Lets start by letting those that don’t know, Pinot Gris and Pinot Grigio are the same grape. It’s Pinot Grigio in Italy and Pinot Gris in most other places around the world.
In the states Pinot Grigio is thought to be a inexpensive, simple, thin, clean, crisp, high acid wine. Some in the wine industry might say it’s a fancy glass of water. And this has been true and still can be. But Pinot Gris can also be a fantastic wine with depth, complexity, Med+ body, length and balance.
Over the last few years Pinot Grigio is making a comeback with wine drinkers. Recognized as a quality wine that you need to give some thought as you enjoy a glass. This has been known for a longtime by wine professionals, we are glad to see the market is starting to market Pinot Gris as the quality wine that it is.
Carter and I recently picked three quality Pinot Gris for three different countries around the globe. A Trimbach from Alsace France, 2017. A St. Paul Pinot Grigio from Alto Adige Italy, 2021. Finally a Anne Amie from Willamette Valley Oregon, 2022. These are three quality producers. Our goal was to see the difference between the wines from different parts of the world, and also to have one with some age to experience this grape with some age.
We tasted these blind, so we wouldn’t be influenced by the label. But by the profile of the wines it was pretty obvious what each was. The favorite for Carter and me was the 2017 Trimbach Pinot Gris from Alsace France. The color was the big indicator, we know that white wines get darker with age and this wine was gold. Then after tasting it, with the full body, the complexity, the balance, we knew it was the French wine.
The Oregon wine was also delicious, and I’ll just say it, all these wines were very good. The Anne Amie was crisp, refreshing with good fruit. It was very bright and made you smile after a sip and say “that’s good”. It was a version of Pinot Gris that was 180 degrees different than the Trimbach. But we still enjoyed it very much, for different reasons.
The last wine in our tasting was the Pinot Grigio from Alto Adige Italy. If you’ve never had a wine from Alto Adige you need to. A region producing some wonderful wines. This Pinot Grigio is one of them. This wine feel right in the middle of the French and the Oregon wines. This wine had nice body, good acidity, balance and length. This wine had us comment, it was like the French and the Oregon had a baby, and this was it.
All the wines we great, we enjoyed all three for different reasons, and concluded that now knowing the profiles there would be different times/moods where we would want each of these.
Pinot Gris is a wine you need to explore, from different regions around the globe. It is a wonderful high quality wine.
