Let`s face it, red wine hasn`t made much of a splash at American dinner tables in recent years. But lately a sexy, unpredictable red named pinot noir- an American citizen with a French name and accent-has been turning heads and causing lots of talk in the wine world. It`s the wine to watch for at dinner parties this fall and winter.
Pinot noir is the legendary red grape of Burgundy, mother to wines with such names as Chambertin, Corton and Clos de Vougeot, to touch on just one letter of the alphabet.
At its best, pinot noir is a wine to transform ordinary mortals into poets and give poets the voice of angels. Tasting great red burgundy, those who have been initiated testify, is an emotional experience. Fragrant, fascinating and unforgettable, these pinot noirs are ”wines of the heart.”
By contrast, the more complex and austere reds of Bordeaux (blends dominated by the cabernet sauvignon grape) are wines to study and analyze, ”wines of the head.”
To date, connoisseurs of American wine have followed the dictates of their heads. Cabernet sauvignons, especially those made in California`s Napa Valley, are this country`s most respected red wines, among consumers and critics alike.
Still, to recall a dimly remembered show tune, ”It`s never too late to fall in love.”
A small but passionate band of American winemakers and grape growers, enthralled with pinot noir, is eagerly informing the wine trade and consumers that the grape is producing wines in Oregon and California that are the equal of the best of Burgundy. Robert Mondavi, one of the wine world`s leading seers, even has predicted that pinot noir may be this country`s major red by the turn of the century.
Happily, it`s show time as well as tell time. So far this year, Pinot Noir America, an association of 25 California wineries and growers, has helped organize comparative tastings and dinners in 11 cities featuring American and French pinot noirs. In August a three-day ”International Pinot Noir Celebration” was held at Linfield College in Oregon, during which French winemakers participated in comparative tastings and seminars.
The willingness of the French to come to Oregon with their wines, students of oenodiplomacy claim, ranks with Great Britain`s recognition of American independence as a triumph for the New World.
The Americans, most of whom love Burgundy and its wines, contend that there is no need to ”win” these tastings. Important status is gained, they believe, when tasters realize that pinot noir wines from the two nations are comparable. This fall pinot noir`s American boosters are encouraging consumers to conduct comparative tastings of their own at home and in restaurants.
If they do, there are bound to be surprises. The results of a pinot noir tasting organized by The Tribune (see box) indicates that even wine experts cannot consistently segregate French pinot noirs from American in a blind tasting.
Much the same conclusion was drawn when pinot noirs from Oregon, California and Burgundy were served with a superb eight-course dinner at Cafe Provencal in Evanston last spring. Misidentification of the wines` origins was common at my table and beyond. Even more important, there was wide disagreement as to the favorite in three separate groupings of three wines each.
Josh Jensen of California`s Calera Vineyards, David Adelsheim of Oregon`s Adelsheim Vineyards and Frederic Lafarge of Volnay, France, were the participants. In a joint interview, Jensen, president of Pinot Noir America, and Adelsheim discussed the past, present and future of their favorite wine.
The past, they believe, is a sad history of a grape mistreated and abused. ”In the late `60s,” Jensen says, ”California began to grow quite a bit of pinot noir, but the growers and winemakers used the standard red-wine production formula. They planted it in vineyards that were too hot, vinified it by mass production techniques that resulted in a pale rose wine. So they blended in another grape, carignane, to gain color and body and succeeded in masking the distinctiveness of the pinot grape. These wines were very boring at best. No wonder consumers stayed away from them in droves.”
”About 10 years ago,” Adelsheim continues, ”American winemakers still fascinated with the challenge of making great pinot noir went back to basics and began to emulate the way Burgundians vinify the grape. A number of us, including Josh and me, actually went over to work with them. Now virtually everyone is producing pinot noir by the old proven methods, with some variations. And they really work.”
Some of the adjustments have been highly technical: vineyard selection
(soil and climate), clone selection (which child of the surprisingly diverse pinot noir family to plant), production control (minimizing yield), fermentation time and temperature and aging (type of wood and size of barrels, length of time the wine ferments in the wood).
Making fine wine is not enough, however. Somehow it has to be sold.
The demand for pinot noir is not overwhelming at this time. In California plantings were reduced dramatically early in this decade, and much of what is left is being used for sparkling or blush wines. But widespread critical praise for various Oregon pinot noirs, plus some fine showings in blind tastings has stirred the interest of wine buffs. Meanwhile, the slide of the dollar against the French franc has pushed already high prices for recent vintages of red Burgundy into the prohibitive range. As a result, consumers have been experimenting with reds from the Rhone Valley and Australia. Pinot noir made right here in the
U.S.A. deserves a share of this market.
”The exchange rates give us a fantastic opportunity,” Adelsheim says.
”All we need is a touch of patriotism, a willingness to give our wines a chance.”
In actuality, the winemakers acknowledge some other problems. The two most acute are the small number of first-rate pinot noirs being produced here and the variability of even those wines.
