IN the glass, Pinot Gris is anything but "gray" -- it's sort of a golden green, pea-tendril-shot-with-sunlight color -- but when you bring it to your nose, you might feel a little lost at first. In the best Pinot Gris there is often an evocative, between-the-cracks quality to the aromatics that makes them hard to grasp.
Is it pear you smell? Not quite. Apple? Yes -- and no. Does it smell sweet? Maybe, but only the way freshly baked bread does, which is almost savory. Its flavors can be wonderfully full and rich, but they're racy too. Just when you're ready to luxuriate in the ample folds of its texture, the wine's bracing acidity brings the experience to a close with the briefest of curtsies.
Chardonnays are easy to read. But Pinot Gris is, well, gris. Rather than get flustered, it's best just to linger in the gray area, and give in to what you don't know.
To really experience the range and the beauty of Pinot Gris in this country you must turn to Oregon, principally the Willamette Valley. Willamette Valley Gris has a unique character, borne of a cool climate range that instills a nervy edge to even the richest bottlings. Both its popularity and its production have increased in the last five years to the point where there's enough to go around, and it's priced for everyday enjoyment: You'd be hard pressed to spend more than $20 on a bottle.
There's no better time to try out Oregon Gris than right now, because of the marvelous 2006 vintage. It was a fairly warm but exceedingly dry vintage across the state, and most crucially, there was no appreciable rain during harvest. As a result, growers could really dial in on the ideal flavors. The end result is the kind of across-the-board quality that the valley doesn't always enjoy -- and the Pinot Gris in particular seems to express in spades that wonderful yin and yang, rich and racy between-ness that makes the wines so infuriating and rewarding.
Gris is French for gray, as Grigio is Italian for the same -- it's the same grape, no matter how it's spelled. But Gris doesn't just capture a French inflection, it connotes a richer, fruitier style of wine than its Italian counterparts, one that has its roots in Alsace. Oregon Gris has more in common with Alsace than Italy -- and yet unquestionably it has a range all its own.
