Wednesday, Jun. 01, 2005

Pinot Noir an arduous adventure

Q. The movie Sideways set me to wondering. Is it really that hard to make good Pinot Noir wines? And if that's so, why is so much of Oregon known for its Pinot Noir?

A. Like virtually every kind of wine grape, Pinot Noir has been cultivated to produce good wine in a particular climate and place - originally the Burgundy area of France and especially the Cote d'Or region of Burgundy. But unlike many of its vinifera cousins, Pinot Noir has literally thousands of clones. (For comparison, the staid, dependable Cabernet Sauvignon has but a dozen.) Some Pinot Noir estimates range as high as 11,000, a Google search told me, and the French reportedly have confirmed about 1,000. Only a handful of those dominate in the vineyard, but it's clear the variety is as profligate as Hugh Hefner's pajamas.

In addition to being genetically adventurous, Pinot Noir is difficult to raise. It likes a particular climate that's warm but not hot, soil that's challenging but well drained, and adequate rainfall but not at the wrong time. Oregon vintners cringe at the sight of rainclouds in the fall because the grape's fragile skin is frighteningly susceptible to fracture, followed by bunch rot.

The manager of a Pinot Noir vineyard needs to be an optimist. Otherwise the possible pitfalls of the trade - the early leafing grape's inability to tolerate spring frosts, the leaf-roll virus and a nasty leafhopper - would make a lesser person choose a less-difficult vine.

In the winery, Pinot Noir juice is equally challenging. Its fermentation can verge on the explosive, with the process spiking out of control, and its thin skin can make it hard for the vintner to retain adequate color.

Oregon's best Pinots have been scaring the French for nearly three decades now. Pinot pioneers like David Lett of The Eyrie Vineyard began crafting world-class Pinot Noir by the mid-1970s, and Lett's 1975 surprised the world and stunned the French in 1979 by placing second in a blind-tasting arranged by Robert Drouhin.

Oregon's climate appears close to ideal for the grape when all goes well. Laurel Hood, who operates a well-known Cannon Beach, Ore., wine shop and also grows and makes Pinot Noir under her own label, says she monitors temperatures at grape-growing sites in Burgundy and compares them with her vineyard. The difference between Burgundy and her ancestral farm near Dundee, Ore., never seems to vary more than a few degrees each day, she says.

Oregon's late summer and fall climate present some particular challenges. To guard against the fungus of a rainy fall, growers prune off as much as half of the bunches of grapes to speed ripening by September's end or at least by early October. That cuts yields by about half compared with many California vineyards.

Despite the obstacles, Pinot Noir wineries can be cash cows when their wines hit the spotlight. The best of Oregon's Pinot Noir will sell for $35 to $50 or more a bottle, and many of the small wineries that count their cases in the hundreds will sell every drop they produce. They need only the whispered words of the many devotees of Pinot Noir or an even slightly gushy review from a wine publication.

And when such august magazines as The Atlantic Monthly take notice - as it did in December 2003 - it makes for a wonderful vintage for everyone in Oregon who grows or ferments Pinot Noir. After all, $40 a bottle for 500 cases is $240,000.

For those who wonder why I haven't mentioned Washington Pinot Noir, it's because it's almost disappeared. Exactly three have been reviewed in Wine Press Northwest in the past year. British Columbia produces a number, but the vast majority of Pinot Noir from the Northwest is from Oregon, chiefly Yamhill County and the rest of the Willamette Valley.

Some 25 years ago, Eastern Washington wineries were experimenting with the grape, but the heat and sun of the east side of the state are simply too much. The region has learned to grow outstanding Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah and is showing promise with a number of other hot-weather grape varieties such as Sangiovese and Zinfandel.

If forced to pick a place in Washington where Pinot Noir might thrive, I'd look to the Columbia Gorge in the Bingen-White Salmon area or perhaps a bit farther downstream, on a south-facing slope in the foothills reaching up toward the Cascades.

The now-defunct Mont Elise (formerly Bingen Wine Cellars) raised Pinot Noir grapes on such a slope, starting in the early 1970s, and some of the vintages produced by owner Chuck Henderson showed great promise.

At the time, however, Cabernet and Merlot were grabbing all the red-wine headlines in Washington and Pinot Noir was just beginning to emerge in Oregon. So for some ambitious wine pioneer, the potential may well be there. All it will take is about a decade of development and lots of patience and skill. Not to mention a chunk of cash.

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