Pinot Grigio Wine Tasting Notes
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2008 Tramin Co-operative Winery, Alto-Adige, Pinot Grigio: Unterebner, $31 Score: 90.0 Medium-full bodied for a Pinot Grigio, with complex minerality and apple-citrus flavors. Excellent length, though a bit warm. |
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2009 Tramin Co-operative Winery, Alto-Adige, Pinot Grigio: $15 Score: 90.0 Ripe apples with a hint of flowers, dry, balanced and exceedingly long. |
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2008 Cantina San Michele Appiano Alto-Adige, Pinot Grigio: $18 Score: 90.0 Crisp apples, a hint of rose petal, lovely balance ? crisp yet silky, with a long finish. |
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2007 Round Hill California, Pinot Grigio $10 Score: 90.0 This Pinot Grigio includes 5% Chenin Blanc and 5% Muscat Canelli in the blend, and yet it reminds me more of Chenin with its ripe melon and lime flavors. On the palate it's seductively silky, and shows just a touch of residual sugar balanced nicely by crisp acidity. Bright, fresh, quaffable and inexpensive. |
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2007 Kenwood Vineyards, Sonoma County, Pinot Gris $16 Score: 91.0 Kenwood's debut Pinot Gris is worthy of note. It shows the unmistakable silky texture of West Coast Pinot Gris, so unlike Italian Pinot Grigio, or Alsatian Pinot Gris. Kenwood's PG gives us a core citrus and melon rind fruit with lilac notes, and crisp acidity coupled with silky viscosity on the palate. The long finish adds some mineral notes. Pork chops, white fish, chicken and turkey would all work well with this fine Pinot Gris. |
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2007 MacMurray Ranch, Sonoma Coast Pinot Gris $20 Score: 93.0 When I tasted this wine I thought it was an Oregon Pinot Gris, but it turns out it's from California's Sonoma Coast. It has in common with Oregon PG a white peach and citrus fruit profile, but then so do about half a dozen other white varieties. What makes this distinctively West Coast New World is the velvety texture. It's like getting a tongue massage with every sip. Light spice and mineral nuances carry the finish. A superb rendition. |
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2007 Mosby Winery & Vineyards Santa Barbara County, Pinot Grigio $18 Score: 88.0 This is a decent Pinot Grigio showing lots of minerality over lean citrus and pear fruit, and firm acidity. It's not the most complex wine, however, so the $18 price tag seems a bit steep despite its rarity (only 1150 cases produced). |
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2006 King Estate Oregon Pinot Gris $16 Score: 96.0 It's usual to describe and rate a wine by its aromas and flavors (which, in this case, call to mind orange blossom and white peach with a citrus edge), but what I love about this wine is its texture, its delicacy, and its minerality. It's a lovely wine -- light bodied, subtle, silky, persistent. As good as Oregon Pinot Noirs can be, Pinot Gris is Oregon's best wine. |
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2006 Mosby Winery & Vineyards Santa Barbara County Pinot Grigio $18 Score: 89.0 The brilliant Bill Mosby crafts small artistic statements with each vintage. This Pinot Grigio takes a road between the Italian and Alsatian versions of this versatile grape. It's fuller than its Italian cousins and has more intensity of flavor, yet retains it's crisp acidity. Bill's tasting notes are hard to improve on: "ripe pear and green apple, a dry finish with an element of wet stone." I'll add that it has hints of not quite ripe white peach. It's an easy wine to pair with food; it either works as a palate cleanser, or it finds like flavors in such dishes as roasted chicken, pasta primavera, or virtually any delicate fish or shellfish. Only 860 cases produced. |
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2006, Willamette Valley Vineyards Willamette Valley, Oregon, Pinot Gris $15 Score: 94.0 This is as close to an Alsatian style Pinot Gris as I've ever come across in the New World, and it's glorious. For the technically minded, it's a blend of 91% Pinot Gris, 7% Pinot Blanc and 1% Muscat (all fermented and aged sur lees in stainless), and 1% Auxerrois (fermented in one-year-old French oak). For those of you only concerned with flavor, you'll be well-rewarded with this superbly balanced, aromatic Pinot Gris. It displays bright honeydew and Bosc pear fruit, with minerality on the mid-palate and a subtle herbal note that's typical of the variety. It's silky, with crisp acidity and a lingering spicy finish. A great value and a tonic to those who are tired of fat Chardonnays and thin Pinot Grigios. |
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2005 Montevina Winery California Pinot Grigio $10 Score: 88.0 The nose grabs you by the lapels, pulls you close, and declares, "This is serious stuff; pay attention!" It makes a statement with tangerine, peach and just a touch of banana on the palate. Surprisingly soft despite its high acidity, it spans the gap between aperitif and table wine. Vibrant and balanced; buy some now. |
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2005 Brassfield Estate Winery High Serenity Ranch High Valley Pinot Grigio $15 Score: 88.0 A delightful vino with finty notes intermingled with passion fruit and citrus flavors. Understated and minerally, it's medium bodied and very well balanced, with a crisp, lingering finish. First rate. |
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2005 Brassfield Estate Winery Serenity High Valley [Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio and Gewurztraminer - not listed on label] $15 Score: 88.0 A delicious blend of 63% Sauvignon Blanc, 29% Pinot Grigio, and 6% Gewurztraminer from the small High Valley Appellation in Lake County (North of Napa, East of Mendocino). This is a dry wine on the palate (the barely perceptible residual sugar is balanced by good acidity and a hint of spritz). Each variety finds its expression in the blend, and together present an aromatic wine with hints of white peach, nectarine and citrus through to the tart finish. One of our consumer panel's favorites. |
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2005 Mosby Santa Barbara County Pinot Grigio $14 Score: 93.0 Pinot Gris/Grigio is so often innocuous, it's a real pleasure to find a complex rendition. This one shows grassy-herbal notes over white peach on the nose. These follow through to the palate with the addition of mineral notes and a pleasant bitterness and minerality through the extraordinarily long finish. It's light, dry and refreshing, with enough acid to work well with most foods. It is also a very good value. |
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1999 Navarro Vineyards estate bottled Anderson Valley Pinot Gris $15.00 Score: 90.0 "Peach and grapefruit flavors, dry, spritzy, intense, aromatic, with some mineral character in the finish. Excellent varietal definition." |
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