White Pinot Noir

Anyone ever have (or even heard of) White Pinot Noir?

http://www.domainecarneros.com/2010PinotClair

When I was visiting Stone Wolf winery in OR, Linda Lindsay had a white PN in the barrel that we tasted - very nice. I don't know if it was ever released. My friend, Don DeMaison, who just opened his winery in November, did a whole cluster pressing of PN. He will use a portion of it to make bubbly - tasty from the tank - no color from the skins at all.
$48/bottle?
EDIT: The "$48/bottle?" is a reference to the link in the original post, not my friend's wine.

[James Roscoe]

Why?

you mean other than blanc de noir champagne?

[James Roscoe]

you mean other than blanc de noir champagne?

Well yeah, why without the bubbles?

Still white wine from Pinot Noir (Pinot Nero) was a bit of a specialty from Lombardy years ago; back in the 1960's, 70's, and 80's, Angelo Ballabio used to make a wine called: "Clastidium" (from the Oltrepo Pavese area, I think) which was a dry white. You can still find this kind of wine imported here in the U.S. from Italy, but the producer is "Frecciarossa" and the wine is called "Sillery". It is also from the area around Pavia

It is a nice dry white, and costs about $19 here in the Chicago area.

[David M. Bueker]

Domaine Gouges in Nuits St Georges makes a white Pinot Noir from a clone of Pinot that is a white grape. I think Chevillon might make one as well, but not positive.

Yup, I've had the Paul Anheuser Pinot Noir Blanc de Noir, a still white from the Nahe a few times.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1140826

Wasn’t Champagne once popular for its “still” wines? These wines were rivals to those of Burgundy. Rather than “imitate” Burgundy the Champenois created “vin gris”. They mastered the art of vinifing light colored wines from the Pinot Noir grape.

Salute

I recall Sebastiani making a white or whitish wine out of Pinot Noir back in the 70s or 80s and calling it Eye of the Swan, so I Googled "Sebastiani Eye of the Swan Pinot Noir" and find they still do, and Winesearcher calls it white so I suspect it is. I see they also make something Sebastiani calls Eye of the Swan out of Grenache and Grunerveltliner. Of course it all sounds ghastly.

It seems likely to be a mistake to make still wine and bubbly from the same pressing of Pinot Noir. IMO, either the still wine will be much too tart or the bubbly will not be tart enough. Unless they are adding sugar to the still wine and water and acid to the bubbly.

Normally, PN for bubbly would be picked around 18-19 brix, and retain a very high TA and low pH at that point.

Food for though anyway.

I agree, Andrew. Making sparkling and still wines from the same pressings is a bummer. Now again I have to refer back to the 80s and a less than superb winery, but at the time Korbel used to make both from the same pressings, or at least the same pickings, and the still wines -- sold only at the winery, I think -- were tart stuff indeed.

Domaine Gouges in Nuits St Georges makes a white Pinot Noir from a clone of Pinot that is a white grape. I think Chevillon might make one as well, but not positive.

I think both still do and IIRC the white grape clone was discovered by a Gouges in their vineyard in the 1930s and some plants were given to Laurent Ponsot's grandfather and others.

It was later used in the Ponsot's unique white Morey St. Denis 1er cru Clos des Monts Luisants along with Chardonnay and a majority of Aligote. The white Pinot Noir was dropped in 1992 and the Chardonnay in 2004 so this 1er cru Morey St. Denis is now 100% Aligote.

Often times the White Pinot Noir (as distinguished from Pinot Blanc...which I believe is a white version of PinotNoir..and that
they are identical by DNA) is made from saignee juice from a producer's Pinot production. A by-product.
AdamLee/Siduri make a Blanc de PinotNoir that's rather nice...but danged if I can get any resemblance to PinotNoir
out of it.
DomaineSerene makes a White PinotNoir. But because of the people behind Serene, and the price ($76/btl); I'm not inclined
to try one. I believe when TonyRynders was let go there, they sued him to prevent him making a Blanc de Pinot ever again, claiming
the technology was their proprietary technique. Wahtta crock.
Tom

I recall Sebastiani making a white or whitish wine out of Pinot Noir back in the 70s or 80s and calling it Eye of the Swan, so I Googled "Sebastiani Eye of the Swan Pinot Noir" and find they still do, and Winesearcher calls it white so I suspect it is. I see they also make something Sebastiani calls Eye of the Swan out of Grenache and Grunerveltliner. Of course it all sounds ghastly.

