Last night, the bf and I tasted three different Pinot Grigio/Gris. I tried to pick out examples of the three main styles of this grape: Dry and Fruity from the New World, Dry and Minerally from Italy and Sweet and Fruity from France.
Quick Fact: The drier the wine, the higher the alcohol content. The sweeter wines have lower alcohol content.
We started with the 2014 Estancia ($8) which I had selected for a New World style. So we are expecting fruits with some good acid (meaning dry). This wine also is supposed to have a green tint to it, but all I saw was light straw. :(
(So....50% on the color)
We were supposed to smell passion fruit, sandalwood and grapefruit. We did not smell passion fruit.
The taste is amazing! You get three distinct flavors here, but you really have to concentrate for the first one. It starts off with green apple (try using the tip of your tongue for this flavor), then you get pear in the middle and finally lime at the end with the acid.
In the end, I got 6/8 of the what the internet said is in there. That’s not too bad!
Next up was the 2014 Hahn Pinto Gris ($11), which I thought would be representative of the French style. No go on this. Its supposed to be a sweeter wine, but with 14.5% alcohol content, I don’t think so!
Neither of us liked this one. You get a muddled peach and pear when smelling, it was hard to pick out either one. Both appear when tasting and it has lemon notes at the end and not much acid. It feels silky at the end and it feels “round”.
This was a 4/7 on picking up what the internet said.
Finally, the one I was looking most forward too: 2104 Tiefenbrunner ($7) from Italy.
This was a great simple wine. Very pretty straw color! You can really smell the acid/mineral right away but that wasn’t overpowering in the taste. It had some lemon and minerals with a nice round finish. It was too dry either, very even tasting.
So I did a good job picking out three wines that each did something different with the grape, but I’m still on the look out for a French style Pinot Gris.
We then watched Lord of War with Nick Cage - not the best but I was easily entertained at that point, having drank most of the bottle of Estancia.
I’d recommend getting both the Estancia and the Tiefenbrunner - they would be easy to compare/contrast.
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