2010 Attems Pinot Grigio Venezia Giulia

I think I have had this sample for something like a year. How sad! I should first apologize to the poor PR person who sent it to me. Also, the current vintage is probably 2011, or even 2012.

But what I have is the 2010 Attems Pinot Grigio so that's what we will look at. Pinot Gris in France (and Oregon) is Pinot Grigio in Italy. Some producers in Washington and California call it either one of those, but that's beside the point. Most of the time this grape is kind of boring. It's simple, showing citrus and grassy notes alongside stone fruit. Since so much Pinot Grigio is made in large quantities, finding one that's texturally and intellectually compelling can be difficult.

That is, until you plant it in the right place. I would argue that the Collio region of Italy is one of those places. Collio is tucked in far upper eastern corner of Italy, sitting within the province of Friuli Venezia Giulia . Sitting about 430 feet high on a marl and sandstone ancient seabed, the Pinot Grigio grown there can turn into something different, something almost exciting. Given a touch of oak and no malolactic treatment, the wines take on a sense of depth and complexity that satisfies to no end.




I like this wine. After sitting in the bottle for two years, it's developed a pretty mix of lemon pith, asian pear, and tropical fruit aromas. A faint whiff of sea air begins to show as the wine warms up. About 15 percent of the 2010 vintage sat in new French oak for two months. The rest saw four months in stainless steel tanks followed by one month in the bottle.

Tasting the 2010 Attems reminds me of the richness of an Asian pear and a Golden Delicious apple mixed with the tart acidity of green grapes and limes. The finish is gentle and lingering, ending with a hint of oak. About 12.5% abv keeps it classy.

An Oregon skin-contact gris is in the background.

Pair this with roast chicken, cold pasta salads, even pork-and-citrus dishes. Do not serve too cold either, or it will mask some of the more subtle flavors, like hay and minerally rocks.

Suggested retail of $19, but a real world price closer to $13 puts this closer to quaffing-wine territory. I couldn't find the total production for 2010 but I imagine it's a fair amount, well into the tens of thousands of cases. The United States importer is Folio Fine Wine Partners, so Attems should be easy to find in the marketplace.

This was a sample for review purposes.

Beau Carufel

Alto Adige Wines Come To Portland

I recently attended a tasting of wines from the Italian region of Alto Adige. This place, tucked away in the far north-east reaches of Italy's boot, has a long wine making tradition yet remains relatively unknown here in the United States. The goal of the tasting and seminar was to change that by exposing wine buyers, retailers, sommeliers, media, and other influential people to the diversity of styles found in Alto Adige.

Unlike the rest of Italy, if you visit Alto Adige you're just as likely to encounter a German-speaking resident as you are an Italian speaker. Historically this alpine corner was part of Austria-Hungary before being annexed by Italy after the First World War, and the culture is a fascinating mix of Germanic and Italian characteristics.

Alto Adige might be one of the most beautiful growing regions in the world, with vineyards terraced against picturesque mountains and quintessential European mountain villages. The location of the vineyards, on those steep hillsides, was repeatedly stressed throughout the seminar. On the valley floors you'll find apple orchards and other non-grape crops growing. Along Adige Valley, where the soil type is mostly poryphyric, vines bask in warm temperatures, cooled by breezes, for 300 days a year. That's a lot of sunny days, and apparently Portland sees 300 rainy days a year. Kind of puts things into perspective.

The combination of warm weather and sun, offset by altitude and wind, helps the grapes reach a state of ripeness that manifests as vibrant flavors tempered by pure acidic lift. In short, the wines are chock-full of refreshing flavors that make them perfectly suited for everyday drinking.

Within Alto Adige there are well known grape varieties like pinot blanc, pinot noir, gewurztraminer, and pinot grigio. There are also more unique grapes planted there, like sylvaner, kerner, and schiava. This tasting was my introduction to Italian pinot noir (called pinot nero), sylvaner, and schiava. I came away with a new appreciation of these non-traditional varieties.

