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Avalon Recommends:
Order the This is the best guide, bar none, to Oregon's wines. Insightful articles, interesting reviews, in depth interviews- you'll find them all here. Worth every penny if you're interested in Oregon wine.
The OWR is published
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Oregon's Pinot Trio Black, gray, or white, Oregon seems to be one of the best places in the world to grow all the major color variations of the Pinot grape. Ok, so that's not much of a surprise for the black variety of Pinot. Since a seminal tasting in 1976 when David Lett's Pinot noir from The Eyrie Vineyards outclassed the majority of Burgundy's best, Oregon's reputation for growing fine Pinot noir has been moving steadily upward. But Pinot doesn't come only as a black grape! Today, Oregon is producing more than just great noir of Pinot. Increasingly, Oregon Pinot gris and Pinot blanc are turning heads. Pinot the Grey Pinot gris is a white wine wunderkind-and a child of Oregon. The same David Lett of Pinot noir fame was the first person to plant the Pinot gris grapevine in the New World, and he did it in the Willamette Valley. Today, Pinot gris is the second most planted grape in the state, next to Pinot noir, and one of the fastest growing sales segments of the wine world. It all started in the mid 1960s. David Lett was getting his viticulture degree from UC Davis and looking for the best varieties to grow in the cool Willamette Valley. He made an agreement with a professor that he could take the cuttings if he pruned the vines at the school's nursery. Recognizing that Pinot gris was an early ripening variety, he ended up planting 160 vines-the first Pinot gris commercially planted outside of Europe-at his vineyard in the Red Hills of Dundee. Throughout the 1970s Lett made only about a barrel of Pinot gris a year. "I was selling my Pinot gris below my cost," he recalls, "just to get it poured and tasted." But by the mid 1980s, after a lot of public pourings, sales finally began to take off. "What I've found," says Lett, who has more experience growing and making the wine than anyone else outside of Europe, "is that the person who doesn't like Pinot gris is about one in ten thousand. Pour a glass, take it to the table, and as soon as you start seeing how it harmonizes with food, you're hooked." Though Pinot gris is a white wine, the Pinot gris grape is really gray-skinned (hence "gris"). It is a natural mutation of Pinot noir, most likely originating in ancient Burgundian vineyards when some vines displayed lightly colored grapes. Isolating these vines, growers began cultivating the gray grape, and dispersing it widely throughout Europe. Today, the classical standard of excellence for Pinot gris comes from Alsace, where the wines-whether sweet or dry-display heady spice-and-fruit flavors that can be quite intense. But Americans are increasingly acquainted with another style, the light and spritzy Italian Pinot grigio. Somewhere in between are the best of Oregon's gris. Though there is no particular "Oregon style" Pinot girs, it is fair to say that our wines tend to be more substantial than the lighter styled grigios (whether from Italy or from the rapidly increasing numbers of California producers-often making their wines from Oregon grapes!). They also tend to be quite aromatic, fruity and nicely structured with acidity that makes them excellent food complements. Pinot the White There's another version of Pinot that many consumers aren't too familiar with, but it is definitely and up-and-coming wine in Oregon's Pinot triad. Pinot blanc-the white grape Pinot-is either a mutation of Pinot gris or of Pinot noir. It is widely grown in Europe, especially in Alsace, Germany, and Italy, and has earned a quiet little reputation for a few quality producers in California. An now here in Oregon, a determined band of Pinot blancophiles are focusing on increasing the quality of what we produce. Led by Myron Redford at Amity Vineyards, these producers are paying the kind of attention to Pinot blanc that many pay to Pinot noir. Clonal selection, low yields, malolactic fermentation, even some oak ageing, are some of the winemaking regimens that Oregon vintners are experimenting with in order to bring out the best in this grape. And yet, Pinot blanc has been a bit of a tough sell to many consumers. In part this is due to the many guises that Pinot blanc has acquired around the world. In Alsace the wines are quite fruity and clean, with floral and apple characters. In Italy, they can be very soft and immediately approachable. In Germany, Pinot blanc can be dry or off dry, with a distinct Chardonnay-like appeal. And in California, well, some of the most expensive Pinot blanc wines are heavy and luscious, with oak character and malolactic softness. Another reason for Pinot blanc's rather underwhelming reputation is that its character can been seen as relatively non-descript. It does not have the forward flavor set of Pinot gris, and can seem a bit bland next to a toasty Chardonnay. Plus, there has been confusion over just what is and isn't Pinot blanc. For many years a lot of California producers were marketing Pinot blanc . . . not knowing that their wines were really made from Melon de Bourgogne grape. But as the flow of better produced Pinot blanc begins to pour from Oregon's cellars, consumers are bound to discover increasingly flavorful and fruity white wines from our favored Pinot family. And Finally, Pinot the Black Ah yes, the great Pinot noir. Elegant, ageworthy, fruit flavors from strawberry to blackberry and blueberry, minerality, earthy, light on its feet or darkly brooding . . . a red wine from a black grape that carries enough different personalities to appeal to just about anyone. As the trunk of the Pinot family tree, the noir variety has ascended to become one of the two or three finest wine varietals in the world. Originating in the ancient past of France's Burgundy region, the Pinot noir vine is known to be fickle about where it is grown, and finicky about how much it produces. So far, only a few climates have proven to be amenable to producing the best Pinot noir: certainly Burgundy and Oregon, but increasingly also California and New Zealand are coming up with outstanding Pinot noir wines. Still, Oregon's Pinot noirs are considered to be among the best produced anywhere. And, with an enviable string of four great vintages in a row, Oregon's Pinot noirs are setting a new standard for quality and expressiveness (and sometimes expensiveness as well!). One of the most salient characteristics of Pinot noir-and one of the reasons why Pinotphiles can be so passionate-is that it has the uncanny ability to express the characteristics of the site where it is grown. Known to the French as terroir, this quality means that no two Pinots will ever taste exactly alike, because over the years the vine gives out what the French might call the flavor of the soil-a taste that is unique to its place of origin. Such endless variation makes Pinot noirs an intellectually challenging wine, as well as a constant source of pleasure as the drinker experiments with new wines. In Oregon for instance, Pinot noirs from the Red Hills, the Eola Hills, and the Chehalem Ridge will all taste a bit different because of the different soils and microclimates of each region. To generalize, Pinot noir wines from the Dundee region will emphasize red fruits, have velvety textures, and lack both earthiness and spiciness. Pinots from the Chehalem Ridge area will tend to display darker, earthier flavors, with spicy hints of cedar and licorice. Eola Hills Pinots will often show more cherry and black cherry fruits, with hints of spice and a light texture. In any of these cases, though, the best wines will always show a distinctive Pinot noir aroma, and rich varietal flavors. Pinot Producers It's hard to go too far wrong with just about any Oregon Pinot, regardless of its color! But if you want to try out a few examples of each of these Pinot types, here are a few reliable producers to look out for: Pinot gris: Pinot blanc:
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Past columns by Cole Oregon's Pinot Trio Oregon Wine touring at Thanksgiving Oregon 2001 Harvest- Broadley Vineyards Oregon 2001 Harvest Update part 2 Oregon Wines for Romance The
Best Bets in Is Chardonnay going to become Oregon's Best Wine? Is
Pinot gris Life
Beyond Pinot Noir The
Promise of "Wineterview" The Price of Value and the Value of Price
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