Great Wine Values: Kris Pinot Grigio

The holiday season is upon us, with its sparkling wines and red wines. However, white wines are just as important to have on hand for year-end entertaining, and not just to avoid stains after spills. The simpler pleasures of young, unoaked white wines are welcome at family dinners and cocktail parties alike, for both their crisp, quenching style and modest alcoholic strength. There’s an understandable assumption that more is always better in all things gastronomic, including wine: more alcohol, more color, more oak, more flavor. But like a crisp white shirt or a sleek black shoe, sometimes less is more and all the more desirable as a result. Not everyone appreciates the inherent busy-ness of bubbles, and reds can pack too strong a punch for casual sipping. White wines like this snappy Italian pinot grigio may not get as much winter ink as filigreed sparklers or robust reds, but they make a perfect pick-me-up at any time of year. After all, wine is supposed to qualify as a “refreshment.” With its mild flavors of orchard-fresh apples and subtle scents of white flowers and seashells, this delightfully clean-tasting white would seem to fit that description to a T. And at this tempting sale price, there’s all the more reason to make your Christmas white.

Kris Pinot Grigio, Venezie, Italy. $10.99 (regularly $13.99; sale price through Dec. 31). PLCB Item #3480.

Also available at Total Wine & More in Wilmington and Claymont, Del. ($8.47); Canal’s of Berlin Discount Liquor Mart in Berlin ($9.70); Gloucester City Bottlestop in Gloucester City ($10.09); Canal’s Bottlestop in Marlton ($10.09).