The first note I wrote when I first tasted this was, “I LOVE this wine.” It is floral, with white flowers, white grape, honeydew melon, lime and honeycomb. There is texture and minerality to the wine, steely and round at the same time, which I think makes it good for easy drinking but also interesting enough to pair with some really cool food.
This wine is press straight to neutral french oak barrels. Mandy adds yeast to begin primary fermentation and that is it. The wine is aged on its lees and she stirs periodically for 4-5 months. This wine sees full secondary Malolactic fermentation, which along with the lees contact and stirring contributes to the roundness of the wine. The wine is filtered and bottled with 40 parts total sulfur, which is low. A total of 6 barrels were made.
2019 Merisi Pinot Gris
$24.00
Here’s the answer to a question a lot of people have: YES, Pinot Grigio and Pinot Gris are the same grape. How annoying is that? Well, it actually is really helpful in my opinion. When you hear Pinot Grigio you can think of the easy drinking, crisp and fresh wines of Italy. When you hear Pinot Gris, you can think of the floral and more viscous wines of Alsace. To further confuse you, it is a mutation of Pinot Noir, is purple skinned and has about 20 other names in other parts of the world. If you want to go down the Grigio rabbit hole, Tim Atkin has a good piece here. In California wineries are allowed to choose whether to use Grigio or Gris, and I find that helpful in knowing a little bit about what the style will be before I taste it.
The Jenkins Family Vineyard is currently farmed organically by their 4th generation. It is located in Sonoma where the Russian River Valley and the Sonoma Coast appellations meet. They sell Pinot Noir to some pretty notable brands – Patz & Hall, Lynmar, and Kosta-Browne, amongst others.
In 2013 Mandy had a friend who offered her some Pinot Gris (or Grigio, sheesh. From now on I am sticking to Gris for this wine), she said yes even though she had never worked with Pinot Gris. She did some quick studying and modeled her wine after the amazing Pinot Gris wines of Alsace. That means things like picking a little later, putting it into barrel instead of stainless steel, and letting it go through secondary fermentation.