This stylish white wine is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser
This Oregon pinto gris is a great pick for your Thanksgiving table.
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Lange “Classique” Pinot Gris
Willamette Valley, Oregon
$22.99
13.2% alcohol
PLCB Item # 97450
Sale price; regularly $25.99
The grapes of the pinot family prefer colder climates than most, so it’s no surprise that they thrive in coastal Oregon. While red Oregon pinot noirs get more attention, vintners here are also making some delicious white wines, as with this delightful pinot gris from one of the state’s most reliable and respected wineries.
Pinot gris is a paler-skinned variant of the pinot noir grape. It looks reddish on the vine, compared to the purple-black of its more famous cousin, and lacks the density of color compounds necessary to make a wine that looks or tastes red. Instead, vintners follow the methodology of white winemaking with pinot gris by discarding the grape skins from the start and fermenting the clear juice only.
Pinot gris can make a wide spectrum of styles. In northern Italy under the pinot grigio name, its wines are quite light and very mild in flavor, largely due to large crop yields and early harvesting. In France’s Alsace region, the same grape can produce much richer and more flavorful wine, thanks to lower crop yields and longer hangtime on the vine.
Oregon’s growers can follow either path — picking earlier to make lighter wines or harvesting later to produce plumper ones — but most choose a middle road that brings the best of both styles into one bottle.
This is the case with this stylish wine that combines understatement and complexity in one seamless and elegant wine. While the wine features a modest alcohol content and delicate texture that will please any fan of pinot grigio, its scent of white peaches and cantaloupe bring it closer to the French Alsace style in flavor profile. The result is a versatile unoaked white that can serve as a flattering food partner for fish, pork, or chicken, and will make a great crowd-pleaser at Thanksgiving dinner.
No alternate retail locations within 50 miles of Philadelphia, according to Wine-Searcher.com