Pinot Noir is one of my very favourite grape varieties. It’s a tricky grape, though, and finding good affordable Pinot can be a challenge. So I tried six inexpensive Pinot Noirs on camera, and gave my robust, honest opinions of them.
Mr Noir Pinot Noir 2016 South Australia
14% alcohol
£11.99 Virgin Wines
Very fresh and supple with a sappy edge to the sweet cherry and raspberry fruit. It’s ripe and generous, but also has some nice complexity. Pretty, drinkable and really delicious, this delivers a lot of fun. 90/100
Olivier Dubois Pinot Noir 2015 Vin de France
12.5% alcohol
£8.99 Majestic Wine
Ripe and balanced, with an appealing spicy, savoury, stony mineral edge. There’s appealing raspberry fruit with nice weight and good supporting structure. Pretty convincing stuff. 87/100
Tesco Finest Yarra Valley Pinot Noir 2016 Australia
13.5% alcohol
£11 Tesco
This is delicious: it has a rounded, spicy, slightly savoury personality, with a touch of forest floor and some juicy raspberry and cherry fruit. There’s a hint of cedar, too. Nicely balanced with a mix of sweet and savoury elements. 89/100
Hans Baer Pinot Noir 2016 Pfalz, Germany
12% alcohol
£7 Tesco
Fresh and bright with a lovely green, sappy, leafy edge to the fresh cherry fruit. This is juicy and easy with the herbal notes meshing well with the sweet fruit. Just so drinkable, with a hint of sweetness helping carry the savoury notes. 88/100
Concha y Toro Corte Marcelo Pinot Noir 2016 Limari Valley, Chile
14% alcohol
£8.50 The Wine Society
Red clay soil with calcareous subsoil, 30 km from the coast. This is fresh and direct with a juicy raspberry and cherry fruit core as well as some savoury, cedary notes. There’s a nice weight to the fruit here, with some fine dried herb and ginger spice characters, and it’s more than just bright fruit. 89/100
‘PinotPinot’ Pinot Noir 2016 South East Australia
13.5% alcohol
£8.50 Oddbins
This is really soft and textured with a lovely smooth mouthfeel. It has fresh cherries and some stewed raspberries, with a really easy, enticing personality. Smashable. 88/100
Great post! Good to do affordable wines that are easy to find, from time to time. Cheap Pinot – good topic too. Bet it would have been way harder 10 years ago.
Nice to share some time with you tasting Pinot Noir (and fashion consulting). Thanks.