Willamette Valley Vineyards Pinot Gris: A Solid Pinot Grigio, A Poor Pinot Gris...

It has been a long time since I've had Pinot Gris. I'm not really sure why. I love it. It has all the fat-bodied, oily, fruity deliciousness of a Gewurztraminer, but with more subtle aroma and far more acid. It's a perfect white when made right. And it goes with my other favorite delight -- yummy cheese. From Brie to Gouda to Parmesan, I think Pinot Gris is a beautiful match. I need to drink it more often. But as I'll discuss in the rundown, I need to be careful where I get the goods from.

I've discussed Pinot Gris at length in another post, but I'll do a quick review here in case you're not inclined to click over. Pinot Gris is native to Burgundy, France and it's a mutation of the totally unstable Pinot Noir grape (which has spawned this as well as other greatest hits like Pinot Blanc and Pinot Meunier, which is used in Champagne). Even though it's made as a white wine, it often has its parent's looks -- grey-blue, pink, or grey-yellow skin -- attributes of a black-skinned grape for sure. As a result, sometimes the wine in the bottle has a pink tinge because of this skin coloration (as always when I think about this, I am left wondering why this wine is made as a white when it would be so much easier to make it as a light red, but I digress).

Even though Pinot Grigio and Pinot Gris are the exact same grape (and both mean “Grey Pinecone” -- grey because of the skin tinge, and pinecone because the bunch is shaped like a pinecone), they are vastly different in style. Why? Because the grapes are influenced by the soils and climates they grow in.

For example, when grown in bulk on flat, fertile plains like in the Veneto in Italy, Pinot Grigio is light, citrus-flavored, acidic, and pretty mild...or alcoholic lemon water, as I like to think of it. When grown with care, on mountainsides, in cooler climates, and in smaller yields, as in some parts of Fruili-Venezia-Giulia and Trentino Alto-Adige in Italy, parts of Oregon, and in Alsace, France, Pinot Gris is full-bodied, aromatic, honeyed, and rich. When grown in Alsace, it also has this very distinct character of Indian food spices that make my knees a little weak. This is a stunning grape that is so often abused and mistreated, creating ick results (is there a grape abuse hotline we can call? We need one!).

Since wine labeling in the New World (everywhere except Europe) is all about marketing, producers get to pick what they want to call the grape. My rule of thumb is usually that California wines often are named Pinot Grigio to mimic the Italian style (of insipid flavorless white) and Oregon and New Zealand wines are often named Pinot Gris to indicate a style closer to Alsace. The thing is, now I'm annoyed because I've been finding that this isn't entirely accurate.

On the Pinot Grigio side, I think I'm doing ok -- if I want my alcoholic citrus water from California instead of Italy, I can pick out a Pinot Grigio and score (which I generally try not to do, FYI). But on the Pinot Gris side, it's all messed up. I can't really speak for New Zealand because I've only had one or two Pinot Gris from there and they have been closer to the French style, but my sample size is way too small to generalize. But Oregon...oh, Oregon...I don't know what to expect anymore.

Oregon is one of my go-tos for Pinot Noir and it used to be a pretty reliable source for Pinot Gris too, but I'm starting to doubt that this is a mecca for the Grey One. Most of the Pinot Gris is grown in the Willamette (Will-AM-it) Valley, a premium wine making area that stretches from the Columbia River in the north, to south of Eugene, and from the western Oregon Coastal Range to the eastern Cascade Mountains. With a cool climate that doesn't get above 90 degrees or below 0 Farenheit, it should be good for growing a grape that does well in cooler climates, like Pinot Gris. But it's not producing the wines I think it could...or the producers aren't.

Last night I had the Willamette Valley Vineyards Pinot Gris. It was the most recent in a string of (ten or more) that I've had that have been more like a fuller version of Italian Pinot Grigio than French Pinot Gris. The ship is turning on Oregon for me, and I'm thinking I'm going to have to take it out of the rotation and stick to Alsace and better regions of Italy for this grape. This wine was sent to me very graciously by the Winery to review (that's my disclosure), however I will be honest as always. Here's the rundown:


The Wine: Willamette Valley Vineyards Pinot Gris
Where It's From: Willamette Valley, Oregon
The Grapes: Pinot Gris with an unspecified amount of Pinot Blanc and Muscat thrown in
Vintage: 2008
Price: $16.99

Color: A light golden hue, and very clear and sparkling, the wine looked beautiful and like a perfect example of Pinot Gris. Mouthwateringly pretty in the glass!

Smell: Here's where I started to wonder...the wine smelled like citrus fruit, red apples, apple skin, and pear but also like minerals and stream. There was a slight gasoline note too it that I usually only find in Pinot Grigio from Italy. For me, Pinot Gris from Alsace, which the Winery's notes claim is the model for this wine, is loaded, even dripping, with honeyed apple, rich ripe peach, orange, floral and smoke aromas and unmistakable East Indian spice. That was completely absent here and I became skeptical.

Taste: Say it ain't so.
Tasting notes say: "The stylistic vision of this wine is an 'Oregon version' of Alsatian Pinot Gris. Depth of extract, richness, big mouthfeel but with elegance and ability to age."

WFNP says: Although the wine shows apple, peach, and pear flavors, it also has a radicchio lettuce-like bitterness to it. It's not as thin as an Italian Pinot Grigio but it has the same almond skin bitter flavors I get from Veneto PG. Rather than opulent, creamy, or rich (as it is described), I think this is more of a light, simple wine. I would definitely not characterize this as having a big mouthfeel or much depth. It's a simple, refreshing white that doesn't have much going on.

Food Pairings: Rather than the richer fare that I'd pair with Alsace Pinot Gris, for this I'd stick with vegetarian dishes, salads, lightly grilled white fish, and light risottos.

Drink or Down the Sink?: As a Pinot Gris, I'd pour this down the sink. I wish they had called it a Pinot Grigio and not made claims that it was anything like Alsace's version. Putting that idea in my head, as impressionable as I may be, made me really disappointed in the wine. As a simple quaffer that's akin to Italian Pinot Grigio, this wine is better than most of the stuff out there (it's also double the price of most Italian Pinot Grigio, so it should be). The wine is well-made and balanced, albeit a little too bitter for my personal palate. If you like Pinot Grigio, you'll like this wine, however if you are a big fan of Alsace Pinot Gris, don't expect much -- buy another brand or buy the real deal for a few bucks more.

I have to admit that this run-in with this wine has me realizing that I must change my expectation of Oregon Pinot Gris. Although a few Oregon producers make it in the bigger French style, I'm realizing more and more that I what I thought was so, just isn't and I've got to expect a little less (or grab a marker and change the label on the bottle so I can psychologically accept that this is just better-than-average Pinot Grigio).

Take it for what it's worth and let me know what you think.