Best pinot noir
The best pinot noir offers a delicate balance of red fruit flavours, fragrant aromas and a smooth, silky texture. We round up the best bottles at every price point
Ah, pinot noir! No grape has such romantic connotations. Say those two magical words and you’re transported to the rolling hills of Burgundy.
Pinot noir is one of the hardest grapes to get right. It’s thin-skinned, susceptible to disease and picky about where it’s grown. The climate has to be just right, too cold and it won’t ripen properly so the wines will taste hard and fruitless. Too warm and it can go jammy and lose the all-important fragrance that is the essence of pinot noir. It’s also very sensitive to over cropping (taking too many grapes from one vine) in which case the wine will be watery. Pinot noir needs to be carefully handled in the winery too, the skins can make the wine tannic and harsh, and oak needs to be used with a light hand. Too much of anything means you won’t get the magic.
Its home is Burgundy, but you will very rarely see the words pinot noir on the bottle there. Instead, wines are organised in a hierarchical structure from Bourgogne Rouge at the bottom to grand crus at the top like Richbourg which can cost thousands of pounds a bottle. In the past, Burgundy was something of a lottery but changing climate, better winemaking and vineyard work means that the cheaper wines are much more reliable – though also more expensive. The flipside is that in warm years the alcohol on the pricier ones can be excessive.
Pinot noir needs a coolish climate. Outside of Burgundy, high quality examples are made in Chile, New Zealand, Australia (particularly Tasmania), Oregon, California, Germany, Austria, and increasingly in England. The grape is also grown elsewhere in France, especially in the Loire.
We tasted a variety of samples from all over the world with a £25 maximum so we could include some burgundy worth drinking. Overall, the quality was extremely variable. Unlike say malbec, buying an affordable pinot noir is a hit-or-miss affair. Some of the Californian ones were unpleasantly jammy, whereas others had the opposite problem being vegetal and bitter. The best countries for value are Romania at the bottom end, Chile, France outside of Burgundy and Germany. With pinot, it’s always worth spending a bit more if you can.
Best pinot noir at a glance
- Best premium New Zealand Pinot Noir: Nautilus Pinot Noir 2019, £24.45
- Best Burgundy: Bourgogne Hautes-Côtes de Beaune, Clos de la Perrière, Domaine Sébastien Magnien 2020, £25.50
- Best Loire Pinot: Sancerre Rouge Moulin Bèle Domaine André Vatan 2022, £21
- Best German Pinot Noir: Neiss Spätburgunder 2020, £18.50
- Best English Pinot Noir: Lyme Bay Pinot Noir 2021, £26.95
- Best Chilean Pinot Noir: Errazuriz Pinot Noir Reserva 2023, £8.49
- Best New Zealand Pinot Noir: Esk Valley Pinot Noir 2021, £18
- Best budget French Pinot Noir: Puy-de-Dome Pinot Noir 2022, £14.50
- Best budget Pinot Noir: Balauri Pinot Noir, Cramele Recaș 2022, £7.99
- Best party Pinot Noir: The Society's French Pinot Noir Bag in Box 2023, £22
Best pinot noir to buy 2024
Nautilus Pinot Noir 2019
Available from Vinvm (£24.45), Wine Direct (£25.70)
Best premium New Zealand pinot noir
Kiwi pinot noir starts to get seriously good if you can stretch to more than £20 a bottle. This is ripe and heady with notes of maraschino cherry, herbs and cinnamon with savoury leather notes on the finish. This sheer class.
Available from:
Bourgogne Hautes-Côtes de Beaune, Clos de la Perrière, Domaine Sébastien Magnien 2020
Available from Berry Bros & Rudd (£25.50)
Best burgundy
Red burgundy starts to get interesting above £20, I’m afraid. This is about as close to a bargain as you’re going to get. It’s delicate with crunchy red fruit and unmistakable violet note.
Available from:
Sancerre Rouge Moulin Bèle Domaine André Vatan 2022
Available from Yapp Bros (£21), Vivino (£26)
Best Loire pinot noir
Sancerre is famous for its white wines made from sauvignon blanc but the pinot noirs can be extremely good, too. This is ripe, silky, fresh, with red cherry fruit. In short, this is a lovely fragrant light pinot at a reasonable price.
Available from:
Neiss Spätburgunder 2020
Available from Fortnum and Mason (£18.50)
Best German pinot noir
The Germans have their own word for pinot noir, Spatburgunder, which means late ripening Burgundian. And they can be very good indeed as this example shows. With its flavours of ripe strawberry, clove and delicate floral notes, this is worth every penny.
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Lyme Bay Pinot Noir 2021
Available from Devon Hampers (£26.95), The English Wine Collection (£27)
Best English pinot noir
This one sneaks slightly over the £25 budget, but it's worth it. This is made from grapes grown in the Crouch Valley in Essex. 2021 was a cold, wet vintage but you'd never guess from tasting this. There’s positively Californian levels of ripeness with a herbal and spicy finish.
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Errazuriz Pinot Noir Reserva 2023
Available from Waitrose (£8.49), Tesco (£9)
Best Chilean pinot noir
Chile makes some great pinot noirs from entry-level wines like this, up to serious wines that can give burgundy a run for its money. I’ve had a few vintages of this and it’s always reliably juicy and delicious with flavours of raspberry and cinnamon. Another one that tastes good cold.
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Esk Valley Pinot Noir 2021
Available from Cambridge Wine Merchants (£18)
Best New Zealand pinot noir
Marlborough, known for its sauvignon blancs, also produces some very tasty pinot noir. This is a more full-bodied expression of the grape with bittersweet black cherries, a herbal rosemary note and leathery tannins. We think it would be lovely with a roast leg of lamb.
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Puy-de-Dome Pinot Noir 2022
Available from Lea & Sandeman (£14.50)
Best budget French pinot noir
One of the great bargains of the wine world, this comes from the Auvergne which is nearly in the middle of France, just to the west of Lyon. It’s full, spicy and crammed with dark cherry fruit, nothing at all like burgundy and completely irresistible.
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Balauri Pinot Noir, Cramele Recaș 2022
Available from Click N Drink (£7.99)
Best budget pinot noir
This is made from a French grape in Romania in a winery owned by an Englishman. Cramele Recaș has established itself as the destination for affordable pinot noir. This is light and juicy with a nice raspberry fruit quality – it would be delicious served cool on a warm evening.
Available from:
The Society's French Pinot Noir Bag in Box 2023
Available from The Wine Society (£22)
Best party pinot noir
This works out at about £7.33 a bottle. You’re not going to find a nice pinot noir for cheaper. And very tasty it is, too. It comes from grapes grown in a cooler part of the Languedoc to produce a wine that is spicy and soft with an earthy beetroot type quality.
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