8/19/2006

Pinot Gris

"A saucy little wench in my glass"

Summer time, and the living is easy... so it must be time to focus on white wines, refreshing and a great match with Maine seafood (and with apologies to George Gershwin.) We decided to taste Pinot Gris (sometimes called Pinot Grigio, from the same grape.) Pinot Gris hasn't suffered the fate of Chardonnay of being so popular that it is too familiar, and it is readily available in stores at a reasonable price.

With less than a week's notice we planned a small gathering of amiable friends with the usual request: bring a bottle of Pinot Gris or Pinot Grigio, $20 or less, from anywhere in the world. We were four couples, so that meant four bottles of wine. The meal was intended to be simple, appetizer food that wouldn't require a lot of on-site preparation. Our guests arrived with a veritable feast of summer appetizers, including portobello mushroom quiche, olive tapenade and a delicious cilantro hummous on artisan salt whole wheat baguette, three kinds of Appleton Creamery Cheese: Georges Highland (aged raw sheeps milk), a sheep brie called Bre Brie, and the classic Chevre in olive oil with fresh basil. There was a perfect cantaloupe with proscuitto, a fresh green bean salad, assorted fresh Vietnamese noodles and spring rolls from a farmers market in Orono. Because it is fresh tomato season, Dory made a wonderful bruschetta. With all this good food we were getting hungry, but before we ate we had the first wine tasting.

Many wine experts say that food changes and in some cases (cheese particularly) dulls our ability to taste wines. No doubt this is true, but it is also true that food and wine make a wonderful pairing. We addressed this problem by having our wine tasting first, with only crackers and water to clear the palate between wines. After tasting ( a very small amount , about an ounce per wine per guest) and rating all four wines we then served food and added any changes to our first rating. Without exception the wines improved with food (and maybe after warming up a bit from refrigerator temperature.)

Note - We tasted these wines blind, linking bottle and glass with matching strands of colored yarn. At the request of the tasters, we're adding the color of the yarn in the write up. We used the 20 point rating scale, and I've transposed it to the commonly used 100 point scale. These ratings are only for comparison and for having a way to differentiate between wines. It is not at all definitive! Here are the wines:

Borgo Maddalena, Italy, Veneto region, 2005, 13%, $11 (blue, 90 points) This was our top wine, favored by all of us unanimously. "A saucy little wench in my glass" one of our friends memorably quipped. It was yellow, with more color than any of the others. The overwhelming sensation was a balanced wine with a nice lingering aftertaste. It had sufficient body to stand up to food, but it doesn't overwhelm and take over. We tasted light citrus flavors, a hint of strawberry, and a bit of lettuce. This was the hit of the evening and it was attractively priced - a very good value.

Kathken, Oregon, Willamette Valley, 2005, 13.8%, $14 (yellow, 82 points)
We visited this winery on a biking vacation in Oregon this summer and brought a few bottles home. It is a refreshing wine, very pale to almost clear in color, and balanced. We tasted mild citrus, honey and lemon flavors. It didn't have the body or the presence of the Borgo Maddalena, but it is a very well made, enjoyable wine. It has a higher alcohol content than white wines usually have (be careful drinking this on a hot summer day!)

Cabert, Italy, Friuli region, 2005, 12.5%, $11 (orange, 74 points)
Pale straw in color, this was the first wine we opened. We were eager to explore these Pinot grigio wines, but this wine was ... unremarkable. There were very subtle hints of pear and spiciness, and one guest noted hazelnuts, but overall it was unremarkable. We had to search to find adjectives. It wasn't bad, just not noteworthy.

Kim Crawford , New Zealand, Marlborough region, 2005, 12.5%, $20 (green, 70 points)
This was the last wine of the series, following the Borgo Maddalena, and we all found it very sweet, almost cloying. The first comment was "cabbage" and I immediately thought that perhaps it was corked, but in fact this is a screw top bottle. At 12.5% it has a traditional alcohol content, and perhaps in a different environment it would be fine, but most of us didn't like it very much.

After a wonderful meal and additional sips of all four wines we brought out the remains of a bottle of Bella Sera, which had been in the refrigerator with the cork jammed in for at least 10 days. To no ones surprise, it was awful. If you can't finish the bottle in a few days, throw it out!

For a complete change, I brought out a bottle of Viognier (Clay Station, 2004, Lodi, CA, $10)
My intention was to highlight some of the flavor differences between two different grapes. This particular Viognier was sweet, with guests immediately volunteering the flavors they tasted: guava, apricot, orange blossom, peach. It was very smooth, well balanced, fruit forward, and "so good - excellent." I used to think of Viognier as a heavier bodied wine, a suitable match for swordfish or other big meals. This wine was lighter but very pleasant.

We had a very enjoyable evening, learning about a popular summer wine and most importanly enjoying the company of good friends. Summer time, and the living is easy...

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