Illahe Pinot Gris Willamette Valley 2023 750 ml

Who farms using horses these days? Well the kind folks from Illahe sure do. Working the vineyard by hand gives you a much better idea of what each plant needs in order to yield the highest quality fruit. They feel the ebbs and flows of nature and the seasons, tailoring sprays and other treatments to each vine instead of treating the entire vineyard as a  monochromatic entity. In the winery they forgo heavy manipulation. You’d be shocked by how many wineries add things like colour and flavourings to their products.

This is how the winery describes the Illahe Pinot Gris – “Lemon zest, mint, Bartlett pear and hay on the nose with flavours of peach pit, fresh fig, homemade nougat, baked apple with cinnamon and white clover on the palate. This Pinot Gris has great viscosity and weight with balanced acid and long finish.”

The aromatics of the gris jump out of the glass with notes of lemon peel, pear drop, muddled mint, key lime pie, peach, and kiwi. The Santa Maria wooden fermenter helps give this gris has lovely texture with racy acidity, stone, and salinity.