Pinot Noir
Wine 1:
Weingut Friedrich Becker Family Pinot Noir 2019 - 13.5% ABV
Region: Pfalz, Germany
Produced in the Pfalz region of Germany, this wine comes from vineyards planted on rare limestone soils covered by loam and clay. The vines are between 18 and 42 years old, and the grapes were harvested by hand before being destemmed and macerated for 21 days. The wine was fermented in a combination of large and small oak barrels and then aged in oak for nearly 12 months, adding complexity and savory notes while retaining Pinot Noir’s characteristic red fruit freshness and elegance.
Wine 2:
Giant Steps Circle of Fifths Pinot Noir 2025 - 13.8% ABV
Region: Yarra Valley, Australia
This wine in from the Yarra Valley, a cool-climate region known for elegant, high-acid expressions of Pinot Noir. The 2025 wine is blended from five of Giant Steps’ single-vineyard sites: Tarraford, Sexton, Primavera, Applejack, and Bastard Hill. The fruit was entirely hand-picked and hand-sorted, with a portion fermented as whole bunches, before the wine was matured in French oak barriques (22% new). The resulting wine combines ripe cherry and raspberry notes with fresh acidity, fine tannins, and subtle spice and complexity.
Pinot Noir is a thin-skinned, early-budding red grape originally from Burgundy that’s famously picky about where it grows—and wonderfully transparent to place when it’s happy. Translating to ‘Black Pinecone’, Pinot Noir grapes are naturally pale in color, producing wines with moderate levels of alcohol and fine, silky tannins. It tends to have aromas of red fruits (cherry, raspberry, strawberry), violet floral notes, and subtle earthy aromas, such as mushroom, leather, and forest floor, gaining spice notes through maturation in oak vessels. When grown in cool climates Pinot Noir tends to have bright acidity and aromatic; in warmer regions it ripens further, developing darker fruit notes. It is the primary grape variety in Burgundy along with Chardonnay, and it is key component in traditional-method sparkling wines, made in Champagne and elsewhere around the world.
Both wines presented in this blind tasting feature the bright acidity and relatively light tannic structure typical of Pinot Noir, with aromas and flavors of red cherry, raspberry, and cranberry. The Becker Family Pinot Noir shows more developed savory and earthy characteristics, including dried red fruit, forest floor, spice, and subtle oak, reflecting its greater bottle age. In contrast, the Giant Steps Circle of Fifths Pinot Noir is younger and more fruit-forward, with fresher red berry flavors, floral notes, and additional spice and tannins from the use of whole-bunch fermentation.