Here are some selected highlights from the tasting:

2006 Cantina Terlano Vorberg Riserva Pinot Bianco: A perfumed nose of sweet stone fruit, pears, and lightly roasted nuts. Good structure, lots of pear and mandarin orange flavors that carry through to a soft, smooth finish. $39.99 srp. 13.5% abv. Imported by Banville & Jones Wine Merchants.

2010 Manincor Kalterersee Keil Schiava: Bright fruit notes, smoke, and savory aromas make up the bouquet. On the palate it's light, with dried black fruit, pepper, and a crisp finish. Practically begs for food and is a great introduction to the grape. $16.00 srp. 13.0% abv. Imported by Estelle Imports LLC.

2010 Kellerei Kaltern-Caldaro Lagrein: The bouquet is redolent of dark flavors; lots of smoke and savory meat, black currant, and intriguing minerality. Tannic on the palate, but a very textural wine. Shows more dark fruit and savory flavors along with a finish of earth and baking chocolate. $29.00 srp. 13.5% abv. Imported by Enotec Imports/Mitchell Wines.

2008 Cantina Andriano Lagrein: Another dark, brooding lagrein. More plummy and fruit-focused than the Kellerei example though, while retaining the woodsmoke element too. On the palate, a bit more polished tannin leads to black fruit and spices. Pleasing finish. $21.99 srp. Imported by Banville & Jones Wine Merchants.

2009 Cantina Bolzano Pinot Nero Riserva: Dusty earth and red berries rush up out of the glass. Subtle spices go hand in hand with the strawberry and cranberry flavors on the palate. Impressive balance and a finish that combines black tea and something akin to mint leaf. Outstanding wine, one that begs to be paired with salmon. $25.00 srp. Imported by Estelle Imports LLC.

2011 Erste + Neue Muller-Thurgau: Green apples and green figs lead the charge, along with citrus and limestone notes. The acidity is outstanding, creating a light, fresh white wine. More of the citrus shows through on the palate, along with a bracing finish of apple and wet rock. It's one of the most interesting, fun white wines I've tasted in 2012. $15.99 srp. Distributed by Corridor No. 5.

2010 Tenute Lentsch Fuchslahn Gewurztraminer: Freshly sliced ginger, flower petals, and a warm baking spice element work to create a delicious-smelling bouquet. On the palate the wine is dry and delicate, with sutble flavors of ginger, dried lemon, sweet pear, and a subtle spicy kick. Great balance and texture, a wine that would pair beautifully with grilled mahi-mahi or chicken stir-fry. $27.99 srp. Imported by Vinum Wine Importing.

I liked every wine I tasted at the Wines of Alto Adige tasting, which is a testament to the quality of the area. When Becky and I left, I wondered aloud why more people don't drink wines from Alto Adige, but was unable to come up with an answer.

The more I thought about this problem, the more I have become convinced that there are multiple reasons for the relative lack of exposure here in the United States. The first reason is simply a numbers game, with so many thousands of wines to choose from here, we're often overwhelmed. Another reason is the hesitation of most wine drinkers to try new things, especially with odd-sounding names, a phenomenon I ran into while working for Trader Joe's. Third, the lack of Alto Adige wines in many supermarkets makes it hard for the casual wine drinker to gain any exposure to these wines. Finally, the wines of Alto Adige need to be talked about, especially by influential wine personalities.

We all have to collectively demand these wines when we go out to our favorite restaurants and wine shops, then share our new discoveries with fellow wine drinkers. By doing that, some of the strangeness of a wine that says "Pinot Bianco di Alto Adige" will be lost, hopefully replaced with a big smile after a few sips.

Thanks to Vinum Importing and Cornerstone Communications for inviting me to this outstanding tasting.
For more information on the wines of Alto Adige visit the website and Facebook Page.

Beau Carufel

Brancott Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, Pinot Noir New Releases

(img src: www.brancottestate.com)

Quick: How long as Brancott Estate been growing grapes and producing wine? You might be surprised to learn that the company now known as Brancott has been around since 1934, when the company (then known as Montana Wines) first start planting grape vines in New Zealand. Fast forward to 1975, when the first sauvignon blanc grapes were planted in Marlborough at the Brancott Vineyard. As we know today, that was the beginning of something big.

