Celebrating BC Pinot Noir
Photo credit: Wines of BC
The Burgundian Queen is pretty much universally regarded as the most elegant of all wines. Whether you love to quaff Meiomi or Romanée-Conti, anything by the name Pinot Noir just feels fancy.
Poetry and romanticism inevitably spring forth when Pinot Noir is discussed. But my angle is more of the realist. Like any wine, it can soar to ethereal heights, or be disappointing crap.
It requires a little more care in the vineyard and in the winery, and winemakers love to use this grape to showcase their skill, their premium fruit, and their unique site characteristics. As such, Pinots can fetch a higher price.
Higher end wines usually have more acidic and tannic structure, with earthy and spice notes, and are aged in oak barrels before bottling. But it can be made in a variety of styles, and some producers (and consumers) prefer a fresher, fruitier style with an emphasis on drinkability. Pinot Noir is transparent across different styles, betraying all manner of terroir and winemaking - shortcomings and prestige alike.
Pinot Noir is a very old grape, and has given rise to some other well known varieties - Chardonnay, Aligoté, and Gamay among the more famous progeny. Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris are mere mutations of Pinot Noir, producing different skin pigmentations. In some respects, it could be considered the grand-maman of modern wine. Having been grown for so long, there exist numerous different clones of Pinot Noir, with subtly varying but important differences in ripening, aromatics/phenolics, tannin structure, and more. Thorough research before planting, and some trial and error (and skilled blending), are rewarded with gorgeous wines.
As of 2022 there are 1,655 acres of Pinot Noir in BC, putting it at 2nd place of red wine grapes. This is a consistent trend going back to at least the 1990s. Overall, plantings of this variety increased by a massive 52% from 2008-2022. No other grape can match this growth except for Malbec, which only has 150 acres in BC. ln all the cooler regions of the province, Pinot Noir is the most planted grape variety. That’s the number 1 grape on either side of Okanagan and Skaha lakes (Lake Country, Kelowna, Peachland, Summerland, Penticton/Naramata, Kaleden, and Okanagan Falls), the Thompson Valley, Vancouver Island, the Fraser Valley, and the Gulf Islands. Surely this provincial matriarch deserves some kind of trophy.
Speaking of which, BC Pinot Noirs have won plenty of awards in national competitions. BC has swept the All Canadian Wine Championships for years, where we are over-represented. We have also performed extremely well at the National Wine Awards of Canada. This year for example, all 5 Platinums awarded in the category went to BC. The high quality of BC wines is earning international acclaim as well, for example two Gold and 10 Silver medals at the 2025 Decanter World Wine Awards. These award winning Pinots come from all over - Vancouver Island, Kelowna, Naramata, Kamloops, Lake Country, Oliver, and Okanagan Falls. The world is paying attention!
As an early budding and early ripening variety, Pinot Noir grows best in cool to moderate climates that can allow it to ripen gradually and fully - not over and not under. It is also more vulnerable to spring frosts, and can require careful vineyard management in the coldest sites. Its tightly packed grape clusters are at greater risk of fungal infection, necessitating diligent canopy management. With thin skins, its colour and tannin are not plentiful so methods such as cold soaking, or pre-fermentation maceration, are often used, in addition to higher fermentation temperatures to maximize extraction. Destemming and crushing the fruit is common practice in Pinot Noir production, however some winemakers use a proportion of whole bunches, to enhance the wine’s red fruit and floral qualities. Semi-carbonic maceration is sometimes used to initiate intracellular fermentation in an oxygen-limited environment, producing fresh and fruity wines with playful notes of kirsch liqueur, cinnamon, and bubblegum.
Pinot drinkers love its lighter body, its fragrant, fruity, earthy character, and feathered tannins. The predominant personality of Pinot Noir in the glass is that of red fruits like strawberries, cherries, red currants, raspberries, and cranberries, often scented with violets or roses. In warmer regions these fruit aromas can shift towards dark cherries and wildberry jam. Oak maturation imparts flavours of baking spice, toast, hazelnut, or smoke. Acidity is medium to high, more pronounced in cooler regions. Tannins are usually medium to low, with more intense sunshine and extractive methods bringing more tannin.
Light- to medium-bodied wines are the norm, although as I mentioned, some are produced in a fuller, more robust style. Pinot Noir’s delicate nature generally precludes maturation in a large proportion of new oak barrels. Rather, producers will often use old oak, perhaps a small proportion of new barrels, or a combination of oak and stainless steel vessels. This approach preserves the fruit flavours and aromas. If given a few years of bottle age, wines can develop savoury complexity with flavours of earth, wet leaves, and mushroom, while the primary fruit notes progress towards dried or stewed berries.
Pairing food with Pinot Noir is fairly straightforward and depends on the style of the wine. Just to start, some pairings beginning with P: pizza, prosciutto, pappardelle ai funghi, paella, pakoras, pupus, and procrastination.
