Pinot Noir shines wherever it grows around the world. Burgundy producers some of the highest-priced wine from this variety, especially when it comes to the grand crus from the Côte de Nuits, but what about the price tag of bottles from elsewhere? Here are the 20 highest-priced Pinot Noir wines sold on iDealwine in 2024 from around the world (excluding those from Burgundy).

Methodology: 1 wine per producer is counted. The price has been scaled to a standard 750ml bottle to facilitate comparison. The wines in this list are all still wines (which means sparkling Champagnes were not counted) entirely made from Pinot Noir.

Pinot Noir reigns over the wine world

iDealwine’s 2024 auctions saw the share of fine white wines grow. At the same time, demand for red wine remained strong at auction where they are still the majority (70% of the volume). It should be noted that wine enthusiasts are turning towards a delicate, silky style of wine, seductive in its youth while still possessing wonderful ageing potential.

One grape variety stands out once again this year – and of course, we could only be talking about Pinot Noir. Not content with being the glory of Burgundy, it has sought out other regions around the world where it can shine, and wine enthusiasts have followed it. The evolution of prices observed for Côte de Nuits and Côte de Beaune grand crus caused them to broaden their horizons. Incredible – and rare – bottles of Pinot Noir could be found from the Côte Chalonnaise, Jura, Alsace and Sancerre, becoming highly prized auction lots. This Top 20 shows that wine enthusiasts do not hesitate to open their purse strings to taste Pinot Noirs from regions other than Burgundy. The average price of these rankings stands at €242 which is just slightly less than the same statistic for Burgundian wine (€250) but a greater difference to the average price of Pinot Noirs from this region (€274).

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Global superstardom

The most curious wine enthusiasts started bidding battles to taste this variety from regions where you would least expect it. In Roussillon where Hervé Bizeul and Jean-Yves Bizot craft the amazing 100 Phrases pour Éventail, which sits at the top of the rankings, a wine lover parted with €579 for a bottle from 2022. Muscadet is represented by Jérôme Bretaudeau’s 2022 Statera, which comes in 11th place having been sold for €200. Meanwhile Takahiko Soga’s Domaine Takahiko took the bronze medal position with a 2021 Nana Tsu Mori going under the hammer for €363. The extremely rare Pinot Noir Tsugane from Beau Paysage did not appear at auction last year, but a bottle from the 2018 vintage was sold for €426 in 2023.

Auvergne, the subregion of the Loire that is a home to many natural wines, saw two estates make the Top 20. Pierre Beauger’s 2020 Vin de France Pinot Noir came in fifth with a hammer price of €300 and Frédéric Gounan’s Vignoble de l’Arbre Blanc finished 16th with a bottle of 2014 Les Grandes Orgues which sold for €156.

A bottle from the United States didn’t make it into the Top 20 but several just missed out on a spot. From California, there was Domaine de la Côte in 21st and Lilo Vineyard in 25th, and from Oregon, there was Beaux Frères in 29th, Domaine Serene in 32nd, Kistler in 33rd, Nicolas Jay in 34th, and Maresh Vineyard in 41st. This variety is truly global!

The Pinot Noir universe

Three winemakers from Switzerland stood out with their bottles created from the most widely planted grape variety in the world. First of all, the hard-to-find bottles produced by Jacques Tatasciore came in second after the 2018 Neuchâtel Les Virgas de la Rochette was sold for €413. Then, Daniel and Martha Gantenbein’s Pinot Noirs from the 2018 vintage – in 10th – found a buyer that was willing to part with €213 to own these wines. And finally, the famed estate Marie-Thérèse Chappaz in Valais produced Grain Pinot Charrat and a bottle from 2017 went under the hammer for €175 (in 14th).

Pinot Noirs from Germany didn’t make the rankings with the highest bottle finishing the year in 24th. It was a 2018 Graacher Himmelreich from Markus Molitor that was sold for €113 when scaled to 750ml. Germany is known for its high-quality white wines but it also producers red wines from Pinot Noir, Dornfelder and the like.

The mosaic of French Pinot Noir from beyond Burgundy

The most “classic” French Pinot Noir terroirs also create fine wine that are beloved by wine enthusiasts – why else would you find 6 bottles from Champagne, 3 from Jura and 3 from Alsace-Moselle in the Top 20. There aren’t many appellations outside of Burgundy that require producers to create still wines made from 100% Pinot Noir. There’s just Sancerre – which didn’t make the Top 20 – and Alsace.

Next on this tour of northern France, we’re heading to the Coteaux Champenois appellation, which is solely for still wines, which can also be made from Pinot Meunier. Aurélien Lurquin’s 2018 Pinot Noir Les Forcières takes the crown as Champagne’s highest-priced still red wine, having been sold for €325. Recent vintages (2020 and 2018) of other Coteaux Champenois come from Elise Bougy (in joint 8th, €238), Romain Henin (also in joint 8th) and Emilien Feneuil (in joint 17th, €150). Two mature vintages stood out due to their legendary origins: Egly-Ouriet’s 1996 Vieilles Vignes des Grands Côtés Grand Cru Ambonnay (in 6th, €263) and the illustrious (and rare) 2013 Côte aux Enfants from Bollinger (in 20th, €144).

An estate in Alsace caused heads to turn in the rankings of 2024’s highest-priced Pinot Noirs. That would be the bottle of 2018 Le Chant des Oiseaux by Gérard Schueller which went under the hammer for €253, in seventh. Other famous Alsace Pinot Noirs are produced by Albert Mann and the 2020 Les Saintes Claires sits in 17th position, having been sold for €150. There’s no doubt that the 2022 vintage, which is already difficult to find, will follow suit. It was, in fact, awarded 100/100 by Wine Advocate and James Suckling. Two bottles from the estate’s grand cru plots also turned heads at auction in 2024: Grand P made from Pinot Noir from the Pfersigberg grand cru and Grand H from the newly created Hengst grand cru selling for €125 and €104, respectively. Alsace’s Pinot Noir grand crus certainly have a bright future ahead of them.

Moselle, Alsace’s neighbour which is not to be confused with the Mosel region in Germany, is represented by the natural winemaker Pierre Andrey and his 2018 Verba Pampinea which was sold for €194 and sits in 12th place.

To finish off this Tour of France, we head to Jura where the appellations of Côtes du Jura and Arbois are allowed to produce wine only containing Pinot Noir and three made the rankings of the most coveted Pinot Noir in 2024:

• 2016 Arbois Pupillin Pinot Noir L’Aide Mémoire (Philippe Bornard), auctioned for €176 (13th) 
• 2022 Côtes du Jura Pinot Noir Les Varrons (Domaine Labet), auctioned for €158 when scaled to 750ml (15th)
• 2014 Côtes du Jura Julien En Billat (Jean-François Ganevat), auctioned for €150 when scaled to 750ml (17th)

Moving towards a new style of wine?

So what can we conclude? Burgundy’s star variety is certainly an icon that the whole world wishes to emulate but that is not the only reason. Enthusiasts’ taste for the qualities of Pinot Noir opens the door for a new quest, which owes a lot to new lifestyle and eating choices. Gone are the endless hearty meals; instead, we are seeing more informal tasting settings where delicate, flavourful and ethereal wines come into their own. This goes to show that there is another side to the wine world just waiting to be discovered for those who do not know it yet.

The success of Pinot Noir, in its different guises, points towards the style of wine enthusiasts enjoy most. And with that, it widens the possibilities as evidenced by the curiosity of bidders in 2024 who showed interest in a vast number of regions and estates that are working to renew the style of their wines.