Pinot Meunier is a red grape variety predominantly used to make base wines for traditional-method sparkling wine, notably in Champagne. It is only rarely vinified into a red wine.
When vinified as a red wine, Pinot Meunier has many similarities to Pinot Noir, but lacking that variety’s depth and complexity. It shines with a fruitiness that is prized when it is used as a base wine for sparkling wine. In Champagne, where Pinot Meunier is a key component, it adds fleshiness to the wines but, unjustly, does not enjoy the same status as Pinot Noir or Chardonnay, the other two principal varieties of the region. This is undeserved as the best Pinot Meunier-based Champagnes show an alluring, smouldering, smoky, plummy quality.
Pinot Meunier is a mutation Pinot Noir with very fine hair on the underside of the leaves. The mutation was observed and documented as early as the 17th century.
Champagne has sizeable plantings of Pinot Meunier, especially in the Marne Valley. The fact that Pinot Meunier is a main constituent of Champagne has meant that other regions specialising in high-quality sparkling wine production, e.g., England, California, Tasmania also have plantings of the variety, even though they pale in comparison to plantings of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. There is a sizeable pocket of Pinot Meunier in the German region of Württemberg, where it is also known as Müllerrebe and, confusingly, as Schwarzriesling. Württemberg has a tradition of making red wines from Pinot Meunier, but only few estates give it the attention it deserves. Those that do are worth seeking out.
The white hairiness of the leaves, and the completely wooly white buds and shoots of Pinot Meunier have earned it its name ‘meunier’, which means miller in French – because the leaves and shoots look like they are dusted with flour.
