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Pinot noir (), also known as Pinot nero, is a red-wine grape variety of the species Vitis vinifera. The name also refers to wines created predominantly from Pinot noir grapes. The name is derived from the French language words for pine and black. The word pine alludes to the grape variety having tightly clustered, pinecone-shaped bunches of fruit.
Pinot noir is grown around the world, mostly in cooler climates, and the variety is chiefly associated with the Burgundy region of France. Pinot noir is now used to make red wines around the world, as well as Champagne, and Sparkling wine such as the Italian wine Franciacorta, along with English sparkling wines. Regions that have gained a reputation for red Pinot noir wines include the Willamette Valley of Oregon; Carneros in Napa and Sonoma, Central Coast, Sonoma Coast, and Russian River AVAs of California; the Elgin and Walker Bay wine regions of South Africa; the Mornington Peninsula, Adelaide Hills, Great Southern, Tasmania, and Yarra Valley in Australia; and the Central Otago, Martinborough, and Marlborough wine regions of New Zealand. Pinot noir is the most planted varietal (38%) used in sparkling wine production in Champagne and other wine regions.Wine & Spirits Education Trust Wine and Spirits: Understanding Wine Quality pp. 6–9, Second Revised Edition (2012), London. .
Pinot noir is a difficult variety to cultivate and transform into wine. The grape's tendency to produce tightly packed clusters makes it susceptible to several viticultural hazards involving rot that require diligent canopy management.
The thin skins and low levels of phenolic compounds lend pinot to producing mostly lightly colored, medium-bodied and low-tannin wines that can often go through phases of uneven and unpredictable aging. When young, wines made from Pinot noir tend to have red fruit aromas of cherries, raspberries, and strawberries. As the wine ages, Pinot has the potential to develop more vegetal and "barnyard" aromas that can contribute to the complexity of the wine.
The leaves of Pinot noir are generally smaller than those of Cabernet Sauvignon or Syrah. The vine is typically less vigorous than either of these varieties. The grape cluster is small and conico-cylindrical, shaped like a pine cone. Some viticultural historians believe this shape similarity may have given rise to the name. In the vineyard, Pinot noir is sensitive to wind and frost, cropping levels (it must be low yielding for the production of quality wines), soil types, and pruning techniques. In the winery, it is sensitive to fermentation methods and yeast strains and is highly reflective of its terroir, with different regions producing very different wines. Its thin skin makes it susceptible to botrytis cinerea and similar fungal diseases. The vines themselves are susceptible to powdery mildew, especially in Burgundy infection by leaf roll, and fanleaf viruses cause significant vine health problems. These complications have given the grape a reputation for being difficult to grow: Jancis Robinson calls pinot a "minx of a vine" and André Tchelistcheff declared that "God made cabernet sauvignon whereas the devil made Pinot noir". It is much less tolerant of harsh vineyard conditions than the likes of Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Merlot or Grenache.
However, Pinot noir wines are among the most popular in the world. Joel L. Fleishman of Vanity Fair describes them as "the most romantic of wines, with so voluptuous a perfume, so sweet an edge, and so powerful a punch that, like falling in love, they make the blood run hot and the soul wax embarrassingly poetic". Master Sommelier Madeline Triffon calls them "sex in a glass".
The tremendously broad range of bouquets, flavors, textures, and impressions that Pinot noir can produce sometimes confuses tasters. Broadly, the wines tend to be of light to medium body with an aroma reminiscent of black and/or red cherry, raspberry and to a lesser extent blackcurrant and many other fine small red and black berry fruits. Traditional red Burgundy is famous for its savory fleshiness and "farmyard" aromas (this latter is sometimes associated with thiol and other reductive characters), but changing fashions, modern winemaking techniques, and new easier-to-grow clones have favored a lighter, more fruit-prominent, cleaner style.
The wine's color, when young, is often compared to that of garnet, frequently being much lighter than that of other red wines. This is entirely natural and not a winemaking fault, as Pinot noir has a lower skin anthocyanin (coloring matter) content than most other classical red/black varieties. Callistephin, the 3- O-glucoside of pelargonidin, an orange-colored anthocyanidin, is also found in the berry skins of Pinot noir.
However, an emerging, increasingly evident style from California and New Zealand highlights a more powerful, fruit-forward, and darker wine that can tend toward Syrah (or even new world Malbec) in depth, extract, and alcoholic content.
Pinot noir is also used in the production of Champagne (usually along with Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier) and is planted in most of the world's wine-growing regions for use in both still and sparkling wines. Pinot noir grown for dry table wines is generally low-crop yield and of lesser vigor than many other varieties, whereas when grown for use in sparkling wines (e.g., Champagne), it is generally cropped at significantly higher yields.
In addition to being used for the production of sparkling and still red wine, Pinot noir is also sometimes used for rosé still wines, Beaujolais Nouveau-style wines, and even vin gris white wines. Its juice is uncolored.
Ferdinand Regner argued that Pinot noir is a cross between Pinot Meunier (Schwarzriesling) and Traminer, but this claim has since been refuted. In fact, Pinot Meunier has been shown to be a chimerical mutation (in the epidermal cells) which makes the shoot tips and leaves prominently hairy-white and the vine a little smaller and early ripening. Thus, Pinot Meunier is a chimera with two tissue layers of different genetic makeup, both of which contain a mutation making them non-identical to, and mutations of, Pinot noir (as well as of any of the other color forms of pinot). As such, Pinot Meunier cannot be a parent of Pinot noir, and, indeed, it seems likely that chimerical mutations which can generate Pinot gris from other pinot (principally blanc or noir) may in turn, be the genetic pathway for the emergence of Pinot Meunier.
Pinot gris is a pinot color sport (and can arise by mutation of Pinot noir or Pinot blanc), presumably representing a somatic mutation in either the VvMYBA1 or VvMYBA2 genes that control grape berry color. Pinot blanc is a further mutation and can either naturally arise from or give rise to Pinot gris or Pinot noir; the mutation-reversion path is multi-directional, therefore. The general DNA profiles of both Pinot gris and blanc are identical to Pinot noir; and other Pinots, Pinot mour, and Pinot teinturier are also genetically similarly close. Almost any given Pinot (of whatever berry color) can occur as a complete mutation or as a chimera of almost any other pinot. As such, suggestions that Pinot noir is the fundamental and original form of the Pinots are both misleading and highly tendentious. Indeed, if anything, Pinot blanc may be the original human-selected form of Pinot, although given the genetic variability of this longstanding genetic line, thinking of Pinot as a familial cluster of grapes sharing a fundamental and common genetic core is almost certainly nearest the truth. It is this core around which the sub-varietally identifying color variations (blanc, rouge, noir, gris, rose, violet, tenteurier, moure, etc.) occur, along with the more striking chimeric morphological mutation that is Pinot Meunier, and the interesting further mutations of this variety as Pinot Meunier gris and as the non-hairy mutation which the Germans classify as 'Samtrot' (effectively 'Pinot red velvet').
A white berried sport of Pinot noir was propagated in 1936 by Henri Gouges of Burgundy, and there is now 2.5ha planted of this grape which Clive CoatesClive Coates, Cote D'Or (1997) pp. 144 and 457 calls Pinot Gouges, and others call Pinot Musigny. There is, however, no published evidence, nor any obvious reason, to believe that this is other than a (possibly quite fine) form of Pinot blanc, having simply arisen as a selected natural mutation of the original Pinot noir in the Gouges' vineyard.
In the UK, the name 'Wrotham Pinot' is a permitted synonym for Pinot Meunier and stems from a vine that one of the pioneers of English wine, Edward Hyams, discovered in Wrotham (pronounced 'root-am' or 'root-em') in Kent in the late 1940s. It was, in all probability, the variety known as 'Miller's Burgundy,' which had been widely grown on walls and in gardens in Great Britain for many years. Archibald Barron writing in his book, Vines and Vine Culture, the standard Victorian work on grape growing in the UK, states that the 'Millers Burgundy' also was found by the Sir Joseph Banks in the remains of an ancient vineyard at Tortworth, Gloucestershire – a county well known for its medieval vineyards. Hyams took the vine to Raymond Barrington Brock, who ran what was to become the Oxted Viticultural Research Station, and he trialed it alongside the many other varieties he grew. Brock said that when compared to supplies of Meunier from France, Wrotham Pinot: had a higher natural sugar content and ripened two weeks earlier. Hyams, ever the journalist in search of a good story, claimed that this vine had been left behind by the Roman Empire, although he provided absolutely no evidence for this. Brock sold cuttings of 'Wrotham Pinot,' and the variety became quite popular in early English "revival" vineyards in the late twentieth century, although it is unlikely that many vines from the cuttings supplied by Brock survive in any present UK vineyards. Indeed, despite the fact that today virtually all plantings of Meunier in the UK stem from French and German nurseries, the name Wrotham Pinot is still a legally acceptable synonym for this variety, although little, if ever, used by UK growers.
Pinot noir can be particularly prone to mutation (suggesting it has active transposable elements), and thanks to its long history in cultivation, there are hundreds of different cloning in vineyards and vine collections worldwide. More than 50 are officially recognized in France compared to only 25 of the much more widely planted Cabernet Sauvignon. The French Etablissement National Technique pour l'Amelioration de la Viticulture (ENTAV) has set up a program to select the best clones of Pinot. This program has succeeded in increasing the number of quality clones available to growers. In the new world, particularly in Oregon, wines of extraordinary quality continue to be made from the (ex-University of California at Davis) Pommard (principally UCD4) and Wadensvil (UCD 1A and/or 2A) clones.
Gamay Beaujolais is a Californian misnomer for a UCD clone series of upright-growing ('Pinot Droit') Pinot noir. Planted mostly in California it also became established in New Zealand. In New Zealand, its disposition to poor fruit set in cool-flowering conditions can be problematic. It has been claimed that the 'Gamay Beaujolais' Pinot noir was brought to California by Paul Masson. But it was collected in France by Harold Olmo for UCD in the 1950s and was one of the first Pinot Noir vines this institution offered as a high-health clonal line from about 1962 onward. However, it was misleadingly identified at UCD as a 'Gamay Beaujolais' type (of Pinot noir). In general, these upright growing 'Pinot Droit' clones are highly productive (in suitable, hot-to-warm, flowering conditions) and in California and New Zealand, they produce robust, broad-shouldered wines. In Burgundy, the use of Pinot Droit clones is reportedly still widespread in inferior, Village appellation, or even non-appellation vineyards, and Pinot Droit is consequently regarded, arguably with very good reason, as a (genetic) sub-form significantly inferior to classical, decumbent, 'Pinot fine' or 'Pinot tordu', clonal lines of Pinot.
Frühburgunder (Pinot Noir Précoce) is an early-ripening form of Pinot noir. Across the Pinot family, ripening in typical climates can be dispersed by as much as four, and even six weeks between the very earliest (including Précoce) clones and the very latest ripening. Virus infection and excessive cropping significantly add to the delaying of Pinot noir ripening.
Gouget noir is sometimes confused as being a clone of Pinot noir but, DNA analysis has confirmed that it is a distinct variety.J. Robinson, J. Harding and J. Vouillamoz Wine Grapes - A complete guide to 1,368 vine varieties, including their origins and flavours, p. 422, Allen Lane 2012. .
In August 2007, a consortium of researchers, announced the sequencing of the genome of Pinot noir. It is the first fruit crop to be sequenced, and only the fourth flowering plant.
In 1925, Pinot noir was crossed in South Africa with the Cinsaut grape (known locally by the misnomer 'Hermitage') to create a unique variety called Pinotage.
Best's Wines in Great Western has what is believed to have some of the world's oldest Pinot noir plantings—having survived phylloxera, these vines were planted in 1868.
Notable cool-climate producers in the Yarra Valley include De Bortoli Wines, which introduced a Cool Climate Pinot Noir in 2025 as part of its range.
Burgundy's Pinot noir produces wines that can age well in good years, developing complex fruit and forest floor flavors as they age, often reaching peak 15 or 20 years after the vintage. Many of the wines are produced in small quantities. Today, the Côte d'Or escarpment of Burgundy has about of Pinot noir. Most of the region's finest wines are produced from this area. The Côte Chalonnaise and Mâconnais regions in southern Burgundy have another .
In Jura département, across the river valley from Burgundy, the wines made from Pinot noir are lighter.
In Champagne it is used in blending with Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier. It can also appear unblended; in which case it may be labeled Blanc de Noirs. The Champagne appellation has more Pinot planted than any other area of France.
In Sancerre it is used to make red and rosé wines, much lighter in style than those of Burgundy, refreshing served chilled, especially in warmer years when they are less thin.
