The best Pineau d’Aunis resists comparisons. It offers a very sharp sort of spice the way Cabernet Franc or Austria’s Blaufrankisch do, but it’s neatly folded into the weightless strawberry fruit that glides across the palate like drifting fog in the morning, rather than the way those other wines seem to come with ground up peppercorns inside. The tannins sometimes feel like Pinot Noir, gossamer threads that frame without constricting, but Pineau never has the velvety quality of Pinot, it remains perpetually in flight, all the way through the finish.