Johannesburg — PINOT Noir has always been regarded as the most difficult and temperamental of the great red varieties. Until probably the 1970s, none but the very brave attempted to plant it outside its native Burgundy region, except perhaps to use its juice in the production of Champagne-style sparkling wine.

When Tim Hamilton-Russell began his Hermanus project late in that decade, his enterprise was regarded as a rich man's folly.

The reaction was little different from many in Australia, where equally adventurous growers tried their hand at Pinot Noir in the cooler sites of Victoria.

In the US there were a few places in California (most notably Carneros) considered suitable for Pinot, but not much happened until David Lett pioneered Oregon less than 30 years ago.

The picture today is vastly different. While SA may still have very few Pinot cellars, it is no longer a one- or two-horse race.

Bouchard Finlayson and Hamilton-Russell are perhaps the best known of the Walker Bay exponents, although Newton Johnson is garnering a fair amount of attention.

The wines of Whalehaven, Klein Optenhorst, Flagstone, Cabrière and Paul Cluver also have their followers.

While no one would argue that Cape Pinot is on a par with the achievements of New Zealand, Oregon and Victoria, no one doubts that we have come a long way in a few decades. The visit a few weeks ago of a group of Burgundian wine producers provided a happy occasion to reflect on the virtues of Pinot Noir.

They were happy to host a dinner at the Quoin Rock cellar to meet wine writers and a few of the Cape's fine wine retailers.

None of the wines they served was really old -- though great Pinot can certainly rival Bordeaux in terms of maturation potential.

The youthful examples were quite tight -- whiffs of black cherry, marked acid, ample but not intrusive tannin -- and an unshowy elegance so fine you might miss it in a more robust line-up.

The older wines were just beginning to soften, offering a plummier mouthfeel, with softer, more supple tannins, plenty of length on the palate and an almost silken finesse.

The real change was in the bouquet. The primary fruit was just giving way to a nuttier, more mushroom-like aroma, sometimes with cedar wood and cinnamon whiffs.

Great aged Pinot -- when you can get it -- is like no other wine.

I have tasted a few of the older releases from Hamilton-Russell and Bouchard Finlayson, and both have managed to capture something of this ethereal spice.