The first wine that really knocked my socks off was the Ayala Brut Zero Dosage (around $45). This is a Champagne made from a blend of 45% Pinot Noir, 35% Chardonnay and 20% Pinot Meunier. It had a beautiful expression of fruit with a purity and an elegance that made the finish linger in my mouth for quite some time. The wine had a freshness and brightness to it that would make it a wonderful wine to pair with sushi, lobster or scallops. The interesting thing about this wine is that it is a “Zero Dosage” wine. This means that it is a totally dry Champagne and that in the process of making the wine, in the final step, no sugar was added to sweeten the wine. Sometimes “Zero Dosage” wines can be too dry and acidic, but this wine achieves a beautiful balance between tangy acidity and ripe fruit.

The second wine I thoroughly enjoyed was one that I had never tasted prior to Monday. It is the Pehu Simonet Brut Selection Champagne (around $40). This is a blend of 70% Pinot Noir and 30% Chardonnay. Pehu Simonet is a small grower (they produce just over 3000 cases a year apparently) and the winemaker, David Pehu, is the 5th generation of his family to be in the Champagne business. I found the wine to have a delicious citrusy note with a fairly full mouthfeel and a long finish.

The final wine I want to mention is the Louis Roederer Brut Premier (around $35). The wine is a blend of 40% Pinot Noir, 40% Chardonnay and 20% Pinot Meunier. A small percentage of the wine is aged in oak, so there is a slight toasty, yeasty character to the wine that I thoroughly enjoyed. I thought the wine was nicely balanced and a terrific example of a well-priced Champagne that would be perfect for pairing with a variety of shellfish dishes.

Also keep in mind that some of these, such as the Roederer are available in half bottles, which not only makes them more affordable, but makes them ideal for pairing with a meal for two. And don’t forget that there are a number of affordable and delicious sparkling wines on the Wines of France Top 50 list, so you have a wide variety to choose from depending on your meal, your palate and your budget.

What makes Pinot Noir so finicky? Well, for starters, it is a bit of a temperature sensitive grape. It prefers cooler climates and it tends to like limestone soils – two reasons why it does so well in Burgundy. It is also a thin skinned grape which can make it susceptible to some of the diseases and viruses that can affect grapevines. The thinner skin of Pinot Noir is part of why the color of many wines made with Pinot Noir are lighter than wines made with grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot. The paler color isn’t a sign of inferior quality – it more has to do with the fact that there is less pigment to be extracted from Pinot Noir grapes.

Pinot Noir has a pretty interesting history. It is an extremely old grape – one that we think dates back to the 1st or 2nd century AD. There are some indications that it was grown in Burgundy by the 4th century AD and we do have 14th century records from Burgundy that mention a vine called Pinot. Due to its advanced age, Pinot Noir is prone to mutating – since it has been around for so long, vines of Pinot Noir with variations have developed. That’s how we have gotten Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris and Pinot Meunier to name a few. Pinot Noir is also (and we know this through DNA analysis of Pinot) one of the parents of Chardonnay.

So what are the characteristics of Pinot? The color can range from a very pale to moderately intense cherry red and it tends to become garnet in color as it ages. Notes you might find on the nose range from herbal and spicy aromas to fruity aromas of strawberries, red cherries, and black cherries. You can also find hints of violets, black pepper, beets, prunes and plums. Pinot Noir can sometimes have a nose that can smell earthy, gamey, mushroomy or even like a barnyard. I tend to find that Pinot Noir grown in climates that are too warm makes for wines that smell like tomato plants (have you ever smelled your hands after handling a tomato plant? It is a very specific smell that is hard to describe). It is almost an under-ripe and over-ripe aroma that makes me think that the heat didn’t give the grapes the time they needed to ripen (Pinot likes a long growing season).

On the palate, Pinot Noir tends to be described using very sensual language. The body can range from light to full and the tannins are frequently described as being fairly firm, but silky and velvety textured. Acidity is usually fairly high with moderate to moderately high alcohol levels and Pinot Noir is usually very ageworthy. Besides being the main grape of Burgundy (just about all red Burgundy is made from Pinot Noir), you will find Pinot grown in Champagne, the Loire Valley, Alsace, Germany, Oregon, California, New York, Italy, New Zealand, Australia and Canada to name just a few.

If you are looking to sample a few Pinot Noirs, there are several on my top picks to choose from including: Burgundy Hills Pinot Noir, Chamarré Grande Réserve Pinot Noir, Domaine Faiveley Bourgogne Rouge, Fat Bastard Pinot Noir Vin de Pays d’Oc and Maison Joseph Drouhin Laforet Pinot Noir. To taste it in sparkling form, look for Lucien Albrecht’s Crémant d’Alsace Brut Rosé, Moet & Chandon’s White Star and Taittinger’s Brut La Française.

Pinot Meunier has a fairly interesting history. Meunier is the French word for miller – a person who grinds grain into flour. The underside of the leaves of this grape can look as if they have been coated with flour, thus the name “Meunier.” You might be wondering if Pinot Meunier is related to Pinot Noir and in fact, Pinot Meunier is a mutation of Pinot Noir, so the two grapes do share some things in common. Like Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier is a red grape, although it is usually lighter in color than Pinot Noir.

One of the reasons Pinot Meunier is such a popular grape in the Champagne region is that it is a terrific grape for cool climates and it buds late and ripens early when compared to Pinot Noir. The Champagne region can be tough on grapes and in some vintages it can be hard to fully ripen the grapes due to the low temperatures. Therefore an early ripener like Pinot Meunier can come in handy. According to the Oxford Companion to Wine (which is a wine lover’s Bible, by the way), there are about 26,000 acres of Pinot Meunier planted in Champagne. While it was historically the favorite (mainly because it was so dependable), plantings of Pinot Meunier have slowed a bit in the last few years compared to plantings of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

Each of the three grapes in the Champagne blend bring something to the table; Pinot Meunier is known for adding a lively acidity and fruitiness to the wine. While you might have to search to find a single varietal bottling of Pinot Meunier here in the US market, that are a few that are available. Pinot Meunier is planted in Australia, Switzerland, California (especially in Carneros), British Columbia and a few other appellations in France besides Champagne, such as the Loire Valley. And of course, you can always look for it in Champagne!