Italian Pinot Grigio - Let's Talk Details

Last week I tried three different examples of Pinot Grigio or Gris from different parts of the world. I was hoping to capture good examples of three different styles. I think I hit the mark with two out of three! I'm not going to pat myself on the back too much....I mean I did pick an Italian wine to highlight the Italian style and a California wine to highlight the New World style....it was just hard to hit the Alsace style with something from California.

Anyway......lets talk about that guy from Italy!

Hey there it is again! As a refresher, it had nice straw color, had a strong mineral smell (nose) to it and a even lemon/mineral taste with good acidity. Overall, it was a good, simple wine that was fun to drink!

But let's talk about where it comes from, why it has high acidity and a lemon flavor - let's get to know this guy a bit better!

Most of Italy's Pinot Grigio is grown in a region called Alto Adige or Suditrol, so be on the look out for that on the label or wine notes if you're doing some research before buying. This area is known to grow great Pinot Grigio. And why is that? Well just look at this place.....

The village of Cortaccia, Italy

Its fucking gorgeous! Literally nothing here could be bad! Actually, this area of Italy has been a major wine producing region for thousands of years and the valley was an important route for trade and migration of people. If we are going to start learning about wine, this is a VERY IMPORTANT PLACE. It used to be part of Austria-Hungary, so they speak mostly German here and you will see a lot of German place names on maps and labels.

Zoomed in on our area of interest

Actually, it's known to grow great Pinot Grigio because of a relatively cool climate caused by a higher elevation. This cool climate contributes to the acidity of the wine, which is what makes Pinot Grigio great! Fermentation of this grape in stainless steel helps too. However, a high acidity can also mean the grapes were picked too soon. How can you tell the difference? Right now, I have no clue, but I'm going to guess the acidity of grapes picked too soon can be unpleasant to smell and taste.

Pinot Grigio also needs long ripening times and goes through a spectrum of flavors that indicate how long it had to ripen. The folks over at Wine Folly have a great chart illustrating this. Our Tiefenbrunner had a distinct lemon flavor, so we know that it had a good long time to ripen.

This region is known for some other grape varietals that I hope to try out in the future.

Sources:
http://www.altoadigewines.com/en/home.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Tyrol_wine

http://www.wine-searcher.com/grape-381-pinot-grigio

http://www.wine-searcher.com/regions-trentino-alto+adige

http://winefolly.com/review/whats-the-difference-between-pinot-gris-and-pinot-grigio/

http://www.weinstrasse.com/en/

http://winefolly.com/review/wine-characteristics/

http://iv.ucdavis.edu/Viticultural_Information/?uid=27&ds=351