Wine For Normal People Radio : Episode 021 The Grape Mini-Series: Pinot Noir

And the grape mini-series continues! This time, it's the "heartbreak grape." The popular red du jour, Pinot Noir! If you love Pinot, this episode is for you! We talked about the different styles of Pinot Noir from all over the world, and helped point out the differences in Pinot styles.

Show Notes:

• Shout-outs - Fun comments on the Facebook page, Wine for Normal People Blog, and on Twitter
• How to pick the perfect Pinot Noir when shopping for wine
• Different flavor profiles/styles of Pinot Noir
• Popular regions that grow Pinot Noir:
  • Europe: Burgundy, Germany (where it's called Spätburgunder), Champagne (typically blush/rosé sparkling wine from this region)
  • California: Carneros (Napa & Sonoma), Russian River Valley (Sonoma), Central Coast
  • New Zealand
  • Oregon
    
  • Australia

Click here or download the 'cast below...

Wine For Normal People Radio : Episode 021 The Grape Miniseries: Pinot Noir

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An Oregon Redemption: Willamette Valley Vineyards Tualatin Estate Pinot Noir

Man, I'm excited to write this post. I've had a kind of lame ass run of Oregon Pinot Noir lately. I was even beginning to doubt that my excitement around the region and its fabulous Goldilocks nature of being somewhere between the minerality, barnyard, and crazy spice of a Burgundy, and the ridiculous fruitiness of many California Pinots was completely unfounded.

The good news is that I was wrong. The bad news: I guess now is the time that I call my own bluff. I'm a firm believer/espouser of the notion that you don't have to spend more than $20 to get great wine...but I think with this experience (which is a replica of a few I've had lately), I've confirmed that's decidedly not the case with most Pinot Noir. Unlike most other grapes where you can get good deals, with Pinot you've gotta spend the cash to get the quality. And in Oregon this is certainly the case.

It makes sense from a business standpoint. I mean, this grape, which I've touted in podcasts and posts as the most pain in the butt grape to grow and the one that requires Herculean effort to tame, master, and create good wine, makes mediocre, watery, nothing-doing ick when it's mass produced. The plain fact is that it just costs a lot of money to maintain vineyards of Pinot and to make wine out of a grape that is so high maintenance and those costs get passed on in the price of the wine.

This begs the question: Why is Pinot more of a pain? Well, for starters, we're not the only ones that love Pinot -- birds, pests, fungus, and Mother Nature in the form of hail, wind, and rain adore removing every last vestige of amazing grapes from their vines. When you lose a bunch of your crop and when, to begin with, the grape requires cooler climates and specific soils and sites, and mutates like it had a personality disorder, this makes it a problem child in the grape kingdom. Pinot isn't a hearty grape like Syrah -- if you're planning to grow this grape, you better be ready for some serious hand-holding and potential heartbreak if the weather doesn't cooperate with you. It's a bit of a fool's folly to grow this stuff (but if it works it's awesome).

So I give serious credit to those making a go of it in the Willamette Valley (will-AM-it) of Oregon. This is as good a place to tame Pinot as any. It's 150 miles long and 60 miles wide (pretty huge) and it's sandwiched between the Oregon Coastal Range and the Cascade Mountains, making it cool but warm enough to ripen grapes. The wet winters, and warm, dry summers and the virtual lack of rain in the growing season fatten chances for the growers that they can provide a very nice, accommodating environment for the picky Pinot....at least so says the 200+ wineries there, including some French producers who came looking for sites similar to Burgundy and found the Willamette to be closest to home.

If you aren't familiar with Oregon, it's a great region for Pinot Noir but it's super new in the wine world. The Willamette Valley became a place for wine only after 1965, when four dudes who graduated from UC Davis, which has an awesome program for winemakers and wine farmers (viticulturists) decided to move to the Valley and plant Pinot Noir. David Lett of Eyrie Vineyards, Dick Erath of Erath and Charles Coury of the Charles Coury Winery and Dick Ponzi of Ponzi Vineyards took a risk and it paid off. Others followed.

One of those was Jim Bernau, who set up Willamette Valley Vineyards in 1983. Concentrating mainly on Pinot Noir, WVV grew. Today it's one of Oregon's bigger and more commercial wineries, producing a little over 121,000 cases in 2009 (according to their annual report). This isn't just some small boutique winery -- it's a relatively big business.

