Pinot Grigio

Dick in MN:

Pinot grigio (known as pinot gris in France and America) is a white wine with delicate aromas and flavors and at its best, it makes a perfect food wine. To me it's not a particularly spectacular grape like sauvignon blanc, but in Napa I'm more accustomed to powerhouse wines (which don't necessarily go well with food).

What I most appreciate with pinot grigio is balance and finesse. However, in warmer climates it often loses the charm of its fruit and tastes rather bland and neutral. In California, it's almost a disaster except in cool coastal districts. Oregon over the past ten years has ripped out most of their chardonnay, which was always a delight to me, in order to plant pinot gris. In fact, the state has bet the farm on it. I think this was a mistake, but that's my personal opinion.

I enjoy your recommendation. In fact, I never knew that pinot grigio was being grown extensively in Germany, but cool continental climate districts seem to make some exceptional pinot gris. You may find some interesting pinot grigio from Austria and the bordering areas of northern Italy, like Alto Adige.

Thanks for this post! I will seek out that wine.

--Bob

It not unusual, but I am not sure how extensively it is grown. It is usually called Grauburgunder or, more traditionally, Ruländer. Never heard of one being sold as Pinot Grigio before.

IMO it is a great variety, and very flexible in terms of matching with food.

Wein-Plus lists Pinot Gris (with synonyms Grauburgunder and Ruländer) as comprising 4.3% of the growing area in Germany - 4.413 hectares - about

Anders

Pinot Gris (or whatever other name one calls it) is interesting. I feel like the bulk of these wines that I taste are truly insipid in the sense of being almost flavorless.

But, I've had examples (some from Alsace, mostly from Oregon, but that is probably because of proximity in my case) that are truly delightful wines at very modest prices ($11-$15).

From the internet, I suspect the wine you had was in this price range, though it doesn't seem that widely distributed.

An Oregon pinot gris that I like a lot and that seems to be widely distributed (in some Costcos for example) is this one:

It is under $12 in Costco.

Another Oregon winery that is big (for Oregon), and thus has some national distribution in the US, and has a good pinot gris is King Estate, but I think the Willamette Valley Vineyards one mentioned above is a better value.

And there are lots of smaller Oregon vineyards with good pinot gris (and lots of insipid pinot gris from Oregon, but a much better proportion of good wine than the pinot grigios I see from Italy).

One of the traditional better known regions for this grape in Germany is in Baden. In modern times the dry versions tend to be sold as Grauburgunder and the sweeter versions as Rulander. I don't know about Europe outside of Germany, but this wine in the higher quality form does not seem to be easily available in many areas of the US. I still have a few bottles of Bickensohler Steinfelsen Rulander Auslese 1976. It is a very rich sweet wine with great intensity of taste and smell and considerable complexity.

cwdjrxyz wrote: > One of the traditional better known regions for this grape in Germany

Also Dr Heger in Ihringen brings back great memories of pinot gris.

| >>I never knew that pinot grigio | >> was being grown extensively in Germany | >

| > It not unusual, but I am not sure how extensively it is grown. It is | > usually called Grauburgunder or, more traditionally, Ruländer. Never | > heard of one being sold as Pinot Grigio before. | >

| Wein-Plus lists Pinot Gris (with synonyms Grauburgunder and Ruländer) as | comprising 4.3% of the growing area in Germany - 4.413 hectares - about | 11.000 acres, I believe | | Anders

At a tasting held by Ernst Loosen a few weeks ago we sampled Dr. Loosen's Villa Wolf Pinot Gris; it was a convincing wine, quite comparable to the majority of Italian Pinot Grigios, perhaps slightly lighter and more subtle. Apparently they have grown PG for quite a while:

" Pinot Gris has a very long tradition in the Pfalz region. In fact, it was here that the variety was first identified. Villa Wolf Pinot Gris is made in a full-bodied, dry style with refreshing, unoaked fruit and a crackling texture."

pavane

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Doug:

You have named two Oregon wineries where Oregon pinot gris may be as good as it gets in America. So far.

Willakenzie in Oregon, if they make pinot gris, would be another suggestion; I think they make consistently good wine overall (which is unusual, considering the weather).

I firmly believe that pinot gris would be a successful grape for the east coast, but there again, it's economics. Why grow a successful pinot gris in New York, when you can sell mediocre cabernet, just because of the name recognition, for three times the price? And even at its best, New York pinot gris could never approach the greatness of New York riesling, some of the finest and most under-rated wine in the world.

If wine was a Goldman Sachs financial derivative, like phony stock assets and phony real estate loans, I would bet on riesling and short pinot gris.

Just saying.

--Bob

cwdjirxz:

I never thought of pinot gris as a late harvest wine. It sounds very interesting!

--Bob

Pavane:

This is music to my ears. It confirms my suspicion that Germany, Austria and Hungary might be the best places for pinot gris/pinot grigio. I have a lot of contacts in Hungary. The area around Sopron and Balaton would be ideal, but I don't know what the grape is called in Hungarian.

--Bob

Szürkebarát

They do make a pinot gris. It sells for a bit more than the two I mentioned but in my very limited experience isn't any better.

Willakenzie's pinot noirs on the other hand can be really excellent. (Much more to my taste than pinot noirs from the other two vineyards I mentioned.)

"Mike Tommasi" skrev i melding news: snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net...

Which means Grey Monk ('Grauer Mönch' in German).

Anders

I suppose that is an Austrian name, given the proximity?

Interestingly, a french synonym is pinot beurot or burot, because the monk's cassock is also called a bure (bure is a thick coarse wool fabric).

Another german name is Kapuziner Kutten (monk's robe)

No. "Szürkebarát" means grey monk or grey priest.

Here in Austria both Pinot Gris and Grauburgunder are used, Ruländer much less so.

M.

As others have said, Szürkebarát. I've not heard of it doing that well in Sopron where the kékfrankos (blue french) is the traditional grape grown.

However on the northern side of Lake Balaton, (therefore on south facing slopes) the volcani hill of Badacsony produces Baacsonyi Szürkebarát which was one of the top Hungarian wines IMO. It was THE quintessential "difficult food" wine, accompanying the rich and spicy type of hungarian food to perfection. When I last visited the area, it was impossible to find a decent example, but maybe one day the local growers will find their feet again and start producing a wine that fulfils its potential.

I'd love to try one against chinese or indian food, because that's the wine I always think of in that context, and which I have to sub an Alsace Gewurz in place of.

(Yeuch, sorry about the frightful grammar). ,

-- All the best Fatty from Forges

Try a powerful Grüner Veltliner (13% or up): Does exceptionally well.

M.

Actually, remembering the wines we tasted a t Vinexpo. that makes sense. In fact there's a very idiosyncratic chinese restaurant called "Hunan" in London, where the son, who is taking over the business, is a complete nut about wine. Rather a losing battle in a chinese restaurant, one might think!

Anyway, I guess you have travelled abroad enough to know that Grüner Veltliner, whether powerful or not is almost unknown in restaurants outside Austria, more's the pity. It's a measure of the wine list at the Hunan that they have not just one GV, but two there - and at very reasonable markups. So I've no excuses.

Thanks.

-- All the best Fatty from Forges

Here in the USA, or at least in Tucson where I live, it's far from being unknown. Not every restaurant has it on its wine list, but several of them do.