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MORE THAN 65 MILLION YEARS AGO, give or take a few million, the first grapevine developed somewhere in the landmass of the northern hemisphere.1 This primitive Vitis was the ancestor of all modern grapevines.2 A mere couple of million years ago, it diverged into two groups of grapevines.3 Vitis vinifera and a handful of species developed in Eurasia, while a range of 50-60 other species of Vitis developed in North America, probably in niches that were isolated during the Ice Age.4 Only Vitis vinifera is suitable for making wine. During the Paleolithic era, perhaps 10,000 years ago,5 the first wine was probably made from wild grapes.6 The oldest actual signs of wine are in pottery from the Hajii Firuz Neolithic complex in the northern Zagros Mountains of Iran, dating from about 5400 B.C., that contains traces of tartaric acid, produced in this area only by grapes.7 As man began to develop agriculture, the wild Vitis vinifera8 became domesticated,9 probably in Transcaucasia some time during the next millennium. The large number of wine

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WINE WAS NOT YET BEING PRODUCED IN GAUL when Julius Caesar invaded in 58 B.C. After Roman culture was imposed, wine was imported from Rome.1 Viticulture in France itself started on the Mediterranean coast, probably somewhere around Marseilles, by the Allobroges, a warrior tribe based at Vienne, who were allies of the Romans. Wine production spread steadily north, and by the first century C.E., the Allobroges were admired by the Romans for their skill in wine production. Their principal grape was a black variety known as Allobrogica, which resisted cold weather. They made a wine called pomatum (meaning pitch),2 which took its name from the use of resin to seal the containers. In fact, the quality of the pitch or resin was regarded as influencing the quality of the wine.3 The flavor was probably more like Greek Retsina than Burgundy as we know it today. By the second century, negociants were dealing in wine from Lyon, and wine importing was a significant economic factor in the prosperity of the town.4 At one time it was thought the negociants might have defended their

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WE DO NOT MAKE PINOT NOIR, WE MAKE BURGUNDY. Such was the response from Burgundian producers when I said I was writing a book on Pinot Noir. When I asked about the typicity of Pinot Noir, I was gently rebuked. In Burgundy we dont believe in typicity of Pinot Noir, we believe in typicity of place. Pinot Noir is a translator, it translates what is in the soil. Its an interpreter so the appellation takes over the variety, says Olivier Masmondet of Maison Jadot. Pinot Noir is the cpage transparent par excellence, says Jean Lupatelli of Maison Bouchard An. Aubert de Villaine of Domaine de le Romane Conti was forthright. The typicity of Pinot Noir first is to be Burgundian.1 No one expresses more clearly the view of Burgundys primacy in Pinot Noir than Aubert. There is a marriage here in Burgundy between a vine that has not much taste in itself, and that has been chosen for that, and which

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In Search of Pinot Noir

The Cte dOr consists of the Cte de Nuits (from Nuits St. Georges to the north) and the Cte de Beaune (from Aloxe Corton to the south).2 Gevrey Chambertin, Morey St. Denis, Chambolle Musigny, Vougeot, Vosne Romane, and Nuits St. Georges are the great communes in the Cte de Nuits, all devoted to red wine. In the Cte de Beaune, Aloxe Corton and Beaune produce more red than white, Pommard and Volnay are exclusively red, while Meursault, Puligny Montrachet, and Chassagne Montrachet are white. The AOCs of the Hautes Ctes and Ctes de Nuits and Beaune lie on either side of the line of communes.

reflects the place it comes from. We had the recognition of terroir, that the wines of each place are different, and that one place makes a better wine than another. For this we need a translator [an interpreter] that expresses the specificity of the place, and Pinot Noir is the grape that does this, he says. Terroir is a controversial concept in the world of wine, and nowhere is the issue more precisely framed than in Burgundy. Local legend holds that the Cistercian monks tasted the soil to try to understand the differences between their terroirs. (If they did, this would have left them more puzzled than enlightened, since there is no evidence that components of the soil directly relate to flavors in wine.) Every plot of land is classified in a hierarchy ranging from generic Bourgogne, through the broad appellations of the Ctes de Nuits and Ctes de

