TASTING RESULTS | Pinot Gris
RICHARD DUVAL IMAGES
Oregon stands out throughout Pinot Gris tasting
By Eric Degerman
I
It’s no surprise that Oregon stood out in this comparative tasting of Pinot Gris, which not coincidentally showcased a number of the Northwest’s top talents. And this winter will mark the 50th anniversary of the federal government approving the label for the first Pinot Gris produced in the country — The Eyrie Vineyards 1970 Oregon Pinot Gris by the late David Lett in the Dundee Hills. “We planted Pinot Gris in 1965, and registered the U.S.’s first label under that variety name for vintage 1970,” Lett’s son, Jason, wrote in an email to Great Northwest Wine that proudly included the official Certificate of Label Approval (COLA) dated Jan. 4, 1973. Another producer in the Willamette Valley who would also become famous, Dick Ponzi, planted Pinot Gris in 1978 at his historic estate vineyard that flanks the Ponzi Vineyards winery in the Chehalem Mountains. Pinot Gris still inhabits about half of those 12 picturesque acres. “Both should rightly be considered pioneers of the variety,” Jason Lett points out. History also views David Adelsheim, another renowned Chehalem Mountains winemaker, as a longtime champion for Pinot Gris, particular-
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ly after tasting that first effort from The Eyrie Vineyards as an early employee.
wasn’t until the 2000 vintage when Pinot Gris plantings overtook Chardonnay.
“In the fall, André Tchelistcheff — the most important winemaker ever in California, at least if you are looking at the perspective of 1973 — was in his consulting mode for Ste. Michelle,” Adelsheim told Great Northwest Wine during a 2013 interview. “He stopped by The Eyrie in 1973 and was very impressed with the Pinot Gris wine. He tasted from one of David’s stainless steel barrels and said, ‘Good Pinot Gris ought to taste like Winesap apples.’
King Estate received acclaim in 2016 as North America’s largest Demeter-certified Biodynamic vineyard. Rather than using herbicides, synthetic fertilizers or pesticides, King Estate spreads more than 1,000 tons of compost across the 460 acres of vines. A whopping 300 acres are dedicated to Pinot Gris, and estate fruit still makes up the largest portion of the King family’s flagship wine — the Willamette Valley Pinot Gris that is the most widely available gold medal wine from this tasting.
“That impressed me,” Adelsheim added. “Here was this famous person saying he really liked this Pinot Gris, so I needled David to see if I could get some cuttings.” Despite the early applause from Tchelistcheff, Adelsheim points out that other Oregon producers were slow to embrace this less-famous grape native to Burgundy. “Ponzi had made a Pinot Gris in ’83, so in 1984, the three of us did a grand tasting at the Heathman Hotel of all the Pinot Gris available in Oregon at the time — all three of them,” Adelsheim recalled. In large part to its nationwide ambassadorship by King Estate, Pinot Gris became the No. 1 white variety in Oregon; however, it
In the most recent Oregon Winery and Vineyard Report, there were 5,460 acres of Pinot Gris planted. Chardonnay is a distant second at 2,610 acres. And during the 2019 vintage, vineyard managers on average cropped the two varieties rather similarly with Pinot Gris just a bit heavier at 3.08 tons per acre vs. Chardonnay (2.99), resulting in 15,694 tons of Pinot Gris and 6,780 tons of Chardonnay. In Washington state, Chardonnay is the focus with 28,100 tons harvested, followed by Riesling (24,680), Sauvignon Blanc (7,700) and then Pinot Gris (7,070). Interestingly, the top two wines in our tasting were grown within a short drive of each other
