Pinot Noir Wine Facts

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm going to tell you a little about Pinot Noir. Pinot Noir is one of my favorite wines, and it's also kind of a finicky wine. Pinot Noir is not an easy wine to get to know, it's kind of like your mystery man in a glass, but once you get to know it it's worth it. Pinot Noir starts its finicky life style in the vineyard. It's native to a region in France called Burgundy, so red Burgundy is always Pinot Noir. Now from Burgundy it traveled to Oregon in America. And in Oregon, especially Oregon's Willamette Valley, they make Pinot Noir's that rival those of Burgundy. And as matter of fact, sometime Oregon's Willamette Valley is called Burgundy West. Now for a long time that could of been about the only two places I could of told you to get a good Pinot Noir. However, now a days we're also making an excellent Pinot Noir in California, although it has to be a cool region in California. The cooler regions of California are generally the Central Coast, the Russian River Valley, and maybe up north in the Anderson Valley. It's not a wine to grow in a warm region anywhere, and it's certainly not a wine to grow in the warmer regions of California, so we've got to keep it cool. So, we've got Burgundy, Willamette Valley in Oregon, we've got the cooler regions of California and now within the last 10 years we have one other region in the world that makes a good Pinot Noir, and I'm very pleased to tell you that New Zealand's Marlboro wine making region now makes fabulous Pinot Noir's. You probably know New Zealand as an island nation out in the pacific, extremely cool by all the maritime breezes that blow around through the region, and this is the one place in the world that's making excellent Pinot Noir's at a low cost. Pinot Noir can be an expensive wine. I usually tell people to save Pinot Noir for two occasions, when someone else is paying or when you're willing to pay more than $25 for a bottle of wine, otherwise a Pinot Noir can be rather disappointing. But keep to those four regions, get a good bottle of Pinot Noir and per prepared for an earthy aroma in the middle, surrounded by swirling red fruits of cranberry, blueberry, raspberry, strawberry, maybe a little bit of spice at the top, a little bit of nutmeg and clove, a little bit of floral, like rose or violet, an amazing almost central experience in a glass of Pinot Noir. It's a good wine for seduction, but make sure to serve it with something nice and medium bodied, pork, chicken, turkey or maybe even salmon, which is one of my favorite combinations. Pinot Noir and salmon can break the rule about red wine and fish, because it's nice and medium and bodied. Enjoy Pinot Noir, it's one of my favorite wines."