Grape Variety: 100% Pinot Gris

Growing Region: Alsace, France

Owner/ Marketing Manager: Claude Gisselbrecht

TASTING NOTE:
Alsatian Pinot Gris is an entirely different style to the New Zealand expressions of the pink-skinned grape that have captured our attention over the past few years. Gisselbrecht know how to deliver complexity and astounding richness that this grape can attain.

The Gisselbrecht family has a slight advantage having made wine in Alsace since the 1600s: they know their 17 hectares of vines intimately. Alsatian aromatics tend to be layered expressions of this grape variety, a thrilling meeting of honeyed richness and flinty minerality, a result of the unique terroir and the attention to detail that only centuries of tradition can deliver.

This Alsace Pinot Gris year after year produces outstanding aromatic qualities; in the glass this opens with distinctive notes of spice, hazelnut and honeysuckle, and works equally well as an aperitif or with a wide variety of cuisine. It reminds me of exotic fruits dipped in honey catches my attention, while the palate is concentrated, oozing with flavours, stone fruits, generous in texture with spice characters and the finish is marathon in length.

CELLARING POTENTIAL:
Drinking perfectly well this coming summer; and well into 2010.

SUGGESTED FOOD MATCHES:
Perfect wine match with spicy dishes from Thailand or Indian and Asian seafood dishes, enjoy.

Setting a high standard for Pinot Gris.