Pinot Noir is like a virus. Once you're infected, there's practically no cure. At the same time it is one of the most difficult varieties for cultivation: there is no system, there are no rules, neither in selecting the parcel, nor in deciding on the method of planting, nor regarding the right time for harvesting. This is a variety that never ceases to surprise - sometimes it brings joy, sometimes disappointment. It causes so many headaches that even a small success delivers great joy.
Whenever we are paid a visit by a fellow winemaker and ask what we could offer, they most often ask for the Pinot Noir. This is the "acid test" of any winemaker. It showcases the producer as it is the most difficult to make faultlessly. There are not many Pinot Noir producers around the world. Any winemaker who would not pass for indifferent and desires a certain level of quality in all his wines has to be quite brave to include a Pinot Noir in his range.
Pinot Noir can have quite an attitude in the vineyard already. But there is no serious wine without truly strong grapes, rich and full of extract. And even such grapes offer incertitude. With Merlot, high quality grapes almost certainly augur a high quality, wonderful and grand wine. Not the case with Pinot Noir. In its adolescence it can quite unexpectedly veer off the right path.
We are of the belief that we need to hold through until a very late harvest if we want to make a great Pinot Noir. Although it is actually one of the earliest varieties, we only harvest it towards the end of the grape harvest. This forces us to thin out the grapes and drop rotting grapes on the ground. We wait until the grapes almost completely sever their bond with the vine, when the stem almost completely dries up. This is when berries begin to partially dry up and a slight concentration of all the substances in the berries begins. Only then do we start to harvest.
Partly leaving whole grapes on the stem during maceration increases the Pinot Noir's roughness. Considering that the wine will not be consumed immediately, a little roughness in the wine's youth is needed to then smoothen and round it off with age, still leaving enough meat on the bone for the wine to remain full-bodied. Ageing cannot take place at the expense of the wine's body. We cannot make lean and slender a body that was to weak to begin with and then becomes too exhausted to last.
It is only after the first year of maturing that a Pinot Noir starts showing its true colors. If greenness begins to stand out, i.e. aromas and flavors reminding us of green things (leaves, flowers), then we are definitely not dealing with a great Pinot Noir, merely an unsuccessful attempt. If, however, fruity, "jammy" aromas prevail (forest fruits, sour cherry, cherry), then we're on the right track. But then we have to be patient and perseverant. Pinot Noir will not deliver every year, so when it does we have to get the very best out of it.
Pinot Noir is produced also very high up north, even in Switzerland, though these Pinots produce wine that resembles a rosé rather than a great red. Burgundy is without doubt the home of the Pinot Noir. Comparing Burgundy's climate, soil, precipitation, etc. to ours, we find that Slovenia's "Burgundy" would lie somewhere between Štajerska and Primorska. A bit south of Štajerska and slightly north of Primorska. Practically speaking, in the Brda.
