Melania Battison, Andrea Briccarello and Bruno Besa tasted 61 wines with 3 Outstanding and 25 Highly recommended.

North Italian Pinot Grigio: Panel tasting scores

61 wines tasted

Exceptional 0

Outstanding 3

Highly recommended 25

Recommended 30

Commended 3

Entry criteria: producers and UK agents were invited to submit their Pinot Grigio wines, from any vintage, from a northern Italian region: Aosta, Emilia Romagna, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Liguria, Lombardy, Trentino-Alto Adige, Piedmont or Veneto.

Quality and diversity

Tasting 61 Pinot Grigios might sound like a dream to some, or a slow-burning endurance test to others. I’ll admit I approached it with cautious optimism.

And sure enough, somewhere between glass number 15 and 40, I was reminded why this grape deserves far more credit than it often gets.

Having spent time in Friuli Venezia Giulia, in Italy’s northeast, I’ve seen first-hand what Pinot Grigio can achieve when it’s taken seriously – and how frustrating it is that so much of the good stuff rarely travels beyond Italian borders.

The denomination is evolving rapidly, not just in volume but in quality and demand.

Three key regions in northern Italy were represented in this tasting, each with distinct traits that genuinely help consumers navigate the category, whether browsing a wine list or standing indecisively in a supermarket aisle.

Friuli Venezia Giulia, in particular, refused to be boxed in. As Bruno Besa neatly put it: ‘There isn’t a common denominator here.’ Quite right.

'There is a style for everyone’

The range moved from bright, youthful examples to bottle-aged wines and traditional yet adventurous, copper-hued ramato styles – a result of the natural greyish-pink pigments in the grape’s skins, which will colour the wine if extended maceration is allowed.

Represented in four of the top six wines, ramato stole the show: textured and characterful, they’re proof that Pinot Grigio has a backbone and personality.

Yet across all styles, elegance was the unifying thread in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region.

Veneto, meanwhile, reminded us why Pinot Grigio conquered the market in the first place. The quality-to-price ratio remains unbeatable. These wines were defined by freshness, energy and accessibility – less contemplative perhaps, but joyfully drinkable.

Alto Adige (Südtirol) felt shaped by its alpine climate, delivering precision and consistency: zesty acidity, citrus clarity and subtle texture, thanks in part to the grapes’ thicker skins and the cooler nights.

As Andrea Briccarello concluded: ‘There is a style for everyone.’

After 61 glasses, I can agree and confirm that Pinot Grigio’s greatest strength is versatility without pomposity.

See all notes and scores from the north Italian Pinot Grigio tasting

The judges

North Italian Pinot Grigio panel tasting results:

Wines were tasted blind

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For New Zealand’s aromatic whites ‘small but mighty’ could become the catchphrase – excluding Sauvignon Blanc, which obviously needs no introduction.

Making up just a tiny fraction of New Zealand’s total production, and often representing a labour of love for those who champion them, these aromatic varieties are nevertheless behind some of the country’s most thrilling and distinctive white wines.

Collectively, they make up less than 8% of New Zealand’s total planted area (including reds), bolstered considerably by the rise of Pinot Gris, whose plantings are nearly five times that of Riesling (see box), which in turn dwarfs Gewurztraminer. Albariño, generating real excitement in recent years, still boasts just 65ha, while semi-aromatic Chenin Blanc has dwindled to a mere 22ha, albeit in dedicated hands.

There aren’t a lot of these wines around, but they offer exceptional quality and remarkable value for drinkers willing to seek them out.

Paul Pujol, winemaker and general manager at Prophet’s Rock in Central Otago – and formerly the winemaker at Alsace’s Kuentz-Bas, the first non-family member to hold the position in the domaine’s 200-year history – is a passionate producer of Pinot Gris and Riesling (alongside a soon-to-be-released four-variety blend including Gewurztraminer and Muscat).

‘Outside Europe, there aren’t many places you can achieve the vibrancy, purity, intensity and freshness, and the true cool-climate expression of aromatic whites that we get in New Zealand,’ he says.

He feels that the varieties have been overshadowed by Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc.

Perfect conditions

The quality and distinctiveness of these varieties stem from New Zealand’s southerly, largely maritime-influenced growing conditions.

These create long, cool, generally sunny seasons, often combined with significant diurnal temperature shifts, that intensify varietal expression while enabling a wide range of styles, from bone dry to botrytis-affected.

Most wines are made with at least a few grams of residual sugar, offset by vibrant natural acidity that gives the best examples appealingly clean finishes.

Winemaking is largely centred around the use of stainless steel containers to preserve fruit purity, though producers are increasingly turning to older oak, concrete and clay amphorae, with ageing on the fine lees adding texture and complexity.

At Framingham in Marlborough – renowned for producing half a dozen (or more) Riesling styles each season – winemaker Andrew Brown notes that the commercial realities remain challenging.

These wines largely depend on cellar door and retailer hand-selling to find their audience.

‘We are passionate about making the best examples of Riesling we can; the scope may be restricted if we didn’t have the cellar door as a sales channel,’ he says.

But he sees heads increasingly turning.

‘There are some really great examples coming out of NZ at the moment – more textural, restrained and ageworthy.’

Anna Flowerday (pictured, above) of Te Whare Ra, whose Riesling and Gewurztraminer vines are among Marlborough’s oldest, puts it simply: ‘We truly believe that aromatic whites are the unsung heroes. Overseas visitors are constantly blown away by the quality.’

New Zealand's finest non-Sauvignon aromatics

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Pinot Grigio is a light-bodied, refreshing white wine that has become synonymous with the summer. It’s widely enjoyed as an aperitif at garden parties, and it pairs well with light, seasonal food on hot days.

This inspired Cavit – a Trentino-based group that produces America’s best-selling Italian wine brand – to create National Pinot Grigio Day in 2017. The annual celebration takes place just before Memorial Day, which is the unofficial start of summer in the United States.

The festivities have now spread well beyond America’s borders, as Pinot Grigio fans around the world open a bottle and toast this popular grape.

Scroll down to discover 15 award-winning Pinot Grigio wines from around the world

Same grape, two personalities

You may be surprised to learn that Pinot Grigio and Pinot Gris are the same grape. The Italian grigio and the French gris both translate to “grey”– a nod to the grape’s distinctive, greyish-blue skin. It’s a natural mutation of Pinot Noir, one of the world’s most prestigious red wine varieties.

Pinot Grigio is Italy’s flagship white wine. Producers in Trentino, Veneto and Friuli make clean, crisp wines with high acidity, bright citrus notes and a clean finish.

By contrast, Pinot Gris tends to be richer and more aromatic, with a fuller body and notes of ripe stone fruit, honey and a hint of spice. Pinot Gris thrives in the Alsace region of France, but it’s also flourishing in Oregon and New Zealand.

From Burgundy to the world

The grape originated in Burgundy, France. It was originally known as Fromenteau when it appeared in the Middle Ages.

By the 14^th century, the grape had spread to Switzerland, before eventually reaching Alsace and northern Italy. It had a niche following, but Pinot Grigio exploded in popularity during the second half of the 20^th century.

Italian producers began making light, easy-drinking whites that struck a chord with wine lovers around the world. Pinot Grigio is now the second most popular white wine variety in the US, and it’s also among the most popular wines in the UK, Canada, Australia and other large markets.

The grape flourishes in cool climates around the world, with around 115,000 hectares under vine on a global basis. Outside of Italy and France, the leading producers include Germany (where it’s known as Ruländer), Switzerland, the US, Australia and New Zealand, but it’s also grown everywhere from Argentina to Slovakia.

Whether you prefer a light, refreshing Pinot Grigio or a textured, complex Pinot Gris, you can raise a glass to this famous grape on May 17.

International Pinot Grigio Day: 15 to try

Canada

Unsworth Vineyards, Unsworth Vineyard Pinot Gris, Vancouver Island, British Columbia 2023
Silver, 91 points
White stone fruit blooms on the nose, with pear skin, stony depth. Palate carries textural interest, bright orchard apple. Zesty citrus edge. Alcohol 12.7%

France

Cave De Ribeauvillé, Vieilles Vignes Pinot Gris, Alsace 2023
Silver, 91 points
Fragrant lemon zest aromatics lead to a palate of yellow apple, honey, spice and a salty finish. Alc 14%

Vieil Armand, Organic Pinot Gris, Grand Cru Ollwiller, Alsace 2023
Silver, 91 points
Savoury nose, with hints of wet stone, ripe pear and peach, textured, supple palate of bruised apple. Alc 14%

Italy

St. Michael-Eppan, Sanct Valentin Pinot Grigio, Alto Adige / Südtirol, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol 2022
Silver, 94 points
Ripe, round, and juicy with rich orchard fruit flavours, balanced saline-earthy notes and a slightly oaky character. Alc 14%

Cantina Kurtatsch, Penon Pinot Grigio, Alto Adige / Südtirol, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol 2023
Silver, 93 points
Exotic and charming with full, juicy notes of baked pear, lemon skin, roasted almond and an energetic, sapid finish. Alc 13%

Vigne Del Malina, Pinot Grigio, Friuli, Friuli-Venezia Giulia 2019
Silver, 93 points
Intense and mature with rich notes of orchard fruit, toffee, dried flowers and smoke with a pleasant texture and balanced acidity. Alc 13.5%

Cabert, Pinot Grigio, Friuli, Friuli-Venezia Giulia 2024
Silver, 92 points
Full yet crisp with ripe, juicy notes of green apple, lemon, pineapple, mineral hints and a classy, fruity finish. Alc 12.5%

Cantina Valle Isarco, Aristos Pinot Grigio, Alto Adige Valle Isarco, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol 2023
Silver, 92 points
Soft and elegant with honeyed notes of ripe apple, pear, a broad, smooth texture and sweet finish. Alc 13.5%

Cozzarolo, Pinot Grigio, Colli Orientali del Friuli, Friuli-Venezia Giulia 2024
Silver, 92 points
Rich, supple, and full-bodied with notes of candied pear, beeswax, lemon, herbal-smoky notes. Sweet with an elegant, harmonious finish. Alc 13.5%

New Zealand

McArthur Ridge, Falls Dam Pinot Gris, Alexandra Basin, Central Otago 2024
Gold, 95 points
Freshly cut pear and apple, orchard blossom and candied ginger notes gleam over the mineral baseline with a racy acidity and saline grip to end. Alc 14%

The Landing Wines, Pinot Gris, Northland 2024
Silver, 94 points
Wet wool, apple and maritime notes on the nose give way to a refreshing, well-focussed palate. Well made wine. Alc 13%

Saint Clair Family Estate, Vicar's Choice Pinot Gris, Marlborough 2024
Silver, 92 points
White florals with golden characters throughout, with crisp acidity supporting the residual sugar and green orchard fruit lending vibrancy. Alc 9.5%

Slovenia

Herga, Sivi Pinot, Štajerska Slovenija, Podravje 2024
Silver, 92 points
Zippy, fresh aromatics lead on to a savoury palate of spice and rich textured fruit. Alc 13%

United States

Alexana, Hillsides Pinot Gris, Willamette Valley, Oregon 2024
Silver, 90 points
Lightly aromatic, with orchard florals and crisp pear leading to a palate of juicy apple, cantaloupe melon and a clean acidity. Alc 13.1%

United Kingdom

Chartham Vineyard, Pinot Gris, Kent, England 2023
Silver, 92 points
Impressive crisp, nectarine, Mirabelle plum, white tea and quince with light oat milk character. Poised, with pleasing natural acidity and a gentle finish. Alc 12.5%

Search all DWWA 2025 results

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Five examples of grape varieties that power great wines to pair with roast duck or goose are:

• Pinot Noir 
• Barbera
• Mencía
• Riesling
• Pinot Gris

Traditional roast duck is a key element of Christmas dinner in Denmark, while goose was at one time the go-to festive meat in England.

Whether you’re going Danish-style or old-school this year, or simply fancy a change, duck or goose will likely give you a richer meat on the festive dinner table than the classic turkey.

Look for medium-bodied wines with relatively high acidity to cut through the fat content of the showpiece roast duck or goose, but also enough juicy fruit concentration and depth to meet the intensity of the meat.

Pinot Noir is often named as a classic pairing for duck, while white wines combining refreshing acidity with richness can be a great match for goose, such as off-dry Riesling or Alsace Pinot Gris.

Decanter Premium is the ideal last-minute gift for wine lovers!

Think about the intensity of the dish, and any elements of sweetness or acidity delivered by other ingredients on the plate or table, too.

Ultimately, it’s also important to remember that personal preference is a big part of the equation when it comes to food and wine pairing.

Is red or white wine better with roast duck?

Medium-bodied reds with a good concentration of bright red fruit and relatively high acidity should generally work well with roast duck.

Some oak and tannin influence can add depth, but watch out for them overpowering the dish. Tannins should soften over time in the best red wines built to age.

Pinot Noir is a classic choice with duck, although styles differ in intensity and balance of aromas. Burgundy is Pinot Noir’s heartland, but there are many regions to explore around the world. See Decanter’s recent panel tasting on German Spätburgunder, for instance.

Sauces or other ingredients, such as those in a stuffing mix, might affect the equation.

This Decanter.com archive article by Matthieu Longuère MS, wine development manager at Le Cordon Bleu London culinary school, offers advice on pairing wine with duck cooked in different ways.

He suggested Pinot Gris from Alsace as a white wine option with classic duck à l’orange, or Mencía from Spain’s Galicia region as a great red wine option.

‘[The wine] needs to have enough acidity and a hint of richness to cope with the sauce, yet enough body not to be overwhelmed by the texture of the bird.’

Mourvèdre, Merlot, Syrah or Cabernet Franc red wines all have potential to match well with duck. Mourvèdre-dominant wines ‘can be a sensual partner for duck, especially cooked Provençal style with olives’, wrote Decanter food and wine expert Fiona Beckett, author of Matchingfoodandwine.com.

Wines to drink with roast goose

A roast goose on the festive table could call for the rich texture and refreshing acidity of some top Riesling styles. See this buying guide to German Riesling for starters.

Some wines have ginger spice notes and slight sweetness, which may work particularly well accompanying a goose roasted with a classic five spice mix.

Explore Vouvray white wines (Chenin Blanc) from France’s Loire Valley, too, with the aforementioned Pinot Gris also worth considering.

As for reds, why not head to northern Italy? Ronan Sayburn MS, Co-Chair at the Decanter World Wine Awards, previously recommended Barbera d’Alba from Piedmont.

‘Goose has dark meat which is full of flavour and a fattiness that Cranberry sauce cuts through well. Barbera is light and juicy with great acidity and fleshy red berry fruit.’ 

Duck with rosé Champagne

Depending on your budget, a gastronomic rosé Champagne could add an extra splash of indulgence to festive roast duck. Beyond Champagne itself, look to traditional-method sparkling rosés, too.

A twist on the theme could be the classic French dish of ‘magrez de canard’ with blanc de noirs styles, showcasing Pinot Noir and/or Pinot Meunier, as recommended by the Comité Champagne.

Kathrine Larsen-Robert MS, head of wine for Europe at members’ club 67 Pall Mall, told Decanter last year she would pair Larmandier-Bernier Rosé de Saignée Champagne with duck at Christmas.

Larsen-Robert said this wine would match well with roast turkey. She pairs it with duck, however, in a festive nod to her Danish roots.

Wine inspiration for roast duck and goose at Christmas

All wines featured below have been reviewed by Decanter experts and offer a range of price-points, including top UK high-street picks featured in Decanter’s Festive Wine Guide.

This article has been updated in December 2025, including with new wine recommendations.

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Droughts, heat spikes, hailstorms, wildfires: the catastrophic effects of climate change on the world’s vineyards are evident.

There is some talk of ‘solutions’ and more of mitigation, but the truth is that hundreds of billions of tonnes of fossil carbon is now squatting in our atmosphere that wasn’t there in the pre-phylloxera era. And it’s stuck. Nature’s removal of carbon from the atmosphere is considerably slower than the rate at which we’re adding it.

The atmosphere, remember, is the critical part of terroir. Soils and landforms are typically stable over brief geological periods of a few thousand years. Extreme climate change, by contrast, may render our greatest vineyards unusable in two human lifetimes. All of our wine places, consequently, are changing. Wine’s pleasure map is blurring.

Most (67.3%) of our planet’s land lies in the northern hemisphere – so it will both suffer most and benefit most from climate change. Southern Europe is now climate-anguished and even classic, mid-latitude fine-wine regions such as Bordeaux, Burgundy, Piedmont and Tuscany are threatened.

In contrast to much of the southern hemisphere, though, where wine regions are already clustering around the southernmost land extremities (Patagonia excepted), the northern hemisphere has higher-latitude sites aplenty. England’s transition from Quixotic outsider to bright, new, cool-climate star, a transition that the magnificent 2025 vintage will hasten further, is a stark example.

Everywhere, though, is changing. In most cases this is gradual – so gradual we might not notice. Here’s an example of that ‘quiet change’. Twenty years ago, Germany was struggling to make balanced Rieslings in trocken (dry) style. Job now done. Today’s Germany is becoming a ‘Pinot paradise’ – or so the Germans are claiming.

The figures are impressive. According to German Wine Institute figures, Pinot varieties accounted for 17% of Germany’s vineyards at the turn of the millennium; by 2024, it had reached 31%. Plantings of white Pinot family varieties (Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Chardonnay and Auxerrois) increased by an astonishing 199% over the same period. Pinot Noir is increasing, too – by 24% between 2000 and 2024; it’s now Germany’s most widely planted Pinot variety (11,437ha in 2024). Most Pinot plantings are in the southernmost regions of Baden and southern Pfalz, but no region is without a Pinot presence.

During a brief stay in Frankfurt in early August, I visited one of the new Pinot specialists – Braunewell in the Selztal in northern Rheinhessen, based in the village of Essenheim. Pinot varieties are well established on the rolling hills and limey marl soils of the village’s main vineyard sites (Teufelspfad, Blume and Klopp). Stefan Braunewell’s grandfather, he says, ‘was a big fan of Pinot Gris and planted it in 1971 and 1974 – they’re the oldest vineyards we have’.

Nowadays, though, Stefan feels that the star is Chardonnay, ‘though no one is waiting for German Chardonnay – or rather they don’t know they are waiting for it’. That’s the challenge for the quiet changes wrought by warming: the market needs time to catch up.

As well as tasting the Braunewell family’s wines (a 2020 Chardonnay from the am Römerberg plateau site was vinous, intense, long, dramatic and pure; while the 2023 Pinot Gris from Teufelspfad was delicate, rounded and tender), I also had the chance to try eye-opening Chardonnays from Friedrich Becker and Jülg in the Pfalz, and opulent Pinot Gris (Grauburgunder) from Salwey’s Grosses Gewächs site of Oberrotweiler Eichberg in Baden’s Kaisterstuhl.

Most impressive of all, since this is a Pinot family member rarely taken seriously elsewhere, was the structured and sinewy Juliusspital Grosses Gewächs Pinot Blanc (Weissburgunder) from Volkacher Karthäuser in Franken and the leaner, tauter, more fragrant Berghaupten Schützenberg version from Freiherr von und zu Franckenstein in Baden.

Germany, clearly, is no longer quite what you or I thought it was. Don’t miss out.

In my glass this month

The stars of the Pinotfication of Germany are the country’s top red-wine producers – such as Baden’s Julian Huber of Bernhard Huber. His Malterdinger Alte Reben Spätburgunder 2017 (US$129 Wine Watch) was a revelation: aromas of mellow Pinot Noir classicism at mid-maturity; the layered, finely crafted flavours are perfectly pitched between unforced fruit sweetness and a harmonious, fruit-saturated acidity. The oaking is also more skilful than it was during Germany’s debut Pinot Noir years.

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As I write this, Beaujolais is in a flurry. Its first wines of 2025 – the fragrantly juicy Beaujolais Nouveau – are being sent out across the globe ready for the impending (and inevitably raucous) festivities on the third Thursday of November.

And while the folk from Beaujolais are the undeniable overlords of the nouveau party, they aren’t the only players out there dabbling in this vinous fountain of youth.

When you pull back the curtain, you realise there are people all over Europe, and even in the UK, that make their own versions of these new harvest wines.

A long history

Beaujolais Nouveau is merely the best known (modern) example of a much wider tradition of drinking brand new wines soon after harvest.

Nouveau wine, in its simplest terms, is a young wine that is bottled and released almost immediately after harvest. At times they are little more than fermenting must – such as Federweisser in Germany (known as Sturm in Austria).

In Beaujolais it is made with Gamay, which is low in tannins, using carbonic maceration – where the grape begins to ferment within the berry itself, promoting fragrant, perfumed fruit aromas. It is meant to be light in alcohol, juicy and easy going.

As Beaujolais producer Christophe Pacalet says, nouveau is ultimately an unpretentious wine that you can drink while you play pétanque.

Around France

As an inhabitant of southern France, I was intrigued to see whether this area, more famed for its heady reds, was getting on board with the style.

Jean-Philippe Padié of Domaine Padié in Roussillon has been making a nouveau wine since 2019. It was a bit of an accident; he had a plot of Syrah that went through fermentation quickly and cleanly, offering him a delicious rendition of a nouveau style.

Padié now works predominantly with the indigenous variety Lledoner Pelut, which he says gives an even lighter, crunchier wine, with a hint of something maritime from the vineyard’s coastal location.

Similarly, in the cooler northern reaches of the Loire, Joseph Mosse of Domaine Mosse makes a fuschia-coloured wine called Bang Nouveau from a blend of the pink-skinned Grolleau Gris and Gamay.

And while there is an argument that nouveau wines are best made with lighter-skinned varieties, Romain Le Bars in the Rhône Valley proves that this isn’t always the case. His dangerously drinkable Nouveau Nez cuvée is made from Cinsault, Grenache and Carignan.

Traditions old and new

Nouveau wines are popping up across France. However, there are other countries that have a deep-rooted history with this style of wine – Spain, for example.

Specifically in Rioja, where the wines are called cosecheros. Last year saw the launch of the first cosecheros tasting in London, hosted by Ben Llewelyn of UK importer Carte Blanche and writer Tim Atkin MW.

Here producers work with Tempranillo, foot crushing the grapes and using carbonic maceration. Like in Beaujolais, it is a style that is embedded in the culture, despite also falling prey to the tools of mass production such as thermovinification and commercial yeasts.

And while the Spanish perhaps don’t partake in the annual country-wide festivities, the Italians certainly do. Also released in early November, Italy’s answer is vino novello, also made with carbonic maceration and with a host of different grape varieties depending on the region.

Perhaps the most iconic in this mix is the Bardolino Novello from Veneto, which brings much joyous celebration to the shores of Lake Garda.

Sandridge Barton in Devon, UK, has been making its own nouveau wine since 1995. Spurred on by a disruption in Beaujolais supply during the outbreak of mad cow disease, they decided to try their hand at making one themselves.

Intriguingly, their nouveau was – and still is – a white made from the grape Madeleine Angevine (affectionately known as Mad Ange), chosen because it’s their earliest-ripening variety, going from vine to glass in just six weeks. This year spells their first release of a red nouveau made with Pinot Noir and carbonic maceration.

Balfour Winery has also adopted this new wave British tradition with its Essex-grown Pinot Noir Nouveau. Following the stellar conditions of the 2025 vintage, the estate’s head of wine Fergus Elias was keen to show that ‘English Pinot Noir has the ripeness, the fruit and the finesse to stand on its own’.

This is only the second vintage of nouveau, but with such excellent fruit to hand, they’ve made a wine that is ‘playful and purposeful’.

Down with the kill-joys

There are pessimists who want to put down nouveau wines simply as a marketing stunt or something to bolster cash flow. If that is indeed the case, then good on them. Hopefully everyone getting involved is making some much needed cash and shining a light on their region.

But I think it is so much more than that. As Llewelyn says, nouveau wines have historical relevance and value. In Rioja, they show the diversity of their grapes and region, they regulate supply – especially important in a place like Rioja where ageing requirements can extend up to five years – and they give affordable access to quality wines.

Isabel Fernández of Rioja’s Bodega Abeica says that these wines have been part of Rioja’s culture ‘since time immemorial’. Traditionally, they were made to be consumed within 18 months of harvest.

Her family has been making a cosechero wine for four generations, and she believes they can have good longevity and weight, so she uses a parcel of 100-year-old Tempranillo for her cuvée.

Echoing the sentiments of others I spoke to, she says that the crux of making a quality nouveau wine comes down to the quality of the fruit and the stems, especially when working with carbonic maceration and with low intervention cellar methods.

The biggest challenge facing nouveau producers? Poor quality fruit. Because in the end, the joy of nouveau – wherever it’s made – lies in its immediacy. It is a snapshot of a harvest that ultimately takes no prisoners.

Playful frivolity

From conversations with winemakers, it’s clear that these wines are moving into a realm of quality and artisanship. Climate change has brought riper grapes and earlier harvests, and as a result we’re seeing more of these wines made without manipulation – a gradual phasing out of what Jon Bonné, in The New French Wine, calls ‘industrial pop wine’.

For years, the market had grown used to nouveau wines tasting of candied banana and bubblegum – flavours I once assumed were a natural byproduct of carbonic maceration, but which in fact come from a specific yeast strain, 71B, which is no longer used to the same extent as it was in the 1980s and 1990s.

While I am a lover of Beaujolais Nouveau – especially in its newer, more natural iteration – there is even more scope for playful frivolity and experimentation in other regions and countries.

In an industry that can err on the side of stuffy and get bogged down in rules and labels, nouveau is a perfectly imperfect antidote for us to share abundantly and joyously.

Like my friends Greg Lane and Sarah Adamson of Scout Wines in New Zealand said of their Pinot x Pinot (a blend of Noir and Gris) take on a nouveau, they made it for no other reason than enjoyment, ‘to keep the house happy’.

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Don and Wendy Lange found a 30-acre (12 ha) parcel on the eastern knoll of the Dundee Hills, which did not become an appellation until 2005. They set down roots, planting their first vines in 1988, and establishing Lange Estate.

The Langes’ journey to become one of the early pieces of the Willamette Valley wine puzzle was a circuitous one.

Scroll down for notes and scores of a deep Lange Estate vertical

Don Lange, originally from Iowa, is an accomplished musician. In his heyday, he collaborated with artists like John Prine, Steve Goodman, and Pete Seeger in Chicago’s vibrant folk music scene of the 1960s and 1970s.

Don was a singer-songwriter before the category had a name, recording three of his own albums and penning songs for a group of successful folk singers.

