Moorooduc Estate Pinot Gris “Pinot Gris On Skins” 2021 750ml

It’s always challenging to know where to categorize wines such as this. In the glass, it is pink, and so it fits perfectly into the rosé category. However, it is technically a skin-contact white wine (a.k.a. orange, amber, etc.), and so in the absence of a suitable category, I’ve gone with white. So, the 2021 Pinot Gris on Skins from Kate McIntyre at Moorooduc Estate is a mandarin hue in the glass. The nose is littered with wheatgrass, orange zest, white pepper, lanolin, cheesecloth, juniper berries and cold tea. Skin-contact time is, in my opinion, hands-down the most interesting way to handle Pinot Gris, and the result is a textural, slightly bitter, full-flavored, spicy, salty wine.

• Country: Australia
• Region: Victoria
• Appellation: Mornington Peninsula
• Size: 750ml
• Color: White
• Alcohol by Vol: 13.0%

Varietal

Pinot Gris

The Pinot Grigio or Pinot Gris grape varietal is now one of the most widely grown vines in the world, due to the surge in popularity of Pinot Grigio wines over the past twenty years or so. These grayish-blue fruits, which hang in their distinctively conical bunches, are responsible for a very broad range of wines famous for their variety of color tones and flavors Pinot Grigio varietal grapes are highly influenced by terroir, climate and particularly the skill and expertise of the vintners who process them. As such, there are full bodied, amber colored wines made from this grape, and there are equally delicious yet far leaner, paler, lighter bodied and crisp white wines made from the same species in other parts of the world.