Many of you are aware that at Ardiri Winery, our wines contain a blending of several clones of Pinot Noir that enhance the experience of enjoying our wines. Pinot Noir is the famous red grape of Burgundy, France. It is often considered to have arisen in southern Gaul (now France) about the time of the Romans and Julius Caesar’s legions. So it is a very old cultivar vine. During that long period, its DNA has occasionally mutated to form different grape forms. It appears that the area of the vine’s DNA that governs the color and character of the grapes as well as of the leaf structure is unstable enough to occasionally mutate and generate a different physical form, or “clone.”

Pinot as a vine possesses several distinctive characteristics. It appears to be one of the most environmentally sensitive varieties. Consequently, this sensitivity means that the vine seems to conform to the local environment, good or bad, and possibly facilitate mutation and clone formation. Pinot noir consists of a large number of distinctive clones. Fruit-color mutants have given rise, for example, to Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc. These changes arose from color mutants in the genetic layers of the fruit. Another common Pinot variant, grown in Champagne, France is Pinot Meunier, a distinctly local cultivar. Other examples are more vine like with lower yielding clones producing more flavorful wines, whereas upright, high-yielding clones are more suited for the production of Rosé and sparkling wines and don’t ripen as well.

Pinot Noir produces an aromatically distinctive wine under optimal conditions, again responding to its environment; otherwise, it produces disappointingly non-distinctive wines but still responding to its environment. So not all sites are good places to grow Pinot. It’s aroma has been described as beets, peppermint, or cherries, but none seems sufficiently appropriate or adequate for the distinctive bouquet provided by our wines.

In other instances, for academic purposes, Pinot Noir clones have been grouped relative to their possession of similar traits. In Pinot, these traits may be grouped into the Pinot fin – trailing, low-yielding vines, with small tight clusters; Pinot droit – higher-yielding vines with upright shoots, Pinot fructifer – high-yielding strains; and Mariafeld type strains – loose clustered moderate yielding vines. These descriptors are no longer in common use, especially with the advent of the numerical system of clone identification.

Most recently, clones are designated by accession number, i.e. numerical designation, many arising from the research at the University of California at Davis or from France at their Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique. So in Ardiri’s vineyard, there are several numerical clones: 777, 667, 115, 114, 828, as well as those identified and named for the villages or areas where they were first identified, i.e. Pommard and Musigney in France. They all contribute some sensory or visual element that is needed in producing our wines. So mouthfeel, body, bouquet, color, finish, etc., each clone has strengths and weaknesses.

However, when combined they produce those lovely food compatible silky wines we love to enjoy!