[1] Pinot noir is grown around the world, mostly in cooler climates, and the variety is chiefly associated with the Burgundy region of France.

[4] The grape's tendency to produce tightly packed clusters makes it susceptible to several viticultural hazards involving rot that require diligent canopy management.

The thin skins and low levels of phenolic compounds lend pinot to producing mostly lightly colored, medium-bodied and low-tannin wines that can often go through phases of uneven and unpredictable aging.

When young, wines made from Pinot noir tend to have red fruit aromas of cherries, raspberries, and strawberries.

It is also planted in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, northern parts of Croatia, Czech Republic, England, the Republic of Georgia, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Hungary, Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Moldova, New Zealand, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Switzerland, Ukraine, United States, and Uruguay.

[5] In the vineyard, Pinot noir is sensitive to wind and frost, cropping levels (it must be low yielding for the production of quality wines), soil types, and pruning techniques.

Joel L. Fleishman of Vanity Fair describes them as "the most romantic of wines, with so voluptuous a perfume, so sweet an edge, and so powerful a punch that, like falling in love, they make the blood run hot and the soul wax embarrassingly poetic".

Traditional red Burgundy is famous for its savory fleshiness and "farmyard" aromas (this latter is sometimes associated with thiol and other reductive characters), but changing fashions, modern winemaking techniques, and new easier-to-grow clones have favored a lighter, more fruit-prominent, cleaner style.

This is entirely natural and not a winemaking fault, as Pinot noir has a lower skin anthocyanin (coloring matter) content than most other classical red/black varieties.

[8] However, an emerging, increasingly evident style from California and New Zealand highlights a more powerful, fruit-forward, and darker wine that can tend toward Syrah (or even new world Malbec) in depth, extract, and alcoholic content.

[5] In fact, Pinot Meunier has been shown to be a chimerical mutation (in the epidermal cells) which makes the shoot tips and leaves prominently hairy-white and the vine a little smaller and early ripening.

It is this core around which the sub-varietally identifying color variations (blanc, rouge, noir, gris, rose, violet, tenteurier, moure, etc.)

Hyams took the vine to Raymond Barrington Brock, who ran what was to become the Oxted Viticultural Research Station, and he trialed it alongside the many other varieties he grew.

Brock said that when compared to supplies of Meunier from France, Wrotham Pinot: had a higher natural sugar content and ripened two weeks earlier.

Pinot noir can be particularly prone to mutation (suggesting it has active transposable elements), and thanks to its long history in cultivation, there are hundreds of different clones in vineyards and vine collections worldwide.

[16] The French Etablissement National Technique pour l'Amelioration de la Viticulture (ENTAV) has set up a program to select the best clones of Pinot.

In the new world, particularly in Oregon, wines of extraordinary quality continue to be made from the (ex-University of California at Davis) Pommard (principally UCD4) and Wadensvil (UCD 1A and/or 2A) clones.

[18] But it was collected in France by Harold Olmo for UCD in the 1950s and was one of the first Pinot Noir vines this institution offered as a high-health clonal line from about 1962 onward.

In 1925, Pinot noir was crossed in South Africa with the Cinsaut grape (known locally by the misnomer 'Hermitage') to create a unique variety called Pinotage.

Roger Dion, in his thesis regarding Philip the Bold's role in promoting the spread of Pinot noir, holds that the reputation of Beaune wines as "the finest in the world" was a propaganda triumph of Burgundy's Valois dukes.

In Sancerre it is used to make red and rosé wines, much lighter in style than those of Burgundy, refreshing served chilled, especially in warmer years when they are less thin.

In Alsace it is generally used to make Pinot-noir d'Alsace [fr], similar in character to red Burgundy and Beaujolais wines but usually consumed chilled.

However, recently, despite the northerly climate, darker, richer reds have been produced, often barrel (barrique) aged, in regions such as Baden, Palatinate (Pfalz) and Ahr.

[30] There is also a smaller-berried, early ripening, lower yield variety called Frühburgunder (Pinot Noir Précoce; lit.

However, since this time importation of high-quality clones and much-improved viticulture and winemaking has seen Pinot noir, from Martinborough in the north to Central Otago in the south, become a major factor in New Zealand's reputation as a wine producer.

[36] Sommers, who graduated from UC Davis in the early 1950s, brought Pinot noir cuttings to Oregon's Umpqua Valley in 1959 and planted them at HillCrest Vineyard in 1961.

These first Pinot noir cuttings came from Louis Martinis Sr.'s Stanley Ranch located in the Carneros region of Napa Valley.

[37][38] The Willamette Valley of Oregon is at the same latitude as the Burgundy region of France and has a similar climate in which the finicky Pinot noir grapes thrive.

During 2004 and the beginning of 2005, Pinot noir became considerably more popular among consumers in the US, Australia, New Zealand and Asia as a result of the film Sideways,[44] and its deleterious effect on Merlot sales.

[53] A 2014 study by Vineyard Financial Associates estimated that Sideways cost American Merlot farmers over US$400m in lost revenue in the decade after its release.