Adored by imbibers, feared by growers, and endlessly debated by the experts, Pinot Noir reigns as one of the wine world’s most persnickety grapes. It requires sufficiently warm days and cool nights to thrive, tends to produce a light crop marked by relatively low tannins and high acids, and vexes winemakers with its volatile, unforgiving nature.
When well grown and gracefully made—as local winemakers have proved can be done outside the confines of Burgundy—this demanding grape offers sensory elements that can readily induce paroxysms of pleasure in true believers. And it’s those successful vintages— when weather, viticulture, and skilled vinification mesh—that can turn the average wine buff into an impassioned connoisseur.
Over a long weekend in early March, hundreds of fans gathered in Pismo Beach to pay homage to Pinot Noir by learning about it at various seminars, talking to its makers, and yes, drinking the stuff in short, solitary sips, as well as in long slurps accompanied by multi-course meals. Paired with exotic cheeses, sauce-enhanced meats, and even sticky desserts, this illusive, yet compelling wine proved that it can play just about any role in a gastronomical production.
Producers from a half-dozen countries—including the United States, New Zealand, Australia, Austria, France, and Chile—poured their precious wares under white tents pitched on a bluff above the ocean. Pacific Coast representatives offered Pinot Noir from Washington, Oregon, and California, with a good representation of Central Coast labels, from ampelos cellars in Santa Barbara County to Windward Vineyard in Paso Robles.
On display were the grape’s many visual guises, from the inky magenta of Longoria Wines 2006 Pinot Noir to the transparent, brick-hued Foley Estates 2007, both from vineyards in the ever-more famous Santa Rita Hills AVA, west of Buellton. Flavor profiles varied, too, showing off the dazzling range of components treasured by Pinot-philes, including palate-pleasing marriages of raspberry and mint, leather and cool cedar, rose petals and smoke.
D-C Wines, the latest collaboration between area winemakers and long-time couple Bruno D’Alfonso and Kris Curran, weighed in with a luscious, not-quite-released Pinot Noir that had spent three full years in barrel, while Clos Pepe Estate offered a balanced and intriguingly subtle 2007 from their Santa Rita Hills Vineyard. The beautiful Ken Brown Wines 2005, Sanford & Benedict Vineyard, showcased the marvelous qualities (now obscured by a drastic change in farming) that once typified that venerable vineyard.
Wandering among the tables and tasting the same type of grape (albeit different clones grown in varying locations and crafted a hundred different ways) leads one to marvel at the sheer diversity of expression. Like homemade chili beans or chocolate chip cookies, no two looked or tasted exactly alike.
The 2007 Alma Rosa Pinot Noir, Santa Rita Hills, drew marked interest for its fruity aromatics and dark, rich flavors, as well as for its eye-catching packaging. For here was a Pinot Noir—that coveted, delicate flower of the wine world—bottled under a screw cap.
Granted, Palmina offers a 2006 Pinot Grigio with a similar closure, and a number of local vintners have opted for screw caps to seal some of their white wines, but corkless bottlings of Pinot Noir are few and far between. Winemakers generally agree that screw caps protect against the scourge of cork taint (the result of microbial activity that sullies the wine with dank, moldy aromas and flavors), but many still question whether the closure allows wine to age properly.
Pioneers who have long used screw caps for their Sauvignon Blanc, New Zealand’s winemakers were among the first to try them with reds, including Pinot Noir. With the appearance of Alma Rosa’s high-end wares bearing the distinctive ridges of a threaded cap under their crowns of foil, the trend appears to be gaining traction in Santa Barbara County.
Another surprise that awaits Pinot-philes who head out to explore the world of wine is the sheer number of vineyards and vintners dedicated to producing their favorite grape. Some, such as Lompoc-based Loring Wine Company and SLO County’s Windward Vineyard, make Pinot Noir exclusively, much as a jeweler simply prefers working with diamonds over, say, pearls.
Not so long ago, New World Pinot Noir consistently fell short of the European standard, leaving North American Pinot-lovers longing for some homegrown wine of quality. As the recent World of Pinot Noir gathering and any deliberate canvassing of the local tasting rooms proves, there’s an ocean of wonderful Pinot Noir out there, a lot of it grown, made, and, inevitably, imbibed right here on the Central Coast.
K. Reka Badger prefers to do most of her imbibing on the Central Coast. E-mail comments or ideas to rekabadger@hotmail.com.
This article appears in Mar 19-26, 2009.