Pinot Noir

Why Pinot Noir is special

Pinot Noir is one of the oldest cultivated grape varieties, with references going back to Roman times. It is also one of the most demanding, susceptible to almost every disease, prone to poor fruit set in cold weather, and notoriously variable from year to year. When it succeeds, it produces wines of extraordinary finesse, with red fruit, floral aromas and a silky tannin structure. When it fails, it produces thin, green, weedy wine.

Pinot Noir's thin skin means the wine is generally light in colour and tannin, with most of the character coming from the aroma and the texture. The aromatics include red cherry, raspberry, strawberry, plum, rose, violet, mushroom, forest floor and a savoury, almost meaty note that develops with age.

Pinot Noir in the UK

UK Pinot Noir ripens well in the South East, particularly on chalky, south-facing slopes. The cool climate preserves the natural acidity and the bright red fruit character that warmer regions lose. The variety is used in three main ways in the UK: as the base wine for traditional method sparkling wine, as a component of a Blanc de Noirs, and as a still red wine.

The UK's largest plantings of Pinot Noir are in Sussex, Kent, Hampshire and the home counties, with smaller but growing areas in East Anglia, the South West, the Midlands, Wales and Yorkshire. WineGB statistics put the total UK Pinot Noir area at over 1,000 hectares as of 2025, making it the second most planted variety after Chardonnay.

Pinot Noir clones

The main UK Pinot Noir clones are the Champagne clones 115, 386, 777 and 828, alongside the so-called Dijon clones 113, 114, 115, 667 and 777, originally bred in Burgundy. Each clone has its own characteristic yield, bunch size, ripening time and flavour profile. The choice of clone interacts with the site, the rootstock and the winemaking style, and the best results come from a thoughtful mix.

For sparkling base wine, the higher-yielding Champagne clones are popular. For still red, the lower-yielding Dijon clones are favoured. For rosé, a wide mix of clones gives complexity. The clonal landscape is one of the most active areas of research in the UK industry.

Making Pinot Noir in the UK

For sparkling base wine, the grapes are picked early, pressed gently and fermented cool in stainless steel, just like a white wine. The juice is then handled through the full méthode traditionnelle process.

For still red, the grapes are picked later, destemmed and fermented on the skins for 7 to 14 days, with regular punch-downs or pump-overs to extract colour and tannin. Malolactic conversion is essential to soften the high UK acidity. The wine is then aged in French oak, usually 228-litre Burgundy pièces, for 9 to 18 months before bottling.

Some UK producers also make a Pinot Noir rosé, by pressing the red grapes gently and fermenting the pink juice as a white wine. This is a growing category, with several successful examples from Nyetimber, Ridgeview, Gusbourne and Chapel Down.

UK Pinot Noir styles

English still Pinot Noir is typically pale to medium in colour, with bright red fruit, floral notes and a refreshing acidity. The best examples have a Burgundian feel, with cherry, raspberry and a hint of earth. Top producers in this style include Gusbourne, Wiston, Hambledon, Balfour, Nyetimber, Fox & Fox, Domaine Evremond and Tuffnell's.

The category is still young. Many of the best examples are recent releases, and the UK is still learning how to get the most out of the variety. But the trajectory is clear: every vintage brings more confident, more polished wines, and the gap with Burgundy is narrowing, at least for entry-level red Burgundy.