Pinot Noir migrates north

If anyone wants an example of how global warming is upending Europe's viticultural map, they should look to Pinot Noir. Indeed, the grape is arguably the canary in the coal mine. Throughout most of the 20th century, producing ripe and succulent Pinot Noir in Northern Europe was a thankless achievement. German Pinot Noir (Spätburgunder) was once derided as anemic dross, with only the bravest – and most optimistic – winemakers attempting to grow the temperamental variety on British soil.

Yet in 2018, warmer summer temperatures ripened Spätburgunder with relative ease in regions like Pfalz and Baden, producing structured and concentrated wines. It's a similar story in the expanding vineyards of southern England. Tasted blind, a glass of Gusbourne's 2018 Pinot Noir (the fruit is grown in Kent) is startlingly reminiscent of a Premier Cru Volnay. “I first saw the potential for making still wines in our specific micro-climate in 2010 – the results were really promising, so we kept going,” says Gusbourne's winemaker Charlie Holland.

Meanwhile, the Burgundians are increasingly exploring the potential of higher-altitude terroirs in the Cote d'Or. Maintaining freshness and acidity in a warming climate is the 21st century challenge facing all winegrowers across Europe. As a result, many of the great Pinot Noir terroirs of tomorrow are likely to be found in higher-altitude sites, and further from the equator. Investors should observe the following regions and countries with great interest. They are the new frontiers of cool-climate Pinot Noir.

Poland

Poland's burgeoning wine culture is now producing some very respectable Burgundy imitations, not least the ethereal Pinot Noirs of Winnica Milosz, Winnica Wzgórz Trzebnickich and Dom Bliskowice. Such wines offer a fitting symbol of how far the nation's industry has progressed in a short space of time; Poland's very nascent viticulture was heavily reliant on hybrid varieties in the 1990s, much to its detriment.
Global warming, however, is encouraging investors to replace hybrids with grape varieties like Pinot Noir. “Our viticultural practices are changing fast,” says Warsaw architect Maciej Sondij, co-owner of Dom Bliskowice. “In the beginning, the industry was forced to plant hybrids to cope with the harsh growing conditions. But with global warming being an undisputed fact, we are now replacing hybrids with Vitis vinifera.”
There are now approximately 400 hectares of Polish vineyards and over 230 wineries. Polish Pinot Noir is on the rise.

Gusbourne vineyard in southern England

Great Britain

Not content with establishing a thriving sparkling wine industry, the British are now attempting to produce red wines as well. A succession of warm harvests has given more winemakers the confidence to market a still Pinot Noir brand, as opposed to keeping all their fruit for the sparkling cuvées. “The ‘vintage of the century’ 2018 was the year we first produced a still Pinot Noir. This wine was created from first crop (three-year-old) Pinot Noir vines on our Railway Hill block,” explains Ruth Simpson, owner of Simpsons Wine Estate in Kent.

She adds: "We have planted more Pinot Noir vines (clone 777) in order to ensure an annual minimum quantity.” Black Chalk, a premium winery based in Hampshire, is also investigating the possibility of producing a still Pinot Noir wine. And the numbers keep growing.
“Last year, the balance of sparkling/still production in Great Britain was 64%/36%,” reports Wines of Great Britain marketing manager Julia Trustram Eve. Fifteen years ago, that figure would have been far closer to 95 percent sparkling. The dominance of bubbles in the British wine industry is over.

Germany

The revolution that has taken place at the heart of German viticulture is one of the most dramatic changes to have occurred in living memory. Formerly associated with oceans of sweetened Muller-Thurgau, modern Germany is all about terroir-driven wines – both red and white – of the highest calibre. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the vineyards of Baden and Pfalz, where seductively scented Pinot Noir wines are now being made. The acreage dedicated to the grape has risen dramatically over the past 15 years.

Moreover, the grape is no longer confined to the warmer regions of the south. For a long time, Pinot Noir was a specialty of the German state of Baden-Württemberg where it could be expected to reliably ripen year after year. Yet global warming has pushed the grape as far north as the vineyards of Nahe and even the Mosel. Due to an insatiable domestic demand and rising success in the export markets, German Pinot Noir is now almost as widely planted as Muller-Thurgau.

The Hautes Côtes de Beaune (marked in dark blue) are becoming more and more interesting for winemakers in Burgundy / Graphic: Vins de Bourgogne

Burgundy: Hautes Côtes de Beaune

According to leading critic Tim Atkin MW, “it is getting harder and harder to make elegant Burgundies.” The 2018 harvest attests to this: Burgundy expert Jasper Morris MW described the year as a “Californian vintage,” in reference to the anomalous levels of ripeness and alcohol. “Climates with relatively little topsoil in appellations such as Volnay and Chambolle-Musigny produced some unbalanced wines in 2018,” said Morris in 2020.

Consequently, some of Burgundy's leading producers have been searching for higher ground. The formerly neglected region of the Hautes Côtes de Beaune has been a major centre for investment – its vineyards are found on south-facing slopes between 290-485 metres above sea level. This is at least 100 m higher than the Côte de Beaune, offering growers cooler growing conditions and (hopefully) lower levels of alcohol.

“We’ve had many very good vintages in a row and ripening has never been as good in the Hautes Côtes,” explained Laurent Delaunay, owner of Badet Clément. “I strongly believe that in the future, there will be some Premier or Grands Crus in the Hautes-Côtes. Where I live, in the small village of l’Etang-Vergy, we are at exactly the same latitude as Clos de Vougeot. We are just five km to the west and 100 to 150 m higher in altitude.”