And big businesses have a PR and marketing effort. A few months ago they sent me 4 bottles of wine (there's my full disclosure -- the stuff was free, but that doesn't mean I'm going to lie about it!). I've reviewed the Pinot Gris (it was ok). Then I tried their $20 whole cluster fermented Pinot Noir and really disliked it. It tasted like alcoholic cherry juice and reminded me of Beaujolais Nouveau -- totally a powder puff wine with nothing of interest to me. The tannins were lame, the acid weak and it was just too simple and boring for me. Another discouraging Pinot at the affordable end of Willamette Valley choices. So with that experience, I had a lot of trepidation about trying the other Pinot that was sent, the Willamette Valley Vineyards Tualatin Estate Vineyard Willamette Valley Pinot Noir.

I was not convinced that this was going to be dramatically better. Thankfully I was wrong. The wine was more than double the price and it's from a much smaller vineyard that has complex soils and a bunch of different clones of Pinot Noir that each add a little nuance to the recipe. Whereas I'd avoid the affordable Willamette Valley Vineyards Whole Cluster Fermented Pinot and drink a Cosmo instead, I could drink this wine all day long -- it was extraordinarily delicious.

Here are the deets:

The Wine: Willamette Valley Vineyards Tualatin Estate Pinot Noir
Where It's From: Willamette Valley, Oregon
The Grapes: 100% Pinot Noir
Vintage: 2007
Price: $45.00

Color: Pale ruby red -- the color I think Pinot should be (not dark -- that screams out that the grape has either been blended with something else OR that it's been hanging on a vine WAY too long and won't taste like the grape rather like Welsh's grape juice). It was a slight concern that the wine had a ton of bubbles in it -- that usually happens when the winemaker juices up the wine with CO2 to keep it fresh. That's ok in a German Riesling, not the best in a Pinot.

Smell: Really complex -- the smells kept coming and coming with each little sniff. I was encouraged. Typical Pinot can smell like tart cherries, dried cranberry, and wet rocks or minerals. Check. Check. Check. There was an unripe raspberry and a blood orange smell (like a grapefruit and an orange mated) that was unique and yummy. The earthy/mineral smell also reminded me of a rocky beach in the summer -- like hot rocks. There was a floral essence going on too. All super delicious and nothing like the overwhelming cherry juice smell of the lower tier of this wine. This was a different league.

Taste: Tart cherry at first with mouthwatering acid and a hit of alcohol (my only criticism of the wine -- it's a little hot and high in alcohol at 13.4%). Then the wine completely mellows in your mouth --it was like cinnamon toast, rhubarb pie, or berry cobbler with a crumb topping. There was clove on the finish too. The texture of the wine was amazing -- the tannins were super mild (just a little mouth drying) and the acid balanced the fruit and baking spice flavor amazingly well. Everything was balanced. Yum.

Food: You need an medium weight food -- like pork, lamb, swordfish, or certain types of mushrooms, beets, or earthy veggies-- but the rubber is going to hit the road on this pairing when you some sort of savory spice or herb sauce or rub goes on the food. The wine's already tasty profile will only be enhanced by the savory herbs or spice (I think the best option would be with starchy potatoes or some other earthy vegetables, which would combine to make those clove and fruit pie flavors into an earthy, fruity, spicy sea of deliciousness). We had it with hard cheese -- Parmesan. It was unbelievable with that too.

Drink or Down the Sink?: Drink. There were only about 325 cases of this wine made, so it may be hard to get, but it's worth trying (order online or ask your wine shop to order it for you if you're interested). I'm thoroughly impressed with this wine...but on the other hand I have such a hard time reconciling that it's so drastically different from the lower tier.

So I return to my original discovery -- in Pinot, I think you get what you pay for. And you've got to pay to get the good stuff.

Please let me know what you think! Leave your questions and comments below, or join the conversation on the Wine For Normal People Facebook page.

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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. Readmore »»

Mixed Results of Thanksgiving Pairings and an Amazing Non-Related Pairing

Whew, with the first round of decadent, butter-laden, obesity-inducing meals (aka, Thanksgiving chow) behind those of us in America, and one more on the horizon (whether that be in form of potato latkes or Christmas ham), I thought I'd do a post to share my pairing experience and ask if you'll comment and pay it forward so we can all figure out what worked and what didn't.

