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Pinot Grigio Lovers: This One’s For You
By Carolyn Evans Hammond, published in Outreach Connection and distributed privately on 05/15/09
The business of wine tasting is a curious thing, actually. It’s very different than wine drinking. When I taste a wine wearing my critic cap, I pull apart the whole pleasure experience. I hold each aspect of the wine up against the cold yardstick of imaginary perfection. How’s the colour, fruit, alcohol, acidity, tannins, balance, complexity, length, maturity, typicity? There’s no quiet conversation, eye-batting flirtation, suggestive comments, or even jazz. Instead, I’m alone in my home or with other studious wine critics in a lab setting—wee spittoon handy. Yes, I spit; inebriation wreaks havoc on tasting notes. And it’s a hazard to which I’m especially prone weighing in at just 112 pounds soaking wet and naked. Bottom line: The whole process is rather clinical. One could argue tasting this way—not soaking wet and naked but rather, clinically—is too removed from the real drinking experience. There may be something to be said for that. But there’s serious value in technical wine tasting and it’s this: it can determine exactly why a wine does or doesn’t taste good and therefore why you probably will or won’t like it. Said another way, you might not know why you love or hate a wine but a wine critic probably would. And the technical tasting process yields that insight on a bottle-by-bottle basis. Let me explain. I pretty much guarantee you won’t like a wine that’s out of balance. If it has too much alcohol for the fruit, it will feel hot in your throat like a shot of vodka, which is not what most of us are looking for in that Chardonnay. Or if it lacks extract compared to the alcohol or acidity, the wine will seem thin and harsh. Bar none, everybody likes a wine that’s balanced. And wine critics like me assess balance in a cold, calculated, awfully dull way to see if you’ll like a wine. Curiously, I get some kind of weird, perverse pleasure from the whole exercise. And if the banter that ricochets through the tasting lab at the LCBO each week is any indication, other critics share this quirk. This week, I’ve been organizing about 400 bottles of wine to taste for my next book. They rolled in by the case over the course of the last few weeks and I’ve been sorting them bottle by bottle in my dining room, by grape variety and price. The credenza, dining room table, and much of the floor are covered. It’s the calm before the storm. I toyed with the idea of throwing a party in the name of tasting but I couldn’t think of how to manage it in a way where I could actually produce intelligible tasting notes. So that’s off. Instead I set aside all the duplicate and irrelevant bottles for the launch party early next year, and focused on getting down to business. I plucked 32 Pinot Grigios from my dining room the other day to start the tasting process and discovered some marvellous bottles, often at serious bargain prices. Here's my list of favourites. Citra Pinot Grigio 2008 Pale yellow with light greenish hues. Lovely captivating aromas of white peach and flowers take the lead before hitting the palate with lively acidity underpinning flavours of lime zest and lemon sorbet. This wine is bone dry and beautifully balanced, offering good solid value from an authentic Italian producer. Medium-bodied. 12.5% alc. Cavit Collection Pinot Grigio delle Venezie 2008, This pale straw-coloured wine with green reflections starts with cool and breezy floral aromas before caressing the palate with racy lemon-lime and pink grapefruit flavours. But the real magic of this wine is its incredible texture—pure spun silk. Graceful, elegant and polished—think Isabella Rossellini in a glass. 12% alc. Seriously good Pinot Grigio and definitely one for your must-try list. Mezzacorona Pinot Grigio Vigneti delle Dolomiti 2008, This glossy pale straw wine shows quite a bit of restraint on the nose suggesting only the lightest brushstrokes of lemon. Sleek flavours of fresh lime, wet stones and just a hint of smoke. Fresh and nervy with dry minerals on the finish. Easy crowd-pleaser from a reliable producer. Medium-bodied. 12.5% alc. Castello di Gabbiano Pinot Grigio delle Venezie 2008, Archetypal Italian Pinot Grigio here from a winery established in 1124. This pale straw-coloured wine starts with supple spring garden aromas then slides across the palate with lean but articulate flavours of citrus, honeydew melon, and cantaloupe. Refreshing crispness threads through tightly-wound fruit. Medium-bodied and delicious. 12.5% alc. Loredona Pinot Grigio 2007, all pale-straw in the glass, this wine exudes creamy lemon curd aromas before attacking the palate with taut pear, pretty honeysuckle, and softly sour lemon. Unlike most Pinot Grigios, this wine has been in contact with oak, evident by a top-coat of vanilla. Fuller-bodied wine with 13.5% alc. Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio 2008, Alto Very pale, glassy wine with an flash of sweet-talking perfume on the nose before racing across the palate with vigorous flavours of pureed pear, gentle blossoms, and lemon-lime. Gorgeous almost oily texture with more going on than your average Pinot Grigio. This light-to-medium bodied quaffer offers outstanding value, and is the perfect fit for a party. 12% alc. To find an LCBO near you that stocks a particular bottle, visit http://www.lcbo.com and search by the product name or number. This column is distributed privately, appears in Outreach Connection weekly, and is posted at www.wine-tribune.com. Seasoned journalist and qualified sommelier Carolyn Evans-Hammond has written for several major publications including Decanter Magazine, The Times newspaper, and Wine & Spirit International magazine in the U.K., as well as Maclean’s magazine, Taste magazine, Tidings magazine, The Toronto Star and The Province in Canada. Her bestselling book, 1000 Best Wine Secrets, is available at most major bookstores, and signed copies are available through her website. Carolyn’s next book is due out in March 2010.