Make Mine A White Pinot Noir

The first thing that springs to mind when you envisage Pinot Noir is most probably that of a red wine and most likely you’d be thinking about something from Burgundy. Yes, most wines made from Pinot Noir are white wines, Champagne being the one most famous wine that’s white and still made from red grape varietals. Therefore it should not come as a shock to anyone that there are also still white Pinot Noir wines on the market and so we found four available in Hong Kong and decided to give them a try.

Pinot Noir in itself is a notoriously difficult grape to grow as it’s a fickle grape that thrives in the right conditions and withers in the wrong. The most popular Pinots around the world at the moment are French (Champagne and Burgundy), New Zealand (mainly Central Otago) and The States (California and Oregon). All of these regions have excellent growing conditions for the Pinot Noir grape and thus, make some very delicious wines.

Germany too makes a lot of good red Pinot Noir, even though people still think of Germany as a predominantly white wine producing country, it does in fact produce a lot of red wines. So, that being the case, we found two German white Pinot Noir and thought they would make for an interesting tasting. These are the kind of wines you can have a lot of fun with your friends with by telling them you’re getting them a Pinot and then handing them a glass of white wine!

Firstly, Weingut Bercher-Burkheim Spatburgunder Blanc de Noirs is a fantastic dry white Pinot Noir from Kaiserstuhl. This wine is actually exceptionally good and is a great expression of a well made, dry white wine from Germany. The labeling ‘trocken’ tells you that it is a dry wine and, these kinds of wines should be appreciated as they are in much lower production that the most popular German grape, Riesling.

The second German white Pinot Noir that we found is Gengenbacher Pinot Noir Blanc de Noirs and comes from the Baden winemaking region. This wine is also very nice but has a little more sweetness to it than the Bercher does. It’s become a very popular choice for white wine in many of the local restaurants here as it’s an approachable wine that suits drinking alone but goes very well with food too and is a popular drink with the ladies because of that little bit of sweetness.

New Zealand has, in the last couple of decades, become well known for its production of Pinot Noir, especially in the Central Otago region but there are also nice Pinot’s made in Marlborough. Most of the Pinot Noir production in New Zealand is of the red kind but we managed to find two white Pinot Noirs here in Hong Kong. Actually, these wines, unlike the Germans have a little more colour to them and are actually more like a Rosé wine, although they too are labeled Blanc de Noirs.

The first is the Richmond Plains Blanc de Noir from Nelson which shows a beautiful orange tinge to the wine which itself is rather off dry in style and very much a feminine wine. I like this because of its approachable nature and the fact that it makes a great summer drinking wine. The little bit of sweetness makes it a great wine to sip in the sun and is one that should accompany boat trips and BBQ’s for sure. This wine is definitely more interesting that the bog-standard Sauvignon Blancs that are being produced in the country and makes a wonderful change for those who are willing to experiment a little.

The second Kiwi white Pinot Noir is from Central Otago and is made by Steve Farquarson at Wooing Tree (a man we interviewed last year here at WTHK). The wine itself of called “Blondie” and also has a slight tinge to the colour which is described by the winery as “champagne colour”. The wine has nice peachy flavours and again would appeal to the female drinkers more so than the male. It is again another great summertime wine and one that will also go very nicely with the warm springtime we are currently enjoying.

So, as you can see, Pinot Noir does not necessarily need to be red. Although the consumption trend here is more red than white, those who have a little bit of a sense of adventure would do well by giving these wines a try. No, they taste nothing like red Pinot Noir, but they do offer their own unique characteristics which I think most of you will really like, appreciate and enjoy.

Weingut Bercher-Burkheim and Gengenbacher can be found in Hong Kong through exclusive distributors S&D German wines – www.sd-germanwines.com – and can be contacted on (+852) 2117-8286

Richmond Plains and Wooing Tree New Zealand wines can be found through exclusive importer At Style International Limited. For more information go to www.atstylewine.com  and they can be contacted on info@atstylewine.com