White Pinot Noir - I'm intrigued
 

White Pinot Noir.

Anybody try it? I'm certainly not expecting it to blow your socks off as a great pinot, but I saw it listed in an e-mail yesterday and it caught my eye. It's totally intriguing to picture what it would taste like (and yes, I know that champagne can be made from pinot noir, but this is a still wine)

On the fence on this one. Domaine Carneros has it, and they have had some hits in the past.

Tis interesting and reminds me of a Cabernet Sauvignon Blanc I had back in LA. If I am correct, a white or blanc is produced by immediately separating the juice from the skin so the color of the skin does not bleed into the wine.

It's easy to make a white wine from nearly any red grape. The way you do it is crush the grapes, and remove the skins right away. The pigment is all in the skins, and if they are not left with the grape juice during the fermentation process, one will end up with a white wine (actually, a very slight blush wine). How it tastes depends upon how it is vinified - and whether it is finished dry, or slightly sweet (and many of these wines, as well as many roses, are finished to be slightly sweet). If it's slightly sweet, it will taste similar to a white zinfandel, which is basically made the same way - by crushing red zinfandel grapes and removing the skins right away. If it's finished dry, it will usually taste like a cross between a chenin blanc and a dry rose such as a Taval.

In the case of Domaine Carneros, this is the same juice that they make their sparkling blanc de noirs from (which is similar to Champagne, except for where the grapes come from). But, for whatever reason, they've decided to make some of it into still wine rather than bubbly.

there is a white clone of pinot noir in burundy. that i grapes allowed in white burgundy. my guess is that most do not admit it exists. verget produced one with proclamed 50% from where east of beaune(wrong side of tracks). did not sell well. i bought a lot. prince de merthode made another.

Guessing they pick it late for increased sugar and less acidity. Possibly to get the alcohol up during fermentation and almost certainly best young.

Would not mind trying it. I am also intrigued.

Mike

Dont forget that the addition of sugar is allowed in most all French regions...

True, but if the data that 1.5% ABV (12 g/l) allowable increase (according to the 2008 revised regs.) is accurate, then the wine is starting out high enough in sugar to get a decent alc. level isn't it? Typically when Pinot is used for Champagne it is picked earlier I think with less alc. and more acidity.

Actually very intrigued now.

Isn't a blanc de noirs a Champagne made from Pinot Noir?

Yes it is.

Many Rose Champagnes are 100% Pinot Noir, If I am not mistaken.

There is a reason that white pinot has not caught on -- it is an inferior wine (to the same grapes used to make red wine). The pinot noir grape is rather tricky and delicate (why some of us love it so much) and it turns out that some critical elements of its flavour profile are from the skin. Vinifying it as a white wine eliminates much of that flavour; which would be sensible to do only if the flavours were off that year, or the skin contaminated for some reason, and this is an attempt to salvage the crop. There isn't a glut of good pinot noir grapes, unlike many other varietals, so I'd be suspicious of the reason any winery chooses to make a white pinot noir. As noted the vinification is well understood and done a lot for sparkling wines. In France always done as blanc de noir; but I've gotten quite fond of heavy red sparkling wines. Lots made in this style in Australia. Even a great red sparkling pinot noir by Darling Park (and bottled with a metal cap, like a beer bottle -- how refreshing). Better than Moet White Star imho as a reference point, though obviously a completely different style.

Carneros will on occasion make a deep red almost purple sparkling pinot which I loved when they had it. And one of my favorite sparklings of the last year or two was a purple to almost black sparkling shiraz from a Sonoma winery, but they won't have any more for a few years.

I can see Domaine Carneros going both ways with this one. They have a fairly rabid club following and as this is a fairly low production (162 cases) it was probably made for their wine club. But judging by the "we want you back" e-mails, I'm guessing their club numbers have been dropping off and they made too much of it so they are releasing it to the general public.

And of course, it could be they had a few tons of grapes for whatever reason they didn't want to make into their usual pinots, and this was the way to salvage those four containers of grapes.

I'll spring for a bottle if there's any left and let everybody know. Not expecting much from it, more of a novelty, but who knows, I've done that before and been totally shocked in a good way. Like the sparkling shiraz.

I have heard of it, but never further explored it. Please let us know how it is.

from a reply on chow hound:

Let's see. There's Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Then there are Pinot Blanc and Pinot Beurot (Pinot Gris) which were grandfathered in if you already had them planted when the rules were changed. Then there's the rare white clone of Pinot Noir that Gouge has. That may not count as a separate grape, actually. Then there's Sauvignon de Saint Bris near Chablis. Are we considering Beaujolais part of Burgundy today? How many points out of 100 do I get for my answer?

these are white grapes, that can and are made into white burgundy and called white burgundy.

i could not remember earlier, but the wine i acquired was a verget ladoix. in his review, piere roggavani pointed out that it was 25 or 50% white pinot noir

Mrs Sweet Willie & I enjoy Perigot's sparkling white burgandy^