I'd love to say that I tested out all my pairing suggestions this year (I have at one point or another done it, so please don't think I'm suggesting stuff blind, BTW), but we drank just two wines and MC Ice and I disagreed on the results. I'll share those and, as a bonus, I'm going to tell you about the pre-Thanksgiving random-ass pairing we had because it was, surprisingly, THAT good.

Because I do love the wine and because I had it on hand courtesy of Destination Riesling (the advocacy group for this under-appreciated grape) I pulled out a bottle of the Dönnhoff Spätlese (SHPATE-lay-zah) Riesling for the meal. Without having had this brand before, I didn't know how sweet it would be, but thought I'd roll the dice. This is the perennial problem we all face when buying Riesling.

I'll dork out on Riesling for just a second in the hopes that this information (whether it be a refresher or new news) may make you less squeamish about buying the stuff. I think it's damn confusing, so hopefully a plain English explanation (with a little German thrown in) will make it less daunting.

So to break it down, Riesling is a grape that grows really well in cold climates like Central Germany. I know the general perception is that Riesling is sweet, but when German growers pick it, it's generally kind of tart and ALWAYS really acidic -- that's just how the grape rolls. Now, if the growers decide to let the grapes hang out on the vines a little longer than regular harvest time (which is a risk because it could get cold and stormy and frosty), then the grapes may be slightly riper and the resulting wine fruitier and fuller, and often sweeter.

In a climate where it's cold and grapes don't ripen all that well, the Germans have decided that the longer the grapes hang on the vines, the higher quality they are. The thing is, this doesn't translate to what most contemporary wine drinkers consider high quality because according the German schema, the higher the quality, the sweeter the wine. It's all kind of cock-eyed, but if you know what the stuff means, you can avoid buying sweet wine from Germany and just get the kind of wine you want -- which for most of us is dry, aromatic, acidic Riesling that kicks ass and goes well with Indian food.

Here's a cheat list (with pictures) for you of the three most common German Riesling classifications out there:

Kabinett: ripe grapes (it actually means cabinet, like where you store the stuff). It is generally light in style, and usually a little drier than the next two levels because the grapes aren't as ripe. That said, I've had my share of off-dry Kabinett, so caveat emptor, my dry-loving wine pals.


Spätlese: late harvest, really just means ripe grapes. It can be dry or sweet. Usually if it's dry, it will say so somewhere on the label. The producer could indicate it by using the word "trocken" (see right) but these days I usually see them put DRY somewhere on the label. Germans are nothing if not efficient in labeling.

Auslese (OWS-lay-zah): select harvest. Means that the growers have hand-picked the grapes from selected bunches that are sweeter and riper than the Spätlese grapes. These wines can only be made when the weather is warm enough to get the grapes fat and juicy with ripeness. More often than not, these are sweet, but there ARE dry versions out there, rare though they may be. Much like the Spätlese, there will be a bit "To-Do" on the bottle if the wines are dry.

I won't get into these because they are rare, not produced in every vintage, and are definitely dessert wines, but for thoroughness there are three more levels of sweetness -- Beerenauslese, Eiswein (ice wine), and Trockenbeerenauslese. These are extremely sweet, never dry, and are generally super expensive.

The Dönnhoff we had was a Spätlese and it was a little more than off-dry. I won't go into too much detail, but this producer is one of the most highly regarded in all of Germany. The family has been making wine since 1750 and although Nahe is a small region that many don't know, it's known among Riesling lovers as rivaling the famed Mosel for having the greatest Riesling wines. Dönnhoff is the king of the Nahe, and, some would argue is the best producer in Germany. The wines are known to be a little fleshier and fatter than Mosel's Rieslings but with great acidity. The vineyard from which this wine hails is called Oberhäuser Brücke and it is famed for its gray slate and amazingly powerful wines. For me, I can see why these wines are esteemed -- it was pretty damn good.

Here's the quick rundown:
The Wine: Dönnhoff Oberhäuser Brücke, Riesling Spätlese, 2008 (translation --Dönnhoff is the producer, Oberhäuser Brücke is the vineyard, Riesling, the grape, Spätlese, we just went over that)

Price: About $40

Color: The lightly golden hue made it a little darker than what I would expect from a totally dry wine. Sugar darkens a wine a touch, so I expected some sweetness.

Smell: It was a classic Riesling all right -- peach, lemon cookie, and white flowers just wafted into my nose and then there was a really light petrol or gasoline note.