Lighter, leaner wines are best served lightly chilled and with grazing boards, pâtés, terrines, grilled vegetables, rabbit, duck, or salmon.
Fruity, juicy Pinots are very versatile and go great with BBQ ribs, char siu, bao, seared tuna, and roast vegetable dips.
Richer, riper wines can be served at cool room temperature with lamb, steak, sausage, game, glazed ham, mushroom risotto, moussaka, rustic olive dishes, and baked Camembert.
Aged and savoury wines are well matched for game birds, and dishes with truffles.
In BC and abroad, Pinot Noir is used to make rosé, sparkling wine (including Champagne), and still red wine. For this article I will be focusing on the last of these. Here are 15 top BC Pinot Noirs provided by the producers for this article - all recommended to be enjoyed with a light chill.
Tightrope 2023 Pinot Noir (Silver, National Wine Awards of Canada)
A blend of fruit from Fleet Rd and Marmot vineyards on the Naramata Bench is wild fermented in stainless, followed by 10 months in French oak (30% new). This is a firm and generous style, emanating dusty red and dark berries, stewed plums, cocoa, and sawdust, on a dark, earthy foundation. Flavours are intense, finish is long, and brawny comfort is the theme. Warm, soft, and fudgy.
Joie Farm 2023 PTG
A little known Burgundian tradition is to blend Pinot Noir with Gamay, and this is Joie’s inspired Okanagan rendition with a 56/44 split respectively. Grapes from Naramata and Skaha Bluffs are whole berry fermented then aged 10 months in neutral oak barrels. Balance between ripe berry fruits (cherry cola, loganberry, strawberry) and oak spice (clove and allspice) is well struck, and Gamay brings some power to the structure and mouthfeel. You could chew on this all day. A delicious wine!
Upper Bench 2022 Pinot Noir (Bronze, National Wine Awards of Canada)
100% Naramata estate Pinot Noir is fermented and aged 15 months in neutral oak. On the nose, bramble and cherries (fresh but mostly stewed), earth, and baking spices bob to a funky rhythm. Weight falls neatly on the mid palate, where fruit concentration gives way to timber and spice. Grippy and fresh, it’s easy to like.
Monte Creek Ancient Waters 2022 Pinot Noir (Silver, Decanter World Wine Awards)
(Available to club members only)
Similkameen-sourced Pinot from two lots is wild fermented in both terracotta and stainless steel before aging 18 months in French oak barrels. Bright saturated candy aromas like a red fruit roll-up compose a hit summer pop song for your nose. Some violet and spice cameo the Pinot character, sprinkled with dried leaves. Soft on tannin, this is a juicy wine, simple and fun.
Haywire 2022 Pinot Noir
Sourced from four different vineyards across the Okanagan, the fruit is wild fermented, 50% whole cluster and 50% whole berry, aged in concrete tanks and foudre. Stewed cherries and strawberries here lean savoury, complemented by tobacco and damp soil. A horse may have left the barn but it’s swallowed up by tart acidity, chalky texture, and a spicy, bitter finish. Delicate but agile as a needle.
Gneiss 2021 Pinot Noir (Bronze, National Wine Awards of Canada)
Fruit from the Naramata Bench was processed at the District Village facilities; hand-picked and foot-pressed, this small lot wine is aged in French oak barrels for 18 months. Just easing into garnet, the fruit is red-shifted, meaning cherries, strawberries, and rosehip. A savoury-forward personality of Kalamata olives, and wild mushrooms in a dry pine forest makes for an intriguing sip, finishing with sweet oak and berry skin. There’s not a lot of fruit intensity but it’s well made, and instantly likeable.
D’Angelo 2021 Riserva Pinot Noir
(Sold out!)
Another product of Naramata, this medium garnet Pinot Noir is gentle on the nose and has mostly progressed to tertiary aromas and flavours - cherry preserve, fig spread on toast, cigar, tobacco, earth, cocoa, and molasses. Although alcohol is high for a BC Pinot Noir (14.4%), acidity is still lively and tannins toothy, giving this wine one last bite before cresting. If you’re holding onto some, try one now to see where it’s at.
Bartier Bros 2022 Pinot Noir (Silver, National Wine Awards of Canada)
Thompson Valley Pinot Noir, supplemented with 3% Similkameen Petit Verdot, is destemmed and crushed before an 18-day maceration. Aging took place over 17 months in neutral French oak and a large neutral oak tank. Fairly dense garnet, there is counterplay between dark fruit (black plum, dark cherry) and woodsiness (cedar, eucalyptus). Juicy, stemmy, dark, and smooth - fairly elegant and proudly New World.
