Illustration by JP Thimot.
WINE
Pinot Grigio will be there for you
By Mark Criden

“All we are saying, is give Gris a chance.”
—John Lennon

Is it too on the nose to say that Pinot Grigio is the Jennifer Aniston of wine? Am I pandering too much to suggest that this shallow Friend-turned-tabloid-icon evokes a white whose fans are largely undiscriminating? Is it too, too obvious to write that an actress commonly known as pretty but empty can be the poster child for a wine widely regarded as complex and deep as Tang?

Well, friends, welcome to the second paragraph. Wine pals often think I’m messing with them when I order Pinot Grigio, but just like no one knew how gifted Aniston was until she starred in The Good Girl, few get how delicious and distinctive Pinot Grigio can be until they look past the Santa Margherita. Part of Pinot Grigio’s problem is that it’s a promiscuous mutator. It’s the X-Men of grapes. Like its Alsatian stable mate Pinot Blanc, it’s the bastard clone offspring of Pinot Noir. But its changeability doesn’t end there: P.G. has more aliases than Jennifer Garner. In Italy, it’s Pinot Grigio, but the handle is Tokay Pinot Gris in Alsace, Rulander (and, just to be extra difficult, Grauburgunder) in Germany, and just plain Pinot Gris in California, Oregon, and elsewhere.

Whatever the moniker—or zip code—Pinot Grigio has a lot going for it. It’s gently aromatic, all flowers and apples, with smoky, minerally notes. Not a shrinking violet, P.G. is spicy and expressive, with a color ranging from straw to copper, and possessing a zingy acidity that makes it especially friendly to food. Usually dry, it’s not as heavy as Chardonnay, as tart as Sauvignon Blanc, or as light as most Rieslings. It’s a refreshing poolside companion, yet in the hands of the right winemaker, P.G. can be serious wine. Although dismissed by most wine enthusiasts as lemon-colored mouthwash, Pinot Grigio can have an uncanny intensity of flavor that belies its rep.

As always, though, the area code and the winemaker make all the difference. In Alsace, near the Rhine River, Pinot Gris produces rich, muscular wines that marry well with the region’s garlicky choucroute. Though less commonly planted than the other members of Alsace’s noble triumvirate, Riesling and Gewürztraminer, it is here that, for many, the grape reaches its apogee and produces wines that rival the world’s best whites. Take a trip to a specialty wine store and you’ll find that the Alsatians bottle more than normal table wines; they’ve made it a fetish to produce enormously rich, dizzyingly sweet, and viscous bottlings of ageworthy, late-harvest Pinot Gris identified by designations such as Vendange Tardive (“late picked”) or Selection de Grains Nobles 3 (“diabetics abandon all hope.”) If the intensity of these wines doesn’t shock you, the prices will—bottles are anywhere from $50 to $300.

On this side of the pond, a boom in California plantings since the late nineties has seen P.G. overtake Sauvignon Blanc as the state’s second most planted white grape after Chardonnay. But Golden State growers have struggled to exploit the grape’s full potential, producing, generally, fuller and riper wines than this essentially cold climate grape demands. On the other hand, dedicated winemakers in the Pacific Northwest have established world-class breeding grounds and Pinot Gris has become one of Oregon’s most successful varietals. Here, Pinot Gris becomes a crisp white wine, exhibiting apricot, apple and peach overtones along with some mineral and citrus flavors. Oregon-grown Pinot Gris tends to straddle a fine middle ground between the strong, earthy style of Alsace and the lighter, easier fashion of Northern Italy.

Contrary to popular belief, the markets are flooded with lovely examples of Italian Pinot Grigio, which are generally light-bodied, tangy, vibrant whites, with, in the best examples, a high-wire balance between intensity and delicacy that’s rarely rivaled in the world of comestibles. From top to bottom, the Italian style veers towards the crisp, refined, elegant yet stony, juicy, and refreshing side of the grape. It’s true that no Pinot Grigio will ever be as rich and full-bodied as Alsatian Tokay Pinot Gris, but the Italians dominate by sheer volume: there’s a lot more Grigio than Gris. In Italy, Pinot Grigio’s best, purest and richest wines, those with superb definition and verve, are produced in the north, in the hilly reaches of Friuli-Venezia Giulia and the sub-Alpine Trentino-Alto Adige (home to the most popular Pinot Grigio sold in the United States, Santa Margherita.) Bulk Pinot Grigio, with all the inertness that implies, usually comes from Veneto, where large volumes are industrially produced by growers for local co-operatives and then sold to the large bottlers.

Although the most popular imported wine in this country, Pinot Grigio remains more consistently maligned by wine professionals and collectors than Chardonnay and Merlot combined. It’s hard to find a serious wine drinker, let alone a sommelier, willing to consider the grape anything other than innocuous and uninteresting. But good Pinot Gris will flow across your palate with a silky texture and bright, crisp edges and it’s remarkably flexible with food. Not only do its Alsatian versions stand up to hearty, rustic fare, but the lighter Italian iterations can be either a perfect summertime quaff or a serious table mate, married to a filet of salmon—grilled, poached, or baked, with cream or butter sauces—or almost any fish or chicken decked with herbs, exotic spices, or fruit salsas.

So go ahead and shake your head in disbelief. Risk a withering stare from the sommelier. But he probably refused to see Jennifer Aniston in Friends with Money, too. His loss, but it doesn’t have to be yours.

Mark Criden (mcriden@yahoo.com) is a non-profit executive and the former chair of the Buffalo Branch of the International Wine & Food Society.



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