Pinot Grigio

Pinot gris

Though indigenous to northern France, Pinot Grigio is today most readily associated with Italy, though it was well established elsewhere before reaching the Alto-Adige and Friuli-Venezia-Giulia regions.

It arrived in Switzerland from Burgundy sometime in the Middle Ages, in Hungary by the end of the 1300s, and is thought to have migrated to Alsace and southern Germany by the latter 1500s.  Two of the variety’s alternate names, “Beurot” (monk’s cloth) and “Szürkebarat” (gray monk) may refer to the berry’s grayish skin or to the vine’s having been propagated in several areas by Cistercian monks.

In the early 1990s, research conducted by plant geneticist Carole Meredith at the University of California at Davis revealed a common heritage between Pinot Grigio (Gris) and a number of other grape varieties indigenous to northern France.  Based on DNA typing, she concluded that an original Pinot prototype and an obscure vine called Gouais Blanc are the parents of Pinot Grigio and fifteen other Gallic varieties, including Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

A highly adaptable, resistant and potentially prolific vine of medium vigor, Pinot Grigio is best suited to deep, warm soils high in minerals and requires a long, cool growing season to develop flavor, extract and its delicate aromas yet preserve acidity.

The skin of the berries varies from green to dusty gray-pink to gray-blue, sometimes lending a pale pink color to the wine.  The fruit is moderately low in acidity and needs restricted yields to show character.  Usually vinified as a single varietal wine, Pinot Grigio is represented in Alsace and Germany by dry, semi-dry and botrytized wines, the latter a result of the overripe berries being attacked by the fungus responsible for the sweet dessert wines of Sauternes.

These wines are often highly extracted, creamy, honeyed wines with scents of spice, blossoms and minerals.  At the other end of the spectrum, in northern Italy, Pinot Grigio yields fresh, crisp, supple wines of genuine charm which show clean white fruit flavors and aromas of apple and pear offset by notes of almonds and acacia flowers.  Also grown in Austria, California, Oregon, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Australia and in the Slavic countries of eastern Europe.