Now Brancott Estate is the largest producer and exporter of Marlborough sauvignon blanc in New Zealand. Their signature style of high acid, citrus-flavor themed white wines has been around since 1979 when the first vintage was released.Within a few years, Brancott sauvignon blanc was winning accolades all over the world. Here in the United States, a veritable wave of inexpensive sauvignon blanc washed over our shores, to be lapped up by a wine drinking public looking for light, friendly white wines at low prices.

I was recently sent the new releases from Brancott Estate, and sat down one day to taste through them in order to see if much has changed since my first Brancott wine, almost a decade ago. The wines remain true to form, as inexpensive, high quality, easy drinking whites and reds. I was once again pleased to find these New Zealand wines varietally honest and straightforward. It's no wonder that they are on so many restaurant wine lists, and on so many wine drinker's shopping lists.

(img source:  www.brancottestate.com)

2010 Brancott Pinot Grigio Marlborough: Pours as clear as Sprite into the glass. The bouquet is lightly grassy, complemented with lemon notes. Secondary aromas include summer flowers and a touch of pineapple. For such an inexpensive, high-production wine, the bouquet is impressively complex. In typical pinot grigio fashion, the citrus-themed acid notes approach fast and hard, coating the palate before giving way to a gentle mid-palate of tropical fruit and hints of pear. While simple and a bit disconnected from the complexity of the bouquet, the mouthfeel is good and refreshing. This New Zealand pinot grigio is more interesting than a lot of Italian bottles. For a good time, blind pour it for some wine-geek friends and ask them to guess. 13.2% abv. $10 suggested retail.

2011 Brancott Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough: A pale yellow color, if I was fancy I'd say "delicate straw" or some other banal term. The aromas are very nice, a mix of lime juice, grass, and kiwi fruit. Hints of pineapple peek out from around the lime-citrus edges. When tasted at proper temperature (hint: not straight from the fridge) I also detected a wonderfully ripe passion fruit aroma that helped temper the lime and grass. On the palate the acid screams out at me, leading to a procession of citrus, gooseberry, and pleasant minerality. The finish is quick, a touch more citrus and it's all over. I'd love this wine paired with grilled fish, scallops, or a salad with creamy ranch dressing. Even by itself, this is a nice, fun sauvignon blanc. In my opinion, there's no need to over-pay for a sauvignon blanc from Napa Valley when for under $10 you can drink this. 12.5% abv.

2010 Brancott Pinot Noir Marlborough: Dark red, bordering on garnet, all the way through. The nose is interesting, some forest-floor notes, a hint of funk (the good kind), and an undertone of dark berry fruit. On the palate the Brancott has a darker orientation as well, more black cherry, plum, and a hint of leather. I also feel the acidity is a bit harsher, not as nicely integrated as other New Zealand examples. Still, you could do a lot worse for around $10. Perhaps the biggest fault in the wine is the finish, it evaporates into nothingness far too soon, leaving a bitter, stemmy quality behind. Bottle age will help out with the flavor integration issues but again, at the $10 price point you can do far worse. I'd happily drink a glass of this with salmon or red meat.


The Brancott wines are often maligned by wine geeks (bloggers included) as being to homogenous, a familiar refrain being that they're not worth drinking because they are mass produced. What those out of touch people fail to realize is that Brancott is everywhere and at under $10, provides an excellent level of quality. Sure, production is high, but it's consistently a high-sales brand and therefore we can infer that Brancott's style appeals to many people.

For that reason, I recommend any of these wines to those of you looking for a consistent, reliable producer with a fun back-story and great availability. None of these wines will knock your socks off but as I said in the pinot noir review, you can sure do a lot worse for around $10.

These wines were media samples for review purposes.

Beau Carufel

Pinot Grigio and Pinot Gris, The Real Story!

