Wine Notes
Pinot Gris
Some
people know us as well for Pinot gris as Pinot noir. The pinot
gris varietal is hot and our style is unique, largely because our standard
for emulation is Alsace.
We like the complex flavors, acidity and exciting textures and weight on the palate in Alsace whites. They are versatile food wines and yet are elegant and rich enough to merit study. We make pinot gris and riesling in what we consider an Alsace style. They are very dry, with typically less than 0.4% residual sugar (4 g/L), and are heavyweights texturally. To do this we harvest fully ripe, sometimes going to ridiculous extremes. For example, our pinot gris is almost always harvested after our pinot noir, although many wineries consider it earlier ripening and their first harvest pick.
Our pinot gris is made in two distinct styles: a bright, crisp mineral
style released early and a very weighty and rounded style intended for
complexity. In general, the fruit is the same, the winemaking differs.
The former crisp style is stainless steel fermented and projects pure
fruit such as pear, lemon, ginger (OK, so it's not a fruit), peach and
minerals. The latter is fermented in neutral oak barrels (old Chardonnay
barrels which have no more barrel flavors to give) and is left on the
lees, or dead yeast cells, for 6-9 months, with several months of stirring
to release compounds that give mouthfeel and a rich mid-palate. We also
let this style go through malolactic fermentation to round it, plus use
several different yeast strains for additional complexity. 
We have friends who plant themselves in one stylistic camp or the other. We want to always give a rich, interesting wine, but realize the foods these accompany will be different and everyone's palate is a little different. In either instance, Alsace is our standard and we show it by bottle shape. Both of our varietals use flutes (or hocks), the same thin, long-necked bottle as in Alsace.
Food. Did we mention food? We consider Pinot gris the most food friendly wine we make, having a range of foods it enhances from vegetarian and shellfish on one end of the spectrum to sausages and meats such as pork on the other, and even hotly spiced Thai or curries further out.
Bon Appetit, August 2003, Hugh Garvey, "Oregon's Pinot Gris Revolution."
... Oregon Pinot Gris is delicious... it has a satisfying medium-body and is marked by good acidity and snappy apple fruit. Think of Pinot Gris as Pinot Grigio for those who favor a bit more flavor...
Diversion Magazine, May 2002
... Yet California for all its marketing muscle and vineyard acreage, is not the epicenter of pinot gris. Instead, the American homeland for pinot gris is Oregon... Although California now has more pinot gris vineyards than Oregon... it is Oregon that identifies with pinot gris...
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