A wine well worth the trouble
It is a difficult grape to plant - susceptible to bugs, the heat, the cold, soil that is too rich and soil that is too poor. It is fussy, temperamental and difficult both to grow and vinify. Yet vintners from France to as far afield as New Zealand invest time and tender loving care in the Pinot Noir, coaxing lean amounts of wine out of sparse harvests.
Perhaps it is like the one that got away for the fisherman, or the girl who refuses to look his way for the class Casanova, but Pinot Noir aficionados go to great lengths to get their bottles, sometimes at great cost.
A good bottle of this varietal may cost from 200 to 800 yuan in China and the eager sales person hawkishly watching you wander the cellar aisles may finally be awed into quiet submission if you linger long enough at the Pinot Noir section.
