Pinot noir (French: [pino nwaʁ]) is a black wine grape variety of the species Vitis vinifera. The name may also refer to wines created predominantly from Pinot noir grapes. The name is derived from the French words for "pine" and "black" alluding to the grape variety's tightly clustered dark purple pine cone–shaped bunches of fruit.

Pinot noir grapes are grown around the world, mostly in the cooler regions, but the grape is chiefly associated with the Burgundy region of France. It is widely considered to produce some of the finest wines in the world, but is a difficult variety to cultivate and transform into wine.

Pinot noir's home is France's Burgundy region, particularly in Côte-d'Or. It is also planted in Austria, Argentina, Australia, Azerbaijan, Canada, Chile, north parts of Croatia, the Republic of Georgia, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Kosova, the Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Greece, Romania, New Zealand, South Africa, Serbia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, United States, Uruguay, Ukraine and Slovakia. The United States has increasingly become a major Pinot noir producer, with some of the best regarded coming from the Willamette Valley in Oregon and California's Sonoma County with its Russian River Valley and Sonoma Coast appellations. Lesser known appellations can be found in Mendocino County's Anderson Valley as well as the Central Coast's Santa Lucia Highlands appellation and the Sta. Rita Hills American Viticultural Area in Santa Barbara County. In New Zealand, it is principally grown in Martinborough, Marlborough, Waipara and Central Otago.

Jancis Mary Robinson OBE, MW (born in Cumbria on 22 April 1950) is a British wine critic, journalist and editor of wine literature. She currently writes a weekly column for the Financial Times, and writes for her website JancisRobinson.com. She also provides advice for Queen Elizabeth II's wine cellar.

Robinson studied mathematics and philosophy at Oxford University and worked for a travel company after leaving university. Robinson started her wine writing career on 1 December 1975 when she became assistant editor for the trade magazine Wine & Spirit. In 1984 she became the first person outside the wine trade to become a Master of Wine. She also served as British Airways' wine consultant, and supervised the BA Concorde cellar luxury selection.

As a wine writer, she has become one of the world's leading writers of educational and encyclopedic material on wine. The Oxford Companion to Wine, edited by Robinson, is widely considered to be the most comprehensive wine encyclopedia in the world. The first edition was published in 1994, and took five years to write after she was signed on as editor in 1988. In addition, The World Atlas of Wine by Hugh Johnson and Robinson is one of the world's leading wine atlases.

Lettie Teague is an American author and currently a wine columnist for The Wall Street Journal. Teague was for several years with Food & Wine, as wine editor of the magazine since 1997 and executive wine editor since 2005, until 2009.

Lettie Teague was born in Indiana, and during her childhood lived in various places in Ohio and North Carolina. After studying English at Kenyon College, she held various wine-related jobs in retail, restaurants, wholesale sales, and marketing until becoming a public relations executive specializing in wine. In 1995 she became the food, wine, and books editor at the Hearst travel magazine Diversion, and in 1997 became the wine editor of Food & Wine. She remained with the magazine until American Express Publishing announced a reduction in staff in 2009, and Teague went on to write a blog for eRobertParker.com, online site of Robert Parker, for a brief period. In April 2010, three months after the departure of Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher, she was announced as a wine columnist of The Wall Street Journal, along with Jay McInerney and previous Europe edition successor Will Lyons.

Michael "Micky" Flanagan (born c. 1963) is an English comedian. Flanagan has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe and toured Britain with stand-up shows. He presented Micky Flanagan: What Chance Change? for Radio 4 and has appeared on various TV shows including Mock the Week, A League of Their Own and Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow. He released his debut DVD in November 2011.

Flanagan was born in Whitechapel, East London and grew up on a council estate in Bethnal Green. He left school at the age of 15 with no qualifications. His first job was as a fish porter at Billingsgate Fish Market, after which he lived in New York for a year where he worked as a dishwasher and chef. After returning to London he worked as a furniture maker for several years.

Flanagan resumed education at the age of 25, beginning with a GCSE in English and going on to a foundation course in arts and social sciences and a degree at City University, which he began aged 29. He went on to train as a teacher by taking the Postgraduate Certificate in Education, but decided not to pursue teaching as a career, later describing the experience as "the unhappiest year of my life ... everything that was wrong about the school system when I was young was still the same".