The Pinot Family

My first session on the Monday of SommCom was at 9 am but did not start until 9:20 or so.  The reason given was that the session entailed some blind tasting, calling for wrapping the bottles so the attendees could not tell which was which.  This seemed dubious to me since we were not allowed into the room until the wine was poured (see picture above).  My journalistic instincts in full force, I set out to learn the truth.  And it was quite amazing.
You see, the session was on the Pinot Noir family, with four different members.  I’ve heard it from a totally unreliable source that to emphasize the similarities, they brought in small pots of the four vines.  This got out of control, according to my totally unreliable source, when the plants jumped out of the pots and started dancing and singing a variation of “We Are Family”:
We are family
I got all the pinots with me
We are family
Get up, everybody, and drink
Attempts to quiet the vines were unsuccessful, so they finally removed them and got on with the very informative presentation – with wine.  In addition to great info on the four key family members, the speaker, Alan Tardi, asked us to decide between “old world” wines and “new world” wines.  More on such comparisons at the end of this blog.

​The first grape discussed was Pinot Blanc.  I’m not sure if I had tasted wine made from this grape before, but suffice it to say that it does not make a particularly memorable wine.  As noted in the bad picture of the slide shown below, it does not have the gene that gives Pinot Noir its color.  It appeared sometime in the 14th century.  Got the old/new answer right.

​The second grape was Pinot Gris.  This is a mutation of Pinot Noir that appeared prior to Pinot Gris.  Slide did not say why it does not have the color.  You have certainly tasted Pinot Gris.  You see, this grape made its way to Italy where the name was changed to Pinot Grigio – and the US imports more of it than any other wine.  I missed this one.  Not sure how, but I missed it. 

​Grape number three was Pinot Meunier.  It has tiny white hairs on the leaves, much like I have on my head.  Probably the reason they (allegedly) wanted us to see the vines.  Anyway, the grape appeared about five hundred years ago and is one of three grapes used to make Champagne.  Everyone easily selected the rosy wine as coming from the old world.  Very tasty!

We finally reached one of my favorite grapes, Pinot Noir.  I got this one right as well.  Big curve ball on this one.  Alan chose one wine from a winery in Burgandy and one from a winery in Oregon – with the same owners and the same winemaker!  Perfect comparison between old and new world wines.
Food for thought:  A blind tasting was held in Paris in 1976, an event known as the “Judgement of Paris”.  Seven French judges were asked to rate red (Cabernet Sauvignon) and white (Chardonnay) wines from California and France.  Much to everyone’s surprise, American wines won both competitions.  During the competition, it has been reported that one of the French judges held up a glass with American Chardonnay and declared it to be a great example of French Chardonnay.  In other words, the judges could not tell the difference between old and new world wines…