Pinot Noir, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris and all the other Pinots!

Followers will have read in some my old blogs that Pinot Noir is a grape that can mutate quickly to Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc or Pinot Meunier. In each variety there are also lots of different clones. All occur quite naturally - no genetic engineering here! 

I found a good explanation of this recently on the 'pinotnoir.com' website. They explained that "Pinot Noir is a genetically unstable varietal. New clones, and to a lesser extent, new varietals are not uncommon occurrences in a Pinot Noir vineyard. Strolling through a vineyard of Pinot Noir, one may find one or more plants with single shoots that have characteristics unlike the rest of the wine. If you try to propagate these shoots into new vines, and all the buds on the new plant display the same attributes on the original shoot, then a new clone, or in extreme cases, a new varietal is born. Pinot Meunier, Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc are some of the more successful mutations of Pinot Noir and produce distinct and unique wines on their own. Each differs from its parent, Pinot Noir, in the color of their fruit, and in the case of Pinot Meunier, a noticeable number of white "hairs" on the tip of the shoots".

If you think that this all sounds a bit odd, check out the two accompanying photographs. We are in the middle of the 2011 harvest (which I think could be one our best ever, but more about that in future blogs). When we were picking the Blue Rock Pinot Noir this year though, we found a bunch of grapes that was half Pinot Noir and half Pinot Blanc - yes same bunch. That is the top photo. 

BUT then when we looked more closely we also found a berry that was half Pinot Noir colour and half Pinot Blanc colour - yes, a single berry! All pretty amazing eh! Look at the second of the two photos and you'll see the berry I refer to almost dead centre of the image. I assure you no Photo Shop trickery here.


A few nice autumn shots below too, and a real bunch of Pinot Noir!