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Getting a headstart on the end of Lent

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So, what exactly is the difference between Pinot Gris and Pinot Grigio anyway?

There doesn’t seem to be a distinguishable difference in taste.

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4 replies

  1. Pavlov's Cat
    2007-04-06 • 4:51 PM

    I’ve always assumed that the only difference was that one was grey in French and the other one was grey in Italian.

  2. tigtog
    2007-04-06 • 8:01 PM

    Exactly! We had a bottle of each from the same vineyard and thought we’d do the taste test.
    I just had one of those nasty realisation moments – I didn’t read the back labels – and indeed the mystery is therein unravelled.

    Pinot Grigio and Pinot Gris are two wine styles made from the same grape variety.
    The Grigio is the Italian style, usually picked earlier, retaining a higher acidity, and is lighter and more minerally.
    This Grigio was made for the wine club as a point of intererst.

    The difference in acidity/minerality jibes with my evaluation: it was obvious that the same grape was used, although I just grandly handwaved the minor taste differences away as “terroir”.
    The wines came from a Victorian vineyard which sends out a “wine club” case every few months.

  3. Pavlov's Cat
    2007-04-06 • 9:04 PM

    What a truly useful and excellent thing to learn! Thanks for this. Pinot Grigio/Gris/Grey is one of my favourite styles, so I’ll look out specially for the Italian lightness and mineralliness next time.

  4. The Devil Drink
    2007-04-06 • 11:35 PM

    “Minerally”. Adjectives come cheap to these wine-label writers, I see.
    I commend your empiricism, Tigtog, by the way. Perhaps a further bottle of Pinot Noir and a bottle of entirely different ‘control’ wine—say a punchy Cab-Sav—might further shed light on the matter? Well, I daresay there’d be some shedding.

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