Pinot Noir
The world's most delicate and most difficult red grape. When it works, nothing else comes close.
Pinot Noir is the red grape of Burgundy and probably the most temperamental one going. Thin skin, tight bunches and a morbid sensitivity to everything: heat, rain, rot, a grower with heavy hands. It gives pale, low-tannin wines with lively acidity, the opposite of what most people expect from a red. Which is why it disappoints anyone after muscle and hooks anyone after finesse for life.
And it isn’t only a French affair. Germany is the world’s third-largest producer with some 11,500 hectares planted, where it goes by Spätburgunder, “the late Burgundian”; in Italy it’s Pinot Nero, in Austria Blauburgunder. There’s plenty in Oregon, New Zealand, Chile and Champagne, where it goes into most of the blends even when the wine comes out white. It copies the place it grows in with an almost indiscreet loyalty: two Pinots from neighbouring slopes can taste nothing alike.