The cinematic history of Pinot Noir, the wine that dances on your palate

Can Something Simple Be Glorious? Can a film change the fate of a grape variety? Can a nobleman ban a grape in order to be able to plant his favorite? Can a bottle be worth $ 500,000? Can a wine dance on your palate? The answer is yes and only Pinot Noir can provoke such fanaticism from the bottom of time.

Its roots are so old that the Romans already cultivated it. However, his fame began to develop in the Middle Ages. Charlemagne was such a fan of Pinot Noir that he had his land planted with this grape. He loved this red so much that he drank it every day. However, Charlemagne aged, his blond beard was already white, and his pulse was not the same as before.

When he drank he used to stain his beard, and his wife considered it unbecoming for the most powerful emperor in Europe. She advised him to give up wine and he decided to give up… red. He has all his Corton-Charlomagne vines replaced by Chardonnay so as not to stain his beard. His knowledge allowed him to understand that where Pinot Noir grows well, Chardonnay grows well, as in Champagne or in our Patagonia.

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The prestige gained by this variety, as tasty as it is delicate and demanding, led to a torrid July 31, 1395, the Duke of Burgundy prohibiting by decree another variety: Gamay. Felipe II l’Audacieux, signed an edict calling for the total and definitive eradication of the Gamay grape variety and its replacement by Pinot Noir. The peasants protested (imagine how long a protest lasted in the Middle Ages) because Gamay was easier to grow and produced better yields, in addition to the fact that the crops took several years to come back to bear fruit. However, the duke did not like these wines, more rustic, and granted his whim to the end. Today these lands of the Côte d’Or are the heart of Burgundy (Burgundy), home to the most famous pinot noir in the world and you might wonder what would have happened if the Duke had not released his controversial edict.

Fanaticism and scarcity make the value of Burgundy wines. One of the 6,000 annual bottles of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti is marketed with a value of around $ 20,000, but specific vintages and with a few years of aging have reached half a million. This explains why there are so many counterfeiters swarming the world and doing their thing at auction. Perhaps the most famous of them in contemporary history is Rudy Kurniawan who, relying on his knowledge and his refined palate, sold some 10,000 adulterated bottles causing damage in excess of $ 30 million. Among the most counterfeit were of course the best Pinots from Burgundy, and their history can be discovered in its entirety in the documentary “Sour Raisins”.

Another important film in the history of Pinot Noir is “Sideways” (Between glasses in Spanish-speaking countries). Miles is a wine enthusiast who takes his friend Jack on a wine tour as a “bachelor party”. Before attending a dinner, he says one of the film’s most striking phrases: “If someone asks for Merlot, I go. I’m not going to have a fucking Merlot. ”The line and a few other comments from Miles in this multi-award-winning comedy pushed up the sales and price of Merlot in the United States and drastically increased the demand for pinot noir, especially the more upscale American winemakers had exploited Merlot’s fame to the point of bastardizing it, and the film was the momentum it needed to be questioned and dethroned.

In popular culture, it’s not just the cinema that deals with these wines. In the Japanese manga “God’s drops” two brothers compete to identify and taste 12 wines that will allow them to access their late father’s private cellar. Obviously, a famous Pinot could not be missing and the protagonist opens a Richebourg 1999 which immediately transports it to a field of flowers. The image is one of the best that has been seen to convey the sensations of a wine.

Something difficult, especially with this grape variety which has the particularity of being sensitive to changes and the influence of the terroir. For example, in our Patagonia, strong winds promote the growth of thicker skin, and as a result we will have more color and structure. The selection of certain clones, associated with this particularity, gives wines with complex, fruity and deep aromas that show their identity.

Due to its light and elegant style and the mystery that surrounds it, it has never lost its validity. Wine critic Jancis Robinson, one of the world’s most influential, described Pinot Noir as a variety that “dances on the palate instead of dominating it”. Unlike other grape varieties which fill our mouths with their delight, it is playful, flirts with our taste buds and has become over time one of the most noble and prestigious.

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