Americas Pinot Noir: Panel tasting results
The premium level, £30 plus, is where Pinot really gets into its quality stride. Here is the first of our two reports on an impressive New World tasting.
Anne Krebiehl MW, Justin Knock MW and Dirceu Vianna Junior MW tasted 139 wines, with 2 outstanding, 101 highly recommended and 36 recommended.
Americas Pinot Noir: Panel tasting scores
Exceptional 0
Outstanding 2
Highly recommended 101
Recommended 36
Commended 0
Fair 0
Poor 0
Entry criteria: Producers and UK agents were invited to submit their current-release, dry, still 100% Pinot Noir red wines with a minimum retail price of £30 in the UK or equivalent in their domestic market
What a Pinot Noir marathon! In late September in the tasting suite at Decanter’s London offices, we three judges tasted 273 New World Premium Pinot Noirs over three full days, and I do not think any of us had ever reviewed such a comprehensive selection before.
Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores from the Americas Pinot Noir panel tasting
This was a 360-degree view on Pinot Noir in the world today – and my, were there some beauties! Because of the size and success of the tasting, the results have been split across Decanter issues. Here we celebrate Pinots from the Americas: from Canada all the way down to Patagonia, on either side of the respective cordilleras. And in next month’s December issue we showcase wines from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
It was an impressive and welcome entry of 35 wines from Ontario, which, as Justin Knock MW noted, ‘is a place to watch for genuine elegance’. Our highest-scoring Ontario Pinot Noirs all came from various benches of the Niagara Escarpment, with two more from Prince Edward County. From the US, we were disappointed to see so few entries from Oregon given the great success there with this fickle grape. Nevertheless, of the 12 wines, eight were Highly recommended.
In California (our biggest entry with 52 wines) it was the cooler AVAs which, without exception, scored best. The Sta. Rita Hills, Santa Barbara, coastal Sonoma and other Pacific-influenced regions really are today’s Pinot hotspots, delivering aroma, crunch, tension and elegance. The wines of Russian River, on the other hand, were a cultural clash: Pinot Noirs made for palates that value power above elegance – not what this variety is about. ‘There are fewer heavy-handed styles in general these days,’ said Knock about California Pinot Noirs, ‘but we still find them in Russian River more than elsewhere.’
See notes and scores for all the Americas Pinot Noir panel tasting wines
Uruguay presented a promising selection of four wines from Atlantic-cooled areas, but the most entries (22) from South America came from Argentina. Mendoza is tricky for Pinot Noir with its solar intensity and altitude, but windswept Patagonia in the south more than makes up for it: one of our Outstanding wines came from Chubut, but Río Negro and Neuquen also performed well. The lower number of entries from Chile (13) is likely down to the fact that the country is more of a value than a premium player. While coastal areas dominated, the relatively new area of Traiguén in Malleco – temperate, inland and dry, a two-hour drive from the Pacific ocean and a seven-hour drive south of Santiago – stood out.
The essential elegance and finesse wine lovers look for in Pinot Noir must be achieved in the vineyard, then captured by picking at a point that unites freshness and tension with sufficient ripeness and aromatic development. This must then be preserved without being overwhelmed by either oak or extraction.
‘Some are picking fruit too late, which is made evident by high alcohols, notes of stewed fruits and blurred flavours,’ noted Dirceu Vianna Junior MW. However, in general: ‘Producers are doing an excellent job in terms of extraction and are using oak judiciously.’
Americas Pinot Noir: Panel tasting scores
The judges
Anne Krebiehl MW is a widely published writer, award-winning author and lecturer with a particular focus, among others, on Pinot Noir and traditional- method sparkling wines from around the globe.
Justin Knock MW is director of wine for luxury merchant Decant London, and has a background in winemaking, brand and generic marketing, education, consultancy and fine wine retail. An Australian national, he was a director of the California Wine Institute UK, and is currently a DWWA joint Regional Chair for Australia.
Dirceu Vianna Junior MW is a wine writer, consultant and educator. Based in the UK since 1989, he was a director at some of the UK’s top distributors. After becoming a Master of Wine in 2008, he co-authored the awarded book Conheça Vinhos (‘Understanding Wine’, in Portuguese).
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