Today at work we had a small wine tasting, four bottles ranging from a white blend by Columbia Crest, two domestic pinot grigios, and the 2010 Nobilo sauvignon blanc from New Zealand. The pinot grigios come from the Central Coast and the Willamette Valley and are under our own label. I won't name names right now for fear of getting fired, but if you know me and/or connect the dots, it should be easy to figure out where I work.

The tasting was interesting in that it showed multiple differences between the two pinot gris (grigio) versions, as would be expected. Those differences were caused (in part) by terroir and by the respective winemakers. During the tasting discussion, I pointed out that pinot grigio and pinot gris were the same grape variety, and the difference in name stemmed from regional preferences. I compared the names to the shiraz/syrah in order to help my crew use a familiar reference to understand the concept. Unfortunately a lot of them are still very intimidated by wine and think it's far too complex to ever comprehend.

img src http://wine-flair.com/

After making my comparison, my boss, who considers himself/herself knowledgeable about wine, said I was wrong about pinot gris/grigio and that they were cousins. He claimed to have read it in a book and held up his fingers an inch apart to imply it was somehow an authoritative tome about wine. Now this went contrary to everything I've learned about wine, but I was interested in what he had to say because I've been wrong many times before. He said that in his authoritative tome, the author wrote that pinot grigio and pinot gris were cousins, akin to the zinfandel-primititivo relationship, or at least what we used to think of the zinfandel-primitivo relationship.

I texted my friend Becky at Kramer Vineyards with the question, who confirmed what I originally believed and also pointed out that years ago, pinot grigio was the name used for cheaper versions of the wine whereas pinot gris was an attempt to take it up-market. After relaying this back to my boss, I was now informed that the Italians grow a clone of pinot grigio and he cited Wikipedia as his source. Again this seemed a bit off, something I hadn't heard much if anything about, but I didn't want to challenge him in front of any coworkers.

Back to Becky I went, with the new factoid, then she said she'd ask her sister Kim, the winemaker at Kramer Vineyards. Kim and I went back and forth on Facebook and I'll post that below.

Kim: "Becky tells me you're looking for comments on the difference between Pinot Gris and Pinot Grigio?"

Beau: "Yea I was wondering, we had a question about it at work, whether they're the same grape with a different name or are genetic cousins the way Zin and Primitivo are."

Kim: "Pinot Gris and Pinot Grigio are the same grape. Although, I believe Pinot Grigio implies a lighter, crisper, and often drier style (Italian grigios are more austere) than most of the Pinot Gris made here.

I believe the US producers who use grigio rather than gris are doing so primarily because of marketing. However, I would expect a wine that is labeled 'Grigio' to be light and crisp as opposed to the textural, fruity Alsatian Pinot Gris."

Beau: "So genetically they're the same, are there any clonal differences like pinot noir has? Reason I ask is that my boss claims to have read a wine book saying that they're cousins, I think he's wrong. I've never heard that before and have always been told it's a regional name difference and an implied stylistic difference."

Kim: "I think he's wrong too. There are different clones of Pinot Gris, but I am unsure as to what they are or where they are grown. I don't know what clones we grow here. I've never heard a single winemaker discuss clonal selection of Pinot Gris, so perhaps they aren't particularly important. My experience with Pinot Noir is that terroir and winemaking style often trump clonal differences in the finished wines anyway. My suspicion is that the Italian grigios are so austere because the Italians prefer them that way, like most of their whites. So, unless there has been some groundbreaking genetic research in the last few years that I'm completely ignorant of, your boss is mistaken."

Kim gave me permission to quote her in this blog post, so I thank her for taking the time to answer my questions. After emailing with Kim I also posted the question to my Twitter followers and got a couple of responses, they are below:

ReturnToTerroir: Transalpine brotha. Same grape.

KramerWine5 (Trudy Kramer): Pinot Gris is the same thing as Pinot Grigio. French vs. Italian wording. PG is a mutation of Pinot Noir.

KramerWine5 (Trudy Kramer): Pinot Gris has many other names throughout Europe.

Grooner: Pinot Grigio is the Italian name for "Grey Pinot"; Pinot Gris is the French. In Austria, it is Grauburgunder.

