A new grape to me.

There are lots of Pinot Gris made in France, and elsewhere. Pinot Grigio and Pinot Gris are the same grape, "Pinot Grigio" is the Italian name for it and "Pinot Gris" is the French name. Both "Grigio" and "Gris" mean "gray."

Jim, Pinot Gris is the French name for the grape known as Pinot Grigio in Italy. In my experience, most Oregon wineries use the French name for their wines.

Mark Lipton

"Mark Lipton" wrote .......

In NZ, Pinot Gris is the third most widely planted white variety.

In Australia, wines labelled Pinot Grigio are generally drier styles, while P.Gris are a little sweeter.

st.helier

Yes, Pinot Grigio is the more trendy name: some completely neutral flavourless wines from Friuli became inexplicably popular some 20 years ago, and they still are. It conveniently filled a void (mainly with the ladies?) in the wine variety list, where most of the known grapes were red, and the only white (chard) tended to be made in a heavy wooded style. So neutral italian PGs with a lemony tang and almost no aroma became the equivalent of Bud Light in wine. Most people outside Italy probably do not know what Grigio means, so it has none of the negative connotations of "gris" (grey), but it definitely is as neutral as the

The name Pinot Gris remained obscure. Until recently the best Pinot Gris (from Alsace, great with foie gras if you find a good one) was sold as Tokay. Other than that, you would find it under the name Grauburgunder, usually from the Baden area, often very good indeed.

So everyone knew Pinot Grigio, some people knew Tokay, very few people knew Grauburgunder, and only people on AFW knew about Pinot Gris.

"Mike Tommasi" wrote.........

Forgive me if I am mistaken Michael, but I thought that Grauburgunder was for dry wine and Ruländer was for sweeter styles - No?

st.helier

I did not realize this but thanks for the tip!

I'll have to see how the bottle of Oregon (Williamette Valley) Pinot Gris turns out.

Let me add some notes on Solena 2011 Pinot Gris (Willamette Valley). As others have suggested it was rather more sweet than I am accustomed to with Pinot Grigio but quite pleasantly acid and aromatic. It is made by Laurent Montalieu and Danielle Andrus Montalieu whose names suggest French ancestry or origin and the grapes appears not to have been grown by the proprietors but "selected from Oregon vineyards".

Correct, re: Oregon Pinot Gris. In fact, until the past year or so, Pinot Grigio was not allowed for the designation of that variety in Oregon. By what authority it was disallowed, and why, I don't know; perhaps simply by agreement within the state's wine industry.

Andy