Taste: The wine had a little spritz and it was noticeably sweet. It was very pleasant though -- peachy, lemony, with a really strong hit of cantaloupe or honeydew melon. There was a little bit of petrol smell after it left my mouth too -- kind of sassy. I liked the acid, it wasn't too strong but definitely present.

Food pairing: This was such a hit with all the savory food at Thanksgiving. The light sweetness and the acid just made everything even and smooth. The starches were lighter, and I was surprised that it was a great complement to the sweeter butternut squash soup and the sweet potatoes. The salty/savory stuffing was awesome with the wine too -- it was so nice with the herbal quality of my mom's famous recipe popcorn stuffing (it's stuffing with popcorn in it, not just popcorn). I don't eat turkey (just don't like it, sorry!) but it was a split decision at the table -- some loved the pairing, MC Ice hated it. I thought it was a fabulously versatile wine and it was a hit for my palate.

Drink or down the sink: For me, it was a total DRINK. I loved the complementary pairings of sweet with sweet and the contrast of savory with sweet. MC Ice hated the pairing and thought it made everything taste too sweet. He also is a total sweet wine hater, so take that as you will. It got a thumbs up from me, a thumbs down from him. Regardless, I will make the call that it was a well-made wine and of high quality, even if its style isn't for everyone!

Now for a Thanksgiving honorable mention.

The next wine on the docket -- Erath Pinot Noir from Oregon with Thanksgiving dinner. This is a wine I generally like. It's lighter in color and fruity and slightly earthy, but not a wine of great depth, I find. For $15, it's pretty good.

For me, it completely clashed with the starches. The acidity and fruit kind of made everything taste like an unripe cranberry! It wasn't something that worked for my palate at all. MC Ice, on the other hand, loved the way it went with everything, especially the turkey. He liked the contrast of the fruit and acid against the starch. What I found kind of angular, he found delicious. To each his or her own, I guess. This one is totally inconclusive -- maybe you can weigh in to tip the scales.

Finally, a non-sequitur to all of this. The night before Thanksgiving, for really no reason at all, I made a completely unseasonal, fattening, and wrong-holiday dish -- I made basil pesto. I know, it's not in season and it's not from my garden, but I saw basil at the store so I bought it and made pesto because, well, I wanted to. I make it with walnuts instead of pine nuts and it was a successful, yummy meal when placed over whole wheat pasta and tossed with a ton of grilled veggies.

Looking for something light and seaside-like (pesto is from Genoa, a seaside town in northeastern Italy so I thought I'd try something beachy), I grabbed a bottle of $5.99 Espirial Vinho Verde from Trader Joe's. Ohhhh yeah.

Vinho Verde is not "green wine" as in the color (recently I had a very snotty, self-professed wine connoisseur haughtily tell me that, of course, the name comes from the fact that the wine is green), it's green as in youthful. Actually in Portugal, one-third of this "green wine" is actually red. You get the point.

What's great about Vinho Verde -- it always is lightly bubbly (Fizzy Bubblech, for you Zohan fans) and it's always fruity, light, and a little briny or seaside-like. I love the stuff. It's inexpensive, it's fun, and it's reliable. And with fresh seafood or a bright, herbal dish like pesto, it gives just the right lift to food without butting in too much with a strong flavor. It was a great pairing. The only downside -- it made me want to eat more food to keep tasting the combo! So there you go.

In summary, I think Riesling is the bomb for Thanksgiving, but lighter style Oregon Pinot doesn't ring my bell (I do think there are other Pinots that would have done the job, though). MC Ice thinks the opposite. We both agree that Vinho Verde and pesto is the best poor man's dinner we've had in a long time. Maybe we'll have that for TG next year : )

Please post a comment or go on my Facebook page and let me know how your pairings worked out for Thanksgiving! I'd love to hear your opinions! Thanks for reading! Readmore »»

Torii Mor 2009 Pinot Gris: Sadly, Just Ok

So last week I reviewed the Torii Mor Pinot Noir from the Willamette Valley of Oregon, a wine that I love. Coupled with the fact that the wine is solid, the bottle has special significance because it was given to me by Margie Olson herself, the owner of Torii Mor and a very sweet and lovely woman. On this same occasion she gave me a bottle of the winery's Pinot Gris, which made me very excited because I adore Oregon Pinot Gris.

