The medal-winning wines from the Pinot Noir Masters 2023

The results in full from this year’s Global Pinot Noir Masters, featuring outstanding wines from Tasmania and California, along with the Loire, Chile and New Zealand, as well as a wonderful sample from Argentina.

PINOT NOIR is a difficult grape variety. It is notoriously finicky both in the vineyard and in the cellar. Thin-skinned, and with tightly packed bunches, the grapes are susceptible to fungal diseases and climatic events. Once in the winery, producers can struggle to get flavours and colour without stalky tannins and bitterness.

So, judging Pinot Noir is always a bit of swings and roundabouts. Some of the wines show poorly, but there are usually enough excellent expressions for a tasting to be deemed a success, and this year’s Global Pinot Noir Masters results are overall very positive.

The small group of Sparkling Blanc de Noirs range from good to exceptional. The very best are aristocrats: delicate red berry fruits and toasty yeast, with density of flavour and creamy mousse texture, supported by fresh acidity. The expensive prices, for Champagne certainly, match the high quality.

Pinot Noir Rosé wines at affordable prices are light and succulent, with rose petal and wild strawberry character and zippy acidity to balance. Of course, some Pinot Noir Rosés from Bourgogne are expensive, but, as serious gastronomic delicacies with texture and complexity, they are worth exploring.

Unoaked red wines in the under-£20 bracket that have been awarded medals exhibit true Pinot character, with succulent cherry fruit and bright acidity. Simple, but elegant, nonetheless. That said, these are groups of wines that vary in quality, with green or stretched flavours sometimes apparent.

With regard to the oaked red wines, it is delightful to see that most producers are becoming more careful with their use of new and highly toasted oak. Most wines had toast, vanilla and spice notes, but not to excess.

There are some wines to like among the oaked expressions at £10-£15. While perhaps not thrilling, many of these are hidden gems, displaying lovely cherry and strawberry fruit, fine texture and nicely balanced tannins, acidity and alcohol. The kiss of oak adds dimension. Not in any way disappointing at that price point. Unsurprisingly, the finer wines in this bracket tend to come from the New World, with the cooler regions of Marlborough in New Zealand and California showing particularly well.

At £20-£30 the noteworthy wines seemed to be those from cooler California (Monterey or Santa Rita Hills), the Willamette Valley in Oregon, New Zealand, or Australia’s Yarra Valley and Tasmania. As variable in quality as this price group is, though, caveat emptor is the watch-phrase.

As expected, there are a number of wonderful wines above £30: complex, layered, textured with concentrated flavours and fantastic balance with appropriate use of oak.

In California, Monterey and Russian River Valley have some cracking wines, and Australia’s Tasmania and Yarra Valley provide delicious offerings too. Elsewhere, Bourgogne shows its truly classic status with lovely, elegant examples, especially at over £50, including a special Premier Cru from Mercurey producer Maison Albert Sounit. There is also a stunningly beautiful wine from the Valais in Switzerland. Most of the wines need more time to be at their best, but, as is often the case with Pinot Noir, many can be consumed at a relatively early age.

In this tasting, Pinot Noir showed its true colours. Like the little girl in the nursery rhyme, “When they were good, they were very, very good; when they were bad, they were horrid.”

• Scroll down to find out more about the competition, and to see all the medal-winning wines from the 2023 Global Pinot Noir Masters.

Sparkling White Pinot Noir (Blanc de Noirs)

Sparkling Rosé Pinot Noir

Unoaked Rosé Pinot Noir

Unoaked Red Pinot Noir

Oaked Red Pinot Noir

Oaked Red Pinot Noir, continued

About the competition