Pinot Gris, It's not you it's me
I don't hate Pinot Gris. I just wanted to get that out there because people seemed to have the impression that I do. I love wine too much to hate any grape. For me what makes wine so exciting is the possibilities. Between the grape, the viticultural practices, the fermentation and the wine making techniques there's enough potential to cause the indecisive to have a nervous breakdown. Then when you throw in the variation that a cool climate blesses Ontario with you really have limitless possibilities. All of that conspires together in this little thing that drives any wine lover. I'm talking about the search for that one perfect wine from that one perfect vintage that suits you perfectly. You might not ever attain that perfection because as your tastes develop and as you learn more it can become a bit of a moving target. But if you've got the bug (if you're reading this you do) you're going to get damn close tasting a lot of great wines made by some passionate and amazing people. And you'll have lot of fun along the way doing it.
For me I'm not sure that one 'perfect' wine will ever come from the Pinot Gris grape. Although I haven't been privileged enough to visit the Alsace, which arguably produces the finest examples of Pinot Gris in the world, I have been lucky enough to visit Oregon's Willamette Valley home of
the world's largest producer focused on top-quality Pinot Gris and BC's Okanagan Valley where it only trails the citizen-of-the-world that is Chardonnay in
tonnage and value.I didn't fall in love with Pinot Gris during my visits there. The many wines I tried had lovely aromatics, but didn't really give me a whole lot more. That's what frustrates me about Pinot Gris. When I give it a swirl and lean into my the glass I get a wonderful nose full of flowers, pears and melon that sweetly entice me into to taking a sip. Once I take one that promise is almost never fulfilled. Although I love a wine that can beguile me a little it can only get by on its charming nose for so long before it has to deliver in other ways. Instead of doing that Pinot Gris just makes me long for aromatic varieties like Riesling, Viognier, Gewürztraminer and Pinot Noir where I get an experience that satisfies on my tongue just as much as it on the nose.
I'm glad I wrote the
initial tweet which inspired the whole
#TasteGris event if for no other reason than it brought friends beyond the virtual community of Twitter into one room where we could share, discuss and taste together. That being said it really was a great learning experience for me. There were some very good wines, but more importantly there was a breadth of flavours and styles that prove it would be foolish to outright dismiss the grape entirely.
Some of my favourites of the afternoon were the 2009 Fielding Estate Rock Pile Pinot Gris with its peach, pear and the smallest hint of barrel spiciness. The partial barrel fermentation provided a beautifully rich mouth feel but there was also a nice lively acidity. In a single word: balanced. The Stoney Ridge Excellence from 2009 also had a a beautiful floral nose and delivered with peach and pear on the palate. It was interesting to experience the vintage variation between the 2009 and 2007 Thirty Bench Pinot Gris. According to the technical notes both wines were more or less made the same and yet the oak influence seemed to come through much more clearly on the 2009. The 2007 has a bit of pink easer on the nose before giving way to the pear, peach and melon. The mouth feel was quite rich on both making a strong argument for barrel fermentation. So was the difference primarily from vintage variation between the hot and dry 2007 and the cooler and wetter 2009 vintage? Or is it mainly the extra two years of bottle aging that the 2007 has over the 2009?
Lastly the 1992 Domaine Zind Humbrecht Clos Saint Urbain Rangen de Thann Grand Cru Tokay Pinot Gris really was something special. The beautiful golden colour, the botrytis influence of apricot and peach, the slight spiciness, the rich oily mouth feel and balancing acidity all added up to one magnificent wine. It was a bit of a revelation for me. Enough to make me a Pinot Gris lover? No, but certainly more than enough keep Pinot Gris in running to be the 'one' wine for me.
P.S. A big thank you goes out to
Sandra Oldfield for organising the BC contingent of the our Pinot Gris line-up. We don't often get to taste BC's wines here in Ontario so it was privilege to get a taste of the Okanagan for this event. An extra special thanks goes out to
Rick VanSickle for organising this even in my honour. Not only is he a true gentleman but he's a true ambassador for Canadian wine and Niagara wines in particular.
