Pinot Noir around the world

A small but real category: pale, high-acid, red-fruited Pinot Noir from the warmest English sites in the warmest years.

Against its siblings: lighter, lighter in alcohol, leaner and more cutting.

• Cool climate. Slower ripening tends to retain acidity and hold alcohol down, and green or citrus notes survive where a warmer site would ripen them away.
• Oak ageing. Extended time in barrel adds spice and structure and slowly softens tannin.

Pale, sharply fresh still rosé, usually from Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier.

Against its siblings: cleaner and more fruit-focused, lighter, more fruit-driven.

• Cool climate. Slower ripening tends to retain acidity and hold alcohol down, and green or citrus notes survive where a warmer site would ripen them away.

Pinot Noir at its most perfumed and site-specific: pale, silky, high in acid, and the reference point for the variety worldwide.

Against its siblings: more restrained in fruit, earthier.

• Cool climate. Slower ripening tends to retain acidity and hold alcohol down, and green or citrus notes survive where a warmer site would ripen them away.
• Oak ageing. Extended time in barrel adds spice and structure and slowly softens tannin.

Cooler, more savoury and more Burgundian than California — red cherry, forest floor and fine tannin from the Willamette Valley.

Against its siblings: earthier.

• Cool climate. Slower ripening tends to retain acidity and hold alcohol down, and green or citrus notes survive where a warmer site would ripen them away.

Cool-climate Pinot from the Yarra Valley, Mornington Peninsula and Tasmania — savoury, structured and increasingly serious.

• Cool climate. Slower ripening tends to retain acidity and hold alcohol down, and green or citrus notes survive where a warmer site would ripen them away.
• Oak ageing. Extended time in barrel adds spice and structure and slowly softens tannin.

California’s coolest, most wind-exposed Pinot sites — taut, savoury and more structured than inland examples.

Against its siblings: earthier.

• Warm climate. Fuller ripening tends to raise sugar and therefore alcohol, soften acidity, and push fruit character from tart towards ripe and jammy.
• Oak ageing. Extended time in barrel adds spice and structure and slowly softens tannin.

Germany’s Pinot Noir, transformed since the 1990s from thin and sweetish into a genuinely serious cool-climate red.

• Cool climate. Slower ripening tends to retain acidity and hold alcohol down, and green or citrus notes survive where a warmer site would ripen them away.
• Oak ageing. Extended time in barrel adds spice and structure and slowly softens tannin.

A growing cool-coastal category from Casablanca, San Antonio and Bío-Bío.

• Cool climate. Slower ripening tends to retain acidity and hold alcohol down, and green or citrus notes survive where a warmer site would ripen them away.
• Oak ageing. Extended time in barrel adds spice and structure and slowly softens tannin.

Cool Atlantic-influenced Pinot Noir from the valleys behind Hermanus — South Africa’s finest.

• Cool climate. Slower ripening tends to retain acidity and hold alcohol down, and green or citrus notes survive where a warmer site would ripen them away.
• Oak ageing. Extended time in barrel adds spice and structure and slowly softens tannin.

Riper and fuller than Burgundy, with dark cherry, cola and baking spice — but retaining real acidity in the coolest sites.

Against its siblings: fuller and richer, fruitier, rounder and creamier in texture.

• Cool climate. Slower ripening tends to retain acidity and hold alcohol down, and green or citrus notes survive where a warmer site would ripen them away.

Dense, fruit-forward and structured — Central Otago and Martinborough produce Pinot with more weight than most cool-climate examples.

Against its siblings: more herbal and green, fuller and richer, fruitier.

• Cool climate. Slower ripening tends to retain acidity and hold alcohol down, and green or citrus notes survive where a warmer site would ripen them away.

The benchmark traditional-method sparkling wine: high acidity, fine bubbles and bready autolytic complexity from long lees ageing.

• Cool climate. Slower ripening tends to retain acidity and hold alcohol down, and green or citrus notes survive where a warmer site would ripen them away.
• Traditional method. A second fermentation in the bottle, with the wine held on its lees — the source of both the fine bead and the bready complexity.
• Lees ageing. Time on spent yeast adds texture, breadth and a savoury, bready depth.

Traditional-method sparkling from the three Champagne grapes on southern English chalk — high acidity, green apple and citrus, with bready lees complexity.

• Cool climate. Slower ripening tends to retain acidity and hold alcohol down, and green or citrus notes survive where a warmer site would ripen them away.
• Traditional method. A second fermentation in the bottle, with the wine held on its lees — the source of both the fine bead and the bready complexity.
• Lees ageing. Time on spent yeast adds texture, breadth and a savoury, bready depth.

Spain’s traditional-method sparkling wine: bottle-fermented and lees-aged like Champagne, at a fraction of the price.

