a directory of one grapePinot Country
one thin-skinned grape, the ground it answers to, and what gets eaten beside it.
Thin skin, tight bunches, early ripening. It rots in the rain, burns in the heat, mutates when nobody is looking, and people keep planting it colder and further out anyway — Burgundy, the Ahr, the Willamette, a fog corridor in Sonoma, a valley in Santa Barbara County that runs the wrong way, and a schist basin in Otago at 45° south.
Tri-tip over red oak
One California valley cooks beef over local oak, grows pinot noir on the hills that oak comes off, and rarely puts the two together in the same sentence.
How pinot left the hill
Burgundy spent a thousand years working out which slope did what.
Written down by somebody else
Ground a named body has already ruled on: an appellation established, a boundary drawn in the Federal Register, a World Heritage listing. The count is how many different bodies, not our opinion.
The vine (7)
Pinot noir and the family it mutates into: meunier, gris, blanc, précoce.
- Black-skinned (4)
- Frühburgunder
- Gamay
- Pinot Meunier
- Pinot noir
- Grey (1)
- Pinot gris
- White (2)
- Chardonnay
- Pinot blanc
Regions (34)
Appellations, AVAs, valleys and communes — the ground pinot noir answers to.
- Australia (3)
- Mornington Peninsula
- Tasmania
- Yarra Valley
- Canada (1)
- Okanagan Valley
- Chile (1)
- Casablanca Valley
- France (8)
- Alsace
- Burgundy
- Champagne
- Côte Chalonnaise
- Côte de Beaune
- Côte de Nuits
- Jura
- Sancerre
- Germany (2)
- Ahr
- Baden
- Italy (1)
- Alto Adige
- New Zealand (3)
- Central Otago
- Marlborough
- Martinborough
- South Africa (1)
- Hemel-en-Aarde
- United States (14)
- Anderson Valley
- Dundee Hills
- Eola-Amity Hills
- Finger Lakes
- Los Carneros
- Ribbon Ridge
- Russian River Valley
- Santa Cruz Mountains
- … all 14
Vineyards (9)
Named sites: grands crus, climats, benchland blocks, a hillside somebody fenced.
- France (7)
- Chambertin
- Clos de Vougeot
- Corton
- La Tâche
- Musigny
- Richebourg
- Romanée-Conti
- United States (2)
- Bien Nacido
- Sanford & Benedict
Cellars (15)
Domaines, wineries and tasting rooms — who presses the fruit, and who lets you in.
Clones (10)
Dijon numbers, suitcase cuttings, field selections. The vine is a copy of a copy.
- Burgundy, by cutting (3)
- Abel clone
- Pinot Droit
- Pommard, UCD 4
- California field selections (3)
- Calera selection
- Mount Eden selection
- Swan selection
- Dijon, by number (3)
- Dijon 115
- Dijon 667
- Dijon 777
- Swiss stations (1)
- Wädenswil, UCD 2A
Vineyard and cellar (11)
Whole cluster, cold soak, punch-down, neutral oak, the decisions that show up in the glass.
- In barrel (1)
- Neutral oak
- In the fermenter (5)
- Cold soak
- Malolactic fermentation
- Native yeast
- Punching down
- Whole cluster
- Planting (2)
- High-density planting
- Massal selection
- At the press (1)
- Saignée
- In the vineyard (2)
- Green harvest
- Hand harvest
At the table (10)
Tri-tip over red oak, duck, salmon, mushrooms, a hard cheese and a cold cellar.
- Birds (1)
- Duck
- Cheese (1)
- Washed-rind cheese
- Condiments and fuel (2)
- Red oak
- Santa Maria salsa
- Fish (1)
- Salmon
- Fungi (2)
- Mushrooms
- Truffle
- Mains (2)
- Coq au vin
- Santa Maria tri-tip
- Sides (1)
- Pinquito beans
People (14)
Growers, winemakers, nurserymen, scientists, the writers who argued about it.
- Butchers (1)
- Bob Schutz
- Growers (2)
- David Lett
- Richard Sanford
- Owners (5)
- Lalou Bize-Leroy
- Josh Jensen
- Paul Masson
- Martin Ray
- Aubert de Villaine
- Scientists (1)
- Raymond Bernard
- Winemakers (5)
- Jim Clendenen
- Merry Edwards
- Henri Jayer
- André Tchelistcheff
- Burt Williams
Organizations (8)
Appellation bodies, growers' associations, nurseries, archives.
Events (5)
Auctions, celebrations, barrel tastings, the weekend a valley opens its doors.
Words (14)
Climat, lieu-dit, saignée, brix — each one with its root.
Stories (6)
Long reads: how the grape travelled, what a vintage did, what goes on the grill.
- Essays (5)
- How pinot left the hill
- One film, measured
- The numbers on the vine
- Tri-tip over red oak
- What thin skin costs
- Where it came from (1)
- Where this comes from
Reading the marks
Plain prose is cited and the source sits on the page. Tradition holds — is what the trade says, hedged. Inference — is this project reasoning. It is all JSON as well, under /api/, and what is missing is listed at coverage.