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“I’ve never had a wine that could be altered in so many ways!” said a bewildered friend after blind tasting three different versions of the Pinot Gris/Pinot Grigio grape.

And it’s true … some might even call Pinot Gris/Grigio the multi-personality wine because of the way it takes on so many different expressions. This is due to terroir, of course. Yet what also adds expression is the way it can be manipulated by producers to create a specific style.

Pinot Grigio, in its most innocuous and mild form, is available on the by-the-glass list in virtually every restaurant in the world. One can only assume people like it because it doesn’t kick up too much of a fuss, goes with most white meat/fish dishes, has refreshing acidity, and in worst case scenarios has a few extra grams of residual sugar that most American white wine lovers seem to enjoy.

Pinot Gris/Grigio without Tears

Sommeliers have told me they have guests who demand a Pinot Grigio no matter what other fantastic wines are on the list, or worse, even if it does not pair well with their dish.

In this Pinot Gris/Grigio without tears article, I intend to save you the angst of trying to taste your way through and analyze all the different styles. So the other night, I asked my local wine shop to send over three PGs (Pinot Grigio/Gris) in plain paper bags so that a friend and I could taste them blind, and try to figure out several things:

1) If they were New or Old world
2) What country they were from and what year
3) Residual Sugar and winemaking techniques

Yes, of course I know that three styles are very small in a world flooded with Pinot Grigio, yet three it will be.

Cutting to the chase, please allow me to introduce the three wines:

Albert Boxler Pinot Gris Reserve 2008
Tiefenbrunner Pinot Grigio 2009
Maysara Oregon Pinot Gris 2009

Full disclosure here: my wine store also indicated to me that one wine would be from Alsace, one from Italy, and one from Oregon.

Now if you’ve been in the wine world long enough, you probably correctly guessed the Pinot Gris from Alsace would be easiest to pick out. First, it is off-dry, with at least 30 grams of residual sugar. On the nose, a signature is super ripe pear – imagine the most decadent vanilla-infused, slow-baked pear of your life, perhaps paired with vanilla ice cream, and you can imagine the nose and palate of this wine (add just a hint of spice like nutmeg and cinnamon). Acidity, despite the sugar, is quite refreshing so it could pair well with a dish like carmelized scallops.

The Alto-Adige Pinot Gris and the Oregon Pinot Gris were harder to tell apart.

Oregon

Let’s talk Oregon first … it is one of Oregon’s most successful varietals so competition between producers is fierce. This Maysara 2009 is very pale in the glass, with dry spiced pear on the nose, and on the palate the wine is very dry, with medium acidity, low tannin (lees, oak?) medium body, and moderate alcohol. You will find some minerality here, which could indeed lead you to the old world.

The style of this wine is very dry, delicious, yet structured and clean. It could very easily be confused with an old world wine, yet that last word “clean” also hints at the purity of fruit that is often found in Oregon.

Alto Adige

The Tiefenbrunner 2009 Pinot Grigio from Alto Adige is deeper in color, a bit shy on the nose, yet the palate has the more characteristic flavor of an Italian Pinot Grigio across all price levels. For me, this translates to a rustic, slightly vegetative flavor on the palate marked by high acidity.

In the last few years, I’ve met with winemakers from Italy who have shown me their Pinot Grigio and I’ve been amazed by the complexity of their wine. Often, I’ve asked if they added oak. Often they smile and say no. “Stirring of the lees?” More smiling, and often again the word “no.”

So what can cause such incredibly richness and complexity in a PG? The answer in many cases is Italian winemakers adding some mature/botrytized grapes to the mix, which gives the wine that fullness and richness most PGs do not have. Other producers do nothing to produce this complexity, and explain the fullness and richness solely on their terroir.

I’d love to hear your thoughts about Pinot Grigio and favorite style … here are some links to some other Pinot Grigio advenutes …

If you liked this you might enjoy:

Lunch with Albino Armani

Dinner with La Tunella wines
 

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