Unfortunately, this bottle fell short of expectation.

If you want to know more about Torii Mor and Oregon, please check out my post on their Pinot Noir, where I go into detail. Given that I've already been to that rodeo, I figured I'd talk about Pinot Gris or Pinot Grigio, as it's also known.


To start, a couple basics on the grape:
1. It's a clone of the ever mutating Pinot Noir (read=it too, is a pain in arse to grow)
2. Given #1, it makes sense that Pinot Grigio is actually not a green grape, but a grey-blue grape
3. Pinot = Pinecone in French. Wines derived from Pinot Noir are from clusters of grapes that look like pinecones.Simple, no?
4. Gris = French for grey (see point 2)
5. Grigio = Italian for grey (see point 2, again)
6. Pinot Gris morphed from Pinot Noir in its native home of Burgundy. It was first discussed in the Middle Ages. Given its temperamental nature, it was abandoned in Burgundy and in Champagne (where it was part of the blend for bubbly) for the heartier Chardonnay.

As a side note, I'm not sure why they decided that Pinot Gris/Grigio is made as a white wine. I mean, it's really hard to prevent the juice from touching the skins and picking up color. I guess winemakers want a challenge...

7. I know I already said this, but just to be sure...Pinot Gris and Pinot Grigio are the same grape -- you say potato...I say pohtahtoe (phonetic spelling, of course).

The grape is super-sensitive to where it grows, and depending on where it's made it tastes like a completely different wine. You may be sick of my bullets, but I'm in the mood to keep on with my lists, so here's a little guide:

Alsace, France: Full-bodied, rich, floral, spicy, honeyed, smoky, and oily-textured wine. It jumps out of the glass with its aroma, is unctuous but with decent acid and a beautiful match for food. There's lots of sun in Alsace, and the grapes get ripe and delicious. The most complex and showstopping Pinot Gris in the world, methinks.


Oregon: Kind of like Alsace light, it can be pinkish (per my point above, hard to keep the skin away from the juice) and taste less floral and more like apple and Asian pear. The wine is at least medium-bodied and fruity and full. I'd call it a pretty wine -- aromatic and flavorful but also with decent acid so it's not flabby.


Italy: Mostly from cooler, northern Italy, this wine is lean, to say the least. It's lemony, acidic, crisp, and so mineral-like it's like face-planting in a mountain stream. It can be really thin, sometimes watery, and usually lacks the lush flavors and aromas you're going to find in Alsace and Oregon Pinot Gris. I usually find it to be insipid, crap stuff -- even if it costs $24 like one major brand we may all know. California tries to mimic this style, given its popularity.


Although I love Ramona Singer from the Real Housewives of New York and her hilarious Pinot Grigio habit, I gotta say I'm not a fan of watery, acidic, lemon juice. I prefer Pinot Gris to Pinot Grigio.

So, I was pumped for the Torii Mor Pinot Gris, given how much I loved their Pinot Noir. How surprised was I when I discovered that this wine was made in the Pinot Grigio style? Very surprised, and less than happy. Here's the rundown:

The Wine: Torii Mor Pinot Gris
Where It's From: Willamette Valley, Oregon
The Grapes: 100% Pinot Gris
Vintage: 2009
Price: $16.00

Color: Brassy but nearly white and very reflective, the color gave me pause. Most Oregon Pinot Gris that I like is saturated in color -- like straw or brass. This was much lighter than normal and way too light to have the kind of flavor I was expecting. Uh-oh.

Smell: Similar to Italian Pinot Grigio, there wasn't much but a slight white flower and lemon-lime smell. There was none of the honeysuckle, apple, or pear that I'd want or expect from a Pinot Gris. More evidence leading to a not-so-great conclusion. Where's the beef?

Taste: More like a lower quality un-oaked Chardonnay than Pinot Gris, there was a brief sensation of acid, mineral and lemon-lime with a touch of green apple, but I'd say what was in this bottle was just white wine. Could have been a $7 white blend for its lack of distinction and character. I expect more from Oregon and certainly more from a producer of fine Pinot Noir.

Food: I guess if you like Pinot Grigio from Italy, you would just chill this sucker down and sip it before a meal or have it with a salad.

