Pinot Noir — Burgundy Style Winemaking Protocol

Pinot Noir is site-expressive and thin-skinned. Moderate yields, careful canopy work and picking before over-ripeness protect the perfume and acidity — pushed too ripe, the wine loses aroma and freshness and turns jammy. Cool, limestone sites favour the classic profile.

The thin skins are disease-prone, so clean, rot-free fruit is essential, and stem ripeness must be considered if whole-cluster fermentation is planned.

Pick at roughly 22–24 °Brix, keeping acidity and perfume, and judging the phenolic ripeness of the thin skins as much as sugar. Hand-harvest and sort rigorously — Pinot reveals every flaw, and any rot or unripe fruit shows in the glass.

Clean fruit and gentle handling from the first moment set the ceiling for the wine.

This is the central Burgundy lever. Including whole clusters (stems) adds perfume, spice, freshness, structure and a lifted floral note — but only with ripe, lignified stems; unripe stems give green, bitter flavours. The proportion ranges from 0 to 100% and is a producer and vintage signature, with partial inclusion common.

The choice is always weighed against Pinot's delicacy — the aim is lift and fine structure, not a heavy stem imprint.

A pre-fermentation cold soak of several days is common: it gently extracts colour, aroma and fine tannin in the aqueous phase before alcohol builds, which matters for a grape as light in pigment as Pinot.

It is a gentle way to build colour and perfume without the harshness that hard, alcoholic extraction would bring.

Indigenous fermentation is common. Manage the cap with gentle punch-downs (pigeage) and/or pump-overs; Pinot is often taken to a warm peak (30–32 °C) briefly to extract aroma and colour and integrate tannin — but gently, because Pinot punishes over-extraction with hard, green tannin.

With whole clusters, an infusion-style, hands-off regime protects the delicate lifted aromatics.

Indigenous or neutral strains suit the style. Pinot is reduction-prone, so manage oxygen and nutrition — the gentle aeration of a pump-over or a rack helps keep the ferment clean.

The line between savoury complexity and sulfide fault is thin, so attention here protects the perfume.

Aim for perfume, silky tannin and a translucent but stable colour, matching extraction and maceration length to the style and vintage. Press gently and keep the press wine separate — Pinot press wine can be coarse and is used sparingly.

Restraint is the default: over-extraction trades away the very finesse that defines the wine.

Full malolactic is standard, run in barrel after alcoholic fermentation, softening acidity and integrating the wine.

Keep SO₂ low until it completes, then set and maintain it.

The wine goes to French oak — the 228 L Burgundy piece, tight-grained, light-to-medium toast — with a moderate proportion of new wood: around 20% for village wines, higher (30–50%+) for premier and grand cru. The oak frames the delicate fruit and must not dominate it.

Malolactic and sur-lie ageing happen in barrel, and the wine is raised there for roughly 12–18 months.

Ageing on fine lees in barrel builds texture and buffers the wine, with minimal racking to protect the delicate aromatics and manage Pinot's tendency to reduce.

Oxygen is measured — a little through racking and the barrel keeps reduction in check, while too much dulls the perfume.

French oak, tight grain, light-to-medium toast; the proportion of new oak is the intensity dial, with older barrels giving the purest fruit and site expression. Fine and filter minimally to preserve texture and aroma.

The wine is usually bottled under cork after 12–18 months, ready to develop its savoury, earthy maturity over years.