Relocating to California, Don met Wendy and the two became committed to the notion of making wine. First, they were fixed on Zinfandel before turning their attention to Pinot Noir.

They credit a bottle of Morey St Denis with showing them what wine could really be, and after that, the pair became fixated on where you could make such a wine in the New World.

Don worked at Sanford & Benedict, a Pinot Noir producer that founded the wine industry in Santa Barbara County, when a chance encounter with Oregon Pinot Noir changed everything.

Wendy had raised the idea of Oregon, but they weren’t totally convinced.

A pair of dusty bottles

‘I was grocery shopping,’ says Don about how he discovered the potential for Pinot Noir in Oregon. It was 1987, and Don Lange found two bottles of Oregon Pinot Noir on the bottom shelf of a local grocery store ‘on the mesa in Santa Barbara,’ he says.

The bottles were dusty, ‘they were at least six years old,’ recalls Don.

The two wines presented a lightbulb moment: a 1979 Erath Pinot Noir from the Maresh Vineyard and a 1980 Eyrie Vineyards, both coming from the region’s founding appellation, the Dundee Hills.

There was a phone number on the back of the Erath bottle, and Wendy encouraged Don to reach out. ‘She said, well, just call him up, so I got up from the dinner table and called the number’ he recalls he’d end up speaking to one of the very early pioneers of the Willamette, Dick Erath.

‘Eventually, someone handed him the phone, and Dick was like you should come up. Three weeks later, we were up here.’

Upon arrival, they drove the length of the valley, starting in the far south, before they realised that the region’s wine epicentre was well to the north. The Lange estate vineyard is just a few hills over from the old vine sites responsible for those two bottles.

‘In hindsight, I guess those bottles were pointing the way all along,’ Don says.

The early days of Lange Estate

The Langes discovered the Pinots of Oregon and visited in the spring of 1987; by June, they had moved to the Dundee Hills. ‘We made wine as soon as we got here, from purchased grapes. We just wanted to get a toe hold and get started as soon as we could,’ Don remembers.

They made wine in the basement of the house that first year.

The property they acquired came with six plantable acres (2.5 hectares) below the house, all of it with southeast-facing slopes, which made Don think of the Côte d’Or.

The estate is a combination of Dijon clones and cuttings that Don brought from the Sta Rita site, Bien Nacido.

‘It was really mostly Douglas fir and hazelnut orchards when we got here,’ says Wendy Lange. The Lange family arrived to a nascent industry that was still fighting to be understood.

While they made wine, they managed to cobble together a living. Wendy worked at the Erath tasting room, and Don, who held an MFA degree, taught music at some local community colleges and performed with his guitar in the evenings.

‘There were several challenges, people had no idea how to pronounce Oregon, let alone the fact that we were making fine wines here,’ Don recalls. The Langes credit the hard work and support of the early pioneers for their success.

It was an industry that was built on an ethic of collaboration and cooperation. The early pioneers welcomed the growing winemaking community, sharing their knowledge of the region and learning from each other’s collective successes and failures.

Later down the line, in 1987, the Drouhin family from Burgundy bought some land. The New York Times wrote a story about the Pinot Noir from Ponzi Vineyards in the late 1990s.

People were beginning to take notice, and take Oregon Pinot Noir seriously.

Lange Estate at a glance:

Founded: 1987, first vines planted in 1988

Estate Vineyards: Legacy (original vines), Mia Block, Redside and Lucky River

Winemakers: Jesse Lange, Executive winemaker, Don Lange

Noteworthy wines: Classique Pinot Noir, Freedom Hill Pinot Noir, Lucky River Pinot Noir, Reserve Pinot Gris

A commitment to Pinot Gris

‘We drank some Grigios in Santa Barbara,’ Don recollects, ‘but they were pretty simple wines.’

His impression of the variety changed dramatically upon the Langes’ arrival in Oregon.

‘Eyrie, Ponzi, Adelsheim were making Pinot Gris and those wines really got my attention. Wow, this is different,’ he says.

With freshly planted vines but no fruit, the Langes purchased grapes from their neighbours.

‘There was a vineyard, just over those trees,’ Don says, motioning to the east. ‘They asked if we were interested in buying any Pinot Gris, and I said, of course.’

‘He put that in puncheons, and so we were the first to make barrel fermented Pinot Gris in the country,’ adds Jesse.

Even as much of the Willamette has shifted to focus on Chardonnay, Lange, along with Eyrie and Ponzi in particular, remain at the forefront of a serious, ageworthy style of Oregon Pinot Gris.

The second generation

As the second generation, Jesse Lange joined the family business in 2004. As affable a winemaker as you’ll meet, Jesse is fully engaged in both the family estate and the success of the Dundee Hills appellation.

‘We’re a 40-year, overnight success,’ says Jesse about the well-earned reputation of the wines of the Dundee Hills.

At the same time, Don and Wendy still play a significant role as the ‘consulting winemakers’, with 40 years of experience at the estate.

Jesse has brought a considerable technical wine background back to the family estate after stints in Santa Barbara and New Zealand.

The holdings have grown from the original 30 acres to 60 planted acres (36ha) in the Dundee Hills. The Langes recently acquired the Lucky River vineyard, an additional 65-acre site.

The Pinot Noirs are considerable examples of Classic Willamette Valley, aligned with Don’s mantra of, ‘balance, structure and texture. Wines that you take to the table,’ to hear Don say it.

They are evocative of place and a winemaking acumen that has been learned and transmitted over the years in the Dundee Hills.

The Pinot Gris remains among the best examples in the Willamette Valley.

Lange Estate vertical

Wines are listed in vintage order from oldest to youngest

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Chardonnay from Oregon’s Dundee Hills

Ron Acierto is wine & beverage director at the Tributary Hotel’s ōkta restaurant in McMinnville, Oregon. He is an Imbibe 75 Person to Watch for 2024, as voted by Imbibe magazine in the US.

I have long had an affinity for this lovely wine. In my native Philippines, the national beverage is beer. Growing up, I never dreamed that wine would be part of my career path. Most Filipino households never even had bottles of liquor or beer at home, and drinking alcohol was something you did only on special occasions.

My first encounter with wine occurred when I worked in food and wine at a family friend’s retirement home in Indiana, USA and I built on this with more exposure to fine wines through various food service jobs. After moving to Oregon wine country in 2005, I immersed myself in learning all about the wines of Willamette Valley, while working first at Cherry Hill winery in the Eola-Amity Hills, and then in management at some of Portland’s finest restaurants.

Pinot Noir and Chardonnay are considered the king and queen of Willamette Valley wine grapes, but I also became curious about Pinot Gris, which is planted throughout Oregon. When working in restaurants in Portland, I noticed that Pinot Gris wasn’t usually highlighted on wine lists. The perception was that it was less interesting as a variety, perhaps because it was so widely available, and at a lower price point than other whites. Yet, over the last decade, I’ve gained more respect for this wine and grown to love its many expressions.

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I’ve offered Pinot Gris as a glass pour at ōkta restaurant in downtown McMinnville since it opened in July 2022. The Eyrie Estate Pinot Gris 2021 is delicious with our ōkta carrot snack with farro waffle tart shell, served with miso. It was also an excellent match for a dish on last year’s menu: wild sea bream, radishes, watercress and shiitake mushrooms. And it seems to be gaining more traction in general, with wine merchants introducing drinkers to more producers and styles of the grape.

Most consumers don’t know that Pinot Gris is the result of a genetic mutation that occurred in Pinot Noir. Their DNA profiles are remarkably similar; the colouration of the leaves and grape skin are the main differences. Many of the wine producers with whom I’ve opened bottles of Pinot Gris over the years have learned to coax the best expressions from this grape. Starting in the 1960s, David Lett planted Pinot Gris at Eyrie Vineyards in the Dundee Hills AVA. Its wines have always been rich in texture and flavour, balanced between fruit and acidity, and a versatile pairing.

Perhaps surprisingly, the Eyrie Vineyards Pinot Gris wines have demonstrated great ageability. Jason Lett, the late David’s son, recently poured a 1982 bottling, and I still remember its texture and richness, the lingering aroma of caramelised white fruit – tasted blind, I would probably have guessed Chardonnay, though the acidity and freshness were still distinguishable. I wish that more local producers would vinify their Pinot Gris to age in the same way that the great grand cru Pinot Gris wines of Alsace do.

Pinot Gris vinified with skin contact shows another aspect to the grape – look out for wines from Antiquum Farm and Big Table Farm. Aromas of these wines range from fresh flowers to candied fruits. At ōkta, we pair this style with the flavours of umami, sashimi-style seafood and chef larder-fermented root vegetables. It brings out the best in the food and highlights the wine’s acidity and lingering mouthfeel.

In general, I pair young Pinot Gris with shellfish and summer salads with white stone fruits. Meanwhile, wines with age would pair beautifully with spring and summer grilled vegetables. Pinot Gris will also hold up with your backyard barbecues, as well as charcoal-roasted chicken.

Discovering Pinot Gris: Acierto’s top picks

Jason Lett at Oregon’s Eyrie Vineyards has continued to make Pinot Gris to the same high quality as his father David, who died in 2008. The 2021 and 2022 Eyrie Pinot Gris ($US30 eyrievineyards.com) are both drinking beautifully now, with bright acidity, but will definitely get better with age. The richness in the mouthfeel and the balance of summer fruits make it the perfect bottle to take to your friends’ spring and summer dinners. Pair with tomato salad, grilled root vegetables and grilled whole fish with chimichurri-inspired sauces.

Some skin-contact Pinot Gris wines are made in a way that gives a dark rosé or lighter style red in the glass. The Ltd+ Wines project, run by husband and wife Bree and Chad Stock, sees grapes sourced from David Hill Winery, which owns some of the oldest vines planted in Forest Grove, just west of Portland. Introducing their Old Vine Skin Fermented Pinot Gris 2022 (currently US$42 for the 2021 on limitedadditionwines.com), the winemakers themselves describe it as neither a red wine nor what might typically be described as an ‘orange’ wine, ‘but utterly its own unique self and completely captivating’. It has definitely captivated me, and I’d pair it with any preparation of pork, as well as rotisserie chicken. I’ve recently cooked my personal version of Filipino chop suey – shrimps and pork mince stir fried with vermicelli rice noodles – and it balances the umami flavours of these dishes perfectly. Or just savour it on its own while reading a great novel on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

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Following two days of blind tasting in Colmar earlier this year, 13 wines scored 95 points or more and 40 wines scored 92-94 points, with both the 2021 and 2020 vintages faring well.

Tasting notes for the top 60 wines from both vintages focus on Grand Cru Riesling, as well as Grand Cru Muscat, Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer.

Scroll down to see the top 30 Alsace Grand Cru wines from 2020 and 2021

51 grands crus

Across the 15,500ha of total vineyard area in Alsace, there are 51 designated grands crus, yet very few of these are well-known to consumers. Though most consumers do not understand Burgundy or Bordeaux classifications in great detail, these two regions have a longer historical record and formidable brand identities. Alsace on the other hand did not introduce its modern classification until 1975, which doubled in size 1983 with its first 25 grand cru classifications.

Though not covered in this report, over 25% of all Alsace wine produced is traditional method sparkling, known as Crémant. Some of it amounts to mediocre mass-market fizz, but some talented producers are making superb bubbles that can rival Champagne. Some excellent examples to try include Mélanie Pfister’s Breit Extra Brut, Albert Mann’s Extra Brut and Domaine Muré’s Grand Millésime.

See all the Alsace vintage report tasting notes and scores here

2021: a classic vintage

2021 was a ‘difficult vintage,’ says Gilles Haeffelin, sommelier at Au Bon-Coin in Wintzenheim, with the lowest yields since the 1950s because of excessive rain and corresponding rot risk. Despite these difficulties, of 89 Rieslings tasted for this report many 2021s exuded exciting wet stone and citrus fruit characters and tangy acidity.

Lovers of freshness and elegance will likely prefer the 2021 vintage for more noticeable acidity and verve. Philippe Blanck of Domaine Paul Blanck in Kaysersberg says: ‘I will remember 2021 for its acidity and dry extract, an atypical vintage in the context of global warming, but also for its fine texture.’

Jérôme Mader of Domaine Jean-Luc Mader in Hunawihr says: ‘2021 is a classic vintage that we may not ever again make, as climate change takes us in a different direction. It reminds us of Alsace wines made 20 years ago.’

2020: a solar vintage

Mélanie Pfister, of her eponymous domaine in Dahlenheim, northern Alsace, says that 2020 proved to be a more typical, global warming era style, with higher alcohol levels than in 2021: ‘2020 is ripe, full-bodied, deep and with plenty of dry extract,’ she says.

Mader agrees: ‘2020 is more powerful and muscular, but it sometimes lacks the elegance and balance of 2021,’ which he finds ‘very aristocratic in its manifestation of wet stone minerality.’

Cooler soils like clay were better suited to 2020, while warmer granite soils suited 2021 better, says Guillaume Mochel of Domaine Frédéric Mochel in Traenheim.

Mader stresses that grand cru wines are generally from sunnier terroirs where the grapes are meant to ‘ripen perfectly,’ so in solar years like 2020, Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer from grands crus can be ‘very powerful’ wines, ‘where the richness can sometimes be excessive.’ By contrast, ‘these excesses are not found in the 2021 vintage, where the balance is more harmonious and finer,’ he says.

A question of style

Olivier Humbrecht MW of Domaine Zind-Humbrecht finds entry-level wines (not including grands crus or specified lieux-dits) ‘more successful’ in 2021. While agreeing with the solar versus classic description, he stresses that grand cru terroirs for Riesling performed equally well while reflecting stylistic differences. For Pinot Gris and dry Gewurztraminer, he prefers the verve of the 2021 vintage, while favouring 2020 for sweeter, late-harvest Gewurztraminer.

Humbrecht cautions against making too strong a contrast between the two vintages. While 2021 had heavy rains between April and July, a very dry period in August through to the end of the harvest meant that poorly worked plots ‘actually showed signs of water stress,’ he says. And while 2020 was indeed much warmer, he explains that two big rains in August – 80mm at the beginning, 40mm in mid-August – helped retain freshness, so that the grands crus experienced ‘no water stress in 2020.’

Although 2021 was difficult for yields, it proved ‘in fact much simpler’ to vinify than 2020, Humbrecht says. ‘Thanks to spring rains, the grapes and musts were loaded with assimilable nitrogen [important for successful fermentations], which allowed the wines to all ferment very easily until they were dry – some took a while, but went the whole way without problems,’ he explains. ‘As a result, the 2021s are quite reductive, but we have not changed the ageing – still 18 months on total lees because we thought that racking the wines earlier would have been harmful.’

Fermentations in 2020 on the other hand were ‘languorous,’ and ‘not just because potential alcohols were 0.5% higher than 2021,’ explains Humbrecht.

Which grands crus fared the best?

The grands crus with the highest-scoring wines were:

Hengst

Kaefferkopf

Kastelberg

Rangen de Thann

Rosacker

Schlossberg

Sommerberg

Zinnkoepflé

Contrasting styles, excellent quality

Tasting both vintages, I experienced more verve and liveliness from the 2021 vintage on a general level. But many 2020s are excellent, with enough acidity and vivacity to balance warmer, riper fruit.

The blind tasting once again proves that Alsace produces exciting white wines, but often the region does not get the attention it deserves. High-scoring producers from this tasting – such as Domanine Weinbach or Domaine Zind-Humbrecht – sell well internationally, but the tasting has also brought lesser-known producers to the fore. From sensational dry Rieslings to nuanced and spicy Gewurztraminers, by way of bold Pinot Gris and refreshing Muscats, most are also inexpensive.

Alsace’s consumer challenges

Alsace still faces a number of consumer challenges. Does Alsace Pinot Gris resemble Italian Pinot Grigio? How are grape varieties like Gewurztraminer, or grands crus like Schlossberg or Altenberg de Bergbieten, pronounced? Will the wine be sweet because it’s in a long, fluted bottle?

While sales of Alsatian wines are solid – the US and the UK are among the top 10 countries for Alsace wines sold by volume and value, according to recent CIVA statistics – they could improve.

‘Even in 2023, there is a question of which grand cru is easier to pronounce for foreign markets,’ says Foulques Aulagnon, export marketing manager at the CIVA (Conseil Interprofessionnel des Vins d’Alsace).

As it turns out, Alsace Pinot Gris is ‘absolutely nothing like Italian Pinot Grigio, and buyers still are confounded by the residual sugar levels in Alsatian wine, often too sweet for palates accustomed to dry whites,’ says Washington DC based sommelier Maria Denton.

Despite a recent change in regulations stating that all non-late harvest Alsace Riesling must be dry, as well as an introduction of a dryness scale on the back label, making this information even clearer on the label could help.

Tasting notes and scores for the top 30 Alsace Grand Cru wines from 2020 and 2021:

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Despite New Zealand aromatic whites being part of the wine industry for more than 100 years in some cases, those beyond Sauvignon Blanc have not been taken seriously until quite recently.

Scroll down for 20 top New Zealand aromatic whites to seek out

Gewürztraminer was planted about 60 years ago and, according to Rebecca Gibb MW, author of The Wines of New Zealand, there are records of Chenin Blanc from the early 1900s.

Pinot Gris, she adds, in an introduction to a 2018 Decanter panel tasting, ‘was praised as long ago as 1906 by the country’s first viticulturalist, Romeo Bragato, though it would take another century for its star to rise’.

Today, while the area under vine of Pinot Gris represents only about 10% that of Sauvignon Blanc, with 2,786ha in 2022, according to New Zealand Wine Growers, it is close to overtaking Chardonnay as the country’s second most planted white grape.

Aromatic and semi-aromatic varieties grow across all 10 of New Zealand’s Geographical Indications (GIs) for wine. No single region dominates, however some have more affinity with certain grapes than others, such as Riesling in Marlborough, Central Otago and Canterbury (such as those of Pegasus Bay), and Pinot Gris and Riesling in Wairarapa.

Albariño, Grüner Veltliner, Chenin Blanc, Marsanne and Roussanne are relative newcomers, but each shows great promise.

Styles and seeking them out

While New Zealand can make excellent dry Rieslings and Pinot Gris, most have a touch of residual sugar. This is specifically for balance and length, some with just enough sweetness to notice without compromising the tautness and impact of acidity.

Thanks to the climate, it is easy for growers to achieve full fruit and flavour development in the grapes, so forcing wines into a European style – dry German Riesling or Italian Pinot Grigio, for example – makes little sense.

Equally, while winemakers are stretching the boundaries by exploring the use of amphoras, older barrels and fine lees for texture and complexity with aromatic whites, traditional techniques prevail – certainly in those wines looking for broad consumer appeal.

Unwelcome rain and the impact of Cyclone Gabrielle on Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay, aside, there are many excellent aromatic whites to discover from recent vintages – though volumes are down. In 2022, Riesling was just 1% of the total harvest and Pinot Gris 5.9% – and the 2023 vintage is even less.

With Sauvignon Blanc still dominating plantings and consequently the export market, aromatic whites are often hard to find. Pinot Gris will be your best bet, with 8.9 million litres exported in 2022 compared to just 89,000 litres each of Riesling and Gewürztraminer.

The recent free-trade agreement with the UK and EU also means pathways to market for many New Zealand producers are now more open, and wine lovers should soon see a broader, more serious selection on retailer shelves and quality wine lists.

Pinot Gris around the regions

Focusing on Pinot Gris, the aromatic variety with the widest planting across New Zealand, here’s a rough guide of the styles you can expect – though vintage, vineyard site and individual winemaker style means no two wines will taste the same.

• Northland Wines of weight, purity, minerality and finesse from a warm, dry climate and clay and volcanic substrate soils.
• Auckland (Ponui and Waiheke Islands) Spicy, weighty wines grown in a warm, dry climate on a mix of yellow-brown earths, greywacke and mudstone siliceous rocks.
• Gisborne Wines of purity and richness thanks to high sunshine hours and dry farming on clay, loam and limestone soils.
• Hawke’s Bay (Bridge Pa Triangle) A diverse range of styles, the best of which have purity of fruit, complexity and exacting varietal lift. There are multiple soil types, from coastal weathered rocks to gravel, loams and ruddy clay soils.
• Wairarapa Concentrated, powerful wines, benefiting from low rainfall, high UV light and cool nights, plus a diverse range of soils.
• Marlborough Crunchy, fresh wines with natural spice and purity, from a warm, temperate climate and diverse soils, from stony outcrops in Awatere, clay in the hills to the free-draining soils of the valley floor.
• North Canterbury (Waipara) Pure, mineral, highly aromatic, terroir-driven wines from a dry, warm region with gravel, clay and limestone soils.
• Central Otago Ruggedly powerful, spicy, intense wines thanks to a continental climate and vineyards at elevation on hard schist and quartz soils with some glacial deposits.

New Zealand aromatic whites: 20 exciting wines to try

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What is Picpoul de Pinet wine?

Picpoul de Pinet is a crisp, refreshing white wine made exclusively from the ancient Piquepoul grape variety in the Languedoc region in southern France. It is the only Languedoc appellation dedicated solely to dry white wine production, and in a region dominated by blends, this is one of very few areas that permits the use of one single grape variety.

Scroll down for 10 Picpoul de Pinet wines to enjoy this summer

A variety connected to its surroundings

The Picpoul de Pinet vineyard area borders the Etang de Thau, a large lagoon on the edge of the Mediterranean sea. The maritime influence, both cultural and climatic, is strong here.

The Piquepoul variety, with its inherent freshness, has been grown here for centuries. A variety that ripens late, the grapes retain their acidity despite the warm, dry climate – the appellation sees just 400mm of rainfall a year.

‘It’s the marine pressure – the sea breezes, sea freshness and low rainfall – that allows the grapes to ripen well into September,’ says Claude Jourdan of Domaine Félines Jourdan. The variety is well suited to drought too. ‘At the end of August and beginning of September, we get some fog in the vineyards, which wets the leaves, and the vine profits from moisture, leading the grapes to full maturity,’ she adds.

Originally Piquepoul was better recognised as one of the grapes used to make vermouth in this area. However the variety has found its niche in dry, refreshing whites, and now more than 11 million bottles are produced each year.

In fact 67% of production is exported, with the UK guzzling up the largest share. Production of Picpoul de Pinet is dominated by four large cooperative wineries, which make 82% of production, with the rest made by 24 individual producers.

What does Picpoul de Pinet taste like?

The wines are often pale lemon-yellow in colour with green tints, although some styles can be more golden.

The name Piquepoul means ‘lip stinger’, on account of its zingy acidity. This is complemented by citrus and stone fruit, and a distinct saline, iodine quality. More complex examples can also display mineral, wet stone notes, or round, leesy richness.

Food pairing tips

Oysters and mussels are harvested from within the Etang de Thau itself, so these are naturally classic pairings with Picpoul de Pinet wines. The saltiness of seafood platters and salt cod croquettes pair excellently with the grape’s signature racy acidity.

Its lip-puckering freshness can also cut through richer foods like cheese and charcuterie, or even lemon-based desserts, making it a versatile wine for picnics.

Picpoul de Pinet is also pairs well with plant-based dishes, such as a salad of salicornia (sea asparagus). As with oysters, this type of sea vegetable also grows around the edges of the Etang de Thau, and imparts the same salty, iodised tang that matches so well with the wine.

Similar styles of wine include Loire Valley’s Muscadet and Portugal’s Vinho Verde, both known for producing fresh, high acidity wines.

What’s next?

The success of Picpoul de Pinet lies largely in its consistency, offering reliably fresh, food-friendly wines. The fluted green bottle, called Neptune, with its Languedoc cross and wave pattern emblazoned across the top, is instantly recognisable.

So where can Picpoul de Pinet go from here? In general the wines are consumed when young, however there is now a movement around a more complex, richer, age-worthy style.

Cuvée Patience – wines with ageing potential?

The appellation has been developing a charter for this different style, called Patience. Its main focus is to show that Picpoul de Pinet wines have the potential to age. Commonly these wines are made from specific plot selections, the grapes are harvested at higher maturity, and there tends to be extended lees contact during the winemaking process. These wines show a fuller, riper, more complex expression, while retaining that signature acidity and the saline varietal typicity.

This new approach was initiated in 2018, and gradually the Patience cuvées are coming onto the market.

Top Picpoul de Pinet wines to try

Of 34 wines tasted blind, here are the top-scoring Picpoul de Pinet wines to try. The list also includes four additional Patience cuvées, which are not yet available in the UK.

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New York’s Finger Lakes AVA is synonymous with Riesling. While keeping up with the evolution of the Riesling style here is essential (and fun), there is much more to the industry.

Still, Riesling accounts for more than a quarter of the total vineyard area, and top producers are now turning out world-class wines.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for 11 Finger Lakes white wines

PLUS see recommendations for Finger Lakes red and sparkling & sweet wines

Cellar door sales have long driven sales in the region, and producers have supplied the market with sweet, inexpensive crowd-pleasers for years.

Still, over the past twenty years, more and more producers have been making riveting, acid-driven wines full of tension and minerality capable of ageing for decades.

Recent years have seen the appearance of single-vineyard wines that highlight different sites within the region. Forge Cellars, for example, offers eleven different Rieslings from the 2020 vintage.

Other producers work with a more limited palette of sites but produce a variety of styles from bone dry to off-dry to sweet, including fine examples of botrytis-affected and ice wine styles.

Many winemakers, however, also dream of expanding beyond Riesling to explore other varieties.

Chardonnay is often cited as the grape with the most potential. As long as growers and winemakers remain faithful to their terroir’s cold climate and mineral-driven nature and don’t try to emulate the richer styles of Sonoma County, they can produce outstanding, complex wines.

Other light-bodied, aromatic whites often attract attention. Many producers work successfully with Pinot Gris. Well-regarded Red Newt Cellars has produced several single-vineyard Pinot Gris and is currently working on an exotic experimental version of Pinot Gris aged under flor.

Winemakers in the Finger Lakes are also not afraid to think outside the box. Revered local pioneer Dr Konstantin Frank planted a vineyard with the Georgian Rkasiteli variety as long ago as 1983.

His great-granddaughter Meaghan continues the tradition and produces a version in the modern style (pressed and fermented in stainless steel) and a compellingly complex version fermented on the skins in amphorae.

See Charles Curtis MW’s tasting notes and scores for 11 Finger Lake white wines

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While it doesn’t enjoy the profile of Willamette Valley’s renowned Pinot Noir or rising star Chardonnay, Pinot Gris remains an important wine for the region’s growers and producers.

