Browse Tag

pinot gris

Personnelle department

Trimbach 2001 Pinot Gris “Réserve Personnelle” (Alsace) – Piercing, crystalline pear through which has been thrust the sharpest imaginable diamond-tipped needle of acidity; this is like a rainshower of structured brilliance over a sea of fluffy, goopy pinot gris. That said, it’s not dry. This has to be one of the best Réserve Personnelles ever. (1/08)

Agricole mine

[bottle]Institut Agricole Régional 2005 Pinot Gris (Vallée d’Aoste) – If there’s any identifiable varietal character here, I’m missing it. Instead, there’s a pith and quartz sensibility that dominates all else, with a jagged, brittle icicle quality to the fruit and a long, structure-driven finish. Impressive but diffident, and I think it might benefit from a little time in bottle. (1/08)

Art Monk

Kreydenweiss 2002 Pinot Gris Mœnchberg “Le Moine” (Alsace) – Gorgeous, with metallic spiced pear lushness lashed by shattering acidity. There’s no lack of residual sugar, but nothing is out of balance. Intact, this has years of life ahead of it. (1/08)

Friends, Romanus, countrymen

[barrel]Albrecht 2005 Pinot Gris “Cuvée Romanus” (Alsace) – Dense and heavily mineral-influenced, which turns the thick pear fruit smoky, perhaps even a bit musky. The balance isn’t bad for a pinot gris (that is to say: the acidity’s low, but not unforgivably so), but the wine makes up for it with strength of character. A little more complexity would improve things, but it’s hard to complain too much; this isn’t an overly aspirational wine, just a solid expression of the variety and the general terroir at a reasonable price. (12/07)

Gresser drawer

Gresser 2002 Pinot Gris Brandhof “Vieilles Vignes” (Alsace) – Showing red-fruited (which pinot gris can often do), with strawberry and a blend of red, Rainier, and maraschino cherries, plus peach and tangerine. The fruit is fresh and vivid, and the wine is supported by a solid foundation of granite and marble. A medium-length, almost feathery finish brings out hints of fennel frond. This is a nice wine with good aging potential, but I suspect more could be wrested from these grapes. (3/06)

Not Hassel, but Brand

Gresser 2004 Pinot Gris Brandhof (Alsace) – Pear skin and juice from ripe examples of the fruit, with a long, solid core of iron and steel around which runs a steady but thin stream of lemon and grapefruit. Incredibly long-finishing and crisp. I’ve not encountered a pinot gris of this structure and form in quite some time. It’s decidedly different, especially now, but I love it.

Gresser 2002 Pinot Gris Brandhof “Vieilles Vignes” (Alsace) – The old vines, in this case, are around 45 years of age. Fatter than the previous wine, though by no means blowsy, with spiced pear and intense, ripe red apple, strawberry and red cherry. Normally, I associate those sorts of red fruit characteristics with very high-quality pinot gris, but in this case the finish is shorter than I’d like, and the acidity not quite what I’d want either. Still, it’s a very good wine; I’m simply hoping for more from this vintage and these vines.

Amber gris

Blackenbrook 2004 Pinot Gris (Nelson) – Far too many New Zealand versions of this ubiquitously-planted grape are indifferent, at best. In an attempt to avoid such indifference, this wine sits on its fine lees for a while…not an uncommon technique, but one that helps add character and weight when the fruit is of sufficient quality. However, 2004 was a difficult vintage for this grape, and harvest occurred on the 4th of May despite an ardent desire to let the fruit hang longer. The result is still pretty good, and I’d like to see what could be done in a better vintage. There’s light pear and light residual sugar, good yeasty/leesy weight, and a fair amount of floral spice lingering about. It finishes a little sticky, though. (3/05)

More here.

Past tense of Writenberg

Zind-Humbrecht 1995 Pinot Gris Rotenberg “Vendange Tardive” (Alsace) – Massively rich and lusciously textured, but not over the top. More pear than spice, with crystalline minerality, if this wine has a flaw it’s that it too stridently hits its best notes, and subsequent glasses eventually become a bit much. In more normal quantities, however, the wine is fabulous. While there’s plenty of residual sugar, the wine is not at all about its sweetness, but rather about intensity. It could be held longer, but I’m not sure there’s enormous benefit in doing so; the fruit will recede as the spice grows, but the weight will eventually become an issue as those qualities diverge. (10/07)

Grey villé

Trimbach 2002 Pinot Gris “Réserve” Ribeauvillé (Alsace) – Rich spiced pear, almost verging on oily, but with enough backpalate crispness to retain balance. There’s also the typical blackened quartz underbelly…a strange descriptor, I know…which sets this far apart from other pinot gris at its price point. This is a highly reliable wine (except in freak years like 2003), but 2002 verges on exceptional. (8/07)

Willow

[rosenberg de wettolsheim]Barmès Buecher 2002 Pinot Gris Rosenberg de Wettolsheim “Silicis” (Alsace) – Brilliant, showing far more shattered crystalline minerality than the spicy pear fruit that is this variety’s regional signature, with a long finish and only the mildest dollop of appealing sweetness. Highly-structured, and – unlike many pinot gris – likely to develop, rather than simply last and then fade, with bottle age. Just terrific. (9/07)