While many people have been hanging out at the pool basking in the sunshine this summer, I’ve been a Pinot Noir pleasure seeker. Forget relaxing on the hammock and reading Danielle Steele, grilled wild salmon with a glass of silky, seductive Pinot is my idea of summertime indulgence.
Long before the Sideways phenomenon, Pinot has been a personal favorite. Affectionately known as the heartbreak grape because of its diva-like need for the perfect growing conditions, Pinot can be hit or miss. When it performs to potential, however, there’s nothing like it. Once I was asked which wine I would bring along if stranded on a deserted island. My answer was Pinot Noir. What other wine pairs with wild boar as easily as speared fish?
My summer of Pinot love began in July when I spoke at the International Pinot Noir Celebration (IPNC) in McMinnville, Oregon. This tiny college town smack in the middle of the Willamette Valley is the site of the hottest Pinot festival around. Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, the casual gathering of 600 or so Pinot lovers is one of the most coveted tickets in the wine world.
Pinot-philes buy early to secure a spot while wineries come on an invitation-only basis. Each year event organizers rotate their selection of producers to reflect the global face of Pinot Noir. Walking around on the bucolic campus of Linfield College in shorts and t-shirts, IPNC attendees sample the best of Burgundy, California, Oregon, New Zealand, Australia, and this year, Canada and Chile.
In what amounts to an adult summer camp, guests visit Willamette Valley wineries such as Sokol-Blosser, Torii Mor, Ponzi and Domaine Drouhin for sumptuous but relaxed lunches and vineyard tours. Back on campus, the seminars that fed the group’s hunger for Pinot information this year included ‘Pinot Science Fair,’ ‘Attack of the Clones,’ and ‘Two Decades of New World Pinot Noir,’ which I moderated. For two days I lead a panel of Pinot superstars including Merry Edwards and Richard Sanford of California, Oregon’s David Adelsheim, and Steve Smith of the amazing Craggy Range winery in New Zealand.
The weekend culminated in a salmon bake where food was prepared by guest chefs from the Northwest and California like Frank Ostini of Santa Barbara’s Hitching Post restaurant, the setting for the movie Sideways. This is the favored meal by far as everyone not only gorges on salmon, but brings wine to share. I was lucky enough to sit near iconic and eclectic winemaker Jim Clendenen of Au Bon Climat (ABC) in Los Olivos, California. Sipping older vintages of Burgundy’s best that he brought, as well as library selections of his own ABC wines (and pouring the remains on the well-fed grass below), the evening capped off the event’s bacchanalian-like salute to Pinot.
As Amy Wesselman, owner of Oregon’s Westry Wines and Executive Director of the IPNC said, ‘Over the past 20 years the brainchild of a few McMinnville winemakers and wine lovers has grown into a three-day Pinot Noir blowout. The quality of the cuisine has grown at a pace with the quality of the wines, but the original spark for the celebration – a passion for this grape – has continued to be the driving force.’
If you’d like to get in the cue for tickets in 2007, check out www.ipnc.org.
Next Stop: Green Valley…and Beyond
I live in the heart of northern California’s Pinot Noir country between Carneros, the Sonoma Coast, and not too far from the Russian River. Needless to say, I get to enjoy great Pinot on a regular basis. I’m even a home winemaker who tackles Syrah but have yet to try my hand at Pinot. I know my limitations and leave the hard stuff up to professionals.
One such professional is Marimar Torres. As owners of one of the largest wine companies in Spain, the legendary Torres family hails from the northeastern part of Spain in Catalunya. The company is currently run by Miguel Torres but his sister – the elegant and erudite Marimar – moved to California in 1975 and began planting vines in 1986. Her winery, Marimar Estate, is located in the Green Valley sub-appellation of the Russian River Valley.
Last month, I went to visit Marimar and her daughter Cristina, to sample Marimar Estate’s winning Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs. As we sat on her patio overlooking the vineyards we noshed on a lunch of Catalan specialties such as shellfish stew (zarzuela de mariscos), which is highlighted in Marimar’s cookbook, the ‘Catalan Country Kitchen.’
When I remarked how one of her Pinots reminded me of Burgundy, Marimar replied, ‘I studied in Burgundy and loved the people. When I found this property I knew Pinot Noir would do well here. This was 1988 and Pinot wasn’t popular so I planted against the advice of many!’ Marimar proved her brilliance and now her organically-farmed vineyards produce Pinots of elegance and character.
My summer also included a pouring of Kathleen Inman’s Russian River Valley Pinot at one of my book events, a tasting of the trendy Seasmoke Pinot Noirs from Santa Barbara and last week, a quick trip to Wilson Daniels’ office in Napa Valley to sample stunning Burgundies. This exclusive importer brings in Burgundy’s Domaine de la Romanée Conti, and while I didn’t get to taste those (next time right?), I did sip new-release Pinots from the likes of Maison Faiveley and Domaine Pierre Morey.
Even for a Pinot lover like me, this has been a memorable few months. And just because summer is waning, it won’t stop me from indulging in more. Next on my list of pilgrimages is a visit to Adam and Diana Lee at Siduri, whose handcrafted Pinots are world-class. Then it’s off to taste cellar selections with Merry Edwards, a woman I call the ‘Queen of California Pinot Noir.’
Luckily, fall is just around the corner. Did I mention how well earthy Pinot Noir goes with hearty beef stew?
Leslie Sbrocco is author of the book Wine for Women. See her current Pinot favorites on the WRO Reviews page.