The acknowledged founding father of Willamette Valley, the late David Lett of The Eyrie Vineyards, planted varieties based not on a Burgundian model but rather on what made climatic sense. Pinot Gris was a big part of those early calculations. In his 1992 speech entitled ‘The Emergence of Pinot Gris’, Lett joked that the variety was still emerging at the time, recalling the slow sales that Pinot Gris found in the early days at Eyrie.

Scroll down to see Michael Alberty’s selection of 23 top Willamette Valley Pinot Gris wines

He claimed to have bartered much of his annual 25-case production from 1971 to 1981 with regional salmon fishermen, given the tough time he had selling it.

Lett was responsible for America’s first commercial Pinot Gris. Bringing ‘about 160’ cuttings north from the University of California, Davis variety collection, these were among Eyrie’s original vineyard rows. There are now a few Pinot Gris wines coming from Oregon’s more southern wine-growing regions, primarily the Umpqua and Rogue Valleys, but only a handful. It is the Willamette Valley leading the charge.

Key styles

While it is a broadly cool growing region, the Willamette Valley AVA contains plenty of climatic variety – there are 11 sub-appellations as of 2022. Three styles have consequently emerged.

First are the nearly ubiquitous bright, fresh wines made in stainless steel that highlight their crisp, fruity character and zippy acidity. Secondly, there has also been a surge in skin-contact Pinot Gris, most (correctly) referred to as ramato. These wines follow the winemaking tradition of Italy’s Friuli region, specific to the Pinot Grigio grown there.

Finally, a few producers are making a style of Pinot Gris that’s more associated with the traditional wines of The Eyrie Vineyards. These are complex, ageworthy, premium-priced white wines, often from old vines or well-sited vineyards, using neutral oak or concrete.

Today, Pinot Gris is the second most widely planted variety in the state of Oregon (though it only represents about a quarter of the total of the state’s Pinot Noir). But, despite the volume, Pinot Gris seems to lag behind Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and arguably even Riesling when it comes to local cachet and buzz.

However, the global popularity of easy-drinking, wallet-friendly Italian Pinot Grigio has been an unexpected benefit: by comparison, Willamette Valley Pinot Gris has developed a national reputation thanks to its superior quality.

King Estate has almost single-handedly buoyed the variety’s market share, committing to the grape and producing more than 1.2 million bottles a year. The self-proclaimed ‘King of Pinot’ makes about 10 variations of Pinot Gris (all biodynamic), including single-vineyard and limited-availability cuvées. The grape’s popularity has helped fashion a broader Willamette style – approachable, aromatically fruit-forward, light-bodied, fresh, crisp and easy-drinking.

Perhaps equally importantly, these wines are affordable – often below $20 in the US market. Though also, perhaps, in the establishment of that signature style, Willamette Pinot Gris has hemmed itself in. Is this approachable, easy-drinking style the full realisation of the variety’s potential here? Does this ubiquity limit producers’ and consumers’ aspirations?

A fresh approach

Should there be any doubt about the potential of Willamette Pinot Gris to produce a more contemplative wine, look no further than The Eyrie Vineyards’ Original Vines Pinot Gris. Made with grapes from vines of more than 50 years old – the valley’s first – it has depth, seriousness and noteworthy ageability. It’s far more grand cru in its stature than easy-drinking.

For Eyrie’s second-generation winemaker and David’s son Jason Lett, however, there is a sense of frustration. ‘There was a time when Pinot Gris was being explored seriously for things like site specificity. Between what my father was doing and other pioneers such as Don Lange, there was a real commitment to making Pinot Gris with a sense of place.

‘That is not how the wine is being approached today. I believe the Willamette Valley is quite possibly the place where a kind of grand cru Pinot Gris can be made. It’s really about climate: Pinot Gris ripens best in cool conditions, and that’s what we have here. This is really where it belongs.’ Lett is excited about burgeoning producers who are raising the profile of Pinot Gris among new wine drinkers, sommeliers and chefs. Wineries such as Maloof and Fossil & Fawn are breathing new life into the variety. The focus on Pinot Gris at Fossil & Fawn is a nod back to David Lett’s 1992 speech in which he said: ‘It is high time viticulture and grape variety adaptation become the focus of premium winemaking on the West Coast.’

That spirit drives Fossil & Fawn’s Jim Fischer and Jenny Mosbacher. ‘We did not endeavour to revolutionise Pinot Gris in Oregon,’ Mosbacher says. ‘I wish I could say we did. Our mission from the beginning was to do our best to represent the care that went into tending the grapes by making the best wines we could.

Greater understanding

Skin-contact, ramato or vin gris wines are leading the next wave of Pinot Gris from the Willamette Valley. Electric-hued wines with mouthfeel and texture are a great fit for the new demographic of wine drinkers and the always-edgy Portland restaurant scene clamouring for orange wines.

For Fossil & Fawn, it’s not about being on trend, but treating the wine in a way that makes the most sense. ‘It’s wild to think that Santa Margherita [in Italy’s Alto Adige] is credited with making the first white Pinot Grigio in 1961,’ Mosbacher says. ‘Since 2014, we’ve been making Pinot Gris exactly as we do our Pinot Noir. For us, it makes sense to vinify these two varieties in the same way: to treat Pinot Gris with the same sort of reverence in the cellar as we do Pinot Noir.

‘As a wine community, now more than ever we have a greater understanding of the genetics of Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris – the only difference being a few select pigment markers in the DNA.’

Thanks to its myriad sub-AVAs, styles and price points, Willamette Valley Pinot Gris offers a style for all – from the popular, affordable fresh and crisp Pinot Gris (in cans as well as bottles) to more earnest, ageworthy wines that reflect their terroir, as well as ramato-style wines for hipster wine bars. It’s time to find the one for you.

Five Willamette Valley producers to know

Selected by Michael Alberty

These talented young Pinot Gris producers have a lot in common. They largely avoid the Pinot Noir arena, are self-taught and their winemaking practices embrace skin contact, minimal intervention and modest alcohol.

Championship Bottle

Based in Amity, winemaker Saul Mutchnick makes a variety of minimal-intervention whites for his Championship label, including an exceptional Pinot Gris. In 2020, Mutchnick abandoned skin contact to make his Out on Love Pinot Gris as a white wine. Its clean, acid-driven beauty has Mutchnick thinking he might just keep his Pinot Gris white in future vintages.

Fair Moon Wine

Fair Moon is a one-woman natural winemaking operation out of Amity, where Jessica Wilmes believes Pinot Gris’ purpose in life is to be orange. Her debut skin-contact Pinot Gris, the Sunshine Effect 2020, is a worthy homage to two producers who inspire her: Gravner and Radikon. Wilmes added Auxerrois and Tinto Cão to her line-up in 2022, so keep an eye out.

Maloof Wines

Bee and Ross Maloof stay out of nature’s way as much as possible while making some of the Willamette Valley’s best Pinot Gris in Forest Grove. Before winemaking, Bee was a materials engineer in the aerospace industry, while Ross was a sommelier for a vegan restaurant in Philadelphia. They both love pizza, as their ‘eat pizza, suck glass’ winery motto makes clear.

Mujita Wine Co

Lizzy Esqueda’s first wine for her Mijita label is a skin-contact Pinot Gris aged in neutral oak and old acacia barrels. It is absolutely brilliant juice: I wish Pinot Gris lovers everywhere could taste it. Esqueda makes her wines at PDX Revolution in downtown Portland, one of the world’s few all-female winery incubator/cooperatives. Wherever Mijita moves next, I’m following. 2025 SE 7th Ave, Portland, OR 97214.

Varnum Vintners

Based in Amity, Cyler and Taralyn Varnum lighten their carbon footprint by using lighter 37.5cl glass beer bottles to house some of their red, white, pink and sparkling wines. My current favourite wine to serve from a beer bottle is a Pinot Gris rosé that was aged on its skins for two weeks. Innovation plus good wine is a winning equation.

Willamette Valley Pinot Gris: Michael Alberty’s top 23 wines to enjoy

Wines are listed in score order by style: sparkling, white, Ramato and skin-contact

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With fewer than 3,000 hectares, plantings of New Zealand Pinot Gris represent a drop in the ocean – about 10% – when compared to the powerhouse of Sauvignon Blanc. But according to New Zealand Wine Growers, it is close to overtaking Chardonnay as the country’s second most planted white grape.

While some wines are made in a Pinot Grigio style – a typically light-bodied ‘dry white wine’ – the best examples follow Alsace Pinot Gris. These are off-dry, with a weightier, oily mouthfeel and rich pear, honeyed stone fruit and spice flavours.

In this young winemaking country the variety is a still a baby. The oldest vines are just 25 to 30 years old, so the potential is there for more development and complexity in future. Winemakers are also experimenting with wild yeast fermentation, skin contact, lees and barrel ageing as well as concrete eggs and amphorae to enhance mouthfeel and texture in this naturally low-acid variety

The majority of plantings (more than 40%) are in Marlborough, where the South Island’s cooler climate imbues great aromatics as well as crisp acidity to offset residual sugar. But fans will find examples from all corners of both islands.

New Zealand Pinot Gris is a perfect dinner companion, matching perfectly with dishes as diverse as roast pork, mussels (or cauliflower) in a cream sauce, Thai green curry or a simple cheese board at the start or end of a meal.

The country has a wealth of top-drawer Pinot Gris from producers such as Misha’s Vineyard, Dry River, Prophet’s Rock, Greywacke, Valli and others. But here are 10 New Zealand Pinot Gris that won’t break the bank, starting from just £9.99.

New Zealand Pinot Gris: 10 top buys for less than £20

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An ocean of Pinot Grigio is produced at the ‘price-fighting’ end of the market, but this Italian staple grape, which is a mutation of Pinot Noir, reveals its true worth higher up the scale. Premium Pinot Grigio sets absolute quality as its main objective.

This means using the best fruit, harvested at low yields, and giving it maximum attention in the cellar – features that are reflected in the wines’ prices. For the purposes of this tasting, the bar was set at a minimum of £12 per bottle.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for 18 excellent premium Pinot Grigio wines

Premium Italian Pinot Grigio is a far cry from the easy-drinking wines that make a virtue of their neutrality.

Pinot Grigio is typically a low-acid variety that, at its best, produces voluptuous wines of medium to high alcohol: they are aromatic, rich and full, with a sumptuous, almost oily texture.

Though usually at their peak within three to five years of bottling, some of the finest examples can benefit from further cellaring – up to 20 years in some instances. They are fantastic food wines, versatile enough to cope with both fish and white meats.

To maximise that distinctive luscious mouthfeel, beware of over-chilling them.

Regional Diversity

No less than 47% of the world’s Pinot Grigio vineyards are in Italy – and 86% of these (27,145ha out of 31,360ha) are planted in the Triveneto – the combined regions of Trentino-Alto Adige, Friuli Venezia Giulia and the Veneto itself, which form Italy’s northeastern tip. No other Italian region reaches even double-figure proportions.

Style varies across and within regions. In the Veneto, easily the largest production area, most Pinot Grigio is made from early-harvested fruit and malolactic fermentation is blocked in order to maintain a fresher, crisper, more commercially oriented style.

In the Trentino-Alto Adige, the higher-altitude wines, such as those from the Isarco valley, offer greater vibrancy and more mineral notes; the lower-lying sites, meanwhile, enjoy warmer temperatures that bring out a rounder, more mouthfilling character.

In Friuli, growing conditions are rather more homogenous, and winemakers make Pinot Grigio of impressive substance and richness. Many of the best examples come from near the border with Slovenia: Collio and Colli Orientali in particular, where lavish fruit characters are balanced by the salty and stony notes from the local ‘ponca’ (marl and sandstone) soils.

A little further south, the lower-lying Isonzo DOC produces wines that are typically weighty in style.

Mention must also be made of Friuli’s traditional Pinot Grigio Ramato. Made in a similar way to red wine, fermentation on the variety’s pinkish-grey skins for up to two weeks brings out copper-coloured tones (rame is the Italian word for ‘copper’) and increases both substance and structure.

This singularly dry and savoury style is coming back into fashion and is well worth seeking out.

Michael Garner is co-owner of Italian specialist Tria Wines and a DWWA Regional Chair for northern Italy. His second book Amarone and the Fine Wines of Verona (£35 Infinite Ideas) was published in 2017.

See tasting notes and scores for 18 premium Pinot Grigio wines

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Pinot Grigio is known as Pinot Gris in France and Grauburgunder in Germany but its Italian name is the most-widely used, certainly on supermarket shelves and wine lists.

It’s a white grape but its bunches have a grey or pinkish hue, and can make wines in myriad styles from simple, light and fresh to rich and smoky or tropical and mineral tinged. You can even find rosé and skin-contact ‘orange’ Pinot Grigios.

How does Pinot Grigio taste?

In Alsace in north east France, as well as being used for often opulent still white wines, it’s used to make sweet late harvest wines, and is one of the permitted grapes for the region’s traditional method sparkling wine Crémant d’Alsace.

The mountains of northern Italy is home to great plantings of Pinot Grigio, and from here typical characters of this approachable dry wine are peach, white flowers and citrus. It’s also widely used in north Italian sparkling wines, including the smoky and tangy Santa Margherita Metodo Classic.

Away from its Italian and Alsace homelands, Pinot Grigio is grown all over the world from Germany and Austria to New Zealand, South Africa and South America.

‘Pinot Gris is a wonderful food wine with almost limitless matching possibilities,’ said Andrew Jefford in 2018 when he picked his top 35 Pinot Gris wines, from a selection chosen by Decanter experts.

Finding great wines

‘Pinot Grigio is a victim of its own success,’ wrote Ian D’Agata in Decanter magazine in 2016. ‘The wine’s poor reputation among cognoscenti is down to mass-volume stuff from crafty producers who churn out wines that, though simple and neutral, offer enough popular appeal to make them enjoyable.’

If you know where to look, however, there are some top wines to be found. Our team has done the hard work and tasted the following Pinot Grigio wines, ranging from the classic Italian and Alsace versions to a ‘funky’ yet ‘crisp’ Pét-Nat wine made in a London winery and a skin-contact rosé from New Zealand which impresses with aromas of ‘rose petal, white pepper and peach.’

You can also find a late-harvest Botrytis Pinot Gris here from famous New Zealand producer Greywacke which is wild-fermented in old barrels, giving ‘additional richness and complexity to the waxy, honeyed lanolin scents and viscous apricot, orange and sweet citrus flavours.’ Delicious.

There are also plenty of selections below from UK supermarkets’ own labels, offering a wide range of styles and prices points.

25 best Pinot Grigio wines under £20

Expert’s Choice: Alsace Pinot Gris

Marchesi Antinori recently confirmed that it has bought a majority stake in the Jermann winery, founded in 1881 and today particularly well-regarded for its white wines from northern Italy’s Friuli-Venezia Giulia region.

Jermann’s Vintage Tunina 1997 is a Decanter Wine Legend.

Financial details were not disclosed, but winemaker Silvio Jermann has kept a minority stake in his namesake winery.

Antinori’s chief winemaker and CEO, Renzo Cotarella, described the deal as a collaboration. ‘The [Jermann] company is in good shape and completely autonomous,’ he said.

Yet the move also marks a new departure for the Antinori family, which has been producing wine for more than 600 years across 26 generations.

Antinori is today mostly known for its work on Tuscan red wines, from the Tignanello and Solaia labels to Chianti Classico and Brunello di Montalcino.

Castello della Sala in neighbouring Umbria is the major exception, and home to highly rated white wine Cervaro della Sala.

The Jermann deal represents new territory. ‘As a logical move, we started looking for opportunities in one of Italy’s best white wines regions,’ said Cotarella. ‘It took us some time to find the right fit.’

He added, ‘When the right occasion with the iconic Jermann winery came along, the long-time friendship, mutual respect and trust between Piero Antinori, myself and Silvio Jermann definitely helped the negotiation.’

He said the two Italian wine powerhouses share ‘strong values’, citing a quest for ‘utmost quality’ alongside respect for the land and the desire to innovate.

Silvio Jermann will play an active role in the new era, Cotarella said.

‘He will continue to be the ‘soul’ of Jermann in order to guarantee the continuity of the style and quality of the wines.’

Jermann’s range also includes ‘W…Dreams…’, a white wine made mostly from Chardonnay and first created in 1987, as well as Vinnae, an IGT Venezia Giulia wine made predominantly from Ribolla Gialla.

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Pinot Gris and Pinot Grigio refer to the same grape variety, known today for producing white wines of varying flavour and intensity.

Pinot Grigio’s heartland lies in northern Italy, while Pinot Gris has a particular stronghold in Alsace, eastern France.

You’ll find this grape making excellent wines around the world, however, from parts of New Zealand and Australia to Michigan and Oregon in the US.

How does Pinot Grigio / Pinot Gris taste?

Characteristics in different styles might include orchard fruits, like apples and pears, as well as delicate floral aromas, spices, honey and a touch of citrus.

Some wines might show greater minerality, but others might have more weight and texture on the palate; their richness held in balance by refreshing acidity.

Italian Pinot Grigio is sometimes associated with a fresher, crisper style. As Chris Wilson says in this article, the mountainous parts of northern Italy are more associated with characters of peach, white flowers and citrus.

Alsace Pinot Gris is perhaps better known for richness with added spice, as well as wines that stray into off-dry and full-on sweet wine territory.

However, this division in styles is too simplistic in reality, not least because you’ll find Pinot Grigio and Pinot Gris being made in many other parts of the wine world.

Following a trip to Friuli in 2015, Decanter’s Stephen Brook wrote that the variety that is ‘difficult to pin down’.

In northern Italy, though, there’s a ‘big gap in quality between the average supermarket Pinot Grigio and the full-bodied wines from the best corners of Friuli’, he wrote.

Alto Adige is also known for Pinot Grigio with complexity and depth.

Speaking about Friuli specifically, Brook did note that ‘Alsatian versions can also show musky aromas that you rarely find in Friuli, where the dominant aromas are pear and apple, though often with stone fruits or citrus to the fore as well’.

For drinkers, however, it’s difficult to pinpoint the style of the wine just by looking at the grape name used on the label, said David Way, wine qualifications developer at the Wine & Spirit Education Trust.

If unsure, probably the best thing to do is to ‘ask somebody to tell you what style it is’, he said.

That could be your local wine shop or the original producer should you get the opportunity.

‘The key thing to learn is that there’s more than one style,’ said Way.

Also known as…Grauburgunder

In Germany, the variety can go by yet more different names. The Wines of Germany trade body says this can be used to indicate style.

‘Grauburgunder denotes the sleeker, drier style, which harmonises with many types of food, while the richer, fuller-bodied and more fragrant version is called Ruländer,’ its website says.

Pinot Grigio ramato

Another general stylistic variation found in Italy and elsewhere, too, is known as ‘ramato’, an Italian term used to denote a copper-like hue in the wine than can be derived from the grape variety’s skins.

This ‘Pinot Grigio Ramato’ from Germany’s Pfalz region has candied strawberry, bruised apple and sweet spices on the nose, wrote Decanter’s Sylvia Wu in 2020.

Is Pinot Gris a dry white wine?

Yes it can be, but not always. You can find plenty of bone-dry examples, yet you’ll also come across deliciously rich off-dry styles.

There are late-harvest sweet wines that have been visited by noble rot, too, such as this Zind-Humbrecht, Clos St-Urbain Pinot Gris SGN 1989.

See also: Best Pinot Grigio – 20 under £20

Situated in one of the oldest Medieval towns in Alsace, Domaine Jean Sipp has roots dating back to the 17th century and has, since the 1950s, been forging a reputation for quality winemaking.

The estate and its holdings lie in and around the commune of Ribeauvillé, the heart of the region’s winelands, in the Haut-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France.

Scroll down for the Jean Sipp tasting notes and scores

With one of the oldest winemaking co-operatives in the country, Ribeauvillé is located not far from the German border to the east and is almost equidistant between the French city of Strasbourg to the north and Switzerland’s Basel to the south.

Terroir

Vineyards are planted among the foothills of the Vosges mountains, sheltering vines from oceanic influences and western winds and the region famously benefits from a microclimate that has the lowest rainfall in France.

It also has one of the most extreme variations in soil types comprising parcels of granite, clay, limestone, sandstone, marl, volcanic soil, schist and more.

Varying elevations, expositions and micro-terroirs each play their part in creating wines with aromatic complexity and expressive flavour characteristics.

The estate

Domaine Jean Sipp owns 23ha of prime vineyard locations, including 50 separate plots over five communes with three Grand Crus – jewels in the estate’s crown; Kirchberg, Osterberg and Altenberg de Bergheim.

Since 2013, the domaine has been under the helm of Jean-Guillaime Sipp. He took over from his parents, Martine and Jean-Jaques who retired after 40 years in the business, but still remain active for pleasure.

Jean-Guillaume brought knowledge and experience from agricultural studies and training stints at Domaines Zind-Humbrecht in Alsace, Olivier Leflaive in Burgundy, Marcel Guigal the Rhône and Domaine Mont-Redon in Chateauneuf-du-Pape.

Working together with his wife Céline, who studied oenology in Champagne, the estate is run with meticulous precision and with a philosophy of quality not quantity. It is respectful of the environment with Jean-Guillaume preferring to work the soil in order to better exploit terroir characteristics in the resulting wines.

The estate started organic conversion in 2018 with hopes of certification next year.

Domaine Jean Sipp at a glance

Exposure: 80% south-south-east and south-south-west

Soil: Argilo-calcareous, pebbly in certain places at Ribeauvillé and Bergheim. Sandy, resting on a layer of clay-bonded sand at St-Hippolyte.

Aspect: Steep slopes ranging from 10% to over 40%

Grape varieties planted: Sylvaner, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Auxerrois, Riesling, Muscat, Tokay, Pinot Gris, Gewurztraminer and Pinot Noir

Vine planting density: 4,500-5,500 per ha

Yields: 40-50hl/ha for Grand Cru, 60l/ha for younger vine, reserve quality wines

Average vine age: 5-25 for reserve wines, 10-40 years for Grand Cru, over 30 years for Vielles-Vignes with certain parcels that are 50 years old

Annual production: Around 120,000 bottles

Export market: 7%

With eight varieties under vine, the range is large and covers sweet, dry and sparkling styles offering a choice of generic wines through to grand crus and old-vine bottlings.

During harvest, which can last until mid-November, grapes are checked and tasted for full ripeness before being manually picked. In certain vintages, those from grand cru sites or destined for late-harvest bottlings will be sorted twice before being transported in 150kg tubs to the press.

Grapes will be pressed within two hours of picking, then fermented in stainless steel tanks before being aged, some on lees, and then bottled.

Particular focus is dedicated to Riesling, Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer in various iterations of which the Pinot Gris Réserve 2018, Gewurztraminer Cuvée Particulière 2016, Grand Cru Kirchberg Riesling 2016 and Crémant Brut Blanc de Blanc were tasted for this feature.

In detail

Pinot Gris Réserve, 2018

For this wine, Jean-Guillaume said he looks for the ‘expression of the grape and to bring out the freshness’. Grapes from clay-limestone soils are manually harvested then pressed for 3-4 hours followed by fermentation for two months and four months ageing before being bottled. He said this specific vinification produces a wine ‘with notes of toasted hazelnuts and vanilla and a crunchy mouthfeel.’

On the palate, it’s bursting with character, nuanced and rich with a gourmet structure making it perfect for food pairing. See full tasting notes for all wines below.

2018 vintage conditions

Vintage conditions in 2018 saw a wet first half of the year with Alsace receiving a year’s worth of rain in the first seven months. January was mild followed by snow and temperatures of -13°C at the end of February. March and April were wet but temperatures soon soared with flowering two weeks early in June with a 40°C heat spike in August. The hot and sunny weather continued throughout September and October giving leisurely conditions to the harvest. A generous vintage in both quality and quantity, and particularly successful for Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir as well as the late-harvest wines.

Gewurztraminer Cuvée Particulière, 2016

For Jean-Guillaume, Gewurztraminer is one of his last harvested wines and follows the same manual picking methods as Pinot Gris but experiences a longer pressing of six hours which allows them to extract the grape’s ‘maximum aromatic potential’ with the 2016 offering ‘notes of roses and lychee, typical of this variety’. A two month fermentation and four month ageing period follow before being bottled.

An off-dry style, this wine was extremely expressive with a satisfying texture and balanced acidity.

Grand Cru Kirchberg Riesling, 2016

This wine is from clay and limestone soils which Jean-Guillaume believes gives the wine ‘freshness and salinity’ as well as ‘typical notes of citrus and particularly mandarin’.

Kirchberg has historic links, with a citation first recorded in 1328, and is said to cover the best terroirs of the town.

It is a later-harvesting Riesling terroir of 2.5ha and the grapes go through a longer fermentation process often lasting until the end of winter following the harvest.

The wine is complex with crystalline precision and driving freshness.

2016 vintage conditions

A warm start to the year turned cool by spring with an extremely wet July. Weather improved for flowering and summer was warm and dry with no rain until mid-September. Good ripening conditions throughout harvest but little to no botrytis meant that the later-harvested Vendange Tardive Sélection de Grains Nobles suffered in quantity.

Overall yields for the other styles were normal and the vintage returned to producing a more classic and elegant profile of Riesling, Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer compared to the richer wines from 2015.

Crémant Brut Blanc de Blanc

The domaine produces four Crémants made in the traditional method including a Rosé, Blanc de Blanc and Blanc de Noirs as well as a new special barrel-aged bottling called L’Evidence.

Each wine is designed to display the personality of the Alsation grapes used and benefit from the specific geological conditions offering a nuanced combination of floral tones and white and red fruit flavours all with a fine effervescence.

The one tasted is a blend of Pinot Blanc and Pinot Auxerrois grapes with a residual sugar level of 6.6g/l and acidity of 4.88g/l.

It is fresh and inviting with finessed bubbles and ideal as an aperitif or celebration wine

UK importer Jeroboams has been working with the estate for 15 years now and, while Alsace remains a small part of the UK market, wine director Peter Mitchell MW believes Domaine Jean Sipp represents ‘outstanding value for the quality they offer’ and highlights the ‘balance and purity of their wines’.

For Mitchell, ‘the star is the Riesling Kirchberg which in every vintage manages the tricky balance of opulent richness, aromatic precision and a startling fresh clarity.

‘Over the years, sales for this have steadily grown as more customers are introduced to it and have recognised the value of great Alsace Riesling compared to many of the world’s other finest wines.’

With excellent approachability now as well as a long ageing potential, particularly the Riesling, these are worth seeking out, and with more than 30 wines in the range there’s plenty to explore.

