Pinot Noir – dedicated maverick or petulant diva?

Producing wines in many different countries around the world with considerable success, the climatic and environmental conditions need to be just right for this variety to thrive. The skin of Pinot Noir grapes is generally thin and it is thus a delicate grape which needs plenty of TLC to show at its best. Since the skin is where all the colour is contained, it also means that Pinot Noir wines are lighter in colour than many other red wines.

Pinot Noir wines generally are characterised by lowish tannins, crisp acidity and flavours of cherries, raspberries and strawberries. Delicate and velvety at their best, they are elegant and seductive wines, pairing well with a range of different dishes. It is also a variety which reacts well to treatment with oak, the ageing in barrel contributing to both tannic structure and complexity of flavour.

Villa Maria, the top wine producer from New Zealand, makes a succulent and aromatic 2022 Pinot Noir in Marlborough under the Private Bin label. Juicy red cherry and raspberry flavours from fruit sourced in the Awatere and Wairau Valleys. Fabulous value from Tesco at £13.

Moving to one of the top wine producers of Chile, Errazuriz Estate Reserva Pinot Noir 2023 is another astonishingly good value red. Cool fermented and lightly oaked, the tannins are soft, with crisp strawberry fruit and medium body. Aconcagua Costa Pinot Noir 2022 is staggeringly good for the price, but harder to track down. Around £16 - £18 from online specialist merchants, it comes from cool, coastal vineyards and perfect schist soils, just 12 km from the cool Pacific Ocean, giving a style of wine close to those in Burgundy, with raspberry fruit, spice and forest floor aromas. Elegant and perfectly delicious.

From the heartland of Pinot Noir comes Bourgogne Pinot Noir ‘Couvent des Jacobins’ 2022 from Louis Jadot, a very elegant red Burgundy, with medium body, yet with delicious fruit, soft tannins and a deep, lingering finish. Super red Burgundy that doesn’t break the bank. A great accompaniment to a sausage casserole or, of course, boeuf Bourguignon. Around £20 - £24 from online specialists.

Pinot Noir is not just used for elegant red wines, but is also one of the principle grape varieties for most champagne and for other top quality sparklers such as those made in England. If the skins are eliminated just after the grapes are pressed, the juice is white and can be fermented as white wine. If the skins are left in for a short time, pink or rosé wine results. Such is Graham Beck Pinot Noir Rosé 2018 from the top sparkling wine maker of South Africa. Attractive salmon pink with a fine, persistent mousse, the palate is an explosion of ripe raspberry flavour, with great complexity from 4 years lees ageing and the addition of a small percentage of chardonnay during fermentation. £19 mix six price from Majestic.