Again this basically confirmed that pinot grigio and pinot gris are the same grape, not cousins like my boss thinks.

My point isn't to say that I'm right and he's wrong, it's that there is a lot of false information out there even in wine books. For example, out of the wine books I own, one slightly older version says that primitivo and zinfandel are cousins, whereas a newer book says that they're genetically the same, and I've been told that primitivo is the grandfather of zinfandel by a Master of Wine before. Just goes to show you, there is information out there but you should take it all with a grain of salt.

Beau Carufel

Sicilian White Wine, A Fun Discovery!

Have you ever had the grape inzolia? I have not, to the best of my knowledge. The varietal is grown in Sicily, among other places, and creates a wonderfully light, aromatic white wine. Thanks to the awesomeness of Twitter and my friend Melissa, I found out that the grape is blended with other native varietals including: Greciano, Catarratto, and Grillo. Also it's used in making of Marsala, which old people drink and everyone else uses to cook chicken Marsala with.

 I was sent a sample to taste recently, from d'Alessandro winery via Colangelo Public Relations. The d'Alessandro winery is relatively new, dating back to 2006 Giacomo d'Alessandro left the family tourism business to make wine. It's located in the southwest of Sicily close to the city of Agrigento. According to the press materials I received, d'Alessandro wines are available in New York City, California, Massachusetts, and Florida, along with some other selected markets across the country. The importer is Vinifera, who import some of the very best Italian wines available into this country. I have sold a lot of their wines during my near-decade on the retail side of the industry.

Enough with the chit-chat, time to look at what's in my glass!

Pale with a very small amount of green tint, reminds me of a pinot grigio from the Venezie region, way up at the top of the boot. Oh stepping slightly off topic for a second, why the hell is there so much cheap, insipid pinot grigio being lapped up by consumers today? That's one thing that bugs the hell out of me because the grape is capable of making some truly delicious wines, yet I see the $5 shit selling like hotcakes. At that point, why bother? Just add alcohol to water and you're set, because the taste will be pretty much the same.

Back to the wine in front of me...

Beautifully scented nose that reminds me of pineapple, lime juice and fresh Granny Smith apples. I'm really enjoying the aromatics and it's easy to close my eyes and imagine a cafe in Sicily right on the seashore, sipping this wine under a springtime sun while I ponder a citrus-marinated grilled white fish resting on a bed of polenta. Seriously, it's such an easy thing to picture and that mental image just feels right. Or I could be waxing poetic about a dream vacation I really want to take. Which do you think?

Since I don't have much (if any) experience with white wines from Sicily or the grape inzolia, placing the d'Alessandro into the proper context is difficult. I know we wine bloggers aren't supposed to admit things like that but I did anyways. I'm trying to evaluate this wine in the context of a light, food-friendly, inexpensive white wine.

In that regard, it succeeds...In spades. If acidity in a white wine can be elegant, the d'Alessandro embodies that theory. The wine has life, a zippy seam of acidity that mixes around with toasted almonds and lime juice. Around the edges of those two primary flavors comes some weight, a glycerin component not entirely different than what I've discovered in some wines from Soave. Vibrant, ripe apples on the finish make up the sweet fruit component while that seam of acid gently fades away, giving a very pleasing linear feel. The 2009 d'Alessandro Inzolia kicks ass. Probably the main reason this inzolia remains so fresh is because it sees no malo-lactic treatment or oak barrel aging, rather just four months in stainless steel tanks and two months in bottle before it is released.

I used wine-searcher.com to see if I could find anyone in the United States selling the 2009 d'Alessandro Inzolia, but that didn't work out. From what I could glean, the wine sells for about $15-20 but might be a touch less depending on your local taxes. Price aside, this is a B+ and a SOLID BUY recommendation. Pick up a bottle and pair it with fresh fish, sushi (YUM!!), light pasta dishes (basil pesto?!) and even vegetarian pizza. Just goes to show that the Italians truly do know how to make wines that are meant to be enjoyed with food.


This wine was received as a sample for review purposes from Colangelo Public Relations for d'Alessandro Winery.