• Warm climate. Fuller ripening tends to raise sugar and therefore alcohol, soften acidity, and push fruit character from tart towards ripe and jammy.
• Traditional method. A second fermentation in the bottle, with the wine held on its lees — the source of both the fine bead and the bready complexity.
• Lees ageing. Time on spent yeast adds texture, breadth and a savoury, bready depth.

Traditional-method French sparkling wine made outside Champagne, from Alsace, the Loire, Burgundy, Limoux and elsewhere.

• Traditional method. A second fermentation in the bottle, with the wine held on its lees — the source of both the fine bead and the bready complexity.
• Lees ageing. Time on spent yeast adds texture, breadth and a savoury, bready depth.

Pink traditional-method sparkling from Pinot Noir and Meunier — red-fruited, high in acid and better with food than its reputation.

• Cool climate. Slower ripening tends to retain acidity and hold alcohol down, and green or citrus notes survive where a warmer site would ripen them away.
• Traditional method. A second fermentation in the bottle, with the wine held on its lees — the source of both the fine bead and the bready complexity.
• Lees ageing. Time on spent yeast adds texture, breadth and a savoury, bready depth.

Italy’s benchmark traditional-method sparkling wine, from Lombardy, with lees-ageing requirements exceeding non-vintage Champagne.

• Cool climate. Slower ripening tends to retain acidity and hold alcohol down, and green or citrus notes survive where a warmer site would ripen them away.
• Traditional method. A second fermentation in the bottle, with the wine held on its lees — the source of both the fine bead and the bready complexity.
• Lees ageing. Time on spent yeast adds texture, breadth and a savoury, bready depth.

South Africa’s traditional-method sparkling wine — bottle-fermented, lees-aged and consistently strong value.

• Warm climate. Fuller ripening tends to raise sugar and therefore alcohol, soften acidity, and push fruit character from tart towards ripe and jammy.
• Traditional method. A second fermentation in the bottle, with the wine held on its lees — the source of both the fine bead and the bready complexity.
• Lees ageing. Time on spent yeast adds texture, breadth and a savoury, bready depth.

Bottle-fermented sparkling, largely from Tasmania — the cool-climate backbone of Australian fizz.

• Cool climate. Slower ripening tends to retain acidity and hold alcohol down, and green or citrus notes survive where a warmer site would ripen them away.
• Traditional method. A second fermentation in the bottle, with the wine held on its lees — the source of both the fine bead and the bready complexity.
• Lees ageing. Time on spent yeast adds texture, breadth and a savoury, bready depth.

Austria’s sparkling wine, governed since 2015 by a three-tier quality pyramid — Klassik, Reserve and Grosse Reserve.

• Cool climate. Slower ripening tends to retain acidity and hold alcohol down, and green or citrus notes survive where a warmer site would ripen them away.
• Traditional method. A second fermentation in the bottle, with the wine held on its lees — the source of both the fine bead and the bready complexity.
• Lees ageing. Time on spent yeast adds texture, breadth and a savoury, bready depth.

Bottle-fermented sparkling from cool Californian sites, several of them founded by Champagne houses.

• Warm climate. Fuller ripening tends to raise sugar and therefore alcohol, soften acidity, and push fruit character from tart towards ripe and jammy.
• Traditional method. A second fermentation in the bottle, with the wine held on its lees — the source of both the fine bead and the bready complexity.
• Lees ageing. Time on spent yeast adds texture, breadth and a savoury, bready depth.

A breakaway collective mark used by Penedès producers who left Cava, with stricter self-imposed rules.

• Warm climate. Fuller ripening tends to raise sugar and therefore alcohol, soften acidity, and push fruit character from tart towards ripe and jammy.
• Traditional method. A second fermentation in the bottle, with the wine held on its lees — the source of both the fine bead and the bready complexity.
• Lees ageing. Time on spent yeast adds texture, breadth and a savoury, bready depth.

White sparkling wine from black grapes — Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier pressed gently without skin contact.

• Cool climate. Slower ripening tends to retain acidity and hold alcohol down, and green or citrus notes survive where a warmer site would ripen them away.
• Traditional method. A second fermentation in the bottle, with the wine held on its lees — the source of both the fine bead and the bready complexity.
• Lees ageing. Time on spent yeast adds texture, breadth and a savoury, bready depth.

German sparkling wine, covering everything from industrial tank-method fizz to serious traditional-method Riesling Sekt.

• Cool climate. Slower ripening tends to retain acidity and hold alcohol down, and green or citrus notes survive where a warmer site would ripen them away.
• Traditional method. A second fermentation in the bottle, with the wine held on its lees — the source of both the fine bead and the bready complexity.
• Lees ageing. Time on spent yeast adds texture, breadth and a savoury, bready depth.