Finding good inexpensive Pinot Noir is not an easy thing to do. Often you go to the wine shop or super market looking for these wines and you see them and say to yourself…”Are they any good”?
It’s become better known that Pinot Noir is the hardest grape to grow because it’s very delicate and really tricky to master for many wine makers. So how do you know what is good if you are not prepared to take a chance on a Pinot Noir and spend $30 – $70 a bottle, yet alone $100…or even picking one out at a restaurant…Don’t worry. If you stick to the top producers, you can get the combination of quality and value. Is it going to be distinctive? You will have the basics; good fruit, good oak and its the perfect way to saturate the palate with pinot noir and who knows…in good years there’s a sleeper wine that blows the doors off the expensive stuff.
Put it this way. If you like Pinot Noir, you are in better shape than the folks that love Bordeaux wines. It’s hard enough to navigate around the Burgundy region.
Bourgogne rouge which is what it’s often called on the bottle offers great value.
People will argue…”What about the location?!?” “What about the terroir?!?” Listen here…it matters but believe me in the burgundy region where terroir is gospel. It doesn’t really matter that much, because the top producers do some great stuff. Alot of it is just declassified juice from the top wines, which is just fine and made to drink now and not lay down…and when it comes to growers versus negociants, they all for the most part have made big strides to put out good Pinot Noir. These gus know what they are doing. Buy them up too because they dissapear in a blink of an eye.
Here are some to look for…Maison Champy, Maison Louis Jadot, Domain Denis Pere et Fils, Domaine Faiveley and Domaine Drouhin.