Drink or Down the Sink?: Meh. Not great, not horrible. For $16 you can do a lot better. Torii Mor should take a page from some other great Pinot Gris producers in the area. In it's quest to be differentiated, it's created a style that is definitely un-Oregonian, and, to my palate, boring and blah.
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Torii Mor 2008 Pinot Noir: A Gem from the Willamette Valley of Oregon

I have a love/hate relationship with Pinot Noir. It's a damn complex grape -- in the growing, in the making, and in the drinking -- and so much can go wrong with it, it's a little alarming.

Sometimes I drink Pinot and all I taste is tart, sour cherry. No nuance, just bitterness. Other times, I notice that American producers have taken full advantage of the fact that in the US only 75% of the grape mentioned on the label has to be in the bottle. Hence my Pinot tastes a lot like Syrah or Merlot (which it often is given how cheap these grapes are). Another annoyance: the producers often leave the Pinot on the vine so long that it becomes jammy and full -- nothing like what I'd expect from this light-to-medium bodied Burgundy native, which should be replete with complex layers of earthy flavor. It's all a big turn-off for me and makes me want to drink something more reliable.

I've posted on Pinot before and have discussed the grape in detail, but as a quick refresher, Pinot Noir is a many-splendored grape that only the most dedicated (and crazy) of producers can handle. If ever there was a grape that I wish could have stayed lower down on the popularity list, it's Pinot. Why? Because this grape is incredibly picky, and production for the masses isn't this grape's core competence (look, I went to b-school so every now and then I've got to whip this stuff out).

Pinot mutates incessantly (and is responsible for Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc and Pinot Meunier, to name a few) so if a winery isn't using a good clone, you can get bad wine that's akin to chewing on a plant stem. It's a weak vine, it's victim to pests, diseases, birds, and weather. Its quality depends on site selection and soil (limestone is best) -- you can really taste the flavor of the earth in this wine. You've got to get the right area for it, or fuggedaboutit. Oh, and did I mention that it only produces small crops? That means there is less raw material to work with in each vintage. Grow it in the wrong place -- you've invested lots of time and money and wound up with a small amount of bad to mediocre wine. Who wants to do that?

Well apparently many people. After Sideways came out, we all bought Pinot like dorks buying the iPhone 4 (even if they didn't see the movie. This is partly due to word of mouth, partly due to insane marketing from big wineries who pushed their crap Pinot to the mass consumer market, regardless of quality). Hundreds of versions came out. Newer producers under-cropped their vines to create big volumes of thin, flavorless wines. Many producers opted to make their Pinot in an overripe style -- jammy, and full-bodied -- to get Merlot and Cabernet lovers on board. Fewer and further between came the complex, earthy, exotic spiced Pinot Noir. You could get them but you were going to pay a big premium. It kind of sucked for pre-existing Pinot lovers.

Now Burgundy's gem, this rare and delicious wine, has suffered from over-exposure. You can never be too rich or too thin, but you can be too popular. For instance, California Pinot. Very popular wine and I can find very few that I still like these days. France has pumped out a bunch of crap Pinot (from and not from Burgundy) to fill demand and every country around the world is trying to get their piece of the action. I find few to be successful yet most sell. Since I can't afford fine red Burgundy (which is Pinot Noir, BTW), I now rely on two regions, from where I have yet to have a bad Pinot: New Zealand (love Picton Bay at Trader Joe's for $7.99, BTW) and the Willamette Valley of Oregon. Today, I'll talk about the latter.

As my fellow blogger and friend the Surburban Wino points out, Willamette kind of sounds like "dammit" (he gives a great description of the Valley and wines here too so check it out after you finish with this post!). Will-AM-it Valley stretches from the Columbia River in the north, to south of Eugene, and from the western Oregon Coastal Range to the eastern Cascade Mountains. Most of the wineries in the state are here because, well, this is the best place for vineyards.

The climate of the Willamette Valley is great for Pinot. It's cool there -- temps don't really get above 90 degrees and don't get below zero. It's kind of mild year round, except for winter when it's cool, wet, and miserable. All in all, a climate not too far from Burgundy (or parts of New Zealand for that matter). It's no wonder that a few very prestigious producers from Burgundy have set up shop in the Willamette Valley (notably, Joseph Drouhin, one of the finest large winemakers/exporters in Burgundy).