Many years (decades) ago we swilled Eye of the Swan by the bucketfull. It is a step up from those bottom dwelling Portugese Rose's, or is it!

Hearts and Hands Winery in the Finger Lakes, located on Eastern shore of Cayuga Lake, makes a white Pinot Noir..They also make reislings, sparkling wines and you guessed it, red Pinot Noir..Their basic and reserve Pinot Noir bottlings are quite nice and worth seeking out..Frankly, while Tom (the winemaker) was quite proud of his white Pinot Noir, I didn't know what to make of it..I bought his basic and reserve PN's as well as the reisling, passed on the white PN.

I think we are writing about two different types of wines. There's the Sebastiani Eye of the Swan type, which was and maybe still is made of typical red Pinot Noir grapes that had their skins removed before they had a chance to give much color to the wine; in other words, a precursor to white zin. Then I'm getting the impression some of us are writing of a different White Pinot Noir grape. Am I wrong?

A fairly regular bottle of joy accompanying my dinners is Shelter Winery's Blanc de Noirs (link to my TN). But this is not a mutation, this is a white made from red grapes.

I think we are writing about two different types of wines...

Both of the wines I referenced earlier were made by using whole cluster pressing, which only releases clear, white juice. This is not the same as saignee, where a portion of the crushed/de-stemmed juice is removed prior to fermentation to allow for more color extraction in a red wine and this drawn-off juice is fermented and sold as a lightly colored rosé.

As it so happens, I recently had a white Pinot Noir:

2010 Azienda Agricola Vercesi del Castellazzo Pinot Nero Bianco Gugiarolo Oltrepò Pavese DOC
Pinot Noir from a single vineyard, vinified as a white wine. Medium-bodied, well balanced, elegant, and very mineral, with floral/tropical notes. Very good.

Anyway, I am definitely interested in trying some of these Cote de Nuits whites in the near future. I am pretty sure that the Chevillon NSG is made from Pinot Blanc, though.

I recall Sebastiani making a white or whitish wine out of Pinot Noir back in the 70s or 80s and calling it Eye of the Swan, so I Googled "Sebastiani Eye of the Swan Pinot Noir" and find they still do, and Winesearcher calls it white so I suspect it is. I see they also make something Sebastiani calls Eye of the Swan out of Grenache and Grunerveltliner. Of course it all sounds ghastly.

Many years (decades) ago we swilled Eye of the Swan by the bucketfull. It is a step up from those bottom dwelling Portugese Rose's, or is it!

I agree with Carl. As I recall, the Sebastiani wine was labeled "Pinot Noir Blanc - Eye of the Swan", and it was not bad for the times. I haven't had it since the early '80's. I wonder what I would think of it today.

Wooing Tree in Central Otago, New Zealand, make a white pinot noir. It's called Blondie.
They also make a delicious late harvest sweet pinot noir, called Tickled Pink.
http://www.wooingtree.co.nz

Cheers,
Sue

The various still wines made from Pinot in Champagne are either red (Bouzy) or pink (Rosé des Riceys). I am not aware of any white versions.

But getting back to the original question, anyone that has tasted a Spatburgunder made as a white wine has had still white Pinot Noir.

For the most part, most red or black grapes could be made into a “white version” (as long as its juice is pale, greenish, yellowish or light pink or rusty in color). As Howie mention, the important thing is separating the juice from the skins, and how adequate and quick this is done, will contribute to the wines “final color”. (Another important contributing factor is how the wine is bulk aged). A red of black grape “white version” means just that, the juice was separated from the skins, allowed to settle and clear and only the juice is fermented. Usually very similar to white wine fermentation, slower (they usually take longer to complete) and at lower temperatures to enhance fruitiness.

Salute