Passion For Pinot: A Journey Through America’s Pinot Noir Country, photography by Andrea Johnson & Robert Holmes, text by Jordan Mackay

[Note: This book was provided free of charge by Carpe Diem Books in exchange for an honest review.]

As someone who tends to be very abstemious when it comes to wine, or indeed any kind of alcohol in general, I would not be the first person many would think of as a suitable fan of a book like this. As is often the case in life, reading a book about this mysterious wine reminded me of the sort of trouble that is easy to find. The author of this book notes that “words like ridicule, doubt and risk come up frequently in tales of this perplexing grape. For years, the pursuit of Pino Noir—unproven, unpredictable, uneconomical—was seen as folly on the grandest scale. Yet, Pinot is seductive in ways that other grapes are not, its elusive beauty leading to irresistible attraction (9).” Later on, the author quotes Scott Wright, the founder of Oregon’s Scott Paul Wines, as follows: “Pinot Noir, more than anything, should tell the truth, and it does that very well. But you have to take a risk in order to hear the truth and then you might not always get what you expect (18).” Of the extreme sensitivity of this Burgundian grape, another noted wine writer, Hugh Chapelle, states that “Pinot is much more sensitive to almost every decision because it’s such a transparent variety. It reflects almost everything you do (69).” So, even if I am not a particularly frequent drinker, as a human being I can relate to the lure of something that is red, sensitive to extremes, and highly layered and complicated, deeply mysterious and unfathomable, and therefore irresistible. This book is a fitting tribute to the combination of nature and nurture that is involved in growing this wine whose complexity allows it to mix well with many foods by showing certain aspects of its complex flavor, which has played a large part in its rapidly increasing popularity in recent years.

In terms of its contents, this book manages to blend insightful and elegant text with gorgeous photos from two noted wine photographers, in a book where the complex blend of the Pinot Noir grape and the wine that is made from it is mirrored in the choice of page color that similarly blends with the glory of dancing to live music at an Oregon vineyard, or enjoying the soft glow of sunrise, or the cooling waves of a morning fog that protects fragile Californian grapes from the harshness of a brutal sun. After a brief but well-written foreword from Eric Asimov, the book as a whole consists of five chapters: the first explaining the complex but massive growth of the Pinot Noir in popularity from its obscure and recent beginnings on the West Coast in California and Oregon, the importance of terroir (terrain, context, a sense of place, however imperfectly translated from the French) to the Pinot Noir grape, a year in a vineyard that is artfully compared by the author to a hand of poker between the vineyard owner and the whims of creation, the process by which grapes are harvested by hand and move through the pre-fermentation process to eventually be fermented in oak barrels for about a year and a half or so, before being enjoyed in the class, usually beside a dish. These main contents, which are full of thoughtfully-captioned photos, are then followed by generous acknowledgements and a brief index. This is the sort of book that any oenephile, even a somewhat reluctant one like myself on account of the ravages of alcoholism in my family history, would proudly put on their coffee tables to be read from time to time when looking for a fine bottle of Pinot to put in the wine cellar or to show off to appreciating friends with discriminating tastes in wine or books [1]. It should also be said that this book encourages one to want to take tours of the many small vineyards that dot the Willamette Valley between Portland and Salem, for those who are fellow residents of the Pacific Northwest.

It is perhaps a futile task to capture the appeal of Pinot, or a book about Pinot, in the small space allotted here, but it is worth the effort. In many ways, Pinot is appreciated because it is so complicated, so versatile, so unabashedly difficult to understand and grasp, so elusive and uneconomical. The sheer obstinacy of the grape, its extreme sensitivity, and its lengthy heritage going back a couple of thousand years suggest something that is numinous, almost spiritual in the quest for mastery that leads so many to be fascinated or even obsessed by this red grape. As beings we seem to be drawn to that which is particularly elusive and difficult, yet at the same time obviously worthwhile. We struggle to understand how to obtain the best possible vintage, to know how best to prepare the soil, to prune the vines, to harvest the grapes, what barrels are best to ferment the wine, what glass is best to drink said wine when it has matured, and what foods best pair with the wine. Even those who do not drink much wine, but who have similarly elegant tastes in other areas of life, and a similar appreciation for the complexities of soil conditions and other aspects of terrain, and for the way in which native temperament and varying experience cause fascinating and unusual repercussions in plant, animal, and human life, can understand what is so fascinating about Pinot Noir: that which is the most sensitive is simultaneously the most frustrating to deal with, and also the most rewarding when successful. It is for that reason why we persist in struggling with such sensitive beings, because if we are successful, the success is something to deeply treasure, even if it may not always be possible to consistently replicate this triumph as we would wish to do. This book is written with an obvious passion for Pinot, for those with a similar passion for what is difficult and worthwhile, and it is a marked achievement in celebration of a new but promising Pinot Noir culture on the West Coast, a culture worth celebrating and encouraging as it grows and matures.

[1] This is, it should be noted, the sort of book this publisher specializes in, a style that that blends beautiful art and photography with insightful text:

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