Over the years, the pinot noir grape variety has garnered quite a reputation and following in Burgundy, France, and is now booming in both California and Oregon as well.
What most wine lovers do not know, however, is that pinot noir is also the patriarch to a family of other pinot grape varieties — two of which, pinot blanc and pinot gris, can often offer exceptional value.
Take the 2012 Au Bon Climat Pinot Blanc/Pinot Gris blend, for instance. Winemaker and owner Jim Clendenen, who made an international name for himself with his Burgundian-styled chardonnays and pinot noirs, believes that the grand white Burgundies of old were not produced solely from the chardonnay grape variety, but included other pinot noir offspring, such as pinot gris, pinot beurot and pinot blanc.
In homage to this belief, Clendenen produces this unique blend as a separate bottling.
At about $20 a bottle, this elegant, refined, minerally chardonnay taste-alike overdelivers for its dollar.
Clendenen also blends these two grape varieties with another, distant-cousin variety, aligote, to produce a vanguard, reserve-level bottling named Hildegard (about $48), after the wife of Charlemagne, emperor of Burgundy.
I recently tasted the 1999 and 2003 vintages and walked away totally impressed. Both were closer to a top-echelon white Burgundy in quality, minerality and style.
Like its name, this cuvee is Clendenen’s homage to the classic, aristocratic white Burgundy.
Another standout worth checking out is the Cantina Terlan Pinot Bianco (about $22), which hails from the steep, rocky hills of northeast Italy.
This wine is brisk, riveting and full of lip-smacking minerality and refreshing acidity.
Furthermore, unlike many of the wines of the area that are simpler and fruit driven, the Terlan Pinot Bianco has character and virility. It is also remarkably light in body, making it compatible with a surprisingly wide array of foods.
In 2007 I tasted a unique white wine while visiting Burgundy and the house of Lucien Boillot. The wine’s label simply read Les Grands Poisots. The wine was produced from the pinot beurot variety.
I was astounded to smell and taste such a cornucopia of cherry — essences of cough drops to sour cherry to ripe, red cherry.
Until then I had always associated these nuances with a red grape such as pinot noir.
From the experience, I walked away with a clearer understanding of the connection between pinot noir and its offspring.
As a side note: I was somewhat taken back when I re-tasted the wine after it arrived in the islands. Its taste was not of cherries as I remembered, but much more about minerality from the limestone-rich soils the vines grow in. The French have a skill for showing a "sense of place" through their wines.
At about $29 a bottle, Les Grands Poisots is a wine worth trying, not only because of its unique quality, but for its elegance and refinement.
Chuck Furuya is a master sommelier and a partner in the DK Restaurants group. Follow his blog at chuckfuruya.com.