See the Jean Sipp tasting notes and scores

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Crémant d’Alsace is France’s best-selling AOC sparkling wine after Champagne and it’s easy to see why with both appealing quality and affordability.

Scroll down for 22 Crémant d’Alsace tasting notes and scores

However, because the majority of bottles are consumed domestically – around 90% – only a select few bottles make it onto foreign shelves leaving this region perfect for exploration.

Officially recognised in 1976, the category represents a quarter of Alsace’s total wine production. Made in the same traditional method as Champagne, with the second fermentation in bottle, these wines not only offer complexity but also rounded flavours and fine bubbles.

Grapes grow in slightly drier, warmer and sunnier conditions compared to Champagne, resulting in riper grapes giving dry but lively and fruity wines with a light body, fine mousse and sometimes creamy palate.

Grapes must be hand harvested, usually in advance of neighbouring appellations, and can only be comprised of Pinot Blanc (the dominant varietal), Noir and Gris, together with the related Auxerrois, as well as Chardonnay and Riesling. For rosés, only Pinot Noir is allowed.

• Pinot Blanc provides freshness, elegance and crispness
• Riesling adds lively fruit flavours
• Pinot Gris adds body
• Chardonnay gives a fine, light touch

Only the first 100l of each 150kg of pressed grapes can be used and wine must be aged for a minimum of nine months on lees imparting a brioche, biscuit or toast characteristic to the dominant orchard fruit flavours.

The majority of production tends to be non-vintage bottlings though some estates produce special vintage, or single-vineyard, cuvées. The top four wines in this tasting were vintage specific, aged for longer and therefore slightly fuller in body and character. Three in total came from the 2013 vintage, all of which are still showing exceptional freshness proving the ageing capabilities of these wines.

The tasting showcased a range in dryness with many producers favouring extra brut, brut nature or brut zéro styles with little to no sugar added at the point of disgorgement. These allow the soft citrus and apple flavours to shine through while brut styles can impart honeyed lemon and tropical fruit flavours.

A wonderful attribute of Crémant d’Alsace is that they work just as well on their own as with food. A wine perfect to toast and sip at celebrations (serve between 5-7°C) but also fit for brunches, picnics, canapés and alongside fresh fish or cheese dishes.

An all-round quality and affordable option and worth tracking down for individual estates to ship overseas.

22 Crémant d’Alsace wines to try

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Long overlooked by wine lovers outside the region, Michigan is the sixth-largest wine-producing state in the US.

The name ‘Michigan’ comes from the Native American word for ‘big water’, and the state is bordered by freshwater lakes on every side save its southern border. It’s these lakes that make the state hospitable to vineyards, since the climate here is harsh. Temperatures can fall below freezing from December through February, sometimes into March.

The presence of the lakes, however, moderates the severe climate and makes growing wine grapes possible. Nearly all vineyards must be planted within 40km of a body of water to receive the lake’s insulating benefit. As one might expect in such a cold climate, some of the most successful wines are aromatic whites. Riesling has long been a staple, but it’s far from the only game in town.

As Master of Wine and Master Sommelier Doug Frost points out: ‘Riesling is what most people talk about here, but I’m also a fan of Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris. It’s that sense of purity. You can get riper versions from Alsace that have more mineral character, but that stunning delicacy and purity you can get from Pinot Blanc in Michigan is really attractive.’

Madeline Triffon MS concurs. With a 43-year wine career based in Michigan’s largest city of Detroit, including becoming the second woman (in 1987) to pass the Master Sommelier exams, Triffon has been called ‘Detroit’s First Lady of Wine’. ‘There is some shockingly good Pinot Blanc out there,’ she said. ‘If I were to short-list the varieties with real potential, it would be Pinot Blanc, Auxerrois, Pinot Noir, Blaufränkisch and Riesling.’

Restaurateur Amanda Danielson of Trattoria Stella in Traverse City notes that winemaking is evolving quickly. ‘In the past 10 to 15 years you’ve had winemakers making the wines that should be made in Michigan. They’re not trying to be Napa or Russian River. They’re having fun and not afraid to push the envelope on some lesser-known varieties.’

The lie of the land

Wine production in Michigan originated with French settlers in 1679, who made wine from local Vitis riparia grapes. Due to the harsh climate, viticulture struggled to take root in the state. There were several commercial wineries in the 19th century, but none survived Prohibition. Post-Prohibition winemaking was also somewhat checkered, since the most famous Michigan wine of the era was the sweet, sparkling red known as Cold Duck. Then production through the 1960s was dominated by hybrid varieties and by fortified wines.

The first winery to plant traditional European grape varieties (Vitis vinifera) in Michigan, in the mid-1970s, was Chateau Grand Traverse. The amount of vinifera planted has grown steadily since. Hybrid varieties such as Vidal Blanc and Vignoles are losing ground, but they are still important to the local industry, according to Dr Paolo Sabbatini of Michigan State University. They are most frequently found in the American Viticultural Area (AVA) called Tip of the Mitt, where it is just too cold to ripen vinifera adequately.

There are five main grape-growing areas in Michigan, whose soils throughout are sandy, well-drained glacial moraine, mixed at times with clay. Lake Michigan Shore AVA is in the southwest corner of the state. This is where Michigan’s first grapes were planted and it is still the region with the largest production. The smaller Fennville AVA is wholly contained within the Lake Michigan Shore.

Perhaps the most promising areas are located in northwestern Michigan on two peninsulas that jut into the lake. Leelanau Peninsula AVA is the larger of the two and separates Lake Michigan from Grand Traverse Bay. This peninsula is the home of the two largest wineries, Leelanau Wine Cellars and Chateau Grand Traverse, each producing more than 100,000 cases each year. Most of the other Michigan wineries are much smaller, producing 3,000 to 10,000 cases annually and selling most of it from the cellar door.

Producers to watch

Among the best of the smaller producers is Bryan Ulbrich at Left Foot Charley, who bottles about 5,000 cases annually under that label and does contract work for other growers who ship another 3,000 cases. The winery is a co-operative owned by 18 farmers who each tend vineyards ranging in size from 0.5ha-2ha. Ulbrich vinifies the grapes in his urban winery located in a refurbished mental hospital in Traverse City.

‘For the Riesling, it’s important to get into a Saar-like mentality,’ Ulbrich says of the Germanic balance he is trying to achieve. ‘I don’t like to deacidify, so I leave a bit of the natural residual sugar in most years and make truly dry Riesling only in the warm years.’

Another top-quality Northern Michigan producer is Sean O’Keefe at Mari Vineyards, located in the heart of Old Mission Peninsula AVA. This peninsula also projects into the Grand Traverse Bay, but it is much narrower than the Leelanau Peninsula.

O’Keefe is a second-generation winemaker: his father Edward founded Chateau Grand Traverse and planted the state’s first Riesling. In 2015, O’Keefe signed on with Mari Vineyards, where they farm an incredible 30 different varieties, including Teroldego, Refosco, Malvasia Bianca and Schioppettino along with the more common Riesling, Pinot Blanc and Cabernet Franc. All varieties are grown in Mari’s estate vineyards.

The Pinot Grigio is made in a ramato style, using some skin contact before pressing to harness colour and phenolic compounds. O’Keefe goes even further with the Friulano, which makes up 5% of his Pinot Bianco blend: he ferments the grapes for 48 days on the skins before pressing. Mari’s overall production has grown to 8,000-9,000 cases annually, split evenly between red and white wine.

‘It isn’t like you have to work hard anymore to find good Michigan wine – there is just so much out there’

The spirit of experimentation in Michigan, and the desperation provoked by the extreme climate mean an ample range of wines are produced. Many are available only locally, although most wineries ship. As Madeline Triffon notes, ‘It isn’t like you have to work hard anymore to find good Michigan wine – there is just so much out there.’

Charles Curtis MW’s top Michigan wines

Italian Wine Crossword

This week’s crossword is all about Italian wine – from Barolo to Brunello and Pinot Grigio to Prosecco. You might even find some of the answers on Decanter.com!



Instructions:

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• Click twice on a cell to toggle between across and down
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• Start typing in the word
• Hit enter when you are done typing in the word
• The word will turn green or red if you got it right or wrong
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Pinot Grigio is one of the most popular Italian wine styles and, while the grape shares the same genetic fingerprint with one of Alsace’s noble varieties, Pinot Gris, its different spelling and origination portend unique styles of white wine.

But Italian Pinot Grigio hasn’t always been made in the dry, untinted fashion that we know today.

Welcome to the world of ramato wine, a style that is still made in its historic heartland of Friuli and is also getting growing attention from winemakers elsewhere.

How is ramato different from rosé and orange wines? 

When Pinot Grigio grapes are crushed and the skins are allowed to spend time with the juice, a teasing, tactile texture and coppery hue results in a distinct wine style called ramato. It comes from the word ‘rame’ which means ‘copper’ in Italian.

Rosé and orange wines can also exhibit colours that range from light blush to salmon and deep amber, as a result of skin contact. But colour alone cannot determine the wine style.

What distinguishes ramato from a rosé or orange wine is that ramato is a product of historical winemaking style from Friuli, Italy, made with Pinot Grigio grapes.

Rosés are made from a number of black grapes and orange wines are made from white grapes throughout the world.

History

While Pinot Grigio has a distinctively Italian style, the grape hails from France, where it is called Pinot Gris, and is thought to have been introduced to Italy in the mid-19th century.

Eventually, the wine found success in the northeastern regions spanning Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Veneto and Trentino-Alto Adige.

‘Ramato is a historical style of producing Pinot Grigio in the Friuli-Venezia-Giulia region of Italy, where Pinot Grigio has been grown for hundreds of years,’ said Kirk Peterson, a writer, educator and certified Italian wine ambassador in the US.

Traditionally, the wines that exhibited colour were derived from contact with Pinot Grigio’s pigmented skins.

‘It was made in this style up until the 1960s, when producer Santa Margherita began exporting Pinot Grigio in the style most consumers are familiar with today,’ said Henry Davar, Italian wine expert and educator. This new dry, untinted style became one of Italy’s biggest wine exports.

But some Friulian wine producers continued to make ramato, retaining the wine’s historical relevance to the region.

And, while ramato is inextricably tied to Friuli, the style is also made in other parts of Italy and has recently emerged in the new world.

Producers in the US, for example, include Jolie-Laide Windsor Oaks Vineyard and Barrett Family Wines in California, and Channing Daughters in New York.

How ramato wines are made

How does ramato gets its copper colour from Pinot Grigio?

It’s important to understand that Pinot Grigio is not a white-skinned grape at all; its skins have a rosey-grey tone, hence the name gris or grigio, meaning grey in French and Italian respectively.

‘Pinot Gris [Grigio] – the “grey” Pinot – is a colour mutation of Pinot Noir and the berries have a pinkish if not entirely ‘grey’ complexion,’ said Davar.

‘Pinot Grigio is usually the easy-going contemporary conventional white wine, and ramato is the copper-hued Italian farmhouse style.’

Ramato’s copper-like lustre is attributed to the extended maceration of the must on the skins during the winemaking process.

This also adds to its unique flavors, aromas, structural complexity and tannic mass. But colour also comes from the natural pigments of the grapes that seep into the juice while they are still on the vine.

Producers like Vie di Romans retain the colour and aromatic compounds by preventing contact with oxygen during vinification.

‘The added skin contact does wonders by adding another dimension of depth and savoury drinkability to Pinot Grigio,’ said Peterson. ‘Ramato has flavours and aromas of orchard fruit skin and acacia flowers with a mineral, tactile finish.’

Some producers lean toward short maceration to achieve fresh and lighter wines, which often have a slight peach tinge. Others favour longer maceration, which yields richer, autumnal shades.

In Friuli, Scarbolo produces two types of ramati that showcase both ends of the spectrum.

ILRamato spends 24 hours on the skins before fermentation. This brief skin contact grants the wine a sheer pigment, with freshness and minerality.

The Ramato XL is fermented on the skins for two weeks and aged in French oak barrels for two years, resulting in a deep orange tone with elevated body and structure.

Food-friendly wines

‘Because of the added textural component [that] the skin contact bestows, ramati are tremendously food-friendly and provide an excellent match to dishes as diverse as Prosciutto di San Daniele, crustaceans, white meats, Friulian frico and a diverse array of Asian cuisines,’ said Peterson, who is also a sommelier.

‘It’s [ramato] for the wine lover who wants more from their Pinot Grigio.’

Other producers of ramato in Friuli include Le Vigne di Zamò, Specogna, Radikon, Stocco, Attems and Damijan.

See also: Recioto della Valpolicella vs Amarone – What’s the difference?

Styles evolve in Alsace as everywhere else. The climate changes, fashion demands new flavours, growers find different solutions. Pinot Gris used to be a rare grape in Alsace, with only 2% or 3% of the vineyard area. Then fashion swung its way in the 1980s and 1990s, and within a couple of decades or so it was up to 15%.

Scroll down for Margaret Rand’s top 17 Pinot Gris wines from Alsace

That’s Pinot Gris, of course, not Pinot Grigio. Alsace is Pinot Gris as it ought to be, not some insipid pretence at wine for those who don’t like the flavour of wine. (There are serious Italian versions, of course, and those people have a lot of preconceptions to overcome.) Alsace Pinot Gris is probably the reference for the grape. But references evolve, too.

Alsace as a whole is edging towards drier wines, having given us sweeter and sweeter wines in the 1990s and 2000s whether we wanted them or not. The irony is that the region is trying to make drier wines at a time when the climate is determined to give riper and riper grapes.

Pinot Gris is in the middle of the Alsace sweetness spectrum. Riesling is mostly made dry unless it’s sweet; Gewurztraminer is mostly sweet unless it’s dry. Pinot Gris can be either, according to the year – but, say the growers, it’s getting more and more difficult to make it dry. But look at the Zind-Humbrecht example below: four grams per litre of residual sugar and 13.5% alcohol. Not only dry, but reasonably light. Yet Zind-Humbrecht was in the forefront of the movement towards ever-greater ripeness and ever-greater power. Okay, it’s a 2012, and that was a vintage of slow sugar accumulation, but still. It’s a sign of change.

‘The best can be the enemy of the good,’ says Olivier Zind-Humbrecht MW. ‘By trying too hard you can end up with unbalanced wines. In Alsace that means picking too ripe, beating the record, and doing as much as you can. But too much is not necessarily good.’

Now he wants elegance and freshness; but that’s never just a question of picking earlier. What you need is physiological ripeness at the same time as sugar ripeness, rather than afterwards, and that long experience of getting grapes really, really ripe has taught him how to get them physiologically ripe earlier, before the sugar rockets.

Even so, there’s only a short window of optimum ripeness with Pinot Gris: leave it a couple of days too long, and you have too much opulence, not enough acidity. Let the yield get too high and quality suffers instantly: it’s as tricky a grape to get right as Pinot Noir.

The 2013 vintage was another year of slow sugar accumulation, and 2014 was also a year of restraint and good acidity. If you, like me, were finding Alsace had become a little too lush, a little top-heavy, then now is the time to come back to it, because (oh, blessed swing of the pendulum!) it’s coming back to us.

Margaret Rand is an award-winning wine writer and author (with Oz Clarke) of Grapes & Wines (Pavillion, 2015, revised)

These wines were the best of those tasted, non-blind, at a trade tasting in London in September 2015.

Margaret’s top Alsace Pinot Gris wine recommendations:

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You can't mention Greywacke without mentioning Cloudy Bay...

And mentioning Cloudy Bay brings history – the weight of New Zealand’s fate once seemingly hung on its shoulders.

Of course, brands such as Brancott and Villa Maria have more than played their parts in the high-volume arena, but Cloudy Bay was at the forefront of the country’s transformation into an international power in the ‘fine wine’ sphere, particularly in the case of its Sauvignon Blanc.

Now that its reputation is firmly in the bag – wine exports have been increasing every year for the last two decades and more, and New Zealand claims one of the highest average bottle prices of all wine-producing countries – certain winemakers have begun to explore alternative expressions of the styles the country’s success has been built on.

Enter Kevin Judd. The man who spent 25 years making Cloudy Bay – and therefore a key player in New Zealand’s formative years – established his own label, Greywacke, in 2009. He doesn’t own his own winery, instead making use of the facilities at Dog Point Winery in the lower Brancott Valley.

His label is named after the sedimentary greywacke pebbles which are evident in the main Rapaura vineyard but, as Kevin was keen to point out at a tasting earlier this week, ‘Greywacke isn’t about a bit of earth’. Asked how he selects his grapes, Kevin sums up the whole spirit of Greywacke in one sentence: ‘I do select, but there’s no recipe’. A winemaker who sits back and lets the wine do the talking.

And the results are intriguing. His winemaking may be seen as a brave step too far by some; if it ain’t broke, why try and fix it? However, his time at Cloudy Bay has clearly given him the freedom to experiment, and this is what he brings to Greywacke. The range of seven wines is a foray into a world of barrel-aged Rieslings, natural fermentations and just a bit of luck.

Kevin was in the UK to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Greywacke, and to mark the occasion we were treated to two examples of each of the seven wines – the first vintage of each wine, and the most recent. It was interesting to see not only how well they can age, but also how he has refined the winemaking processes for each after years of trial and error.

Greywacke: Then and now

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Cloudy Bay: Producer profile and latest releases

Exciting wines to seek out from this pocket of northern Italy, plus producers to watch...

Alto Adige is one of the smallest winegrowing regions in Italy, yet one of the most commercially appealing.

Between an Alpine and Mediterranean climate, Alto Adige’s winemaking area comprises just 5,400ha of vineyards. This has risen by approximately 400 to 500ha over the past 10 years, and has the potential to increase further. Vineyards range from 200 to 1,000 metres above sea level and the region boasts more than 300 days of sun per year.

Scroll down to see Aldo’s best wines from Alto Adige

Cool and warm influences

The Alps protect the region from the cold northerly winds and have been credited with playing a major role in helping vines to thrive, according to Barbara Raifer of the Laimburg Research Center.

That said, Alto Adige is also influenced by warmer temperatures flowing up through Lake Garda, especially in July and August when Bolzano often soars to temperatures as high as those in Florence, which are some of Italy’s hottest.

Some believe that this leaves Alto Adige exposed to the consequences of climate change. Grapes in the area are generally being harvested two to three weeks earlier (up until late August) than just 20 years ago, for example. Several producers have sought higher ground for their vineyards and this trend is perhaps most visible with Pinot Noir.

Approximately 30 years ago, this noble grape could be planted directly above Egna in the Bassa Atesina. But today that area is primarily planted to ancient red wine grape Lagrein, believed to be a native of South Tyrol.

Winemaking

Partly as a reaction to challenges posed by climate change, blending has become more popular, having been pioneered by the Counts Goëss-Enzenberg of Manincor.

One outstanding example is Appius, a DOC Alto Adige wine and the top selection of Hans Terzer at Sanct Valentin; its fourth vintage, the 2013, consisting of 55% Chardonnay and 25% Sauvignon Blanc, plus Pinot Bianco and Pinot Grigio.

New French oak is often favoured for premium wines in the area, while winemakers have put more energy into examining their top vineyard sites in recent years.

Best sites

Mazon is the most renowned ‘grand cru’-level site for Pinot Noir wines, with top examples including Trattmann from Girlan. It lies on the left bank of the Adige river in the southernmost Bassa Atesina sub-region, between 300-400 metres above sea level. Clay and dolomite limestone soils dominate.

The Isarco Valley, at between 400 and 800 metres, is home to white wines of a remarkable purity, such as those of Kofererhof, with vines planted on weathered, rocky soils composed of quartz and mica .

Producers to watch

In the challenge for complexity, Alois Lageder is the undeniable leader of organic and biodynamic viticulture. Meanwhile, Cantina Terlano is changing minds about whites, producing extraordinary age-worthy wines.

Several young producers, such as Martin Gojer of Campill, are adding complexity to Schiava, the most widely-planted grape and which usually produces a deliciously dry, fruity wine with a tremendously easy drinking style. It is vinified without destemming and has the potential to become a sort of ‘Italian Jura’.

From the archive: Alto Adige wine – Back to the future

Aldo’s best wines from Alto Adige:

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Sauvignon Blanc reigns supreme and Chardonnay is well established, but an exciting range of other white grape varieties is taking root in NZ, reports Rebecca Gibb MW. Be among the first to see the results of our panel tasting for alternative New Zealand white wines...

Is there no sating the appetite for New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc? The flamboyant and vibrant style that put the country on the world wine map in the mid-1980s continues to have a thirsty fan base.

The country has become synonymous with Sauvignon Blanc, but it hasn’t always been this way. It was only in 2002 that it became the most-planted variety, taking the crown from Chardonnay, a title it had only inherited from the prolific hybrid Müller-Thurgau a few years earlier.

Despite Sauvignon Blanc’s status as the most important variety in New Zealand today, the country’s vineyards are far from monochromatic. Instead there is an ever-more colourful kaleidoscope of alternative varieties occupying New Zealand’s soils.

Chenin Blanc is recorded in the early 1900s, while Gewürztraminer took root more than half a century ago. Meanwhile, Pinot Gris was praised as long ago as 1906 by the government’s first viticulturist, Romeo Bragato; though it would take another century for its star to rise.

From just 32ha in 1997, it covered 2,369ha in 2017 and is now the third most-planted white variety after Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay, finding a home in the arid, southerly extremes of Central Otago.

Scroll down to see the top wines

New energy

However, a new wave of experimental planting is re-energising New Zealand’s white producers – including Galicia’s grape Albariño, predominantly in the warmer, more humid North Island; and Austria’s signature white, Grüner Veltliner, concentrated in the cool South Island. There’s also voluptuous Viognier, vigorous Verdelho and more, for the intrepid wine drinker.

That said, the so-called ‘alternative’ movement is tiny in comparison with Australia, where Italian and Spanish varieties stand alongside Shiraz and Chardonnay vines. More than eight out of 10 litres of wine that leaves New Zealand’s ports is Sauvignon Blanc; but this is an innovative young country that isn’t afraid to fund groundbreaking research and adopt pioneering technologies; with 5,000 grape varieties in the world, make no mistake, New Zealand will be taking its exploration of Vitis vinifera further.

Quick link: View all 94 tasting notes & scores from this panel tasting

The rising tide of alternatives is providing a more colourful and appetising New Zealand wine scene. The country’s maritime climate is well suited to producing aromatic whites with vibrant fruit flavours, scintillating acidity and moderate alcohol levels. And for Sauvignon Blanc loyalists? It’s just one small step from fresh, fruity and unoaked Sauvignon to fresh, fruity and unoaked Albariño, Grüner and friends – not one giant leap.

The scores

94 wines tasted

Entry criteria: Producers and UK agents were asked to submit their latest release, dry white wines from New Zealand – either varietals (85%) or blends – except Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. Two wines per producer (but one Riesling only) were permitted.

Exceptional 0

Outstanding 8

Highly Recommended 33

Recommended 45

Commended 8

Fair 0

Poor 0

Faulty 0

Continue reading below

The summary

High quality and the diversity of grapes and styles made this a fascinating tasting, with plenty of choice for lovers of fresh, aromatic whites, says Rebecca Gibb MW…

It is rare to feel refreshed after a 94-wine marathon, but that’s how all three judges felt at the end of this panel tasting. ‘It’s staggering how New Zealand can produce such absolutely amazing aromatic wines with great flavours,’ said Roger Jones in the post-match appraisal.

Earlier in the day, the team had not been overly enthused when faced with nearly 40 glasses of Pinot Gris, but there were plenty of judiciously made, textural examples from the 2015, 2016 and even the challenging 2017 vintage, which led to three Outstanding and 10 Highly Recommended awards among the high scores.

Quality exceeded all expectations. Melanie Brown, founder of The New Zealand Cellar, said: ‘Having watched New Zealand struggle to determine a Pinot Gris style over the years, finally seeing Gris with flavour and structure – and with good acidity – was astonishing. Gone are the days of tasting flabby, uninspiring alternative whites. These wines were testament to a quickly evolving and dynamic industry, which is capable of retaining its premium reputation beyond Sauvignon.’

Jones revealed that Pinot Gris was an important variety for diners at his restaurant, The Harrow at Little Bedwyn. ‘We have had a huge influx of people looking for Pinot Gris from the New World,’ he said. ‘Quality-wise there was a lot of lunchtime Pinot Gris here, but there were enough high-quality entries too. When Pinot Gris has texture and a bit of bottle age, my customers love it and we need to introduce more people to it.’

While there was a palpable sense of anticipation when the Albariño and Grüner Veltliner flight was poured, the Albariños failed to generate real excitement – though we felt that the variety does have a promising future, particularly in the warmer climes of the North Island. Brown explained: ‘They are new and niche, so don’t have the presence and conviction yet. In a few more years they will have developed an edge that will allow them to attain a higher level.’

A handful of Grüners showed well and offered value, although wines from the 2017 vintage lacked aromatic and palate richness, with firm acid the driving force. Jones was still pleased. ‘They are clean, vibrant and quite exciting. I haven’t had a Grüner Veltliner that excites me from anywhere other than Austria – until today.’

The sheer diversity of New Zealand’s vineyards and the expression of different grapes across the country was impressive. A range of varieties and blends shared the Outstanding podium: Pinot Gris, Riesling, Riesling-Grüner and Marsanne-Roussane. While Marlborough dominates, representing 68% of NZ vineyards, there was a good spread of plaudits across regions from Kumeu in the north to Central Otago in the south.

A number of varieties have made their home around the country, including Pinot Gris, but there are climatic differences across New Zealand, which are reflected in the choice of grapes planted. The warmer-climate grapes Viognier and Marsanne showed that they can excel in Hawkes Bay and Gisborne in the North Island; while the finest Rieslings and Grüner Veltliners are rightly situated on the cool South Island (and in Martinborough).

There is certainly value for money to be found with three of the eight wines rated Oustanding and 12 Highly Recommended wines costing less than £15. At this price, it won’t cost you the earth to go to the end of the world to discover the adventurous side of New Zealand wine.

Our tasters each pick their top 3 wines

Melanie Brown

Brown joined the team at The Providores in 2006, where she helped to develop the largest list of premium New Zealand wine in the UK. She launched her own specialist retailer, The New Zealand Cellar, in 2014, followed by a wine bar and shop in London, where she curates a unique selection of New Zealand wine events.