So on to a wonderful wine that I was given by the winery owner, Margie Olson, while she was in Atlanta at the High Museum Wine Auction a few months back. My friend MH, who has one of the best palates I know and who is just all around fabulous told me told me to head over to the table. MH has 100% hit rate with me! I was so enamored of Torii Mor during the tasting that Margie offered a bottle for me to take home. This bottle is an '08 and just released so I held it to let it relax a bit (wines can get bottle shock, or temporary "stiffness" while getting used to being in the bottle. It can last a few months, so I just opened it last night). The results were great!

Before I move on to the wine, the name of the winery is a little different, so I thought I'd explain. To quote their Web site:

The name TORII MOR was chosen by Dr. Olson as he felt it conjured a feeling of unique elegance. Borrowing from the Japanese, the “Torii” refers to the ornate gates most often seen at the entrances to Japanese gardens. “Mor” is a word in ancient Scandinavian that means “earth”. By integrating these two distinct languages, the romantic image of a gate to an earth space, or passageway to beautiful things, is formed. We believe that Pinot noir, more than any other varietal, is that beautiful gateway to the earth.

So there you have it. With that out of the way, let's get to the stuff in the bottle. Sourced from the northern Willamette Valley, the 2008 Pinot Noir is similar to a Burgundy in style, in no small part due to the fact that Jacques Tardy, experienced winemaker and native of Nuits-St.Georges in Central Burgundy makes these wines. With a terroir (a French word that means the land, soil, climate, general environment of the vineyard) driven philosophy and a light hand in the winemaking process, this wine is a quality Pinot Noir. Jacques did a nice job of integrating New and Old World styles here, and the wine is a winner. Here's the rundown:

The Wine: Torii Mor Pinot Noir
Where It's From: Willamette Valley, Oregon
The Grapes: 100% Pinot Noir
Vintage: 2008
Price: $22.00

Color: Ruby in the center with a nice light, rose-colored rim and a shiny, reflective gleam. The darker color in the center made me think this wine would have rich flavor, but the lighter rim told me it wouldn't be overbearing or jammy. Great for a Pinot Noir.

Smell: This was like smelling dew in the morning in a mountain cabin. How do I know? I went to one last week and it smelled like this. A mix of fertile soil and dark dried flowers hopped out of the glass right away. Dried strawberry, boysenberry, and cranberry overlaid a really interesting bacon-y smell. There was a sharp spice in there too -- like white pepper (stronger than black pepper) and then a nutmeg, maple aroma. The wine was like a collection of random things that somehow flowed together seamlessly. It was like a bottle of perfume. My mouth watered at the smell.

Taste: 2008 was a challenging vintage for Willamette, but we benefit from it -- a smaller yield of grapes meant survival of the fittest. Only the best grapes made it into the bottle, and you can taste it in this wine. It is certainly a French-style wine -- dirt first. The wine was so earthy -- like a mushroom that had been in rich, damp soil but it was balanced by flavors like dried strawberries, sour cherry, black raspberry, and tea leaves. The wine had a pepper character, with a little pleasant bite. It had good mouth-drying tannins and lively and bright acidity. It's medium-bodied and a rich texture. This is what I want in a Pinot Noir and I was happy this delivered.

Food: I'm not gonna lie to you -- we didn't eat with this, we just drank it before dinner. We did discuss food though (do I get points for that at least?). MC Ice thought it would be a great match with grilled pork loin, I thought it would be great with a grilled portobello mushroom and eggplant tower with mozzarella and basil. Let me know if you find something more suitable. This is theory. Sorry about that... we really are normal people so sometimes we just drink the bottle without food. Is that so wrong?

Drink or Down the Sink?: Most definitely drink. This is a great Pinot Noir. $22 is a fair price, and it's well worth a try. That said, I do think the wine could use a little time to evolve and become less tannic and acidic. I'd get this and hold it until this time next year. By then it will have evolved into something magical -- and that's well worth the wait!

As a bonus, I'll be doing a shorter review of Torii Mor's Pinot Gris next week! Look out for it!

Thanks for reading!
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***If you love Pinot and are on Twitter, put July 15th on your calendar! It's the Pinot Noir Twitter Tasting, where you can drink your Pinot with other Tweeters around the country, learn about the varietal from online friends and experts, and share your own opinions. I'll warn you that I find that these "tweet offs" are often chaotic and there are not a lot of normal wine people on them (they are really rude because they are hiding behind their computers...urgh), I always learn something so I think it's well worth at least observing the conversation! Check out the event at http://pinotnoir.eventbrite.com/ Readmore »»

Working At The High Museum Wine Auction...And Tasting Some Kickin' Wines!

