WBW #10 - Pinot NOT Noir

I love this month's theme for Wine Blogging Wednesday (hosted by Alice at My Adventures in the Breadbox) for a couple of reasons.

First, I really do love Pinot Gris/Grigios and Pinot Blancs, particularly in the summertime -- I find them juicy but not sweet or cloying, crisp with good acidity, and generally incredibly quaffable.

Second, I'm ridiculously busy at work right now (hence the dearth of good posts), which means I'm pretty much relying on whatever is in the cellar. Fortunately, I had a bottle of Jacuzzi Pinot Gris which really needed to be drunk soon.

Jacuzzi Family Vineyards is a labeling of Cline Cellars; it's named after the Cline maternal grandparents, and focuses on smaller production bottlings -- generally under 1000 cases.

Wine: Jacuzzi Family Vineyards Pinot Gris (more recent bottles use "Grigio")
Vintage: 2001
Varietal: 100% Pinot Grigio
Appellation: Sonoma Coast & Carneros
Price: $18 (for current vintage)

The Nose:
Apples, mild honey -- like clover, not wildflower.

The Eyes:
I happen to know that this wine at release is a beautiful straw color. With the extra bottle time on mine, it was showing a little darker, almost "honeyed" a bit.

The Palate:
Lots of viscosity -- one of the things I love about PG -- but with great acid balance. Maybe a little bit tired, but still showing surprising well. A little bit of toastiness coming through, too. Very long, "ripe" finish mid-palate.

Overall Impressions:
Despite the fact that I let this wine sit around a little too long, it was still a very nice match for an improvised Greek salad with tuna, olives and feta cheese (yeah, I was in a salty-food kinda mood tonight!).

Comments

[Alice]

I was just in San Francisco last month and took a very small tour of Sonoma....Cline was one of the boutique wineries we stopped at! How neat! Thanks for participating in WBW10!