Millton Vineyards, Te Arai Chenin Blanc, Gisborne 2016

I’ve always been seduced by this wine, which is opulent but with poise and tension. James Millton is New Zealand’s biodynamics pioneer. One of the most texturally pleasing New Zealand wines I’ve tasted. 95/100 Drink 2018-2021

Mount Edward Riesling, Central Otago 2017

Duncan Forsyth, the winemaker and Riesling obsessive, farms organically and produces beautiful single-vineyard wines. This has depth and brightness in equal measure, with purity. 90 Drink 2018-2024

Seifried, Grüner Veltliner, Nelson 2017

Wowzers: bright, clean and superbly approachable! The Seifried family is from Austria, so its no wonder their Austrian varietals are starting to come into their own, and at such value. 92 Drink 2018-2020

Rebecca Gibb MW

Gibb spent six years living in New Zealand, where she became a Master of Wine, graduating top of her class and winning the Madame Bollinger medal for excellence in tasting. A former winner of the Louis Roederer Emerging Wine Writer, her first book, The Wines of New Zealand, will be published this year.

Prophet’s Rock, Pinot Gris, Central Otago 2015

Pure, poised and pretty. Paul Pujol draws on his winemaking experience in Alsace to craft this finely scented Pinot Gris. It offers delicacy, balance and – despite a lick of juicy sweetness on entry – there’s a sense of savouriness. 95 Drink 2018-2023

Burn Cottage, Riesling-Grüner Veltliner, Central Otago 2015

This 54% Riesling, 46% Grüner blend is a rich and pristine style; its edges are starting to soften with time in bottle. 95 Drink 2018-2020

Trinity Hill, Marsanne-Viognier, Hawkes Bay 2016

Mr Honeysuckle meets Miss Apricot on the Gimblett Gravels in this voluptuous yet well-proportioned Rhôneinspired blend. Aged on lees for a whopping 14 months, the result is a sumptuous, suave expression. 95 Drink 2018-2020

Roger Jones

Jones and his wife Sue own Michelin-starred restaurant The Harrow at Little Bedwyn. He consults, writes and travels extensively, hosting food and wine matching experiences. He set up The Tri Nations Wine Challenge to promote the wines of South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, which will take place in Hawkes Bay next year.

Kumeu River, Pinot Gris, Kumeu 2016

More famous for their Chardonnay, but the Brajkovich family certainly knows how to make stylish, elegant, classy wines – and this Pinot Gris is up there with the very best. 96 Drink 2018-2022

Escarpment, Pinot Gris, Martinborough 2015

I have known Larry ‘McPinot’ McKenna for many years and this Pinot Gris showcases his capacity to make stunning white wines too – and at a great value price. 95 Drink 2018-2024

Burn Cottage, Riesling-Grüner Veltliner, Central Otago 2015

Farmed biodynamically on a tiny site where it was not suitable to plant Pinot Noir. Rich and energetic, this wine will age beautifully. Ted Lemon of Littorai is the consultant winemaker here. 95 Drink 2018-2020

Alternative New Zealand whites: the facts

White plantings in 2017 Sauvignon Blanc 22,230ha; Chardonnay 3,114ha; Pinot Gris 2,369ha; Riesling 721ha; Gewürztraminer 229ha; Sauvignon Gris 109ha; Viognier 97ha; Semillon 46ha; Grüner Veltliner 44ha; Muscat varieties 31ha; Albariño 28ha; Arneis 23ha; Chenin Blanc 21ha; Pinot Blanc 9ha; Verdelho 7ha

Total New Zealand vineyard size 37,129ha

Wineries 677

Production 253m litres

Sources: NZ Winegrower Annual Reports: Vineyard Register Report 2017-2020

New Zealand: know your vintages

2017 Difficult season with poor summer. Wet and warm autumn led to botrytis pressure. Early picked crops were most successful. A very small crop in Central Otago.

2016 Record crop. Warm, often humid. Harvest period was dry and sunny. Excellent whites and highly attractive reds.

2015 Dry and warm. Small, low-yielding crop after cool flowering. Ripe, perfumed and fully flavoured wines.

2014 Record early vintage. Warm summer with little disease pressure. Excellent across the board.

2013 Touted as the vintage of a lifetime with a warm, incredibly dry summer and autumn. Concentrated, ripe wines across the North and South Islands.

2012 Cool summer led to a late harvest with slow ripening of whites. Intense, vivacious whites, but too cool for later-ripening reds.

Top alternative New Zealand whites from the panel tasting:

View all the tasting notes & scores from the panel tasting

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Mature New Zealand wines from the cellar

Decanter’s experts from around the world nominated the best Pinot Gris or best Pinot Grigio in their respective regions. Then we asked Andrew Jefford to taste them all and select his favourite 35 wines.

Pinot Noir, one of the most genetically influential grape varieties, mutates easily. The pink-berried Pinot Gris is one such mutation, first recorded in the early 18th century. It’s a true international.

We mainly know it under its name in Alsace, Pinot Gris, or as the Italian Pinot Grigio, but it’s Pinot Beurot in Burgundy (where it’s a minor rival to Chardonnay), Ruländer or Grauer Burgunder in Germany and Austria, and Szürkebarát in Hungary.

Italy, not France, has the largest plantings (6,600ha and rising, compared to the French total of 2,617ha*); California, too, has almost twice as much as France (5,223ha), followed closely by Germany (4,481ha). Even Australia’s total exceeds that of France (2,836ha). Hungary (1,522ha), New Zealand (1,501ha) and Oregon (1,107ha) are all major sources.

Our tasting was similarly international, with wines from 11 different nations. France’s Alsace was the clear winner, with eight out of the nine top-scoring wines. For all that, Pinot Gris is only Alsace’s third most-planted grape variety (after Riesling and Gewurztraminer). Beyond Alsace, New Zealand is looking like the country whose growing conditions are best suited to Pinot Gris.

Within Italy, it is the northeastern mountain lands of Alto Adige and border hills of Collio that seem to craft the finest wines, rather than the fertile plains of Friuli and the Veneto.

That’s for a palate like mine, of course, which relishes character and challenge. Soft-contoured white wines of easy-going neutrality are extremely popular too, though, and it is these on which Italian planting supremacy is based.

Sugar levels varied between dry and 61g/l, and in most cases the alcohol levels were 13.5% or more (only 18 wines out of the 72 submissions had an alcohol level of 13% or less).

We don’t generally scrutinise acidity levels, but those of Pinot Gris tend to be low. There is, in other words, a necessary richness of style to low-cropping, ambitiously made Pinot Gris. I see no point in repressing this. That’s not to say, of course, that the wine need be torpid or unbalanced.

The wines I most enjoyed varied in style from unctuous and voluptuous to aerial and stony; what they all had in common was allusive force, naturalness of articulation and the innate, often perfumed sensual exuberance which the variety always exhibits at its best. When these qualities are tightly gathered around a heady, vinous core, the balance can be perfect, even if the acidity is low.

Pinot Gris of this sort is a wonderful food wine with almost limitless matching possibilities, providing you are informed about sugar levels: a long-term Alsace failing that new labelling legislation should address.

Jefford’s favourite 35 Pinot Gris wines:

*These figures, taken from Wine Grapes by Robinson, Harding and Vouillamoz, are based on pre-2010 data, so totals are now likely to be higher for all areas

Andrew Jefford salutes a region facing - and embracing - change.

After last week’s jaunt around Burgundy, I accompanied students on a five-day tour through Alsace. There were surprises in store.

Generation Grand Cru

Here are some words I never thought I’d hear – at least at this famous address in Ribeauvillé. “I’m speaking a lot about Grand Cru,” said Anne Trimbach. “It’s the way to go to understand the beauty of Alsace. I know it’s a bit complicated, but it can only help Alsace. We have such a diversity of soils and it’s the best way to understand that.” And Premier Cru? “Let’s hope it happens.”

Wow! Dial back a decade and a half; I was sitting across the table from her great-uncle Hubert. “We are opposed,” he had told me then, when I asked about Grand Cru. “There is not enough discipline; yields are too high; quality is questionable; prices are ridiculous and criminal … This is a political time-bomb. No, no and no.” Hubert is, happily, still with us; he’s in the office every week. What, I asked Anne, did Hubert make of this change of heart? “With age,” she said, “the older generation gets more mellow; he accepted it well. My father worked on him for a few years.”

Ah … Anne’s father is Pierre Trimbach, the company’s winemaker; it turns out he had been a secret enthusiast for many years, nursing a dream of a collection of Grand Cru Rieslings. “We never do a revolution here,” smiled Anne. “We just evolve.” There is indeed now a Trimbach Grand Cru Collection, featuring the company’s new purchases in Schlossberg and Geisberg; I wouldn’t bet against Clos St Hune (from Rosacker) joining them one day, though there are publically no plans for this as yet.

It’s a rout: fellow long-term refusniks Hugel and Léon Beyer are moving in the same direction. Hugel has its Grossi Laüe series (the equivalent of ‘Grand Cru’ in Alsatian dialect) while its Schoenenbourg wines have, I believe, been submitted for Grand Cru approval from 2015; while Marc Beyer said that his company also intended to use Grand Cru in future where relevant. I applaud the fact that the region’s merchant grandees are finally getting behind the Grand Cru system for their domain wines. They will benefit; the system will flourish … and, of course, economics will dictate that a hierarchy of Grands Crus and Grand Cru producers will take shape. Thus the market will meet the challenge that the legislators dodged.

By the way, Anne Trimbach also pointed out how much more motivated and engaged young vineyard workers are in Alsace today compared to a decade or two ago when such labour was “just a job”. Surely the journey towards expression, nuance and an understanding of site represented by the Grand Cru system has something to do with this?

Sec means sec

The obligatory labelling of dry Alsace wines as ‘Sec’ is on its way. I asked Marc Beyer (who says he produces fine dry Alsace wines “for the gastronomy orchestra”) if he was happy about this. “No,” he replied, with pained dignity. “It should not be necessary. Alsace wine should be dry.” This was also what Marc Hugel had in mind when he called the coming scheme “a joke” last year.

I think consumers will greatly welcome it. Remember, though, that the use of Demi-Sec, Moelleux and Doux will be optional, in contrast to the obligatory ‘Sec’. When I asked producers if they were thinking of using these other terms, there was a shaking of heads, especially about Demi-Sec, which was felt to sound vaguely pejorative. Admittedly the best solution of all would have been to adopt an ‘index’ scale to indicate relative sweetness graphically, as used by Zind-Humbrecht and others – but this proved too complex. ‘Sec’ is still better than nothing.

Cork blues

Thanks to Decanter’s Alsace specialist Thierry Meyer, my students and I had the chance to enjoy a dinner of older Alsace wines at the exceptional Taverne Alsacienne in Ingersheim. The wines came in part from Thierry’s own L’Oenothèque Alsace and partly from the local Confrérie de St Etienne, so they had been well stored. There were some stars (notably a graceful and limpid 1983 Cuvée Frédéric Emile from Trimbach, a meaty and balsam-like 1971 Tokay Réserve Exceptionnelle from Kuentz-Bas and a truly Tokaji-like 1990 Riesling Clos St Landelin Sélection des Grains Nobles from René Muré) but the manifold failings of cork suppliers between 1960 and 1990 cost us dearly, with five corked bottles out of 18 and others oxidatively spoiled.

There has been some movement on closures in Alsace: both the Barthelmé brothers at Albert Mann and the Blanck cousins at Paul Blanck use screwcaps for some of their range as do co-ops like Beblenheim, and Marc Hugel says that his decision to switch to Diam corks was “the most clever decision I took in my life … The nightmare is now behind us.”

My view is that all Alsace Riesling, Muscat, Sylvaner, Pinot Blanc, Edelzwicker and Gentil wines would be best bottled under screwcap. The evolution of these Alsace whites in time, after all, relates to a kind of expansion, refinement and modulation of their fruit characters and their intricate fruit perfumes: such wines benefit most from the fruit-and-scent preservation which screwcap delivers.

By contrast, I’d chose Diam corks for the texturally richer (and sometimes frankly tannic) Pinot Gris and Gewürztraminer, where the developmental trajectory is closer to that of the classic oaked white: a broadening of flavour and a metamorphosis of fruit towards vinosity and structural power, accompanied by creamy, nutty, mushroomy, truffle-like or meaty forms of richness. Clean, reliable cork favours this kind of evolution.

Pinot breakthrough?

Pinot production in Alsace remains a secondary specialism (around 10% of Alsace production is red), but several producers mentioned how climate change is making ambitious Pinot production increasingly viable. The 2015 vintage, too, broke new barriers for Alsace’s Pinot Noir producers. If you’ve never tried Alsace Pinot Noir, 2015 is the vintage to start: here are a couple of notes, followed by a selection of the rest of the week’s outstanding bottles.

Pinot Noir

Léon Beyer, Comtes d’Eguisheim, Pinot Noir 2015

Only the third vintage of the Comtes d’Eguisheim Pinot produced (after 2003 and 2009), this has poised, billowing fresh-fruit scents with vivacious redcurrant and smoky cherry on the palate: structured, deep, graceful and articulate, a complete success (and made with 100% whole bunch, too). 92 points / 100

Albert Mann, Grand ‘H’, Pinot Noir 2015

From 40-year-old vines in Hengst, and made with 50 per cent whole bunch material in this vintage, this wine is deep red in colour, with dense red fruits and plenty of meaty richness. On the palate, the wine is deep, dense, ringing, structured and vivid: more Gevrey in style than Chambolle, with meaty flesh and ripe tannins. I’ve never tasted a better Alsace Pinot Noir than this. 94

Whites

Blanck, Grand Cru Schlossberg, Riesling 2014

Pure, fresh, planty and pungent scents, and a scything palate packed with bracing limey fruit. Intense, pure, balanced and complete. Philippe Blanck also showed us the 2008 to illustrate some of the ageing potential of this wine. The aromas had modulated to talc and orange flower, but the palate was still racy, delicate and fine. 93

Albert Boxler, Grand Cru Sommerberg ‘D’ (Dudenstein), Riesling 2015

Jean Boxler’s 2015 wines maintain his dauntingly high standards. The Sommerberg ‘D’, from a small parcel containing old vines planted after 1945, is a masterful wine of great intensity, complexity and energy: almost explosive in the mouth. It is both opulent and vivacious: a typically Alsatian combination, but rarely realised with the drama and clarity of expression that you find here. 96

Cave Coopérative de Ribeauvillé, Grand Cru Altenberg de Bergheim, Riesling 2013

White-green in colour; orchard fruits and spring woodland scents; pure, precise, clean and dry, yet long and structured, too, from this sunny clay-soiled site. The proof that co-operatives can make excellent Grand Cru wines, too. 90

Schoffit, Clos St Theobald, Grand Cru Rangen, Pinot Gris 2010

Aromatic creamy softness, then vivid, smoky and rich on the palate. Dense, thick-textured and complex, with unusually vivid acidity to balance out the 37 g/l of sugar; a saline edge; then a long, almost malty finish. Grand wine from the region’s most astonishing single site. 94

Trimbach, Cuvée des Seigneurs de Ribeauvillé, Gewurztraminer 2011

A richly dry Gewurz based on fruit from from Muhlfurst (this Hunawihr vineyard close to Rosacker is rumoured to be in pole position for Premier Cru status) and Rosacker itself: elegant, fine-lined and almost minty fresh in scent, with sumptuous, creamy flavours which merely hint at rose petal. Proof that fine Gewurztraminer can be restrained and elegant. 92 

Trimbach, Clos Ste Hune, Riesling 2011

Clos St Hune is an unassuming, gently sloping Hunawihr hillside vineyard with no wall around it and no church at the top of the hill (the famous label, of course, portrays an elegant fantasy). The scents are quiet but evocative: an apple orchard; wet stones. Perfumed and lush on the palate, yet stony and long, too, with the apple here modulating towards apricot. Refreshing, enticing, supremely drinkable as well as intellectually satisfying. 94

Weinbach, Muscat 2016

There is no ‘simple’ Alsace wine which is harder to make well than Muscat. The Weinbach version (a blend of 70 per cent Ottonel with 30 per cent Muscat d’Alsace) is deftly exemplary, with admirable freshness and purity of scent and with pristine, fresh, lifted flavours, neither grassy nor catty. Together with Riesling, Muscat is the wine which perfectly illustrates the northern side of Alsace’s nature (compared to the region’s exotic ‘sotherners’: Pinot Gris and Gewurztraminer – at which, by the way, Weinbach also excels). 91

Zind Humbrecht, Heimbourg, Pinot Gris 2013

A brilliant dry Pinot Gris (just 6.9 /l residual sugar) which shows how this variety in Alsace can, in the right hands, acquire the density and force of personality of a red wine. It’s still pale, but the haunting aromas allude to meat, grain, smoke and both fresh and dried orchard fruits. On the palate the wine is salty, rich, packed with almost every fruit essence you can think of: an astonishing roar from this west-facing limestone vineyard. 95 

… and three quotations to finish

“To make a litre of Schlossberg, you need a litre of sweat.” Jacky Barthelmé, Albert Mann

“The best wine is the one you take a second glass of.” Marc Beyer, Léon Beyer

“Wines are like children: you need to watch them closely, but not to interefere all the time.” Catherine Faller, Weinbach

More Andrew Jefford columns on Decanter.com:

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What makes it a wine legend?

Zind-Humbrecht, Clos St-Urbain Pinot Gris SGN 1989

Bottles produced 1,140

Blend 100% Pinot Gris

Yield N/A

Alcohol 11.6%

Release price N/A

Bottle price today £189

A legend because…

The Clos St-Urbain has always been one of Zind-Humbrecht’s most prized sites, excelling with Pinot Gris. Even the more basic Pinot Gris bottlings are rich and spicy, while the Sélection de Grains Nobles (SGN) wines from here are off the charts in terms of richness and opulence.

Léonard Humbrecht was a campaigner for low yields, and this conviction, as well as the quality of the estate vineyards, accounts for the superb quality of his top wines. His son Olivier always seeks maximum ripeness in the vineyards, and prefers not to intervene in the fermentation process. If the yeasts stumble to a halt and leave residual sugar in a wine, he is untroubled so long as the wine is balanced. With an SGN, residual sugar (in this case 172 grams per litre) is of course sought after, but the wine must be harmonious if it is to avoid being clumsy. He has no interest in producing ultra-ripe SGNs for the sake of richness alone, and in 1994 created a further category called Trie Spéciale to denote wines made from grapes with a potential alcohol of about 30%.

Looking back

The Humbrechts have been wine growers in Alsace since the 17th century. Léonard Humbrecht, who was born in 1935, put the estate on the map, but it was his son Olivier who won its wines international recognition. By the end of the 1980s he was in charge of the winemaking, and yet managed to scoop up a Master of Wine qualification in his spare time, becoming the first French MW in 1989.

The vintage

Other than localised hail in mid-July, the summer was sensational, and yields were generous. Sugar levels were very high and a potential alcohol level of 15% was far from unusual; in some cases the grapes were as high as 26% in potential alcohol. This caused problems for estates focusing on dry wines, but it was a glorious vintage for the production of sweet wines. Zind-Humbrecht produced a number of SGNs from different varieties, of which the Clos St-Urbain Pinot Gris is the most spectacular.

The terroir

Rangen is the most southerly Alsatian grand cru, and unquestionably one of its greatest, as well as one of the steepest. The elevation ranges from 320m to 470m. The soil is volcanic and easily retains heat, and the south-facing aspect usually gives grapes of exceptional ripeness. It comprises 19ha of vines, including two monopole sites: the 4.5ha Clos St-Théobald, belonging to Schoffit, and the 5.5ha Clos St-Urbain, which was planted (half with Pinot Gris) by Léonard Humbrecht in the 1970s. The site lies not far from the river Thur, and this proximity to water accounts for the ease with which the bunches can attract noble rot.

The wine

Winemaking at Zind-Humbrecht has generally been non-interventionist. After a pressing of whole clusters, vinification takes places with indigenous yeasts in large casks. This wine was fermented in a new, carved, 900-litre barrel given to Olivier as a wedding present by his parents. ‘I was so worried that it might leak,’ recalls Olivier, ‘that I slept next to it for the first night.’ The wine stays on its fine lees until bottling after a light filtration.

The reaction

In 1993 Robert Parker described this as ‘celestial’, adding: ‘The bouquet almost fills the room with its smoky, paraffin-scented, rich fruit. In the mouth, there is mind- boggling richness, extraordinary balance, and a finish that must last several minutes.’

Thierry Meyer in 2007 wrote, of the mature wine: ‘If the wine has the complexity of its 18 years of age, the long dried apricot aftertaste is still very fresh. A monumental wine that will keep another half century.’

• Subscribe to Decanter and get the latest wine legends every month…

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How well do you know Pinot Grigio? Do you still think it's a mass produced grape with little interest, or do you know the real story behind one of the world's most popular grapes? Test your skills below.

Take the Decanter.com Pinot Grigio wine quiz below.

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UK supermarket Asda has launched a new sparkling wine, which is a blend of Prosecco and Pinot Grigio.

Asda launches ‘ProGrigio’ sparkling wine

Retailing for £5 a bottle, the supermarket claims the wine ‘tastes just like Prosecco but at a lower price point’, according to a statement.

The sparkling wine is made from a blend of Glera – the traditional Prosecco grape – and Pinot Grigio.

Jane Hunt, DWWA joint regional chair for Regional Italy, says ‘I can’t think of anything worse or more pointless.’

‘I imagine, however, it will be a success if only for the low price and what I am sure will be a bland, innocuous concoction.’

This follows a warning earlier this week that a combination of Brexit, inflation and alcohol duty will mean price increases for Prosecco and Champagne, according to the Wine & Spirit Trade Association.

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Ed Betts, Asda wine buying manager, said: ‘We always strive to keep prices as low as possible without compromising on quality and we believe ProGrigio is the ideal affordable sparkling wine alternative.’

‘We want to protect the demand for sparkling wine by offering customers more choice, and by moving slightly away from the Prosecco region we have discovered a great example of quality fizz at an everyday price.’

UK demand for sparkling wine has soared over recent years, drinking almost twice as much compared to five years ago.

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Pinot Grigio to change your mind

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Is it true that the rosé version came first?

Pink Pinot Grigio – ask Decanter

D Morrison, St Helens, asks: A wine merchant told me that rosé Pinot Grigio is actually the authentic, traditional Pinot Grigio of Italy and that the white is an innovation. The reason given was that Pinot Grigio has pinkish skin.

I always assumed that rosé Pinot Grigio had some red wine added and was just a bit of commercial fakery. Who is right?

David Gleave MW, is managing director of Liberty Wines, replies: Pinot Grigio grapes have a red (not pink) skin.

Traditionally, there were wines that had a ramato (coppery) colour, which was derived from contact with the skins.

But I wouldn’t say this was the authentic Pinot Grigio; it was instead a choice by the winery to obtain more flavour in the wine, something that involved macerating the skins in the must for anything from four to 24 hours.

Pinot Grigio was first bottled in the 1950s, but didn’t really start to become popular until the 1980s, by which time technology had improved and the fashion was for very clear, light white wines.

As a result, the ramato style fell out of fashion, even though a few producers (Specogna, La Fattoria, Livio Felluga) stuck with it.

Whatever colour there was in the finished wines would be removed by fining, which would also remove flavour.

Today, both styles are found in the market, though the rosato style is more a product of marketing than of winemaking method.

• Read more notes and queries every month in Decanter magazine. Subscribe to the latest issue here

• Got a question for Decanter’s experts? Email us: editor@decanter.com or on social media with #askDecanter

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From Pinot Grigio in the Scottish Borders to Tempranillo vineyards in central London, a new study projects that temperature rises linked to climate change will turn the UK into a major wine producer by 2100.

A warmer climate is set to transform Britain from a fringe player on the global wine-making scene to a major producer by the end of the 21st Century, according to a study commissioned by retailer and merchant Laithwaite’s.

An expected rise in temperatures of more than 2 degrees celsius, plus around 5% more rain, means that UK is going to be well placed to produce a whole variety of wine styles.

Pinot Grigio, Riesling and Pinot Noir could even make it as far north as the Scottish Borders. And Essex on the outskirts of London might be producing Malbec – despite its tricky reputation – as well as Syrah and Chardonnay, researchers said.

Map: What Britain might be making in 2100

Image credit: Laithwaite’s

The study will likely raise a few eyebrows in the wine world.

English sparkling wines have gained respect with several awards in recent years, but the idea of Britain joining the top tier of world wine producers is still one of the best ways to raise a smile in the wine-making villages of southern France.

The map above also misses out a few existing regions, including winemakers in Wales, as well as Camel Valley in Cornwall.

The study, by professor Mark Maslin and Lucien Georgeson from University College London, used average temperature and rainfall conditions required for growing different grape varieties.

It then matched these with predicted changes in climate in the UK to map changes to British viticulture over the next 85 years.

‘Thanks to a changing climate, as well as passion and expertise, we could see wine buyers from all over the world coming to taste the latest UK vintages in a few generations,’ said Davy Zyw, of Laithwaite’s Wine.

Professor Maslin said, ‘This study could signal how we think long-term about British wine production and redraw the future wine map of the world.

‘However, exactly where would be best for particular grapes will depend on site, slope, aspect, soil and drainage – as wine making is much an art as it is a science.’

Not everyone believes that climate change will be such a great bonus for wine in Britain.

A University of East Anglia study earlier this year said that more rain and a higher chance of extreme weather could cause problems in vineyards.

Some researchers might also point out that a two degree increase in temperatures in the UK would coincide with potentially catastrophic consequences of climate change elsewhere in the world.

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Pinot Grigio is best known as the light Italian white; fresh and round with tropical fruit and peardrop flavours. As the quality increases and yields become lower, so the texture gains weight and the flavours become more focused with minerality coming into the frame.

Working on the key themes of texture, fruit expression and minerality, our Tastings team have picked some top Pinot Grigio alternatives to look for on restaurant winelists or the shelves of wine merchants and supermarkets.

Top Pinot Grigio alternatives:

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Alsace should be a French heartland for terroir-driven white wines, and no other part of France can make Riesling as good. Thankfully, more producers are starting to realise, writes Jane Anson.

This column was originally published in the September 2016 issue of Decanter magazine. Subscribe to the magazine here to read the full column.

Alsace white wine has already been regarded as Burgundy’s little sister. Now, it is growing up…

The loss just a few months ago of Etienne Hugel served as a sombre reminder that spokespersons for this underappreciated region are all too few.

It can be easy to imagine that the ancient wine regions in France have all the kinks worked out in their systems.

But the beautiful hillsides of Alsace, despite all of their history, are still searching for an identity that finally sees them achieve the recognition they deserve within the world’s fine wine regions.

Partly it’s political – all that tug of warring between Germany and France over the centuries; partly it’s fashion, with the region’s sweet wines finding the same tough reception that is being accorded to Sauternes, Jurançon, Monbazillac and others.

