Pinot fin: what’s all the fuss about this finicky grape?
The extremely rare pinot fin, from which Burgundy’s popular pinot noir is descended, may be high maintenance but it is well worth the effort
Whenever the word “pinot” is mentioned among my crowd of fellow wine geeks, everyone’s ears prick up in the hope an amazing treat is about to be poured.
Our first thought is pinot noir, of course. But before there was pinot noir there was pinot fin – the original strain from which noir descended.
Today, the notoriously finicky pinot fin is rarely planted and can be found only in some parts of Burgundy.
One producer that still cultivates and cherishes pinot fin is Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux. The winery has four precious parcels of these vines, one of which was planted with cuttings from Premeaux (south of Nuits St Georges) dating back to 1959. The vineyards are high maintenance, as they are prone to millerandage (slightly stunted vines that result in tiny bunches of berries) which makes the wines more precious as they are low yielding. The wines (which are fermented naturally) show lovely weight and rich red berries/cherry fruits with a hint of gaminess and delicate wild mushroom. They are best enjoyed in their relative youth, at about five years.
The pinot noirs that we love today have been ever so slightly genetically modified – a natural process, thanks to the many generations of bees that have pollinated the vines.