French Door 2024 Fleur
Pinot Noir from the Black Sage Bench? 78% of it is, anyway - joined by 14% Merlot Saignée and 8% Cabernet Franc and Malbec. An unusual blend, but in the glass this presents successfully as a delicious, well-rounded Pinot. Pale bright ruby red, intense aromas of ripe cherry, strawberry, violet, earth, and baking spices check all the boxes for approachable, everyday drinking but also worthy of the connoisseur. Love the energy.
Country Vines 2021 Pinot Noir
Pinot Noir from Naramata and Oliver growers made its way out to Country Vines’ Richmond winemaking facility. Expressive on the nose of ripe cherry and sour red fruits, stewed plums, anise, potpourri, figgy chocolate, and baking spices. The integration of flavours is subtle and harmonious, tannins are supple. It’s a straightforward but well made, delightful Pinot with an enviable, lingering finish. A tip of the hat, and a reminder to pay attention to lower mainland producers.
Da Silva 2022 Pinot Noir
From two estate vineyards on the Naramata bench, grapes go into open top fermenters, and the wine is aged 18 months in barrel (50% French, 50% Hungarian). Medium intensity dusted cherries and plums are hemmed in by sweet tobacco, earth, buttered toast, baking spices, and a little fig. Firm tannic structure dominates, with a lengthy finish of buttery vanillin and berry pie. Bold - for those who share an affinity for oak.
40 Knots 2023 Pinot Noir Classic
40 Knots’ vineyards overlook the Salish sea in Courtenay. Championing sustainability, the harvesting, destemming, labeling, and wax sealing are all done by hand, and that’s part of what you’re paying for here ($75). The Vancouver Island Pinot (clones 777 and 115) is cold soaked and fermented in bins, followed by maturation in either amphorae or stainless steel with oak chips and blocks. Both treatments are then blended. Soft, rounded aromas of stewed plum and strawberry turnover, some baking spices, and forest floor are punctuated by a nice bright and elevating cherry note. This is light, lean and fresh (just 12%), with a tart red fruit finish and tannins soft and thin like satin floss. Seamless and finessed.
Forty Knots 2022 Pinot Noir (Silver, Pacific Rim Wine Competition)
This Comox Pinot Noir (100% Clone 777) is hand destemmed, so no crushing. Daily punch downs encourage extraction, with fermentation being half native and half inoculated. The wine is aged in amphorae. What’s not to like? Plenty of cranberry, pomegranate, cherry vinaigrette, and strawberry pie, enhanced with some woody spice and red plum. Elevated acidity and fine tannins provide nice tension and excellent mouthfeel. The reverberations of flavour and structure never stray from approachability. Yum.
Meyer Family 2023 McLean Creek Road Pinot Noir
The McLean Creek Rd vineyard on the Meyer estate in Okanagan Falls was originally planted in 1994 and has a mix of 75% Pommard clone and 25% Dijon 115. Fruit is gravity-destemmed and fermented at higher temperatures with gentle hand plunging. Maturation is in French oak barrels (20% new) for 11 months. The wine is unfined and unfiltered. The reduced yields of 2023 seem to have upped the ante. Plush juicy cherries, black raspberries, and concentrated plum gelée engorge the entry, supplemented by cocoa, violets, that coveted forest floor aroma, and cardamom. This is woven with a hedonistic structure of mouthwatering acidity and seductive tannins. The finish is tobaccoey but the plush fruit hangs on as well. Man is this a good Pinot, and great value at around $37 from the winery.
Meyer Family 2022 Micro Cuvée Pinot Noir (Silver, National Wine Awards of Canada)
Select barrels from the McLean Creek Road vineyard are used for the Micro Cuvée. Six French oak puncheons (3 new, 3 one-year old) are used for aging over 11 months, bottled unfined and unfiltered. For $58.35 (winery price) you should get everything you want, and it turns out, you do. Intense and perfumed fruit concentration in the form of cherry aromas, orange peel, stewed strawberry, plum, earth, coffee grounds, potpourri, and bumbleberry pie. The palate is sapid with sumptuous fruit and bittersweet chocolate. Oak is beautifully integrated, buttressed by a precise and elegant structure of fine-grained, powdery tannins and flirtatious acidity. The elements lead in unison to a memorable, pulsating finish. Well deserving of its high praise and accolades.
Final thoughts
Pinot Noir is a wine that will never go out of fashion. It’s just too delicious and versatile. It fills a niche like no other red wine can - it’s not too heavy, not too alcoholic, and can offer such crazy, fascinating complexity, and be enjoyed immediately or patiently cellared for years. How fortunate are we that Pinot Noir performs so spectacularly in BC, and at least until the rest of the world catches on, we get to drink (virtually) all of it to ourselves.
This Blog Post was written by our contributor: Matt Tinney with MT Wine Consulting (@mtwineconsulting).