But it’s hard to ignore that a significant factor is self-inflicted, with too many players favouring high yields that have damaged quality.

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There has been too little weight given to designating individual vineyard plots of particular quality – not to mention weird laws in the region that insist the status of grand cru can only be awarded to sites under multiple ownership, thereby locking out monopoles such as clos ste-hune (Trimbach) and clos Windsbuhl (Zind- humbrecht).

Unclear labelling doesn’t help matters either, with the dry styles that alsace traditionally favours taking a swing to the sweeter side over the past 20 years, but rarely with additional information on labels to alert drinkers to what they are going to get in the bottle.

‘There have been moments when we have almost had to apologise for selling Alsace wine,’ says Séverine Beydon-schlumberger, of Domaine schlumberger.

A new beginning

In response to this, she and a small group of other estates joined forces in November 2015 to create Alsace Crus et Terroirs – or ‘ACT’. The aim is to focus attention on the strengths of Alsace.

And there are many. This is a region that grows 90% white grapes, and should be seen as France’s heartland for terroir-driven whites.

Nowhere in France can make Riesling like this

Besides the mosaic of Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Gewurztraminer and Muscat, nowhere else in France can even begin to make Rieslings with this complexity and power.

‘We haven’t been successful enough at presenting the diversity of this region in a positive light,’ says Beydon-schlumberger.

‘We hope that by joining forces we can do this, and be proud of the distinctive history that has given this region its identity.’

Read the full column in the latest issue of Decanter magazine. Buy the September Decanter issue here.

Jane Anson is away.

More Jane Anson columns:

Tina Gellie, associate editor, says: While I like the texture, richness and musky, honeyed notes of Pinot Gris from Alsace as well as New Zealand and Oregon, I tend to avoid those that style themselves Pinot Grigio – especially from Italy. In general I find them insipid and dull with no real character; certainly not worth the money compared to what Italy’s other native whites can offer.

Ian D’Agata, DWWA Regional co-Chair for Italy and Decanter contributing editor, replies:

Pinot Grigio represents a conundrum. Wine drinkers are enthralled, propelling sales skywards all over the world, while collectors and experts are less impressed, viewing it as a wine of little interest and personality.

• Scroll down for D’Agata’s five Pinot Grigios to change your mind

Pinot Grigio is a victim of its own success. The wine’s poor reputation among cognoscenti is down to mass-volume stuff from crafty producers who churn out wines that, though simple and neutral, offer enough popular appeal to make them enjoyable. Plus, Pinot Grigios at all quality levels are the type of food-friendly wines that Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay can only dream of.

• Try it with: Agnolotti with burrata and mint

Consequently, almost everyone thinks the wine is fine as it is, with these Pinot Grigios of easy appeal basking in amazing commercial success and driving up market prices (even those reportedly made in southern Italy, a place too hot to give quality Pinot Grigio; caveat emptor). Therefore nobody – importers and public alike – wants to spend more to buy Italy’s complex, top-level wines. Importers who buy Pinot Grigios at €4 a bottle take a risk: all the usual mark-ups later, they might find the wine hard to sell. It follows that importing a Pinot Grigio that costs €10 a bottle is out of the question.

The sad flipside to all this is that wine lovers outside Italy rarely get to taste the country’s best examples, so inevitably Pinot Grigio doesn’t enjoy the reputation it can deserve. High quality Italian Pinot Grigios are one of the world’s best-kept secrets. A shame, as wines from the best producers mix a tactile mouthfeel with musky scents and flavours of yellow apple and pear, with mineral and spicy nuances.

• Also: Gewurztraminer to change your mind

What Pinot Grigio tastes like

When the product of low yields and with enough concentration and extract, Pinot Grigio can also stand up to light oak-ageing or extended skin contact. In fact, it’s mostly Italy’s more judiciously oaked Pinot Grigios that are world class. However, oaked or unoaked, Italy’s remains a specific style of Pinot Grigio – the antithesis to those wines labelled Pinot Gris (same variety, different name).

Whereas Alsatian Pinot Gris wines are quite rich (often with residual sugar even in ‘dry’ styles), and Oregon and New Zealand examples also show an oily texture, even the best Italian Pinot Grigios are always about freshness, with graceful and refined dry, mineral flavours.

Terroir is another bonus. Friuli’s warmer Isonzo area produces wines with ripe banana, pineapple and peach flavours, while the cooler Collio and Colli Orientali offer versions that are delicate, spicy, mineral and taut. In Alto Adige, Pinot Grigios are more penetrating, while in Valle d’Aosta, where the variety seems to reach its qualitative zenith, wines combine the best of both Friuli and Alto Adige.

Commit the names of Italy’s best Pinot Grigio wines to memory and you’ll become a believer.

Pinot Grigio to change your mind:

Looking for inspiration? Decanter's Tina Gellie has picked out ten exciting wines from a recent New Zealand wine tasting in central London...

Ten exciting New Zealand wines to try

Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir are still the bread and butter of the New Zealand wine industry, each variety making up some 70% of white and red plantings. And Chardonnay – the dominant grape between 1993 and 2003 – is also seeing a revival, comprising about 12%.

But there is much more to Kiwi wine than this popular trio, particularly aromatic whites such as Riesling and Pinot Gris – often made in delectable off-dry styles – as well as fledging plantings of ‘alternative’ varieties like Albariño (very encouraging) and Grüner Veltliner.

Beyond Pinot Noir there is less diversity in the reds, with Syrah undoubtedly the leading light, especially wines co-fermented with Viognier in homage to Côte-Rôtie.

But the Bordeaux grapes of Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Malbec still offer some interest, either as varietals or in a blend, as do unusual and exciting finds such as Stanley Estates’ Lagrein.

The following 10 wines are great examples of experimental New Zealand winemaking, much like we are seeing in Australia.

Related content:

• New Zealand Chardonnay: Panel tasting results

• New pastures for New Zealand Sauvignon

• New twists on Australian wine classics

Drink again. As Stephen Brook found on a recent trip to Friuli, there is a nucleus of winemakers crafting Pinot Grigios on the slopes of Friuli with more poise and persistence than its bland alter-ego ever had.

Friuli Venezia Giulia is a vast region, taking in the flat alluvial lands around Pordenone and Udine in the west, and the maritime flatlands of Aquiliea and Latisana near the huge Marano Lagoon. Here the wines tend to be well made but, with a few exceptions, they rarely rise to great heights. The problem is one of yields: at least 75 hectolitres/ hectare and thus not ludicrously high, but high enough to limit ripening and flavour. (An IGT Pinot Grigio can be cropped at up to 190hl/ha. Water indeed.) The wines tend to be characterised by blandness. Even Marco Rabino of Ca’ Bolani, one of the largest producers, admits that its Pinot Grigio is made to be drunk within two years.

The best zones for the variety in Friuli are Colli Orientali, Collio and the northern part of Isonzo. They have excellent soils and microclimates, but also a large number of producers who take Pinot Grigio seriously, even though they may differ in the styles they aim for. The main difference between these three zones and those further south and west such as Grave and Aquileia is that they are mostly hilly: the soils tend to be marl and limestone, and growers can choose the right slopes and expositions to ensure full ripeness at moderate yields.

See Stephen Brook’s 13 top Friuli Pinot Grigio wines:

The 13th generation has just started working at this famous Alsace producer, notable for setting the rules for (and later boycotting) the region’s grand crus. Margaret Rand meets a few of the family.

Hugel at a glance

Holdings 30ha of estate vineyards plus grapes bought from another 100ha

Grape varieties Riesling, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Gewurztraminer, Muscat, Sylvaner, Pinot Noir

Annual production 1 million bottles

Key personnel Marc Hugel, winemaker; Etienne Hugel, sales and exports; Jean Philippe Hugel, CEO

Exports 90% of production Wines produced Classic (including Gentil), Tradition, Jubilee, Vendange Tardive, Sélection de Grains Nobles; new Schoelhammer

Hugel Schoelhammer: The first three vintages compared

It is said – usually by the producers themselves – that there are Catholic and Protestant wines in Alsace. The former are more oxidative, forward and ebullient; the latter more reductive, austere and slower to reveal themselves. Riquewihr is a largely Protestant village, and the Hugels of Riquewihr are Lutheran. So there you have it, the style in a nutshell: Hugel wines are tight, structured, mineral and dry – unless they’re sweet.

The last point sounds obvious until you remember that for years now, Alsace sweetness levels have been rising faster than Greek borrowing. Thirty years ago, says winemaker and viticulturist Marc Hugel, the problem in Alsace was getting ripe grapes. Now the issue is avoiding overripe ones. Wines that were routinely dry are now regularly off-dry or sweet, and sweet ones are super-sweet.

To insist on dryness for anything not labelled Vendange Tardive (VT) or Sélection de Grains Nobles (SGN) is to swim against the tide. To refuse to put the words ‘Grand Cru’ on the front label when your Jubilee range comes from the grands crus of Schoenenbourg and Sporen – Hugel’s finest estate vineyards, with Jubilee wines only made in the very best vintages – is also to swim against the tide. And the irony is that Johnny Hugel had been in charge of setting the grand cru rules.

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Tasting Hugel’s Rieslings:

Johnny Hugel (his name was Jean, but the British trade renamed him) also drafted the guidelines for the 1984 regulations governing VT and SGN; before that, the German designations were used. He was an influential figure in an influential family: the Hugels, like so many wine families in Alsace, arrived during the Thirty Years’ War (1618-48) and have made wine ever since. Johnny ran the company, with his brothers André and Georges, between 1948 and 1997, when the next generation came to the fore. André still visits the office every day and is a formidable historian of Riquewihr. His mission now is to obtain fair treatment for Alsace veterans of the Second World War, who were conscripted into the German army and receive no pensions.

Johnny tramped all over Alsace with a geologist for three years, examining where the grand cru boundaries should go. ‘If the classification had been honest,’ reflects André’s son Marc, ‘it would have taken one minute, because everyone knew where the boundaries should have been.’ Instead, they were drawn generously. ‘There should probably be 20 grands crus, and the rest should be premier cru,’ says Marc’s nephew Jean Frédéric. So Hugel, having been instrumental in setting up the classification, walked away from it. Trimbach did the same; so did Léon Beyer. No Hugel wine has ever been declared as grand cru, even though many could have been.

The trouble with making a high-minded decision is that the rest of the world goes on without you. Everyone agrees the Alsace Grand Cru classification is not all it should be; but at the same time, most people accept that, overall, it has been a good thing. The decision to boycott it is clearly a difficult one to rethink, yet one wonders how much it benefits Hugel these days. In some Alsace tastings, its flagship Jubilee wines will be ranged with basic Alsace – and that is not necessarily an advantage, given that the former are tight and reticent, and the latter mostly off-dry and come-hitherish. And so Hugel’s grand cru position is under discussion.

There is something else: the best parcel of Riesling in Hugel’s Schoenenbourg holding has just been released, in April 2015, as a separate bottling called Schoelhammer. The first vintage will be 2007, which neatly gets around the grand cru problem, because if you want to declare a grand cru, you must apply to do so before the vintage. So it won’t be. But it is splendid.

What makes it so good? Tension, in a word. If you want another word, minerality. Schoenenbourg is impressive to look at – it rises steeply from just outside the old walls of Riquewihr – but it’s not homogeneous. Schoelhammer is a perfect kernel of 30 south-facing rows mid-slope, and it was the first Hugel parcel to go organic. ‘It’s clear to the taste when a wine is terroir-driven or varietal,’ says Etienne; and it’s clear here.

The world moves on. They’re all keen to stress that they’re not averse to change; it’s just that they like to do things gradually – change the details rather than take U-turns. The Jubilee range, named to mark the company’s 350th year in 1989, is being renamed because few people know what it refers to; each wine will now have a separate name.

Does this, along with the Schoelhammer launch, constitute a grand cru coming-out? ‘It’s a terroir coming-out,’ says Jean Frédéric. They’re going to make more of a fuss about their undoubtedly excellent vineyards. And Marc is the person to talk to about these: geology has become a passion of his. Did you know that the old vineyard roads in Alsace follow geological fault lines? There are umpteen faults running southwest to northeast, with other, transverse faults running across them. It’s as complicated as the Côte d’Or, which explains why the soils are so many, and so varied.

Obsession with precision

Marc’s winemaking style has evolved over the years. He loves finesse and elegance, and he doesn’t want the mechanics of winemaking to show in the wines, but in 2007 he started doing a little battonage (lees stirring) – not much, and only when it suits the year – just to open up the wines. And he wants absolute accuracy in everything. When he picks for SGN these days, it’s individual berries, not whole clusters. ‘The first 15 minutes of picking [for SGN] are the most important,’ he emphasises, for pinpoint accuracy and purity in the final wine. ‘If you want the best possible wine, you have to be incredibly precise.’

Sweet wines – VT and SGN, and especially the former – are flagships for Hugel. ‘Gewurztraminer VT is 90% of our sweet wine production,’ says Etienne, Jean Frédéric’s father. ‘People confuse sweet wines with dessert wines; it goes beyond pairing them with dessert.’

But the same climate change that has made the general run of Alsace wine sweeter than it used to be has made VT and SGN less exceptional. When Jean Frédéric lists great sweet-wine vintages, he names 1989, 1997, 2000 – then 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011. Yes, they are more selective than ever, make less per year than they used to, and, says Etienne, sweet wine is still only 2% of their production, but still. Great sweet wine is no longer a rarity in the world – and world demand has not risen. ‘We sell all we produce,’ says Etienne, but one might surmise that shouting a bit louder about the rest of the range might not be a bad thing.

The world moves on. If Schoelhammer is the future, then it works.

Margaret Rand was the 2013 Louis Roederer Feature Writer of the Year for her articles in Decanter

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The 13th generation has just started working at this famous Alsace producer, notable for setting the rules for (and later boycotting) the region’s grand crus. Margaret Rand meets a few of the family.

Hugel: a timeline

1639 Hans Ulrich Hugel, who settled in Riquewihr during the Thirty Years’ War, is made freeman of the city

1672 Hans Ulrich’s son builds a house in Rue des Cordiers; the shield he carved over the door still appears on Hugel labels

1802 Earliest existing records of Hugel owning land in Sporen and Schoenenbourg. Earlier records were destroyed during wars

1865 & 1876 The last Hugel to be a cooper as well as a grower builds, and dates, casks that are still in use today

1871 Alsace annexed by Germany after the Franco-Prussian War

1902 Frédéric Emile Hugel buys the buildings in Riquewihr where the company is still based

1911 Hugel starts bottling its own wines

1918

Alsace is returned to France under the Treaty of Versailles

1940 Alsace is occuped by Germany

1945 Alsace is returned to France

1948 Jean Hugel’s son Johnny (right, with mother Mimi and brother André) joins the company. Hugel begins working with other growers

1980 Hugel is the first company in Alsace to introduce temperaturecontrolled fermentation

Early 1980s Jean, as president of the Alsace Grand Cru delimitation committee, was charged with drawing the boundaries of the new grands crus. INAO also asked him to draw up rules for VT and SGN wines

1982 Marc starts to take over as winemaker

1983 Etienne starts to take over as head of sales

1984 VT and SGN regulations come into force

1989 The Jubilee range is launched at Hugel’s 350th anniversary party

1992 The decree governing Grands Crus Sporen (above) and Schoenenbourg come into force; Hugel decides not to use the designation

1994 Jean Philippe takes over as CEO

2009 Organic viticulture starts in Schoelhammer. Now, most Hugel vineyards are farmed organically

2011 Jean Frédéric, (above left with Etienne) joins the company, initially running the tasting room

2014 Marc André joins the company

2015 Schoelhammer is launched

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Richard Baudains attended the Alto Adige Pinot Bianco Symposium with low expectations and memories of watery, characterless whites. Totally wowed by the wines, he explains here what lies behind the transformation.

Pinot Blanc is very much the Cinderella of the Pinot family. Its noble lineage (it descends directly from Pinot Noir) is not recognised in the widely used German name ‘Weissburgunder’ and, to make matters worse, it has often been confused with Chardonnay. Though it is capable of making wines of sensual elegance and refinement, it is incapable of seducing international markets, which continue to be dominated by the vastly inferior Pinot Grigio.

In most parts of the world, Pinot Blanc is relegated to the category of ‘minor variety’. In Germany, the world’s biggest grower of Pinot Blanc/ Weissburgunder, it is condemned to live in the shadow of Riesling; and in Alsace, its place in the pecking order is several places below that of Riesling and Gewürztraminer. Probably the only region anywhere with a passionate belief in this beautiful, misunderstood variety, and a vision for its future, is Alto Adige.

It was not always thus. When I lived in the regional capital of Bolzano in the 1980s, Pinot Bianco was the default setting for card players in the local bars, and it was watery and totally characterless. Sporadic, subsequent tastings had not changed my perception much, so when I signed up for the recent Alto Adige Pinot Bianco Symposium, it was without particularly high expectations. But in the event I was totally wowed by the wines – and I am hard to impress when it comes to white wines.

Aim high

Pinot Bianco has been recorded along the upper valley of the Adige since the mid-19th century, although it was only granted its own DOC in Alto Adige in 1985. At that time yields were generous and the wines were light, dry and very simple. Since then profound changes have taken place. Alto Adige has shaken off its insularity to become one of Italy’s top white wine regions – some would argue the top region. Sauvignon Blanc and Gewürztraminer were the first grape varieties to make an impact here, but today the wine which is setting the wires humming is Pinot Bianco.

Several things are behind the huge improvement in quality. One has been a drastic reduction in yields, another the replacement of the traditional pergola with the guyot training system, which is much better suited to Pinot Bianco. Producers all agree, however, that the critical factor is terroir. And that means heading for the hills.

Official figures show that the planting of Pinot Bianco is increasing, but in selected areas. Essentially the variety is migrating from the lower slopes where it was heavily planted in the past, to higher sites, in particular in the villages around Appiano, on the right bank of the Adige river. To realise its amazing potential, Pinot Bianco needs to look down on the valley from a height of at least 400m. At Terlano, the area’s historic cooperative makes its prodigiously long-ageing Pinot Bianco riservas from vineyards which stretch up to 700m.

Snow-capped mountains form the backdrop of other great sites above Merano (Cantina Merano Burggräfler), in the valley of the Isarco River (Gumphof) and even in the northern, Rieslingfriendly Venosta valley (Hofgut Falkenstein). Soils also play a major role. Wines from the calcareous right bank of the Adige are generally fleshier, while the sandy-volcanic soils of the area between Bolzano and Merano, especially the DOC sub-zone of Terlano, are steelier and more minerally.

Wide choice

Alto Adige’s extremely savvy cooperatives produce over two-thirds of the region’s wine. They set the standards (high) and the prices (highly competitive), and have a massive influence on trends. A co-op will typically bottle three levels, an entry-level Pinot Bianco in the ‘drink youngest available’ style, possibly a mid-range cellar selection, and a top single-vineyard cru. Terlaner’s Vorberg is the archetype of the latter, but other names abound.

Second in terms of the share of production are the privately owned, negociant-style wineries which buy in grapes but may also own esteemed vineyards. Standards are high here, too. Alois Lageder, for example, produces the complex, delicately floral Haberle from his organic estate, but also makes impressive quantities of an excellent generic varietal wine, sourced from contract growers.

Independent grower-bottlers account for a mere 5% of the output, but their number is growing and they count among their ranks a new generation of producers who are young, qualified, committed, may be organic/biodynamic, own small plots and have distinctive winemaking styles. Names to look for in this category include the organic estate of Thomas Niedermayr at Appiano, the microproduction of Andreas Sölva from Caldaro, and Weingut Stroblhof at St Michele.

Ageing gracefully

A typical, young Alto Adige Pinot Bianco will be fresh and refined on the nose; there is none of the blowsy aromatic blast that you get from Sauvignon Blanc. The fruit is apples and pears, but picked late it can veer towards a more tropical character. There will be floral aromas, perhaps a hint of camomile or dandelion, and the fingerprint note of orange blossom. The palate will have body but also firm, reassuring acidity and it will be bone dry, or almost.

Top wines can develop a marvellous herby complexity over four to five years, without ever losing their freshness and zip. Pinot Bianco offers the winemaker many options. Vinification in stainless steel brings out its crunchy apple and citrus character. Oak treatment – generally tonneaux or traditional larger barrels, which work better than barriques – gives depth and complexity to the riserva category, which ages for two years before release.

The put-down on Alto Adige whites used to be ‘technically impeccable, but winemaking by numbers, with no personality’. At one time this was probably true, but it no longer applies. The Pinot Bianco revolution in Alto Adige showcases the talents of the region’s winemakers, but more than that, it unfolds the terroir map of this beautiful region. As Hans Terzer, director/winemaker at St Michael-Eppan and one of the region’s most authoritative figures says, ‘Alto Adige has passed out of the era of technological winemaking and into the era of terroir. The future lies in the search for top quality and personality through the matching of sites and varieties.’ As a mission statement, you cannot fault that.

Written by Richard Baudains

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Richard Baudains attended the Alto Adige Pinot Bianco Symposium with low expectations and memories of watery, characterless whites. Totally wowed by the wines, he explains here what lies behind the transformation.

Baudains’ top Pinot Biancos from the hills of Alto Adige

Girlan, Plattenriegl Pinot Bianco 2013

18.5pts/20 (95/100pts)

Sweet, ripe fruit nose with notes of butter biscuits. Rich, fleshy entry on the palate, with concentrated nectarine and candied peel fruit. Firm underlying structure, bags of energy and a long, punchy finish with salted lime character. Young.

Price: £11.81 Enoteca Hukin

Drink 2015-2020

Alc 14%

Gumphof, Südtiroler Weissburgunder 2013

18.5pts/20 (95/100pts)

Fragrant, complex, sweet floral nose with a hint of violets and at the back a faint chalkiness. Lovely mid-weight, balanced, fluid palate with crisp green apple character and a long complex finish with a touch of orange peel to balance the tangy mineral flavours.

Price: N/A UK gumphof.it

Drink 2015-2018

Alc 13.5%

Lageder, Haberle Pinot Bianco 2012

18.5pts/20 (95/100pts)

Elegant, refined nose with delicate complexity. Floral, herby and zesty, with touches of fennel and beeswax. Floats gracefully on the palate towards a lovely, fresh, grapey finish with bright fruit and savoury mineral contrast. Perfect to drink now.

Price: £12.50 Exel Wines, Winedirect

Drink 2015-2016

Alc 13.5 %

Nals Margreid, Sirmian Pinot Bianco, 2013

18.5pts/20 (95/100pts)

Intense, juicy fruit on the nose with a hint of flintiness at the back. Palate is concentrated, tight, linear and long, with passion fruit and mango woven into the tangy mineral flavours plus a touch of bitters in the finish. Great structure and huge length. Very young, great promise.

Price: £10 Lay & Wheeler

Drink 2015-2020

Alc 14%

Terlan, Vorberg Pinot Bianco Riserva 2011

18.5pts/20 (95/100pts)

Intense and focused on the nose, with hawthorn and citrus, a touch of sweet spice and an intriguing smokiness. Mid-weight body, firm structure, great crisp, mouthwatering intensity and huge length. Huge personality. Still very young.

Price: £22.50 AG Wines, Astrum Wine Cellars, Field & Fawcett

Drink 2015-2020

Alc 13.5%

Kaltern, Solos Pinot Bianco 2013

18pts/20 (93/100pts)

Fresh and delicate on the nose with floral, herby complexity, plus touches of peppermint, barley sugar, bread crust and lemon pith. Crisp Granny Smith apple on the palate, with a hint of white peach. Long, fluid, very natural palate. Still quite closed on the finish, but will open out with time.

Price: N/A UK kellereikaltern.com

Drink 2015-2018

Alc 13.5%

Thomas Niedermayr, TN 76 Südtirol Weissburgunder 2013

18pts/20 (93/100pts)

Concentrated, but still quite closed on the nose, with an intriguing mix of sweet ripe fruit and bitter herbs. Round, fleshy start on the palate with a ripe grapey character and lots of concentration. Fresh lemon zest on the finish with a touch of flintiness. Will open up. From biodynamic growers.

Price: N/A UK Thomas-Niedermayr.com

Drink 2015-2018

Alc 14.5%

Franz Gojer, Karneid Südtirol Weissburgunder 2013

17.5pts/20 (91/100pts)

Complex, with a nose of savoury herbs and sweet spices, plus a touch of dried apricot. Great structure and volume on the palate. Big, direct, punchy and concentrated; bone-dry finish with notes of marzipan and peach kernels.

Price: N/A UK gojer.it

Drink 2015-2018

Alc 13.5%

Kellerei St Pauls, Passion Pinot Bianco Riserva 2012

17.5pts/20 (91/100pts)

Sweet tropical fruit nose, with pineapple, peach and a slight whiff of smokiness. Ripe fruit palate with refreshing, zesty acidity, delicate structure but great intensity and a long, crisp finish with notes of lime and orange peel.

Price: N/A UK kellereistpauls.it

Drink 2015-2018

Alc 13.5%

St Michael-Eppan, WeissburWhite gunder, Schulthauser, Südtirol 2013

17pts/20 (90/100pts)

Fresh, bittersweet floral nose, with classic dandelion and orange blossom. Substance on the palate with cheerful yellow apple and citrus flavours, good balance, medium length and dry finish. Impeccable, from a historic producer.

Price: £13.99 Eurowines

Drink 2015-2018

Alc 13.5%

Note: In the bilingual Alto Adige/Südtirol, labels may show Italian and/or German wine names.

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Drink again. As Stephen Brook found on a recent trip to Friuli, there is a nucleus of winemakers crafting Pinot Grigios on the slopes of Friuli with more poise and persistence than its bland alter-ego ever had

The vineyards of Vie di Romans in Isonzo

Quick link:

• 14 Pinot Grigios to try

Last summer, at a wine event in Barolo, I was asked to comment on a range of top Pinot Grigio wines from Friuli. I threw caution to the winds and remarked that I felt the best wines, while exotic and complex, were flirting with overripeness and thus heaviness. I was unaware that many of the producers were in the room, taking note of what the panel was saying. Instead of a stiletto through the shoulder blades, I received an invitation to return to explore Friuli’s wineries and wines. So off I went.

