Pinot CountryStories (6)
Long reads: how the grape travelled, what a vintage did, what goes on the grill.
Essays (5)
One film, measuredIn October 2004 a comedy about two men on a road trip through Santa Barbara County put a speech about pinot noir into cinemas, and the American wine trade could see it in the sales figures within months.
The numbers on the vineA grower ordering pinot noir today picks numbers out of a catalogue: 115, 667, 777, or Pommard, or Wädenswil. Each one is a single mother vine, tested clean of virus and copied.
Tri-tip over red oakOne 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.
What thin skin costsEvery difficulty pinot noir hands a grower comes from the same anatomy that makes the wine worth the trouble: a small, tight, pinecone-shaped bunch of thin-skinned berries that ripens early.
Where it came from (1)
Where this comes fromEvery fact on this site points at something you can open yourself. This page lists what those things are, what each one costs to use, and where the gaps sit.