This year, I had the opportunity to work with the lovely folks at the High Museum and help with wine logistics for their wine auction. It was an interesting event, with lots of moving parts and I learned a lot from the experience. It's quite different from the events I've worked at before when working for the large (unnamed) winery in CA that employed me for four years, and it gave me a feel for a segment of the Atlanta market.

Before I list my "Top Highlights" I do want to posit one quick thought regarding the event. Although I do like California wine, I was disappointed with the lack of representation in the tastings from international wineries, or wineries outside of California for that matter.

I have heard that the High requires winemaker participation, and that limits the ability of European, Aussie, Kiwi, and other winemakers to participate. In terms of exposure or providing a full wine experience, I guess that as a wine lover I would have felt a little cheated had I gone as a patron. But that may just be me... although I'm hoping it's not. For my part, I sought out the International wines and as many as I could find outside of Cali -- there's only so much big Cab a girl can take.

1. 2006 Cos d'Estournel. This wine is considered some of the best Bordeaux in the world. It was luscious, earthy, firm, and rich and the most delicious wine I've ever tasted. Yes, it's $100 a bottle, but YES it's worth it. I'm blessed to have tried it.

2. 2006 Château Lynch-Bages. There was a ranking system of Chateau in Bordeaux in 1855. Cos d'Estournel was in the second tier, Lynch-Bages was in the fifth. Nevertheless, this wine was wonderful and had a floral, earthy, firm quality that I would happily drink, even for the $95.

3. 2007 Pride Mountain Merlot. I really don't like the way California does Merlot. Only two exceptions to this rule. Duckhorn, who didn't show for this party, and Pride Mountain, which I simply adore. Elegant yet bold, I just love this wine. It's what Merlot should be.

4. Relic's 2008 Ritual "Rhône" blend. As I told the sweet winemaker (really nice dude, Mike Hirby), this is an AMAZING wine -- herbs, brawn, and animal-barnyard reined. Damn. It's awesome. Strangely I would not call this a Rhône-style blend even though it has Mourvedre, Grenache, and Syrah -- the classic Rhône grapes. This is so different from a Rhône wine, although absolutely gorgeous in its own rite. At $50, it would be on the list to bring when I'm heading to a fellow wine dork's house, but I put it on. Why? Because they only make between 100 and 300 cases of each of their wines, so you have a better chance of seeing a jackelope run across the road than finding one of these in your wine shop.

5. Jim Clenenden of Au Bon Climat actually kind of yelled at me when I suggested his Chardonnay tasted like a Meursault from Burgundy (which is also 100% Chardonnay. And it does, BTW AND it's good). He correctly argued that only Meursault can taste like Meursault and told me about the 50 trips he's taken there to prove his point. Yeah, he's eccentric and a little brash, but I loved his passion. And ultimately he's right...there's only one Meursault. It's nice to see respect for the motherland of Chardonnay.

6. I love finding new stuff. My wine goddess friend Melissa told me to head over to try Oregon's Torii Mor Pinot Noir. The absolutely WONDERFUL, sweet, knowledgeable, and down-to-earth Margie Olson (owner/founder) was pouring and busy speaking to a patron. I stepped next to her while waiting and tried a competitor from Oregon. When I tried her Pinots, which were the same price, I nearly dropped my glass. This was so much better! Serious Pinot -- complex, yet fresh, and intoxicatingly aromatic. What a wine. Try it. Their base tier is $25 and it's delicious.

7. Also discovered Morlet Cabernet Sauvignon. Luc Morlet is a French winemaker who has worked in Bordeaux and Burgundy. He's got great respect for the vineyards and grapes and does low-intervention winemaking (he doesn't tinker that much!). And can you ever taste it in the Cœur de Vallée Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc blend! This is a gorgeous wine and may be the best Napa Cabernet I have ever had. From Oakville, this $175 (!) wine is a showstopper, with the ripeness of a California Cabernet, without all the over-oaked intervention. Love this wine and I highly recommend it if you have the coin.

So ends the tour of my tasting at the High Museum. It's great to go to expos like this to learn more about brands you may not have known, and to talk to winemakers and find out if they are really as described or figments of the wine marketers' imaginations (I've pulled that trick out before...).

In the next few weeks I'll review the Pride and the Torii Mor, so look out for more detail coming your way! Readmore »»