The American wine blogger Ron Washam memorably noted that ‘Pinot Grigio is the Italian for “water”‘. Outrageous, of course, but everyone knows what he’s getting at. Pinot Gris can produce rich, satisfying wines in Alsace, Friuli, Alto Adige and Oregon, but you’d never know it from the dross that has inexplicably made the variety so popular. Who would have imagined that Pinot Grigio would become one of Germany’s most exported wines? It’s rumoured that the flavourless stuff that comes from the Veneto is more likely to be Trebbiano than Pinot Grigio. This is plausible, since Trebbiano is hardly a byword for ‘flavourful’.

Go your own way

The variety is in urgent need of rescue. There is a big gap in quality between the average supermarket Pinot Grigio and the full-bodied wines from the best corners of Friuli. Even here it’s a difficult variety to pin down. It bears only a faint resemblance to Pinot Gris from Alsace, which has a thicker texture and is often vinified with some residual sugar to give a wine that, while often gorgeous, is also sweeter and rounder. Alsatian versions can also show musky aromas that you rarely find in Friuli, where the dominant aromas are pear and apple, though often with stone fruits or citrus to the fore as well. It’s no newcomer, and had already been planted in Friuli in the 1840s.

Friuli Venezia Giulia is a vast region, taking in the flat alluvial lands around Pordenone and Udine in the west, and the maritime flatlands of Aquiliea and Latisana near the huge Marano Lagoon. Here the wines tend to be well made but, with a few exceptions, they rarely rise to great heights. The problem is one of yields: at least 75 hectolitres/ hectare and thus not ludicrously high, but high enough to limit ripening and flavour. (An IGT Pinot Grigio can be cropped at up to 190hl/ha. Water indeed.) The wines tend to be characterised by blandness. Even Marco Rabino of Ca’ Bolani, one of the largest producers, admits that its Pinot Grigio is made to be drunk within two years.

Heading for the hills

The best zones for the variety in Friuli are Colli Orientali, Collio and the northern part of Isonzo. They have excellent soils and microclimates, but also a large number of producers who take Pinot Grigio seriously, even though they may differ in the styles they aim for. The main difference between these three zones and those further south and west such as Grave and Aquileia is that they are mostly hilly: the soils tend to be marl and limestone, and growers can choose the right slopes and expositions to ensure full ripeness at moderate yields.

Annalisa Zorzettig in Colli Orientali greenharvests to cut yields to around 50hl/ha. Adriano Gigante, however, says many of his best wines have come from much higher yields, and he doesn’t believe that yield, in a good vintage, is a particularly crucial factor. His wines certainly don’t lack concentration. Martina Moreale of Il Roncal says there is no way she can get high yields because of the poverty of her soils. This too is a major difference between the hills and the flatlands: the latter have far more fertile soils.

Gigante explains: ‘Up in the hills there is a greater diurnal range, and cool nights maintain the acidity levels, which are not naturally that high in Pinot Grigio. The best soils, especially marl, can give minerality to the wines, but other factors, such as vine age, altitude and exposition, matter too. The important thing is not to pick too early, as aromatic complexity only occurs when the grapes are very ripe.’ Andrea Felluga of family winery Livio Felluga adds: ‘We blend wines from different elevations to get more complexity. But it’s crucial that the vines grow on poor soils.’

As in Alsace, it takes a fairly high ripeness level to give wines that are really expressive. Below 13%, Pinot Grigio can show a pleasant grassiness but little aromatic complexity or weight of fruit. Of course, the right balance is hard to achieve. Giorgio Badin at Ronco del Gelso produces sensuous and voluptuous Pinot Grigio, but the alcohol is high and the relatively low acidity can result in a lack of persistence. Most producers suppress malolactic fermentation to keep maximum freshness in the wines, but a handful of top estates such as Livio Felluga and Le Vigne de Zamò embrace partial or total malolactic, without ending up with flabby wines. Andrea Felluga asked me whether I could detect that his Pinot Grigio had gone through malolactic, and I had to admit I couldn’t.

The Isonzo region has a strong reputation for Pinot Grigio. Just 20km from the Adriatic, it’s flatter than Colli Orientali and Collio and the terroir differs, with stony, clay soils that encourage early ripening. The best wines come from the plateau known as the Rive Alte. One of Isonzo’s leading and most thoughtful producers, Gianfranco Gallo at Vie di Romans, says: ‘Remember that Pinot Grigio is a mutation of Pinot Noir, so I tend to think of its ripening pattern in much the same way. I don’t want overripe fruit, but I do want grapes that are phenolically ripe. Just picking on the basis of acidity is not sufficient. Acidity is important, but so is the tannic structure of the wine which will support that acidity on the palate.’

Built to age

Structure aids longevity. Giampaolo Venica at Venica & Venica in Collio pulled some old vintages from the cellar. The 1988, the oldest, was still fresh, the 1993 acidic and angular, and the 1995 and 2001 were splendid, with a nuttiness developing on the nose but no oxidation. ‘The oldest vintages,’ remarked Giampolo, ‘were made with much higher yields than we would accept today, and the wines are still alive, even if nearing the end of their lives. We protect against oxidation but encourage the maximum extraction from the skins, both to give good colour and to have the extract that will allow the wine to age.’ Gallo also opened some older bottles. The 2000 was a touch oily, but the 1996 was sensational: still zesty and taut with no sign whatsoever of age, a wine that had retained its lemony aromas and intensity of fruit.

Yet the majority of Pinot Grigio produced, even in Friuli, will be drunk young, and it’s not a wine that demands age, though its full aromatic expression needs a year or so in bottle. But if one of the signs of nobility in a grape variety is its ability to age, then Pinot Grigio can indeed pass that test when treated with respect in the vineyard and the winery.

Wood-ageing is rare. Gallo uses about 15% new oak, while Lis Neris ages the wine in 500-litre barrels; Ronco di Gelso, Branko and Borgo San Daniele use large casks. Almost all others eschew small oak, and those who do use it seek textural complexity rather than an overtly oaky flavour.

Pinot Grigio differs from that other Pinot Noir mutation, Pinot Blanc, in that its skins, when fully ripe, are light brown in colour. Many producers press directly so that none of that pigment tinges the must; others, however, prefer a moderate amount of skin contact to give wines that either resemble Provencal rosé or, in some cases, take on a coppery hue. Such wines, known here as ramato, are increasing in number and can have an individual appeal, with more red-fruits aromas and a more grainy texture. There are good versions from Ronc Soreli, Scarbolo and Draga. ‘Orange’ wines, made with long maceration on the skins, are still rare, though Flaibani in Colli Orientali makes one from biodynamically farmed grapes.

Was my view of Pinot Grigio changed after a few days of intensive visits and tastings? Absolutely. I already knew the bland, flavourless offerings in Europe’s supermarkets were a travesty, but at the other extreme on this trip I found very few wines that were overblown or blowsy. Instead there was a parade of full-bodied but poised wines, with an array of aromas and flavours, seductive textures and exemplary balance.

Written by Stephen Brook

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Drink again. As Stephen Brook found on a recent trip to Friuli, there is a nucleus of winemakers crafting Pinot Grigios on the slopes of Friuli with more poise and persistence than its bland alter-ego ever had

Pinot Grigio to make you drink again

See the bottles here

Lis Neris, Gris, Isonzo 2011

18.5pts/20 (95/100pts)

Sumptuous apple and mango nose. Quite exotic. Creamy apple compote flavours on the palate, opulent but not heavy. Spicy and complex, with a seductive texture and limpid, lifted finish. Good length.

Price: £20.42-£24.50 D Byrne, Hedonism

Drink 2015-2022

Alc 14%

Vie di Romans, Dessimis, Isonzo 2012

18.5pts/20 (95/100pts)

Pale copper-pink. Rich, nutty pear nose. Creamy, powerful and spicy, with a juicy texture, yet has pungency and fine balancing acidity. Very long.

Price: £22.28-£33.40 Widely available via UK agent, Liberty Wines

Drink 2015-2024

Alc 14.9%

Livon, Braide Grande, Collio 2013

18pts/20 (93/100pts)

Ripe, spicy nose, pear crumble. Swaggering palate. With great breadth of fruit, this is concentrated but accessible, with fine acidity to balance the wine. Pure pleasure and fine length.

Price: £17-£20 Eurowines, Simply Wines

Drink 2015-2022

Alc 13.5%

Schiopetto, Collio 2011

18pts/20 (93/100pts)

Subtle, floral, ripe pear nose. Rich, creamy and concentrated, with fine but discreet acidity. Delicious fruit, nutty but bright and elegant. Long.

Price: £20 New Generation Wine

Drink 2015-2020

Alc 13%

Toros, Collio 2013

18pts/20 (93/100pts)

Bracing melon and mango nose, seems oaky although it is unoaked. Firm and concentrated, with extract and vigour, ample personality and good length.

Price: £25.99 (2011) Selfridges

Drink 2016-2024

Alc 14%

Branko, Collio 2013

17.5pts/20 (91/100pts)

Heady floral nose with ripe apple fruit. Good attack, lively but also has weight and concentration, with just a hint of sweetness. Balanced and long.

Price: £19.40 Hedonism

Drink 2015-2020

Alc 13.5%

Dario Princic, Collio 2006

17.5pts/20 (91/100pts)

Coppery colour. Startling nose of strawberry, honey and flowers. Medium-bodied, with a grape-skin burr, moderate acidity, and a firm dry finish. Biodynamic.

Price: £26.67 (2009) Exel

Drink 2015-2020

Alc 13%

La Tunella, Colli Orientali 2013

17.5pts/20 (91/100pts)

Perfumed citrus and apple nose. Concentrated and suave, yet has firm underlying acidity. Fresh and citric but shows some mineral complexity and fine length.

Price: £11.25 Corney & Barrow

Drink 2015-2020

Alc 13%

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It's not just the mountains that reach heady heights in north-eastern Italy – the local wines from terraced lands are also worth exploring, writes Michèle Shah. Read her Trentino-Alto Adige travel guide here.

FACT FILE

Planted area: 13,137ha

Main grapes: White: Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Bianco, Riesling, Müller- Thurgau, Moscato, Sylvaner, Riesling, Gewürztraminer Red: Lagrein, Teroldego, Marzemino, Schiava, Pinot Noir, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc

Production: 958,000 hectolitres a year: 55% red, 45% white

Quick links:

• My perfect day in the Dolomites
• Alto-Adige and Trentino: where to stay, eat and shop

The soaring peaks of the Dolomites, a UNESCO World Heritage site, rise to more than 3,000m and feature breathtaking vertical walls, sheer cliffs and deep, long valleys. No surprise, then, that this majestic mountain range is a popular attraction for skiing in winter and alpine trekking in summer. But even if you’re not the outdoors type, the region is worth a visit for its wonderful food and wine alone.

There are three Michelin-starred restaurants, all within a 15km radius, each annexed to gemütlich (cosy) hotels, plus spectacular vineyards producing outstanding mountain wines.

• See more Decanter travel guides to Italy

Northern highlights

Situated in northeastern Italy, the Dolomites are easily reached from the city of Bolzano in the region of Trentino-Alto Adige. Trentino (whose capital is Trento) and Alto Adige (also known as Südtirol or South Tyrol and whose capital is Bolzano) border Austria. The region was annexed to Italy in 1919, after World War I, but the Austrian/German influences are many, not least its range of fragrant white wines and German-accented syllables.

Both Trentino and Alto Adige produce notable amounts of Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, as well as Pinot Bianco and Riesling. The more aromatic Müller-Thurgau, Moscato, Sylvaner and Gewürztraminer (which is said to take its name from the Alto Adige village of Tramin) can be enticingly perfumed and unexpectedly ageworthy.

Production in Alto Adige comes mainly from small, family-owned estates that sell their wines locally with limited exports to Germany and Austria. By comparison, Trentino counts on a large number of growers, members of large cooperatives, such as Cavit and Mezzacorona. These popular wines have found their niche, both in Italy and abroad, among wine drinkers who look for good and affordable wines for daily enjoyment.

Exploring Alto Adige

Alto Adige is divided by the Adige and Isarco Rivers, with vineyards dotted around the banks of the two valleys, rising from 200m to 1,000m into the hills. Bolzano to Trento is an easy 60km drive, and is well signposted with good hotels, restaurants and excellent wineries on the way.

If you are a keen skier, take a few days off to hit the slopes at San Cassiano, which is a picturesque 70km drive northeast of Bolzano. Afterwards, as you descend from the Dolomites, make your first stop at Abbazia di Novacella (kloster-neustift.it/en/wine-cellar/wine-cellar.html), one of the most northerly vineyards in Italy. This 12th-century Augustinian Abbey, which is a fascinating mix of vineyards and monastery, produces classy Sylvaner, Riesling and Gewürztraminer, with zesty acidity due to the altitude of the vines at 870m.

Cooperatives in Trentino-Alto Adige date as far back as the Hapsburg Empire and are common in this area, representing the lion’s share of production. Their success stems from the need to create an effective economic system for the region’s fragmented farming industry, including viticulture – the average grape grower here owns little more than 1ha, and most vines rise up the mountainsides in spectacular, steep-terraced vineyards, some still using the pergola system.

Cantina Terlano (kellerei-terlan.com), a cooperative founded in 1893 just above Bolzano at Terlan, is one of the best expressions of ‘heroic vineyards’ in Alto Adige, producing exquisite white wines, in particular Pinot Blanc from the terraced Vorberg vineyards. Cantina Caldaro (kellereikaltern.com), another model cooperative with vineyards overlooking Lake Caldaro, is the perfect place to sample the region’s local red varieties such as Lagrein, a deep garnet red with round soft tannins, a lighter Schiava, or the Sta Maddalena, which is 90% Schiava and 10% Lagrein. In the area of Lake Caldaro you will find Count Michael Graf Goéss-Enzenberg’s ‘eco-sensitive’ Manincor winery (manincor.com), which produces excellent Pinot Noir, Moscato Giallo and Moscato Rosa.

A short drive south brings you to the village of Magré and Alois Lageder’s picturesque Löwengang winery (aloislageder.eu), built in 1995 to strict environmental and ecological criteria. Here you can relax at Vineria Paradeis, on the old village square, with a glass of wine and a light meal.

Between Caldaro and Magré be sure to visit Martin Foradori’s Hofstätter (hofstatter.com), one of Alto Adige’s historic estates established in 1907 in Tramin (also known as Termeno). Taste his zesty aromatic Gewürztraminer, his majestic single- vineyard Pinot Noir Barthenau Vigna San Urbano and his local Lagrein.

Bolzano is one of Alto Adige’s top areas for red wines. The surrounding mountains create a perfect microclimate, characterised by warm summers protecting the vines and giving good ripeness.

Trentino stars

As you reach Trentino, the wineries Endrizzi (endrizzi.it) at San Michele all’Adige and Elisabetta Foradori’s (elisabettaforadori.com) biodynamic estate at Mezzolombardo, are a good introduction to the area’s distinctive red grape, the indigenous Teroldego, which has a deep granite hue alongside its soft tannins. Trentino, which pioneered sparkling winemaking by the classic method early in the century, has retained its leading position and these sparklers are now grouped under the Trento DOC appellation. Predominantly Chardonnay- based, the extensive amount of this grape in the local vineyards reflects the importance of this category. Pay a visit to Ferrari (cantineferrari.it), one of the oldest sparkling estates, and one of Italy’s premium sparkling wines.

South of Trento, two very different estates are notable for the quality of their wines. The first, near Volano, is home to Eugenio Rosi, a controversial yet authentic producer who works with the indigenous red grape Marzemino. Slightly further south, near Avis, is the San Leonardo estate (sanleonardo.it), home to one of northern Italy’s most famous Bordeaux-style blends.

Before visiting any of these vineyards, telephone or email first, just to check they are open. If they’re closed, it’s still worth the drive – the views are spectacular and you’ll be staggered by the beauty of the vineyards.

How to get there

There are several options: fly direct to Bolzano and hire a car; fly to Verona, hire a car and drive to Trento, 98km north; or fly Ryanair to Treviso, near Venice, hire a car and drive 134km to Trento.

Written by Michèle Shah

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It's not just the mountains that reach heady heights in north-eastern Italy – the local wines from terraced lands are also worth exploring, writes Michèle Shah. Read her Trentino-Alto Adige travel guide here.

My perfect day in the Dolomites

Morning

Stay and breakfast at Hotel PacherHof in Novacella, before visiting the town’s Augustinian abbey, a working winery best known for its Praepositus range of wines. Drive 65km south to Cantina Terlano, in Terlan, renowned for its complex, mineral white wines. Its shop offers both current and back-dated vintages. Then go for a drive above Terlan to the terraced Vorberg vineyards.

Lunch

Drive 10km south to Appiano and enjoy a light lunch at Enoteca Pillhof. If the weather is good, you can dine al fresco in the courtyard. The wine list is extensive and features a good range of local wines, many by the glass. The cuisine is local and changes according to the season.

Afternoon

Drive a short 8km to Lake Caldaro and visit the picturesque vineyards around the lake, including the Manincor Estate. If you wish to stock up on wines, call in at Cantina Caldaro’s Winecenter, a large shop and tasting room on several floors, where you can explore its entire range including red wines, such as Lagrain, Pinot Noir and the lighter Schiava. A further 5km south, visit Hofstätter in Tramin, one of Alto Adige’s premium wineries but also with a good range of entry-level wines. Be sure to taste the Gewürztraminer, said to originate from Tramin, and the excellent Barthenau and Meczan Pinot Noirs.

Evening and overnight

Drive 5km to Entiklar, a hamlet of Cortaccia, to visit Tiefenbrunner Castel Turmhof – the highest-altitude wine estate in South Tyrol (1,050m). The nearby chapel of St Georg at Graun is also a historical and cultural treasure. For dinner, book a table at Gasthaus Zur Rose, for traditional cooking and a good local wine list. Finally, rest your head (and your body in the spa) at Schwarz Adler Turmhotel.

Next page Previous page

It's not just the mountains that reach heady heights in north-eastern Italy – the local wines from terraced lands are also worth exploring, writes Michèle Shah. Read her Trentino-Alto Adige travel guide here.

Alto-Adige & Trentino: where to stay, eat, shop and relax

Hotels

Hotel Ros Alpina, San Cassiano

A Relais & Châteaux hotel and spa with individually styled rooms, plenty of pinewood and balconies, with views of the Dolomites. Great for relaxing and skiing, with excellent food at the Wine Bar & Grill and the two-Michelin-starred St Hubertus. The hotel is in the Alta Badia tourist region, which hosts events such as an annual gourmet ski safari and a wine ski safari. rosalpina.it, altabadia.org

Schwarz Adler Turmhotel, Cortaccia

Cosy Tyrolean-style hotel with a spa and gourmet restaurant. The 24 rooms have good mountain views and there are excellent walking trails – including the Cortaccia Wine Trail. turmhotel.it

PacherHof, Novacella

This friendly Tyrolean-style hotel has an excellent spa, and an outdoor infinity pool with great views over vineyards, the Dolomites and the Abbey of Novacella. Comfortable, with the attraction of dining in the old stube (tavern). PacherHof also has its own winery and wines. pacherhof.com

Hotel America, Trento

Nothing spectacular, but a good choice that is centrally located for sightseeing. The Piazza del Duomo is a must and Trento is great for shopping. hotelamerica.it

Restaurants

La Siriola, Hotel Ciasa Salares, San Cassiano

A Michelin one-star restaurant just 2km outside San Cassiano. Matteo Metullio, 25, is Italy’s youngest star-studded chef. La Siriola offers four tasting menus, each one themed to local traditional fare or to a more daring intermingling of flavours and ingredients. Metullio’s creative streak is well balanced in texture and flavours, which is what makes his cuisine so tantalising. ciasasalares.it/en/restaurant-la-siriola.html

St Hubertus, Hotel Ros Alpina, San Cassiano

Superb two-Michelin-starred restaurant with chef Norbert Niederkofler at the helm. Head sommelier Christian Rainer oversees a magnificent wine list featuring 1,900 labels. Niederkofler’s culinary style is rooted in the use of seasonal, high-quality products sourced from local organic farmers who farm according to his specifications. The essence of his cooking, he says, is ‘back to roots and pure flavours’. rosalpina.it/restaurant-st-hubertus.htm

Gasthaus Zur Rose, Cortaccia

Cosy wood-panelled two-room restaurant from another era, where one can relax and dine by candlelight, savouring traditional Alto Adige dishes interpreted in a modern, lighter fashion by chef Arno Baldo. Good wine list and romantic atmosphere. Good value, but you will need to book in advance. baldoarno.com

Enoteca Pillhof, Appiano

Pleasant atmosphere, whether eating al fresco or in the inviting wine bar, with its smaller areas for more intimate dining. Impressive wine list and tasty dishes, including an excellent selection of cheeses and local cured meats. You can also buy wine, cheese, olives and a vaiety of condiments to take away. pillhof.com

Ristorante La Cacciatora, Mezzocorona, Trento

Always busy, but the food and service are always excellent. Main dishes are the local cured meats, followed by risotto or pasta, hearty meats and home-made desserts. Menus change often. Good value. lacacciatora.net

Scrigno del Duomo, Trento

Fantastic location on the main Piazza del Duomo in Trento. Creative gourmet food prepared with fresh, seasonal ingredients. A perfect place to stop for everything from a light bite to a romantic dinner. Good value for lunch. scrignodelduomo.com

Shops

Vinum Alto Adige, Bolzano

Right in the centre of town, this has a great assortment of wines that can be shipped to a number of countries. vinum.it

Enoteca Grado 12, Trento

In the centre of town, on Largo Carducci, this wine shop stocks a selection of 1,500 labels and a wide variety of olive oils. Tel: +39 0461 98 24 96

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Ask British wine drinkers what their favourite grape variety is, and almost a quarter of them will reply Pinot Grigio. Their wine of choice comes in a screwcapped bottle made of clear or faintly tinted glass, with a simple, graphic label featuring an ear-catching if ephemeral Italian brand, and costing maybe £5.99 or £6.99. The wine inside is colourless. That it is also odourless and flavourless (and the more odourless and flavourless, the more popular) is a now-venerable wine-trade quip.

High spring vineyards in Brda (Image: Andrew Jefford)

Those of us who have been tasting wine for a sheaf of decades, and whose taste buds have long since shed the acuity and sensitivity they had at their peak (when we were 11 years old), consider intensity and singularity of flavour and texture as unquestioned assets, forgetting the unwanted challenge that they might present to those who are just beginning a wine journey. Pinot Grigio’s great virtue is that, cropped in coolish, moist climates at very high yields (and remember that ‘affordability’ implies either high yields or low wages), it can taste balanced, delicate and fresh – but nothing more. The ‘varietal character’ which lactic/melony Chardonnay or herbaceous Sauvignon Blanc both exhibit will attract some new wine drinkers, but repel others. Pinot Grigio’s affable neutrality enables it to claim the middle ground, to become a kind of alcoholic mineral water. You can even see this neutrality in Côte d’Or Pinot Gris; no wonder Chardonnay (probably a later arrival) caught on there.

My favourite renditions of this grape variety – dense, almost oily — come from Alsace. They’re not necessarily sweet, though; an allusion repertoire pulsing between luscious patisserie richness (apricot juices seeping into flaky pastry) and something more savoury, smoky and alluringly porky is just perfect. Among the world’s newer wine-growing locations, New Zealand seems to come closest to echoing Alsace, though superfluous sugar (a sweetness unsaturated by other flavours) can dawdle in some of the wines. Supremely uncrisp whites of this sort are, of course, divisive, and lie nowhere near the middle ground.

Recent travels Italy’s Isonzo, Collio and Colli Orientali, then on into Slovenia’s Brda region (geographically speaking, the ‘same place’ as Italy’s Collio) and finally to the Vipava valley, gave me a chance to see Pinot Grigio in a different light. These are wines from the same mild, moist climate zone, wedged between Alps and Adriatic, as simple pile-it-high Grigio. They’re grown not on the fertile plains, though, but in often steep hillside locations which dictate a very different economic formula: hand work, lower yields, a sense of place.

The variety still occupies about 40 per cent of the hill vineyards on the Italian side of the border, but “people here are abandoning Pinot Grigio,” according to Christian Patat of Ronco del Gnemiz in the Colli Orientali. “It’s hard to grow, and you have to make lots of quality decisions which means that the maximum yield is about 40 hl/ha, whereas in Grave del Friuli they can take 150 hl/ha.” The consumer doesn’t easily understand why it’s necessary to pay three or four times more for a simple switch in DOC.

There are other compelling indigenous varietals to keep growers busy, especially Ribolla Gialla, Malvasia and Friuliano (Sauvignonasse) as well as Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc itself. And yes, ‘French’ international varieties like Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc Merlot and the Cabernets are regarded as being indigenous to this fragment of mitteleurope: they are said to have arrived during an eight-year Napoleonic interlude of intense Frenchification which fell between Venetian and Hapsburg domination in the early nineteenth century. Many growers have old-vine plantings of each.

Pinot Gris on its own in Collio and Colli Orientali seems to have a light, pretty, almost strawberryish character; not exactly neutral, but without the unction of heavy-calibre Alsace Gris. There is less Pinot Grigio (locally called Sivi Pinot) grown on the Slovenian side, as the hills are slightly higher here and Pinot Gris is said to prefer lower altitudes, but in the hands of skilled growers like Marjan Simčič or the relentless experimenter Aleš Kristančič of Movia it seemed to take on force and power; perhaps, though, this is simply a case of ambition. Simčič, for example, makes a pure ‘white label’ Pinot Gris grown in some calcareous soils he owns across the arbitrary frontier in Italy; it is indeed dense, with complex orchard fruits and lots of dry depth. Both growers, too, use it to great effect in blends: it provides glycerous marrow in Simčič’s Teodor Belo, hand-in-hand with Ribolla and Sauvignon; while after the long barrel ageing which the 2005 Movia Veliko underwent, the same combination of three varieties takes on a countryside allure, with lots of chunky provocation: structured, extractive and long, crying out for food.

I mentioned the wan hue of most inexpensive Pinot Gris (in Alsace it tends to gold), but it’s also increasingly sold in copper or pink versions. The grapes themselves are the colour of a heavy bruise or welter on a pale Caucasian arm, and almost all pressed Pinot Gris juice emerges with a little colour, so why not? Some Californian ‘pink Grigios’, of course, are so outrageously deep-hued that the variety must have had a little help from its friends; pink Grigio also tends to mean ‘even sweeter’ in the USA. But there are noble alternatives – and yet again it was Gianfranco Gallo of the astonishing Vie di Romans who provided the definitive example during my recent journey east.

