of maturity. Francophiles have always been dubious that California pinot noirs could ever live up to this grand legacy. But for a stoic group of viticulturalists, it is the challenge of their careers to learn the mysteries of the grape and bring out the true potential of this varietal in California. |
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Like the chardonnay, the sauvignon blanc, the zinfandel, and the cabernet sauvignon, pinot noir is a varietal. A varietal is a wine named after the predominant grape variety in its composition and must contain at least 75 percent of the grape it's named after (somewhat counterintuitively, small quantities of other grapes often bring out the essence of the varietal). The perfection of a varietal and the manifestation of that ideal form in the bottle of wine, the final product, is the true goal of all viticulturalists. |
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There is a reason the great French houses make better wines than the California vineyards. They've had hundreds of years to practice. In order to make truly epic wines, thousands of climate-related details must be negotiated over many generations. The French have had the time to learn the intricacies of the exchanges between the pinot noir grape and the air and soil of France. The Americans have yet to truly master these variables of the pinot noir in California soil. |
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Most of the incredibly delicate, complex, and time-consuming art of making fine wines is botany and chemistry, but a lot of it is experimentation. In France, the secrets of the pinot noir were revealed in an environment where the freedom to experiment was assured. That is no longer the case. The Appellation Contrôllée, which regulates winemaking in France, has very strict rules about what technical procedures are permitted in the production of each varietal. In California, no such regulatory body exists and consequently the science of winemaking there has undergone tremendous advances in the last 20 years. |
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That study has yielded fruit. Pinot noirs by Dehlinger, Calera, Acacia, Étude, and Au Bon Climat have all received international acclaim for their fresh, diverse bottlings of this multifaceted varietal. Extensive experim entation with different types of soil, trellis systems for the vines, clones, fermentation, and leaf stripping have yielded greatly improved pinot noirs in California. We now know that pinot noir performs best in cool, shady areas during long growing seas ons; that it cannot be allowed to become too ripe; and that because this varietal will either produce a full, luscious, well-developed wine or a weak and harsh one, it remains the most mysterious and volatile varietal that is grown in California. |
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A great task of the American wine makers has been to rediscover the essence of the pinot noir varietal in a totally new climate: California. Through tireless experimentation they have challenged the accepted "form" of the possibilities of pinot noir and etched a new, colorful legend upon the static grandeur that France has achieved. Sometimes spicy, sometimes velvety smooth, surprise has always been part of the charm of a fine pinot noir. The viticulturalists of California have given us all a whole new range of surprises. |
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