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Pinot Noir is the black grape for cool climates. It is the predominant grape grown in the wine-producing regions closest to the north pole (Germanys Ahr Valley) and to the south pole (New Zealands Central Otago). Those precisely delineated, yet generous, red fruits of Pinot grown at its preferred temperatures all too rapidly become jammy and diffuse in warmer climates. Whether Burgundy offers the perfect climate might be questioned; after all, Pinot Noir ripened sufficiently well to give really good vintages only about two or three times each decade through the twentieth century. Yet Pinot Noir has not spread south from Burgundy, but rather has gone north into even more marginal climates, where the cool temperatures generally confine production to white wine. Elsewhere in France, Pinot is mostly grown around an arc to the north of Burgundy. Just to the west, and only a few miles farther north, Sancerre has grown Pinot Noir since the Middle Ages. Almost directly to the north of Burgundy, about a third of the Champagne district is planted with Pinot

Cool Northern Limits

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The hilltop town of Sancerre dominates the appellation contrle vineyards, which form a semi circle to its west. This view was taken from the direction of Bu, to the southwest of Sancerre. The fault separating the calcareous from the silex terroirs lies in the fold of the hills close to Sancerre.

no future.4 Indeed, when the Sancerre AOC was created in 1936, only white wine was allowed. It was only in 1959 that red wine, made from Pinot Noir, was added. Before the AOC was created, it was common to mix a little Gamay into the red wine, but today it is one hundred per cent Pinot Noir. There were only a hundred hectares of Pinot Noir in the region (roughly 10% of the plantings of Sauvignon Blanc) when the Sancerre AOC was established. At the end of the following decade, Pinot Noir had almost doubled. Today there are almost 900 hectares of Pinot Noir, relative to 3,000 hectares of Sauvignon Blanc.5 Percentage wise, its probably gone up here more rapidly than anywhere else in France. What has happened to the quality over this period? The red Sancerre I remember from twenty or thirty years ago was somewhat of a poor mans Burgundy, relatively light in color, somewhat in the same flavor spectrum with notes of earthy strawberries, but usually not very concentrated, and sometimes with the acidity overwhelming the fruits. More red than ros, certainly, but not completely convincing. Things have changed, and today there are some fine red Sancerres made by the top producers. When you visit vignerons known for their Pinot Noirs in Sancerre, it seems more like visiting in Burgundy. There is talk of terroir and of vintages,

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A historical view might say that viticulture in Oregon had its roots in the famous Columbus Day storm of 1962. This was a windstorm of unprecedented power that swept through the state on October 12. Aside from the damage to populated areasundamaged homes were the exception in Willamette Valleyit decimated the fruit and nut orchards that were a major agricultural activity in Oregon at the time. Many of the orchards never recovered; economics did not favor replanting, and for years after the storm, the landscape was still littered with uprooted fruit trees.1 Purchases of distressed orchards formed the basis for many of the early vineyards in Oregon. Potential vineyards were cleared of the remnants of the fruit treesmost often former plum orchardsand planted with vines. The plum industry was dying anywaymuch of it was devoted to the production and sale of prunes rather than fresh plumsbut the Columbus Day storm gave a powerful impetus to its demise. Growth of viticulture was gradual through the 1970s, but has been exponential since the 1980s.

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AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND HAVE BROUGHT a whole new style to wine. Red or white, the wines are dominated by bright, exuberant fruits. The hallmark is intensity of flavor. Sauvignon Blanc can be piercing in its citrus flavors, often with additional notes of passion fruit. Shiraz (Australian for Syrah) can be dense to the point of opacity, with deep, aromatic aromas and flavors. These varieties arent necessarily reticent in Europe, but the southern hemisphere versions bring a new intensity to bear. How does this approach play for Pinot Noir, a variety known in its European habitat for its reserve and delicacy? The development of the Antipodean style, so far as we can generalize, is a recent phenomenon. Wine production dates from early colonial times, but the style focused on sweet, fortified wines. This continued to be the model until the second half of the twentieth century. Varieties had to be robust and high yielding. In New Zealand, the industry was all but destroyed by a power-

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THIS IS WHERE I STICK MY HEAD IN THE LIONS DEN. What makes great Pinot Noir? A complex array of aromas and layers of flavors should be difficult to disentangle, the underlying texture should be silky, and as it ages the spectrum of red fruits should become more savory, sometimes finally showing a delicious undertone of sous bois (those savory impressions of the undergrowth.) It goes almost without saying that ability to age, in the form of the development of increasing complexity and variety of aromas and flavors, is a hallmark. Well, yes, but this would serve as a reasonable description for the aging of any great wine. What is distinctive about Pinot Noir? The immediate impression that comes to mind when Pinot Noir is compared with other red wines is its sheer sensuality. The sterner qualities of Cabernet Sauvignon made traditional Bordeaux a more cerebral wine. The transition to a riper style in recent decades may have reduced its austerity, but