Gallo points out that most Grigios lose their colour because the pigment oxidizes easily during pressing and processing, so you end up with white wine and pink lees. He uses nitrogen until the carbon dioxide of fermentation takes over, including through his 20-hour period of skin contact, and this ‘oxygen-free production practice’ fixes the colour – though he does it principally for its aromatic benefits. The result (his single-vineyard Dessimis Pinot Grigio) is strawberry-scented to sniff, but astonishingly structured in the mouth: dry, muscular and long, a giant Adriatic cannon booming back over the Alps at Alsace. There’s none of Collio’s hillside prettiness here. Isonzo is a flat-land AOC, and Dessimis is a clay-gravel vineyard – but the wine’s philosophical concentration testifies to barely more than half-a-kilo of grapes per vine.

Written by Andrew Jefford

When we named Italy’s first and second growths earlier this year, the biggest surprise was that over half were primarily producers of Italy's native white wines. Still think Italy is all about reds? From stunning Soave to voluptuous Verdicchio, RICHARD BAUDAINS celebrates Italy’s native white varieties.

There was a time when Italy seemed to be defined by its red wines. Pinot Grigio has changed that. The user friendly varietal outsold Chardonnay in the US last year and has become Italy’s biggest selling wine in Britain. But is there more to Italy’s native white wines? Or, to update Nick Belfrage’s epoch-making book title, Life Beyond Lambrusco, is there Life Beyond Pinot Grigio? Thankfully, there certainly is.

Exciting things are happening in Italy today with Italy’s native white wine production. In the bad old days when Italy was struggling to promote an image of quality abroad, producers used to believe that only international varieties would open the doors to international markets. What they have since realised is that the key lies in making better wines from native grapes. ‘Where is the sense,’ says Trentino producer Mario Pojer, ‘in importing varieties which you have to pick in the first week of August, with 60 days of ripening, all sugars and no character, when you have native grapes which ripen naturally in 120 days and are bursting with aroma?’ Or, in the words of UK Italian specialist Enotria, ‘Fiano is the new Pinot Grigio.’ The corollary to this highly persuasive argument is that soils and climate really matter – that Italy’s native white wines are at least as sensitive to terroir as reds.

https://www.decanter.com/wine-news/enotria-acquired-in-management-buyout-28384/

The following is a rundown of some of the most dynamic DOCs where the combination of a single native variety and a specific terroir produce quintessentially Italian whites.

The major playersof Soave Classico Garganega is the historic white grape of Soave. On the stony terraced hillsides of the Classico area, it is traditionally trained on high, angled pergolas. On the deep fertile soils of the plain, outside the Classico zone, the same system almost inevitably produces high yields. This is the terroir issue in Soave. Around 75% of the staggering 70 million bottles produced every year is generic DOC, which is to Soave Classico what Petit Chablis is to premier and grand cru: technically well made but ultimately rather plain. Italy’s native white Soave Classico is something else. New norms have created, on paper at least, a quality pyramid which goes from the top level of the individual cru to basic entry level, incorporating a new DOCG Soave Superiore category for wines from defined areas, grown according to particular specifications. Whether producers will adopt these new norms and whether the rest of us will eventually grasp their technical intricacies remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, the leading producers set standards for themselves which have radically changed the perception of Soave over the past decade. Soave’s appeal is its ability to combine drinkability with intensity and aromas which go far beyond textbook lemon and almond notes.

Trebbiano di Soave, the traditional complementary grape currently returning to favour, adds a touch of firmness, body and acidity. The use of oak takes concentration up a notch but rarely compromises the delicacy of Soave’s cool climate, floral elegance. Overall quality has never been so high.

Avellino whites have been one of the revelations of the winemaking revival. The stars, both promoted to DOCG, are Fiano di Avellino and Greco di Tufo. Fiano is thought to be native to the area around the village of Lapio and it was fairly certainly known to the ancient Romans. Greco, on the other hand, was introduced by the Greeks. It is more complicated to grow and vinify than Fiano, mainly because of its propensity for abundant yields. Like Italy’s native white Fiano, it is a late ripening grape and retains excellent levels of acidity. Both are grown widely in the southern peninsula, but nowhere do they find such affinity with the soils and climate as in the high, pre-Apeninne slopes of Irpinia. Fiano grows over the whole of the province, particularly in loose calcareousclay soils. Greco, by comparison, comes from a smaller area around the town of Tufo with sandy tufaceous terrain. Nervy and intense, with sweet floral aromas and a juicy fruit palate, it ages well, but is best enjoyed in vibrant youth. Fiano, in contrast, needs time to show its worth. The palate is firm, structured, bone dry and minerally. Young wines suggest hazelnuts and perhaps ripe pear; older ones acquire a Riesling-like petrol character.

Recommended producers: FIANO Colli di Lapio (HBa), Macchialupa (J&B), Mastroberardino (BWC, Cib, Pag, TRS) GRECO Benito Ferrara (FMV), Pietracupa (Ast), Terredora (Ann, IWD, Mon, Wtd) Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi/Verdicchio di Matelica.

The white grape of the Marche region is, according to recent studies, none other than the variety also known as Trebbiano (in Soave and neighbouring Lugana). The central Adriatic wine shares the defining characteristic of longevity with Trebbiano from the north, but in other respects they are very different.

https://www.decanter.com/wine-travel/italy/le-marche-wineries-to-visit-387435/

The mild maritime climate offers many more harvesting options and this is reflected in the range of winemaking styles which is one of the features of Verdicchio. Picked very early, it can make for an appetising sparkling wine. A standard harvest produces wines with notes of acacia, a touch of crisp apple on the palate and a long broad finish, with the grape’s characteristic hint of grassiness. Picked late – an increasingly popular trend – Italy’s native white Verdicchio makes a unique style of dry, fleshy, complex and concentrated wine. Throw in the variants of oak versus vat, special selection Riservas for long bottle ageing, lees ageing and malolactic yes or no (or partial), and you begin to get an idea of the range of wines the highly versatile Verdicchio is capable of. The vast majority produced comes from the Castelli di Jesi DOC which lies in calcareous clay hills, near the Adriatic coast.

The other area of Verdicchio production, the Matelica DOC zone, nestles at the foot of the Appenines, 30km inland. Here the climate, with its marked temperature excursions, makes for a longer ripening period which in turn results in wines which are firmer and drier, often more closed on the nose but very tangy on the palate.

Recommended producers: Castelli di Jesi Bucci (Ali), Fattoria Coroncino (MiG), Fazi Battaglia (Cib), Garofoli. Matelica La Monacesca (Jas, Wtd), Santa Barbara (GaF, Vin), Belisario (Lib).

Small but beautiful Colli di Luni Vermentino Vermentino thrives on the hot, dry Tyrrhenian coast. The variety arrived in Liguria from Spain in the 1300s. Traditionally believed to be related to Malvasia, recent DNA studies have instead revealed traits in common with the Hungarian Furmint. The longest established DOC for the variety is the Colli di Luni, which extends south of La Spezia into northern Tuscany. Production, growing in both quantity and quality, is concentrated in the Val di Magra, with vines around 250-300m above sea level. The light, sandy, calcareous soils tend to favour aroma over structure, producing soft, fragrant wines with peach and melon fruit on the palate and a touch of spice on the finish.

Recommended producers: Ottaviano Lambruschi (N/A UK; +39 0187 674 261), Il Torchio (N/A UK; +39 01 87 67 40 75), La Pietra del Focolare (+39 018 766 2129) Colli Tortonesi Timorasso.

Of all the native varieties rescued from oblivion, Timorasso is perhaps the most exciting. Widely planted in the past but virtually wiped out by phylloxera, it now grows only in isolated pockets of southeast Piemonte, and most notably in the Colli Tortonesi, where it has recently gained DOC status. Vigorous but low yielding, Timorasso bears no resemblance to any other commercial grape in Italy. A very distinctive wine with pronounced acidity and exceptionally high extract, it is slow to evolve but assures great longevity. The wines blossom with two to three years’ bottle age, releasing floral aromas, fruit on the palate and an intense minerally finish. Current production is based on around 40ha of specialised vineyard but new plantings will bring a significant increase in output.

Recommended producers: Vigneti Massa (N/A UK; +39 01 31 18 03 02), Claudio Mariotto (N/A UK; +39 01 31 86 85 00), Franco Martinetti (WSq) Etna Bianco Superiore.

Only wines from around Milo village on the east face of Mt Etna can be labelled Superiore. Its wines have moderate alcohol and notable structure, but above all, levels of acidity which make them unapproachable in the first two years, but guarantee an evolution culminating in exceptional complexity and depth. Etna has the coolest summer temperatures in Sicily and daynight temperature ranges which can reach an extraordinary 30˚C. Here, Carricante grows on sandy black volcanic soil, planted at around 10,000 vines per hectare, and at altitudes between 600–1000m. The potential of the area is often underrepresented by primitive winemaking, but the best wines are very good indeed and new investment bodes well for the future.

Recommended producers:Vinicola Benanti (Nov), Barone di Villagrande (N/A UK; +39 095 708 2175).

Lugana Superiore Trebbiano is a component of over 80 DOC wines. Differences between the members of the family can be slight or extremely significant. If Trebbiano di Lugana is not identical to Trebbiano di Soave, it is as similar as makes no odds, but it makes very different wines to the light and vegetal Trebbiano of central Italy. The Lugana DOC hugs the south bank of Garda whose mild climate and compact clay soils curb the natural productivity of the variety, favouring wines of tangy intensity, a bone-dry palate and a touch of aniseed on the finish. Superiore wines – often lightly oaked these days – come out in the second year after the vintage and have a prodigious capacity of ageing.

Recommended producers: Cà dei Frati (FMT), Zenato (Euw), Provenza (CWF, Div, Wsm, WTr), Tenuta Roveglia (Jas)

Oh dear. No awards and few compliments. Over-cropping and high yields were blamed and there was general despondency over the Pinot Grigio grape’s potential after this tasting of 72 wines from northern Italy. A few, however, did shine through the gloom – they were those offering fresh, citrussy, fruity flavours.

‘I was disappointed with the quality level; there was a lack of concentration,’ began David Baldwin: ‘Some did have good depth and flavour, but many were quite bland and flat.’ Ann Tupker MW agreed: ‘A lot of the wines were unexciting; a tiny number I thought were unacceptable, and a few I rated four with one slightly higher.

I found myself groping for adjectives to use to describe the wines. The problem – what the tasting showed – is that if you don’t crop Pinot Grigio very low then you end up with this rather neutral, quite dilute, if pleasant wine, with not a lot of concentration – in other words boring.’

Tupker suggested that oak would add interest. ‘It’s a more neutral grape than Chardonnay, but has that powerful alcohol on the finish and a fairly oily texture, which I think stands up well to oak.’ Yet Simon Meads disagreed: ‘I wasn’t altogether convinced about the use of

oak: to me it was as though it was just hiding a lack of concentration of fruit.’ His vote lay with the fruit-driven wines which he believed possessed some character ‘that many of the other wines lacked’.

Restaurant wines

These were restaurant rather than home wines, the panellists concurred, bar Susan Keevil who said she would buy the better wines to drink at home. ‘The good ones would be very nice on a sunny summer day

as aperitifs – some had lovely melony, grapefruit, crisp citrus flavours – yet, disappointingly there were quite a few in the tasting that were really substandard.’

Baldwin was the only one who found any sort of regional difference, suggesting the Collio wines showed up more acidity, and these were the wines that he gave higher marks to. Tupker admitted to not being able to tell the difference between the regions and ‘did not even really notice the vintage differences’. While Keevil added: ‘I wanted there to be more difference between wines’ origins, I was willing the different terroirs to stand out, but they just didn’t.’

Keevil voted in favour of drinking them young. ‘It was really only the recent vintage wines that I wanted to drink. Given a year, they tired out and lost the primary characters on the nose. I think this might be due to some high yields.’

The ‘very pale’ colour of some was questioned by Tupker and, discovering occasional CO2 bubbles, asked: ‘I wonder if they were trying to inject a bit of freshness into them? Most are for drinking now and maybe a few could last a couple of years, but the point is to drink them young and fresh.’ And Baldwin proferred: ‘Some had real colour problems – pink salmon to almost brown. I was looking for a mid-straw, with a slight green tinge. I found the wines with age rather tired.’

Alternative to Chardonnay

This grape has at times been hailed as the alternative to Chardonnay at the cheaper end of the restaurant list. ‘A lot of people have caught on to the “abc” mentality of anything but Chardonnay, but ultimately they still like drinking it,’ suggested Baldwin. ‘There was

one wine in particular that I thought was Chardonnay and for a commercial style of Pinot it’s probably not a bad thing to have that breadth: crop less, increase the alcohol and add some oak, and they could be on to a good thing.’

‘New Chardonnay?’ questioned Meads. ‘Why pretend to be the new Chardonnay – they’d be much better off pretending to be a new Sauvignon. Some are attempting big, fat flavours, plenty of oak and maybe a bit of malolactic but I don’t think the grape can handle that. They’d be better off doing more in keeping with the crisp, light fruity style – and keeping it a touch floral – as a restaurant wine.’

Tupker preferred those with an Alsatian type of weight as they were ‘more concentrated and had a better length’, and also liked the one or two that had an almost vendage tardive quality about them. ‘They were generally good, friendly restaurant wines, but in this role, also neutral, clean, pleasant, attractive, good with food, but not exciting, which to me, I suppose, is the role of Pinot Grigio.

‘It’s one of those “trendy, bland, but great food wines”.

It provides a good background and some wines had that bitterness on the finish which complements the food. The heavier wines, which I gave better scores to, are probably less food friendly.’

Premium wines

Chosen as premium, these wines retailed at £7–8 and above. ‘If I was paying £7 or £8 for some of these wines I wouldn’t be happy,’ said Tupker. ‘Many suggest cool fermentation as there was no real fruit coming in. Now people want more character in their wines and are willing to pay for it. Maybe there are a few really good producers, yet the rest are possibly coasting along on that reputation with no real desire to improve quality.’ And Keevil went as far as to ask: ‘Will they get away with this for much longer? It seems a bit complacent.’

So what should the regional growers be doing to improve quality? Without inspiring a lot of confidence for the future, Meads proffered: ‘They could be a lot better – but then again maybe they don’t have to be – it seems to be the sort of thing that people will buy and not be overly critical as they expect it to be quite neutral.’

https://www.decanter.com/wine-reviews-tastings/five-alternatives-pinot-grigio-344025/

The Pinot Gris

• For lack of a better word, the obsession is the search for that most elusive quality, terroir
• ‘If you go back to the beginning of why we’re in Oregon, it’s easy to understand the appeal of Pinot Gris.’
• Pinot Gris accounts for more than an eighth of Oregon’s total harvest and almost a third of its white wine production.
• Gris has a richness without a fatness; a concentration of flavour without wearing you out in your mid-palate.

It’s barely three decades since the first commercial releases of Vitis vinifera wines were made in Oregon. Thirty or so vintages seem hardly adequate to sort out the infinite vagaries of grape, place, weather and clime, including Pinot Gris; yet astonishing progress has been made in this blink of an oenological eye.

Quest for Flavour

What drives winemakers here – the organising principle behind all their decision-making – is the pursuit of flavour. For lack of a better word, their obsession is the search for that most elusive quality, terroir. Oregon’s winemakers want to create unique and particular flavours in their wines, and they believe they can do it by planting the right grape in the right place, and then vinifying it in the right way. At the moment, many of them have come to believe that the right white wine grape for Oregon, the one that will best display the region’s distinctive terroir, is Pinot Gris.

‘I brought Pinot Gris up to Oregon with me in 1964,’ recalls Eyrie Vineyards’ David Lett, ‘160 cuttings taken from the only four vines they had at UC Davis’. Why? ‘Because they fit the theory of planting early-ripening varieties in the Willamette Valley. Oregon had the cool growing season; the idea was to adapt the grapes to the climate,’ he says, exasperation creeping into his voice, ‘which they still haven’t figured out in places like Santa Barbara’.

Evolution of Pinot Gris

Many of Oregon’s pioneers moved north from California in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and they weren’t, in the words of one, ‘just looking for California vineyard land at fire-sale prices’. Initially, they were looking for a place to grow Pinot Noir. They found it in the Willamette Valley, planting their vines on west-facing slopes, at moderate altitudes, where they were buffered from the harsh Pacific storms by a range of low, coastal hills, and from the searing heat of eastern Oregon by the Cascade Mountains.

Other cool climate grapes naturally followed: Riesling, Gewürztraminer and Pinot Gris. Though Pinot Noir grabbed the spotlight, it was white wines that built the industry in Oregon during the early years. They ripened reliably, required no expensive oak ageing, and were quick to reach the market, generally in the spring of the year following harvest. Nonetheless, Pinot Gris took a long time to catch on. Lett’s 1970 Eyrie was the first commercial Pinot Gris made in America, but for the next decade it remained sui generis; an oddity, an obsession, fuelled by his stubborn commitment to growing cool-climate grapes in a cool-climate region. Never one to mince words, Lett believes fervently that California (or Baja Oregon as he likes to call it) is the wrong place to grow either Pinot Noir or Pinot Gris.

‘The important thing is that the grape grows in the right climate to begin with,’ he admonishes a visitor with evangelical zeal. ‘If you look in Italy, where do they have Pinot Gris planted? In the north, in mountains, at elevations where you’re getting a cool climate. Look at the natural vegetation of an area. If you go to Burgundy you could be standing in the Dundee hills of Oregon. You’ve got blackberries, no palm trees!’ Dick Ponzi, who made his first Gris in 1981, agrees. ‘If you go back to the beginning of why we’re in Oregon, it’s easy to understand the appeal of Pinot Gris. It’s a cool climate that brought us to Oregon in the first place, primarily for Pinot Noir. If you then look to the cooler regions of Europe, it becomes easy to work with some of these lesser known grapes, knowing that someone else has proven it for you.’

Viewed from afar, the emergence of Oregon Pinot Gris as the state’s white grape hope seems dramatic and sudden. In fact, it is neither. Rather, it is another case of an ‘overnight success’ that incubated for decades. Ten years after that first landmark vintage, Eyrie’s Pinot Gris production had reached just 25 cases annually. Ten years after that, there were still only 42 hectares harvested in the entire state, and 85 planted. But in the past decade that number has climbed to 574ha. Similarly, tonnes crushed have grown from 148 to 1,731, and cases sold have zoomed from 7,139 (1989) to 118,994 (1998).

Today, Pinot Gris accounts for more than an eighth of Oregon’s total harvest and almost a third of its white wine production, and those numbers continue to climb. At Cooper Mountain Vineyards, on the southwest slope of an ancient volcanic hill near the Portland community of Beaverton, Dr Bob Gross explains how he came to plant his first Pinot Gris back in 1980. ‘A neighbour happened to know Hubert Trimbach, and brought him by for a visit.’ Gross poured a glass of someone else’s Pinot Gris for his Alsatian guest. ‘Hubert thought it was terrible,’ he recalls with a chuckle. ‘Back then the style was to put it through full malolactic and age it in wood. He said: “There’s wood in it. They’ve just ruined it. That’s not the way we make it!”‘ Trimbach then opened a bottle of his own wine. It was so distinctive that Gross decided right then and there to try growing it himself.

Rich Cushman, Winemaker

Winemaker Rich Cushman has been making Cooper Mountain Pinot Gris for the past decade. He favours fermenting in stainless steel, with only minimum malolactic as needed. ‘I think in the early days people made Pinot Gris in the Chardonnay style. But it’s just not that well suited to it. I think the optimum ripeness for Pinot Gris is in the 22 to 22.5 brix range. I don’t care for it with a lot of alcohol. Any more than that makes for fat, ripe wines. We’ve also moved to whole-cluster pressing, from 1997. It makes the wines much more elegant. I leave them on the lees as long as I can, for more texture and interesting aroma. I’ve seen Pinot Gris from all over the state,’ Cushman concludes happily, ‘and this particular site is very special’.

Experimental wines

The evidence is in the bottle. Oregon’s best examples of Pinot Gris go beyond simple fruit flavours and layer in subtle spice and mineral notes. They clearly benefit from cooler sites such as Cooper Mountain. ‘What we’re sitting on,’ Gross proudly explains, ‘is the second oldest volcano in Oregon. The soils here are ancient and very compacted. We average four feet of soil, and then rock, all volcanic. This creates unique terroir.’ Current releases from Cooper Mountain include a 1998 Estate Bottled wine which is its first, fully certified organic vintage. Its soft textures are underscored by mineral accents and some bracing citrus, pears and cinnamon. The 1998 Estate Reserve is an even bigger wine, full-bodied, luscious, round and smooth, laden with fruit. It finishes with a seductive splash of vanilla.

David Adelsheim is another of Oregon’s Pinot pioneers. Like the others, he is continuing his experiments to improve upon his past successes. He feels that Pinot Gris is still a grape variety that people really don’t have a lot of understanding about. ‘People don’t know what it’s supposed to taste like,’ he explains. ‘The models of good Pinot Gris range from Collio to Alsace to Oregon, but all three are totally different. That they would come from the same grape variety is happenstance.’

The point Adelsheim wants to make is that Alsace, although it is frequently cited as the model for Oregon Pinot Gris, is actually quite different. ‘I think that Alsace is a unique climate and sort of the exact opposite of Oregon,’ he says in his quiet way. ‘In Alsace, summers are reasonably warm, but wet; then it gets dry in the fall. So, they can do these late harvests, get the botrytis, long hang-time, probably have a lot of fog. Here we have the exact opposite issue: we have these dry summers that get increasingly wet in the fall. This is not the place for late-harvest, residual sugar, botrytised wines, at least on a regular basis. I think that the style that we’ve sought out is probably closer to Collio. At their best, the Collio Pinot Gris can knock your head off with fruit, which is certainly the style that we would love to get.’

Variations in winemaking techniques

There are about four dozen different versions of Oregon Pinot Gris in current release, and although they are moving closer to a definitive regional style, variations in winemaking techniques and the endlessly surprising Oregon weather make for a lot of different flavours among them. Conversations with a dozen different winemakers yielded a variety of thoughts on the ideal flavours for the grape.

Rob Stuart from Erath Vineyards says: ‘I want tropical, but not heavy: mango, spring flowers like violets, hyacinth aromas. The smell, but not taste, of guava. Not pineapple, but maybe fresh pear and fresh apple. I sometimes equate pear with oxidation flavours. What I like about Gris is it has a richness without a fatness; a concentration of flavour without wearing you out in your mid-palate. It’s juicy, but we leave plenty of acidity. You get the flavours, and then this acidity comes along and cleans it off and refreshes you. It leaves me with an uplifted feeling.’

‘I look for a citrus component; more orange rind than grapefruit,’ said Cushman. ‘I look for pears, Asian pears more than apple, some melon, and a light spiciness that comes with Gris, more cinnamon. In the palate I look for great balance; no rough edges, and flavours as true to the aroma as they can be. I don’t want any bitterness in the finish, which can come from high alcohol.’

Lett shys away from the tropical fruit characters: ‘When I stick my nose into a tank it smells like there’s been apple cider in there. Tropical fruit I think is a symptom of overripeness; you tend to lose varietal characteristic when you get into the tropical zones of these things. In Pinot Noir I’m after the berries, in Pinot Gris I’m after the apples. But truly what I’m after is Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris.’ Clearly, Pinot Gris has caught the attention of consumers as well as winemakers. Food-friendly whites that are not Chardonnay have acquired an against-the-mould cachet among younger wine drinkers. Trendy may-be, but it’s a trend that seems likely to persist, thanks to a happy confluence of increased production, improved winemaking and the grape’s natural flair for accompanying food.

Tasting the wines

Over dinner at Portland’s quietly chic Wildwood Restaurant we tasted three vintages of Pinot Gris from Chehalem, Oak Knoll and Westrey wineries while the winemakers compared notes. Horizontal flights of their 1996, 1997 and 1998 bottlings showcased both the delicious depths of which Oregon Pinot Gris is capable, and the intriguing range of styles being produced by the top wineries. The Oak Knolls were stunning, seductive wines, with mouth-pleasing textures and a wonderful mix of fruit flavours: pears, melon, kiwi and citrus. The Westrey wines brought some sweet spices to the table: clove, nutmeg and cinnamon, the fruit running more to mango and pineapple. The Chehalem Reserve touched a completely different chord; leesy and austere, its bone-dry, flinty style finished with a hint of tobacco, and set up the food beautifully. As a group, the 1996s were holding up but ready to drink, the 1997s were precisely perfect, and the 1998s precocious, fruity and charming. All of them, without exception, were glorious with food.

Paul Gregutt’s top 12 Pinot Gris

1998 Elk Cove Vineyards Willamette Valley

The nose jumps out of the glass, promising lots of fruit: pears, apples, grapefruit and spice. Balanced and refreshing, it makes you reach quickly for that second taste.

1998 Silvan Ridge Oregon

A beguiling blend of flavours including mineral, lime, tangerine, orange peel and some Asian spice accents. Elegant, with a great finish.

1998 Cooper Mountain Estate Reserve

Wonderfully full bodied, forward and delicious. This luscious, round, smooth wine is laden with fruit and finishes with a seductive splash of vanilla.

1998 Airlie Willamette Valley

A gem, subtly showcasing orange peel, citrus and spice, with a little anise in the finish. Especially good value, with a nice edge to it.

1998 Ponzi Willamette Valley

An excellent vintage for Ponzi, the immaculate fruit showing full and bright. A splendid wine to drink young.

1998 Bethel Heights Willamette Valley

Effusive nose of pears, spice, tea and just a sniff of honey. Clean, crisp, full bodied and bracing, it crescendos in a long, slightly honeyed finish.

1998 Oak Knoll Willamette Valley

Friendly, forward fruit, mostly pears, melon and kiwi. Seductive now, but it should continue to improve over the next couple of years.

1998 Seven Hills Coleman Vineyard

A flavourful, fruity style, with good balance. The fruit stresses melon and white peaches, with a hint of honey to finish.

1998 Erath Willamette Valley

Bracing, complex fruits; apples, citrus and pears. The wine gathers strength in the back palate and finishes in a big, bold, juicy burst of flavour. Exceptional value.

1998 Eyrie

Consistently shows a lovely anise/fennel note in its Pinot Gris and the lean, tight styling makes it Oregon’s most ageworthy example. The current release shows pears and melon, with a lick of liquorice on the finish.

1998 Westrey

Spicy, with pineapple dominating a tart, citric finish.

1998 Chehalem Estate

Bottled Crisp, clean and straightforward, in a different style from the barrel-aged reserve; delicious, fruity.

1998 Adelsheim

Unusually dry, nutty style, green apples dominate. Concentrated but tastes older than expected. Experimental irrigation introduced in 1999 in the hope it will make for longer-lived wines.