”You can`t give a guarantee with a bottle of pinot noir,” Jensen says.
”The wines vary from vintage to vintage, vineyard to vineyard and certainly have ups and downs in the bottled. That turns people off.”
Jensen makes about 3,000 cases a year at Calera. Adelsheim made three different pinot noirs in 1986 for a combined production of only 4,000 cases. Even at relative ”giants” such as Knudson-Erath in Oregon and Robert Mondavi in California, production probably does not exceed 15,000 cases at this time. Plantings in Oregon are booming, but it takes time for vines to mature, and the base is so low that even a large percentage jump will add only a relative thimbleful to the nation`s wine lake.
Then there is price. American pinot noir does not come cheap, either. At $6 or $7, the winemakers say the best one can expect from pinot noir is ”a pleasant red wine.” It takes $10 or more to buy a wine that shows true varietal character and $15, $20 or more for one that may be superb.
There also is a need to overcome a feeling in wine shops and restaurants that cabernet sauvignon is the only red that consumers want. Pinot noir`s boosters must also correct the myth that their wine is a massive, tannic, macho drink, the true hearty Burgundy. ”In reality,” says Adelsheim, ”it`s easy to enjoy, lighter and ready to drink younger than cabernet. Also, it fits with a lot of the innovative dishes American chefs are making.”
Yet if there is to be a fountain of pinot noir in America`s future, the real cause will be the unquenchable romantic side of human nature.
”For a winemaker the pursuit of great pinot noir is a very romantic notion,” Jensen says. ”To explain it is like trying to explain what causes you to fall in love. You see a fantastic color, you smell and taste earth and organic flavors that are much more direct than the herbal and mineral odors and flavors of cabernets. You swallow something luscious and you simply say,
`This is it. Wine doesn`t get any better.` ”
”But it is important not to perpetuate the myth of great pinot noir as the Holy Grail,” Adelsheim concludes. ”We have found it. It exists right here in this country. We are making world-class pinot noir in America every year.”
TALE OF THE TESTING
The following pinot noir tasting took place at the Chicago Wine School, with 10 experienced tasters participating. They were told that bottles from California, Oregon and France were included in the selection but did not know the identity of the wines. In addition to rating the wines for quality, the tasters were asked to guess the origin of each. Their responses are reported in the chart. There are different totals because not every taster responded for each wine. C stands for California, F for France and O for Oregon.
Origin Place Name Score Nationality
(C,F,O)
C 1 Acacia `84, Madonna Vineyard 137. C-4, F-1, O-4
C 2 Z-D 1982, Napa Valley 133. C-4, F-2, O-3
C 3(T) Ch. Bouchaine `83, Winery Lake 132.5 C-1, F-5, O-3
C 3(T) Robert Mondavi Reserve, 1982 132.5 C-4, F-1, O-5
O 5 Knudsen-Erath `83 Yamhill Co. 129.5 C-6, F-0, O-2
C 6 Sanford 1984, Central Coast 126.5 C-4, F-1, O-4
C 7 Chalone Vineyard 1983 125.5 C-7, F-1, O-1
O 8 Yamhill Valley 1983 125.25 C-7, F-1, O-0
C 9 Zaca Mesa `84 American Reserve 124.5 C-3, F-3, O-3
C 10 Thomas Fogarty `83, Winery Lake 122. C-5, F-2, O-3
F 11 Volney-Caillerets `83+ 120.75 C-6, F-1, O-3
C 12(T) Santa Cruz Mountain Vyd. 1983 120.25 C-6, F-0, O-3
F 12(T) Vosne-Romanee `83, Daniel Rion 120.25 C-5, F-1, O-2
O 14 Peter F. Adams `83 Yamhill Co. 117.5 C-6, F-0, O-2
O 15 Adelsheim 1983, Yamhill Co. 113.75 C-6, F-2, O-0
F 16 Sancerre `83 Les Cailleries+ 112.5 C-1, F-5, O-3
C 17 Trefethan 1983, Napa Valley 111.25 C-4, F-4, O-1
C 18 Saintsbury `85 Carneros 108.5 C-6, F-1, O-2
C 19 Baciagalupi 1982 105.75 C-8, F-1, O-0
C 20 Edna Valley Vineyard 1983 103.5 C-3, F-3, O-3
C 21 Iron Horse `82, Green Valley 101. C-5, F-2, O-2
+ Volney producer is Bouchard Pere & Fils; Sancerre is Vacheron.
A number of American pinot noir producers were not represented at the tasting. Among them are: from California-Beaulieu, Beckstoffer, Belvedere, Bonny Doon, Calara, Crystal Valley, Hanzell, Inglenook, Kalin, Kistler, Monticello, Qupe, Richardson, Solterra, Robert Stemmler, Joseph Swan, Tulocay. From Oregon-Alpine, Amity, Elk Cove, Eyrie, Oak Knoll, Ponzi, Rex Hill, Shafer, Sokol Blosser, Tualatin, Valley View.
