Pinot Noir...a little guidance goes a long way

There are many good reasons to visit specialty wine shops and seek advice from staff members who know their stuff.  For starters, if you live in the St. Louis market, you are bound to find a much more interesting selection of wines at one of these retailers than at a chain grocery store. And sometimes, the prices are even better.

But I think it's also very important to identify knowledgeable sales people who can  give you guidance about wines. Try to find sales staff  members who have actually tasted the ones you are interested in. If you enjoy the wines they recommend, then get the person's name and make sure you ask for them the next time you visit the store. These relationships are very, very valuable.

For example, when I was thinking about the wine I would feature for Mother's Day in my St. Louis Post-Dispatch column, I consulted Paul Hayden at the Wine & Cheese Place in Clayton. In fact, I even emailed Paul before I visited the store so that I could get several suggestions in advance. I wanted to feature a special Pinot Noir in the column that was about double my usual price limit of $15.

Pinot Noir is a tough grape to grow and to develop into a fine wine. Because of that, a good one...I mean a really good one...can be very, very pricey. Yes, you can get an okay pinot noir for less than $15, but when you get into Pinot Noir from Burgundy, which produces some of the greatest Pinot Noir in the world, the prices can be very high.

The main levels in the Burgundy classifications, in descending order of quality, are: grand crus, premier crus, village appellations and regional appellations. I knew I wouldn't be able to get a Burgundian Pinot Noir from the top levels for $30, but I hoped to find a nice Bourgogne AOC, which is a regional appellation.

So I reached out to Paul to see what he would recommend. He offered a suggestion for a wine I probably would have totally missed without his guidance. It was the Domaine Coste-Caumartin 2010 Bourgogne Rouge priced at $25.99.

Only 530 cases of this 100 percent pinot noir wine were produced by this estate that has been family-owned since 1793 and has some of the best parcels in Pommard, where it’s based. The grapes for this wine come from vineyards just below Pommard in the Côte de Beaune, which comprises the southern half of the Côte d'Or. Its wines tend to be lighter body than those from Côtes de Nuits to the north.  

It turned out to be a lovely little wine. Yes, it does have a light body, but this delicate wine has an amazing amount of intense black cherry flavor. Plus it's extremely elegant,  silky smooth and very easy to drink. 

This is the perfect red for my regular diet, which is pretty much Mediterranean: lots of fish and vegetables. This is a Pinot Noir that would be absolutely great with salmon, grilled vegetables or goat cheese.
#wine #pinotnoir #burgundy #bourgogne