Origin and Identity of Pinot of Burgundy
Jean-Pierre Garcia
jean-pierre.garcia@u-bourgogne.fr
If identity comes from origin, it is worth wondering what was actually known as Pinot in medieval times in Burgundy. Recently published and new data suggest a more complex and counter-classic history as shown by genomics today. Pinot Noir is ancient, as attested in Roman times in Languedoc and in Champagne since the 11th century. Historical mentions of Pinot vines appear in the second half of the 14th century only around Auxerre in Yonne, then called “Basse Bourgogne”, whereas the Pinot wine consumption is located around Auxerre and Paris and then in northern France and Flanders.
It appeared to be a rare, distinctive wine mentioned with other special wines such as ypocras, Grenache, Malvoisie wines in the King of France’s milieu. However, at that time, “pinoz” was also a distinctive type of grape which was easily recognizable in the vineyard during harvesting. The “pinoz” identity was understood as fluid, found in both a scholarly elitist image of wine and the more common and practical knowledge of wine-growers. It is not sure that these “pinoz” grapes were the grapes called “Pinot” today (as its “disloyal” counterpart “gamay”), but the modern and contemporary Burgundy’s viticultural search for identity in 20th century has created a reconstructed Middle-Ages-grounded naturalistic discourse that blurs the distinct historical and geographical analogical identities.
Thus “pinoz” by the end of medieval times was not a normal taxonomic entity (a “cepage”) but rather a symbolic reference of quality in a network of relationships where it is important to know who is speaking and to whom.
Jean-Pierre Garcia is Professor at the Université de Bourgogne-Europe (Dijon, France) where he teaches geomorphology, geo-archeology/history and terroir studies. His current research topics involve long-term terroir construction through time and especially the relationship between “wine and place” from Roman antiquity to the contemporaneous period. From 2010-2017, he was scientific coordinator of the successful UNESCO bid for Burgundy’s climats as world cultural heritage. Formerly scientific director of the journal Cahiers du Centre d’Histoire de la Vigne et du Vin in Beaune, he is now director of the journal Crescentis (International Journal on Vine and Wine History) that he created in 2018: https://preo.u-bourgogne.fr/crescentis He has published numerous books and research papers – his most recent book is “Vignes et Vins de Talant: 800 ans d’histoire en Bourgogne”, Faton éd. (2021).