The Winemaker’s Rant

Does Color Matter in Pinot Noir
(or, why winemakers want you to drink lots of Merlot)

I’ve been reading some of the wine chat board postings lately. I know, a dangerous thing for a winemaker to do (read, that is), but there you have it. At any rate, it seems one of the biggest of controversies, out there in the virtual wine e-world, revolves around what the intensity of color in a Pinot Noir means to the average Pinot consumer. Does color matter? Does size count? Let’s dispel one myth right now, there is no such thing as an "average" Pinot consumer, unless the term "congressional ethics" or "giant shrimp" has any meaning for you. Pinot consumers are as wacky as Pinot winemakers. Who else would spend large amounts of disposable (or otherwise) income, and time chasing for that perfect bottle when there is so much nice, pleasant Merlot out there which is almost always user-friendly at purchase?

Merlot is easy to drink, AND easy to make. It is, for the cellar jock, the veritable blank canvas on which to paint pretty pictures. Paint by numbers? Just follow the dots and fill ‘em in. A little oak here, a little cuvaison skin contact there, maybe some air with your racking. Add acid and hey, presto, you’ve got Merlot. You wanna change winemaking styles with Merlot? Need a cash cow to milk? Got Milk? Add it to your Merlot (this is called fining, folks — ain’t no joke) and you soften the baby up for an early release. A pleasant drink, for pleasant people, without the insanity in the cellar of the hoops Pinot Noir will have us hose-hounds jumping through. Oh, sure, there is the big, grunty Merlot for those big, grunty, high-end tastings. But with Merlot, the winemaker doesn’t have to go there with his/her grapes. Merlot does not challenge the cellar stamina. It almost says, "don’t worry, be happy." One can challenge one’s self with some exceptional grapes, but again, no Merlot grape inherently calls its maker to masochism.

Pinot Noir is another story. As a crass, general rule of thumb, there is usually no such thing as a good, cheap Pinot Noir. It’s either good, or it is not. "Nothing worse than a run-of-the-mill Pinot" is a phrase often echoing in wine bars across the country. Mark Twain once wrote about coffee in the same vein, but Pinot Noir even more so invites comment on quality. No other grape requires one to pay such attention to it. Good winemakers (another oxymoron) always ask Pinot what it wants, and always gets its consent, written or otherwise, before actually DOING anything with the darned grape. Not so with obliging Merlot. Facile compared to Pinot.

So color turns out not to be the question in Pinot. Each winemaker needs to make each wine what it wants to be — dark or light, big or svelte, it all depends on the area in which the grape was grown and what tools the winemaker has to address the grape. That Pinot Noir likes to be consulted first makes Merlot no less of a grape, only a little less demanding than its Burgundy Brethren.

So folks, open up your wallets and buy Merlot. Good, bad, or indifferent, you will be making some poor winemaker’s life easier by increasing the demand for his beau Bordeaux. Which means more Merlot grapes planted and made into the liquid stuff, which means less job stress for your local oenologist. Save those big bucks for she-who-they-call the "heartbreak grape," which is the passion and the true cross of most wine buffs, be they makers or consumers. Big or finessed, there is someone’s dedicated love and heart in every really good bottle of la Pinot Noir.

Imbibe With Honor,

A. Nosmic

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