“God made Cabernet Sauvignon whereas the devil made Pinot Noir.” Or so said one of the pioneers of Californian viticulture, Andre Tchelitscheff.

In a similar vein, Jancis Robinson describes it as a ‘minx of a wine’.

How is Pinot Noir deserving of its reputation for awkwardness, but worth the effort to work with? When it is good, Pinot is ethereal, heavenly, and seductive.

In the vineyard Pinot Noir doesn’t like wind, late frosts or high yields and its tightly packed pinecone like clusters of grapes mean it is prone to ‘bunch rot’ and the vines themselves are prone to mildew and leaf curl. In addition, it does not respond well to excessive heat.

So why do winemakers persevere with this capricious fickle variety?

Put simply, when conditions favour the variety and humans are sympathetic, Pinot Noir makes the most glorious wines in the world. Its garnet appearance is jewel-like, its perfume seductive and palate often described as ethereal, silky, fleshy and complex with a fine acidity. Examining Pinot Noir’s flavour profile a little more closely, there is cherry, hedgerow fruit, exotic spices and with age, a savoury character.

What completes the package, is that it can combine beautifully with judiciously used new oak maturation.

Château du Clos de Vougeot

Whilst Pinot Noir’s ancestral home is Burgundy, where hundreds of years of ‘relationship building’ between man and Pinot offer us the much sought after wines from Musigny, Clos de Vougeot and Chambertin. But it is also one of the main grapes in Champagne along with Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier. Look out for Champagnes vinified as a ‘blanc de noir’ for a single varietal Pinot Noir Champagne. This awkward grape can also be found in Alsace and the upper Loire in Sancerre where they make lighter reds.

However, Pinot Noir is not just restricted to France, you can now find excellent examples from the New World, chiefly in the ‘cooler’ sub-zones of California, Oregon in the USA, South Africa, Chile, New Zealand, Australia and even England.

For International Pinot Noir Day, may we recommend: