Pinot Noir is responsible for some of the world’s finest wines. Famed for producing the red wines of Burgundy and the Côte d’Or in particular, it is now widely grown in cool climates across Califonia and Oregon, and with increasing success in New Zealand. Although typically used to produce varietal wines, Pinot Noir makes a significant contribution in the wines of Champagne, where it is vinified as a white wine and blended with Cardonnay and Pinot Meunier. On the whole, fresh summer fruit of strawberries, raspberries and red cherries tend to be the identifying qualities, however richer versions express darker fruit including black cherries (kirsch), cherry cola, leather and violets to name a few.
Two hundred miles south east of Paris lies the famous and historic wine region, known in French as Bourgogne. The Cote d'Or, the heartland of the region, consists of two distinct sub-regions split on either side of the town of Beaune.The Côte de Nuits to the north, includes the famous villages of Vosne-Romanee, Gevrey-Chambertin, and Nuits-Saint-Georges and are known primarily for making red wine from Pinot Noir.Although The Côte de Beaune to the south still makes some magnificent reds (see Volnay and Pommard), white wine made from Chardonnay is the main focus. The most famous villages are Puligny-Montrachet and Meursault. Burgundy has three other important regions. The village of Chablis (exclusively Chardonnay) encompassing the region's most northerly vineyards. The Côte Chalonnaise and Mâconnais to south are quantitatively speaking more important. Agriculture is more diverse with a significant portion of the land devoted to livestock and arable farming.
Traveling south from Beaune, Meursault is the first of the major white-wine-producing communes of the Cote de Beaune. As the third largest village in the Cote d’Or, in terms of area under vines, it produces more white wine than the other communes in the Cote de Beaune put together. While it has no grand cru vineyards, the quality of wine from the best premier crus, Les Perriers, Les Charmes, and Les Genevrieres, is unsurpassed. The village level vineyards - Narvaux, Clos de la Barre and Les Crotots - are a few worth looking out for, offering good quality but at a significantly lower price. The lower water table in the village, as compared with Puligny, allows for deeper (therefore cooler) cellars, where producers can mature their wines in barrel longer. Some barrels even see a second winter before being racked and bottled. It is perhaps this combination of factors, the less humid, drier soil contributing to lower yields, and the extended maturation, that develops a richer style with a nuttier character compared to the more floral, stone fruits expressed in the wines of Puligny and Chassagne.
Red wine is wine made from dark-coloured grape varieties. The color of red differs based on the grapes variety or varieties used.Interestingly, black grapes yield a juice that is greenish-white. The actual red color comes from anthocyan pigments (also called anthocyanins) from the skin of the grape (exceptions are the relatively uncommon teinturier varieties, which produce a red colored juice). Most of the production centers around the extraction of color and flavor from the grape skin.
