The First and Maybe Last Pinot Noir Post.

I still don’t get it… okay, I get it…  I just don’t understand it or really enjoy it. Of course, I’m talking about Pinot Noir and all the buzz that it has gotten since the movie Sideways.  I really don’t want to write this blog entry because I feel like I’m beating a dead horse but I guess any wine blog needs a post on Pinot noir and having visited the city of Beaune I’m practically obligated to make a post on pinot.

Having spent 2 days in Burgundy, for the most part in Beaune, and having tasted over 60 wines (mainly reds i.e. pinots but there were a few whites) I feel as though I can speak with some experience on the mythical and worshiped pinot grape.  Even after all that wine, I still don’t understand why people love pinot noir so much.  I will say that I love Pommards and the 1 grand-cru Gevrey Chambertin (a 1999 Charmes-Chambertin) I got to taste was incredible but on a whole the rest of the pinots were over priced and lacking in serious quality.

Now, I understand how Burgundy works with small production and a much stronger focus on terroir than other regions which invariably drives prices up due to less availability but what I don’t understand is why people have an obsession over these wines and how these wines can be sold at the prices they ask.  In a wine world that is expanding everyday, there are so many better options than some of the pinots coming out of burgundy.  It was a pleasure to taste all these wines from an educative standpoint but from a pleasure and consummer point of view… I just don’t get it.  Maybe I have to strong of a new world palate and maybe several of the Burgundian wineries need to practice better wine making techniques so that the barnyard smells and tastes are kept in the barnyard and not in my glass.  I hope I can enjoy Burgundies wines someday unfortunately that time is not now, but I still have time.

~ciao, Joe