Everything about this pinot gris is French — except for where it’s made
Christopher Michael's pinot gris has a French name, grapes grown in the French tradition, and French flavors. The only difference? It's grown in Oregon.
Sometimes something as simple as word choice can speak volumes. For example, one Oregon winery’s decision to label their wine as a ‘pinot gris’ rather than a ‘pinot grigio’ communicates something important about the wine’s style that can luckily be confirmed by glancing at its alcohol content.
Pinot gris is a grape of French origin that is a paler-skinned mutation of pinot noir. While the grape traces its roots to Burgundy, pinot gris’ ability to make richly textured wines in colder climates led to its eastward migration into places like Germany and Austria. Eventually, it came to be widely planted in northern Italy, where it goes by its Italian name, ‘pinot grigio.’ Now, it dominates the country’s white wine exports.
In northern Italy, however, the tradition is to grow bumper crops of these grapes and harvest them before they are fully ripe. The results are light-weight, low-alcohol wines with almost neutral flavors. They taste like a crisp pear that has not yet softened.
This is different from the French tradition, which is now most often practiced in the Alsace region that borders Germany’s Black Forest. There, the pinot gris grape ripens for much longer, yielding wines that are considerably richer and peachier in flavor, darker in color, and weightier in mouthfeel.
Labeling the wine under its French name — plus the higher than average alcohol content for a white wine — suggest that it will taste more French than Italian. This assumption is confirmed in the glass by the wine’s vibrant flavors of juicy white peaches and faint floral accents of honeysuckle, as well as its lusciously rich texture on the palate. The result is a delightfully flavorful unoaked white wine that has enough heft to pair well with equally bold foods, like fried Vietnamese spring rolls or bratwursts with sauerkraut.
Christopher Michael Pinot Gris
Oregon; 14% ABV
PLCB Item #80347 — on sale for $15.99 through May 3 (regularly $17.99)
No alternate retail locations within 50 miles of Philadelphia, per Wine-Searcher.com.
