Cool Climate Pinot Gris Tasting with friends on a rainy evening
The readers of my blog know that I am a keen supporter of Australian boutique wineries. Of these my favourite ones are either based in cool climate regions or they produce wines with grapes from vineyards in cooler regions. The latter is true for quite a few winemakers in McLaren Vale, which isn’t really cool climate, but profits from the proximity of the adjacent Adelaide Hills.
It is a rainy evening in the Southern Highlands and we have invited some friends to help me go through a half dozen of cool climate Pinot Gris. I have deliberately picked a selection of six with each one originating from a different wine region in Australia. They are all available for under $25 in either bottle shops or at the cellar door.
Vineyard in the cool climate Adelaide Hills
The background to this tasting lies in the feed back I received to an article I wrote a few days back on the production and labeling of Pinot Gris versus Pinot Grigio in Australia. Our selection of wines for our tasting again proves my point, the usage of the word Gris or Grigio here downunder does not necessarily help when trying to identify a typical Gris or Grigio stlye, as is possible in Europe.
The contestants in this tasting were (in alphabetical order):
2008 Innocent Bystander from the Yarra Valley in Victoria
2008 Kirrihill from Adelaide Hills in South Australia
2008 Lerida Estate from Lake George, Canberra Region
2007 McVitty from the Southern Highlands here in NSW
2007 Mornington Estate from the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria
and I have added a
2007 Nepenthe from Adelaide Hills which belongs to Australian Vintage, the 2nd biggest player in Australia simply because I wanted to find out how the big boys compare against the boutique wineries.
All wines display a freshness, that is so typical for Pinot Gris or Grigio. Some of them were more on the fruity side with strong characters of apple, citrus and melon, others were more subdued and unfortunately two were really lagging character when it came to displaying fruity characters or natural acidity. Find out who the winner of this contest was in my next entry.
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An einem regnerischen Freitagabend begehe ich eine Weinprobe mit ein paar Freunden hier auf unserer Farm in den Southern Highlands. Wir testen sechs verschiedene Pinot Gris und Grigios aus diversen cool climate Gegenden Australiens. Allen sechs Weinen gemein ist eine so typische Gris/Grigio Frische, dennoch finden wir schnell grosse Unterschiede in der Faehigkeit die fruchtige Frische zu einem wirklich guten Abgang zu transportieren. Lesen Sie mehr ueber das Endergebnis in meinem naechsten Beitrag.
Ihr Michael Brecht
Related posts:
- Pinot Gris or Grigio – a real Shooting Star here in Australia and New Zealand
- Ein Pinot Gris aus den Southern Highlands: der Weisse aus dem cool climate!
- Wine tasting and business networking in the Southern Highlands
- Cool Climate vor den Toren von Canberra: Lerida Estate
- The NSW wine week starts in Sydney on the 1st of March 2009
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