2011 may go down as the summer of Pinot Gris in Niagara. All the vogue or all the rage some may say, but truth be told I am not sure why the region is pushing their Pinot Gris offerings as much as they do. Yes it is an easy, light, refreshing summer wine, but if you look at the Canadian calendar you will surely see (don’t call me Shirley!) that there are not a lot of Canadian summer months; at least at last check. So why the marketing blitz and the constant “Hey look at my Pinot Gris”? I honestly do not know, but I am truly hoping next year sees a sparkling or chardonnay agenda for Niagara’s producers.
As for drinking this Greenlane Estate Winery’s offer, it was opened mostly due to chance. I put it in our regular fridge a few days back as a ‘just in case’ we wanted to sit on the deck after work, forgetting that the sun is going into hiding behind skyscrapers around 18:00 nightly these days and the desire for white white dropping as fast as the sunshine. Fast forward a few days and we are having a spectacular autumn summer in Toronto, so excuses had to be made to drink wine on the terrace and the only white cold and ready to pretend it was still summer was this blend. For those that missed it, we actually reviewed a Greenlane wine recently, so my apologies for going back to the well so soon. So, despite its cold wet white taste, what did it taste like, let’s get into it!
A very pale, almost non-existent, colour is the first thing you will notice. An almost ‘pretend it is water in your glass at work’ clear. The nose will give you subtle hints of pear with floral undertones, but nothing will jump out at you. The first few sips will put forward a crisp clean wine, served too cold you will miss the fruit and the acidity will be muted. Allow it to warm up from the cold and you will open a wine with more structure and character. Citrus fruits and honey are the main flavours to come to mind and a longer than expected finish does in fact show a wine with more to it than the first few sips. Good acidity, good mouth feel, balanced from start to finish and a great price of $16.95 make this a wine worth stopping by the winery for.
The CWG Subjective Rating is 86 out of 100.
