How to taste Pinot Noir like a Master Sommelier

Learning to taste wine is a skill for anyone willing to learn how their palate works can master. As a teenager I used to buy only what the budget could afford, which was often bag-in-box velluto rosso red, and on special occasions I would buy Wolf Blass red label. When I got serious about wine I needed to learn how to taste properly before I could start exploring the world of wine, different varieties and styles. After attending a wine course and getting the basics down I then knew how to proceed and let the journey begin.

On your own wine journey Pinot Noir will likely be there, it has many attributes wine drinkers like to explore and discuss. Pinot can be one of those ‘changed of life’ wines, it can be an epiphany wine or an ‘A-ha, now I get it’ wine. Pinot is a fascinating wine, its scents can be both sensual and floral, earthy and mineral, mysterious and complex, it’s easy to think of a place and time with the smell of great Pinot. I remember working a harvest in Burgundy and when you pick grapes you get to know the smell of the vineyard you’re in, the soil, the vines and the air around you. Tasting a wine from the same vineyard instantly took me back to the place where I had been harvesting, from the perfumes to the sense of place. This became an a-ha moment for me, a piece of the puzzle and part of why Pinot Noir can be so evocative.

The structure of any wine, its acid, alcohol, fruit concentration, use of oak and tannins form the foundation, but also provide mouthfeel and carry the voice of place, complexity and finish. These ideas are crucial to fine wine and fine Pinot Noir. It’s a rather fickle grape to grow and ripen needing lots of attention in the vineyard and with the right approach to soil and vine health it is a variety that can echo, even mirror its surrounds from soil and minerals, flowers and plants as well as berry fruit flavours and dried herbs. Tasting Pinot Noir requires some extra focus, here’s how I approach it.

Your nose is a much more powerful tool than you might think so maximise it in every way possible starting with the right glass. A glass with a large bowl, tapering inwards rim, thin glass too and a long narrow stem for a decent swirl. The thinness of glass and shape of the rim is important to delivery of the wine onto the palate. The size of the bowl is important for swirling and breaking a large surface area of wine to release then trap as much scent as possible.

Make sure you’re not trying to taste Pinot on the back of a coffee or highly flavoured foods, rinse your palate using mineral water; tap water can carry too many disruptive flavours (I guess you’ll have to trust me on that one). You only need around 70 ml to taste a wine so the process from here is about revealing the package of scents then layering in the texture and complexity. You can’t taste and assess Pinot on just one smell and one taste. Swirl the wine a few times, then 100% of your nose goes into the bowl, a long slow gentle sniff – eyes open, exhale through your nose and relax. Do the same again, but this time eyes closed, sniff longer to be sure you fill your lungs then exhale through your nose and relax. One more sniff, only this time place the palm of your hand over the top of the glass and swirl the wine again, then immediately you remove your hand your nose goes back into the bowl with another moderate sniff – eyes closed.  All this swirling and sniffing will take just 1 - 2 minutes tops, the whole point of this approach is to wake up your senses then open them acutely to subtlety, fermentation and resting on lees techniques, complexities and the story a Pinot Noir is trying to tell you.

The delivery of Pinot Noir onto the palate is important to its assessment, so be sure to let the wine touch the tip of your tongue as you take the first sip – this helps you decide how fruity, acidic and intense all at once. Also, the right glass lets the wine cascade across your palate evenly. Be sure to hold the wine for a few seconds before you engage any rinsing technique. Pinot is a wine that wants to tell you its story and if you swish it around your mouth too much the storyline is disrupted and you may lose the thread of information.

Describing a Pinot Noir might take some time if it’s a complex example, yet the taste and textures usually reflect your recognition of flowers and light red berry fruits from cherries to raspberries, strawberries then plums. The fruits can be your impressions of freshly harvested, dried, cooked or preserved. A fine savoury quality from dried herbs to the taste of chalky textured soils - clay or stone, a lick of limestone, chalk or just minerals is a typical attribute of Pinot. The use of oak is critical to depth and complexity, texture and length on the palate, this is where a winemaker’s vision of what the wine will be like after 2, 5, 10 or 20 years in bottle might be so it’s understandable that oak flavours and textures might be stronger when a Pinot is younger. Baking or kitchen spices from clove and vanilla to nutmeg, cinnamon and five spice may become part of your vocabulary for describing Pinot that has a noticeable oak influence. Tannins and acidity are important to your assessment of Pinot, I like to use words that make sense to most people such as needle point or nails, sandpaper or emery board, dusty, chalky or even coarse silk tannins. Acidity offers texture, structure and contrast to fruit and other flavours you encounter with Pinot, it’s there to help the wine age, carry flavour and enhance texture, so in younger Pinot acidity should be more noticeable, but not hard or drying. The finish and length of great Pinot Noir holds the key to your satisfaction and assessment, if you keep wanting the invade your senses with the scents, flavours and textures of a Pinot Noir you’re probably holding a glass if fine wine.

Be sure to take your time with Pinot Noir, it wants you to, it’s like reading a great book where every word has to read carefully to understand the storyline and character nuances.