In Alsace wine it is generally used to make , similar in character to red Burgundy and Beaujolais wines but usually consumed chilled. Prominent examples are Rouge de Barr and Rouge d'Ottrott. Pinot noir is the only red wine produced in Alsace.
There is also a smaller-berried, early ripening, lower yield variety called Frühburgunder (Pinot Noir Précoce; ), which is grown in Rheinhessen and Ahr area and can produce good wines.
Pinot noir is a grape variety whose "importance" in New Zealand is extremely high. However, initial results were not promising for several reasons, including high levels of leaf roll virus in older plantings, and, during the 1960s and 1970s, the limited number and indifferent quality of Pinot noir clones available for planting. However, since this time importation of high-quality clones and much-improved viticulture and winemaking has seen Pinot noir, from Martinborough in the north to Central Otago in the south, become a major factor in New Zealand's reputation as a wine producer.
There are currently just over 1,200 ha of Pinot noir in South Africa, making up 1,5% of the total plantings in the country.
The Top 5 Pinot noir Wine Awards annually recognizes the top South African Pinot noir red wines.
California wine regions known for producing Pinot noir are:
Oregon wine regions known for producing Pinot noir:
Washington wine regions known for producing Pinot noir:
Richard Sommers of HillCrest Vineyard in the Umpqua Valley of Oregon is the father of Oregon Pinot noir. An early graduate of UC Davis, Sommers moved north after graduation with the idea of planting Pinot noir in the Coastal valleys of Oregon. He brought cuttings to the state in 1959 and made his first commercial planting at HillCrest Vineyard in Roseburg Oregon in 1961. For this, he was honored by the Oregon State House of Representatives (HR 4A). In 2011 the State of Oregon honored him for this achievement and also for producing the first commercial bottling in the state in 1967. It was announced by the state of Oregon in the summer of 2012 that a historical marker would be placed at the winery in the summer of 2013.
Sommers, who graduated from UC Davis in the early 1950s, brought Pinot noir cuttings to Oregon's Umpqua Valley in 1959 and planted them at HillCrest Vineyard in 1961. These first Pinot noir cuttings came from Louis Martinis Sr.'s Stanley Ranch located in the Carneros region of Napa Valley. The first commercial vintage from these grapes was the noted 1967 Pinot noir although test bottlings were made as early as 1963. In the 1970s several other growers followed suit. In 1979, David Lett took his wines to a competition in Paris, known in English as the Wine Olympics, and they placed third among Pinots. In a 1980 rematch arranged by French wine magnate Robert Drouhin, the Eyrie vintage improved to second place. The competition established Oregon as a world-class Pinot noir-producing region.
The Willamette Valley of Oregon is at the same latitude as the Burgundy region of France and has a similar climate in which the finicky Pinot noir grapes thrive. In 1987, Drouhin purchased land in the Willamette Valley, and in 1989 built Domaine Drouhin Oregon, a state-of-the-art, gravity-fed winery. Throughout the 1980s, the Oregon wine blossomed.
Pinot noir may also be blended with other grapes in inexpensive varietal wines, where the Pinot noir percentage is high enough for a varietal labeling but is not 100% (75% in the United States, 85% in the European Union). Commonly a heavier grape like Syrah is used to add color and body, resulting in a wine rather unlike pure Pinot noir wines. This was traditionally done in Burgundy until the 1920s and is today found in California wine. Similarly, it is sometimes blended with Malbec.
During 2004 and the beginning of 2005, Pinot noir became considerably more popular among consumers in the US, Australia, New Zealand and Asia as a result of the film Sideways, and its deleterious effect on Merlot sales. Throughout the film, the main character speaks fondly of Pinot noir while denigrating Merlot. Following the film's U.S. release in October 2004, Merlot sales dropped 2% while Pinot noir sales increased 16% in the Western United States. While the film mainly celebrated California's Santa Barbara County, it also highlighted Oregon's Pinot Noirs. A similar trend occurred in British wine outlets. A 2009 study by Sonoma State University found that Sideways slowed the growth in Merlot sales volume and caused its price to fall, but the film's main effect on the wine industry was a rise in the sales volume and price of Pinot noir and in overall wine consumption. A 2014 study by Vineyard Financial Associates estimated that Sideways cost American Merlot farmers over US$400m in lost revenue in the decade after its release.
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