Skin Deep, Pinot Noir Stripped Down
Wine popularity often cycles. Some wines never become super popular. Some wines become so popular that they become increasingly hard to find and more expensive. Some wines are considered trends or fads that are only present for the moment. Some wines slowly build in popularity almost like a grassroots campaign. The slow build up has been happening in Oregon and it’s time to take notice. There is a blanc de noir without bubbles and it isn’t a trend or a fad. It’s a new face of Pinot Noir and it deserves some attention.
Blanc de Noir or White of Black is a term often used in Champagne. It’s not just for sparkling and it can refer to still wine as well. In various places all over the world winemakers have been experimenting with Blanc de Noir still wine. Often that wine is Pinot Noir. It’s happening in Italy, in Argentina, and in the United States. Pinot Noir and most black skinned grapes in the world have clear juice. The color of the wine comes from the skin of the grape. When they eliminate or minimize skin contact with the juice, winemakers can make a white wine, or a light pink copper-hued wine. Black grapes usually reserved for red wines can make white wines. The choice belongs to the winemaker.
Pinot Noir is a natural choice to experiment with because winemakers already had an idea of how it would work because it had been done for years in Champagne. For some the leap from bubbles to no bubbles was a leap of faith, for others it was a happy accident. No matter how the choice was made, the results were a semi-aromatic wine with more body and red fruit flavor than a white wine typically has. It’s that little something extra that made Pinot Noir, with very little or without any skin contact, go from trend to staple in Willamette Valley.
If one or two wineries made low skin contact Pinot Noir for two or three seasons it would be acceptable to call it a fad, but at least sixteen different wineries are making Pinot Noir with little to no skin contact in Oregon. Some wineries, such as Erath, have been making white Pinot Noir since 2009. When a wine is made every vintage for over ten years, it’s not a trend, it’s a staple.
Not every winemaker found their way to white Pinot the same way, but once they did it became a yearly addition to their portfolio. Gary Horner, Senior Director of Winemaking at Erath in Dundee Hills, was blind tasted (with a white Pinot Noir) by a fellow winemaker and decided it was something he had to make. It expanded into a 150-200 cases per year production. Kim Kramer, the winemaker for Kramer Vineyards in the Yamhill-Carlton AVA, made an accidental discovery when in 2009 some of the Pinot Noir grapes were “too ripe for sparkling wine, but still too crunchy for red.” Tumwater Vineyards, believed it would make a great addition to offer a White Pinot Noir because Pinot Noir is what they do. Regardless of how the wine came to be part of production, the wineries and winemakers enjoyed it enough to make it a yearly offering.
Left Coast Estate, the largest producer of white Pinot Noir in the world, have been making it for over a decade. Vineyard location led to their inspiration for white Pinot Noir. The Van Duzer Corridor AVA, American Viticulture Area, is one of nine AVAs in Willamette Valley and cooler than most. In 2011 the North facing vineyards didn’t want to ripen. The grapes were destined for sparkling wine production, but they had more of these grapes than they needed. The solution was to use half of the grapes for sparkling wine and half of the grapes for still wine. In 2012 the first vintage was released to the wine club and it became so popular that they expanded production.
Much like red Pinot Noir every winery making white Pinot Noir has its own version. Dan Warnshuis, the founder and winemaker of Utopia in Ribbon Ridge AVA, has been making ‘Bliss’ Pinot Noir Blanc since 2017. The wine sees some skin contact during pressing which leads to a beautiful barely-there salmon hue. It is reminiscent of the light copper tinge sometimes found in Blanc de Noir Champagnes. The style is richer with a creamy texture. Ken Cook, winemaker at Cherry Hill Winery in Eola-Amity Hills AVA, makes a completely different style using Estate Pinot Noir grapes. Cherry Hills Blanc de Pinot Noir also has a kiss of color, but stylistically is crisp and refreshing. Ghost Hill Cellars makes a crisp white that they describe as “champagne without bubbles.”
Whether copper-tinged or crystal clear; rounder and fuller or light and crisp; Pinot Noir Blanc has become a staple in Oregon wineries. Pinot Noir stripped of its skins are food friendly wines. If they aren’t on your radar or in your cellar, add them to your drinking rotation. The wines are here to stay. We will probably see more wineries producing white Pinot Noir in the future. With almost fifteen years of sales and production, it’s time Oregon’s best kept secret comes to light.
Wineries with White Pinot included in this article
https://www.kramervineyards.com
https://www.tumwatervineyard.com
