Pinot Gris (Willammette Valley)

Just as it's a near-perfect area for growing Pinot Noir, Willammette Valley, Oregon is a wonderful place for growing Pinot Gris. Warmer than the traditional European growing areas for the Pinot grapes, it is shielded from much of the adverse weather by the towering Cascade Mountains, Mount Hood in particular. In many ways, this makes it much like Central Otago.

The trip here was difficult. In fact, the trip almost anywhere from the South Island was difficult. Thankfully, the chartered jumbo jet business is slow during the pandemic, so our ability to fly some of the biggest birds in the sky was nearly unlimited. We arrived in nearby Portland well rested this morning and made the roughly one hour drive into Willammette Valley.

Willammette Valley is an interesting wine region. It's long and narrow, running north to south. And, not surprisingly, the farther south you get in the valley, the warmer the days and the greater the influence of the pervasive evening and morning fogs and the morning dew.

Pinot Gris only came to Oregon in the mid-1960s. Since then, local vignerons and winemakers alike have discovered that its refreshing palate with the fuller body attainable in Oregon is a winner with American wine drinkers.

Today, we're in the Dundee Hills, situated to the southwest of the town of Dundee, nearly due south of Yamhill-Carlton, and to the north of Eola-Amity Hills. As we walk through the hillside vineyard still damp with the morning dew, we stoop to pick a couple of grapes and immediately notice the freshness. Bending down, we smell the basalt-rich Jory soil -- it's rech and red with the volcanic deposits and looks a lot like a loam.

The wines we are tasting today are made in a true old world (as compared to Old World) style. Nothing artificial is used. The yeasts are wild, no sulfur is used as a preservative, and the chilled wine exhibits some natural crystals.

The wine itsefl refreshes immediately on the palate bursting with orchard fruit -- local apples and pears as well as peach -- laced with honey and with notable minerality and wet stone. The more aged bottles that we sample have additional notes of roasted chestnut.

While we love drinking this wine by itself, it is an incredible food wine as well. We had the opportunity to sample it with pork sausage, mushroom risotto, thai basil chicken, and a traditional Italian salumi plate. All were remarkable and we've yet to pick our favorite.