Unrequited Love?
A
Continuing Affair with Pinot Noir
Can
Big Yields Means Better Flavour?
Michael Vaughan
National Post Weekly Wine & Spirits Columnist
Saturday, January 19, 2002
It’s
upsetting. Of all the wines to have
an affair with, Pinot Noir must be the worst.
I can’t put my finger on how it happened. It’s just that once
you’ve tasted a great one, almost everything pales in contrast.
They’re neither big nor bold. It’s
their sensuousness, flavours that caresses the palate leaving you filled with
rapture.
It
all started more than three decades ago when I first visited Burgundy.
This tiny region is still considered to be the home of what is often
referred to as the heartbreak grape. Of
course, things were simpler then, or perhaps I should say cheaper – much, much
cheaper. The very best went for under $10 a bottle!
Today, we are talking about $200+ at Vintages.
And what’s worse is that some of these Burgundies won’t even kindle a
flame, never mind start a fire.
I
was reminded of all this while tasting a number of new Pinot Noirs at this
month’s Vintages release. I had
hoped that one of the $49.95 Burgundies might ignite some enthusiasm. But that
was not to be. The 1998
Gevrey-Chambertin is hard and tart. And while the youthful 1999 Vosne Romanée
has a decent dose of dried red cherry fruit, it needs another two years of
repose before reaching its pinnacle of drinkability.
Don’t
get me wrong, good well-priced Burgundy still exists and we’ve even
occasionally seen it in Vintages. Trouble is, unless the LCBO gets serious and
sends its most experienced buyers to trade events like Les Grands Jours de
Bourgogne; we’re likely to continue getting the chaff as opposed to wheat.
 Meanwhile,
the rest of the world is catching up - fast.
While California and Chile has made some moves, it’s Oregon that’s
given its heart and soul to this grape. Today there are hundreds of Oregon Pinot
Noirs to choose from. Unfortunately, they too are no longer a dime a dozen.
The good news is that Vintages is featuring a very good buy Firesteed
1998 Pinot Noir at $19.95. This medium-light bodied red focuses on
bright cherry fruit flavours with spicy, slightly smoky notes that linger on the
finish.
I
was amazed to discover that Firesteed is a virtual winery.
It owns no vineyards, nor production facilities.
It was created in 1992 by Howard Rossbach who swore that he could produce
tasty and yet affordable Pinot Noir – i.e. costing $10 US a bottle.
He contracts with growers to buy grapes and has Oregon’s Flynn
Vineyards custom crush, vinify and bottle his wares.
His current 50,000 cases are nothing to sneeze at.
Note that his Firesteed
2000 Pinot Gris won the only Gold varietal medal in 2001 Pacific
Northwest Enological competition.
Understanding
how Rossbach got as much ripe fruit into his Pinot Noir defies conventional
wisdom. Most experts rate 1998 as “excellent”.
It comes on the heels of the overly abundant, and somewhat diluted
1997’s. And yet, many of the
1998’s are surprisingly hard despite the excellent Fall weather and very low
crop levels.
The
reason? “We got nailed with some
cool wet weather just after the early flowering really reduced the yields,”
explains Rossbach. “While most
high profile wineries had already reduced potential crop levels, we didn’t.
And oddly enough, it paid off.”
 “The
very warm, dry autumn meant that vines with these very low yields had to be
picked early because of rapidly escalating sugar levels (the lower the yield,
the more rapidly the grapes ripen). In
other words, they were picked before they ripened physiologically – before the
fruit flavours had a chance to fully evolve.
Meanwhile our more heavily cropped Pinot Noir ripened more slowly
permitting its flavours to fully develop. It
only has 12.4% alcohol vs 14% plus.”
To
discover more, let me recommend the just-published Wines
of the Pacific Northwest by Lisa Sara Hall, an indispensable
guide is for anyone wanting to explore the wines of this area.
There are excellent thumbnail sketches of individual Washington and
Oregon wineries, region. Published
by Mitchell Beazley, it sells for $50.
 Other
fine Pinot Noir buys exist. From
Chile’s Maipo Valley Undurraga
2000 Pinot Noir ($11.70 at Vintages) is a winner with its bright,
somewhat light-bodied, tangy, ripe cherry flavours.
Those
wanting my next recommendation will have to check out the Vintages stores
featuring “In Store Discoveries.” Under
this pernicious program, a handful of items are surreptitiously released every
month. Up until last March, these
were known as “Selected Distribution” and appeared in the Vintages Catalogue
. Now, much to the supplier’s
chagrin, they’re hidden and can only be found on my website.
 As
New Zealand has become the world’s best producer of reasonably priced Pinot
Noir, the 50 cases of Saint
Clair 2000 Doctor’s Creek Pinot Noir at $19.95 should not be
missed. Born in New Zealand’s Marlborough region, it’s tangy, medium bodied,
faintly cedary, spicy, cranberry-dried cherry-berry flavours hit the spot.
Perfect with poultry or perhaps salmon, it epitomizes the remarkable
values coming out of New Zealand.
 Last
but not least, I had my fancy tickled by one of Ontario’s leading producers.
Last week’s launch of 1998 reserve reds by co-founder/winemaker Karl Kaiser
saw a trio of fine new Pinot Noirs. Of the group, my
favourite was the very toasty-smoky-earthy Inniskillin 1998 Montague Vineyard Pinot Noir ($29.95),
which was aged for 14 months in new French oak. The extremely low yields (1.2 tons per hectare) have produced
classic flavours and a creamy, richness in the mouth. While the earthy complexity may not be for everyone, its
idiosyncratic Pinot Noir flavours are reminiscent of what initially seduced me
so many decades ago.
Karl Kaiser
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