Also in the Broad Ripple neighbourhood, chef Greg Hardesty presents plates of edible art at his acclaimed Recess, illustrating just how refined the Indianapolis food scene has become, with a rotating menu of fresh fish like sable served with a sweetcorn-scallion blini, and an international drinks list of perfect dish pairings, from a French 2009 Domaines Schlumberger pinot gris to a local Sun King Brewery Wee Mac Scottish-style ale.
Pinot Gris is a lot of things to a lot of people, not all of them good.
Couple this with the grape's prima donna temperature demands--warm though not-too-warm days to ripen up, but with cool nights to keep acidity from respiring out--and you begin to see why making great Pinot Gris takes a special calling.
Couple this with the grape's prima donna temperature demands-warm though not-too-warm days to ripen up, but with cool nights to keep acidity from respiring out-and you begin to see why making great Pinot Gris takes a special calling.
But in places where the grape aspires to greater things, Pinot Gris nearly always develops a more substantial weight, a touch of unctuousness.
And unlike Chardonnay, fine Pinot Gris is not "a winemaker's wine" that can make up with cellar cosmetics (like aging in charred oak barrels and secondary fermentations) what it lacks coming in from the vineyard.
Though these wines are stylistically all over the map, many of the best Oregon Pinot Gris have settled happily into a niche somewhere between the full-bodied, powerful style of Alsace and the lighter wines of central Italy.
For reasons unclear to modern science, Pinot Gris differentiates itself by changing a different color (somewhere between pale brown and medium purple) when ripening side by side with Pinot Noir, and also develops its own distinctive flavor and texture.
But unless you are Domaine Zind-Humbrecht, Domaine Weinbach or a handful of other top Alsatian producers, that level of retail pricing is a hard sell with Pinot Gris.
It could, that is, except that California Chardonnay is as popular as ever, and at the current pace it would take, well, let's just say a really long time before Pinot Gris' 5, 900 acres catches up to Chardonnay's 98, 000.
Great Pinot Gris is, in that sense, very much a purist's wine.
Some wineries more or less successfully give Pinot Gris oak treatment, but it works best as a light touch, an accent that doesn't bury the wine's fruit character.
In all the best Pinot Gris, whether produced as an Alsatian dessert wine or a crisp table wine from the foothills of the Italian Alps, the grape itself has the mojo to be the star.
In the state where David Lett once maintained a lonely vigil there are now more than 90 wineries making Pinot Gris.
Anthony Road Pinot Gris: light-bodied, dry but soft, some light fruity tones with a hint of mineral.
Chapoutier Domaine Bila-Haut Blanc, a lively, medium bodied wine made mostly from Grenache Blanc and Grenache Gris.
WSJ: Roussillon, the Wine Region Where France Meets Spain | On Wine by Lettie Teague
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