My Pinot Gris Experiment

It seems like I can’t get enough of Pinot gris. I don’t mean the white wine, but the grape. Unlike most white wine grape varieties that have yellowish-green skin, Pinot gris skin is grayish pink. As mentioned in my previous blog posts (The Pinot Gris You Never Knew and The Peeno Noir You Never Knew), Pinot gris, Pinot noir, and Pinot blanc are genetically the same grape. What differentiates them is the amount of anthocyanins or color pigments present in the grape skin and pulp.

Gemini-generated color spectrum of wine

The length of maceration (or skin contact) employed during the winemaking process has a direct impact on the wine color. It determines if your Pinot noir is going to be red or pink and if your Pinot blanc is going to be white or orange. In the case of Pinot gris, the gamut may run from white to pink and orange. In Friuli, Pinot Grigio (Italian for Pinot gris) is traditionally made with skin contact, typically in the range of one day to two weeks. Known as Ramato, the wine blurs the line between a pink and orange wine. 

This year, I decided to experiment with making a Ramato-style Pinot Gris. Below is my documented process.

Day 1 - Crush and Macerate

The grapes arrived from Crawford Vineyard the same day they were harvested. The grayish pink berries in the signature Pinot pinecone-shaped clusters were then weighed and placed into crates, ready to be crushed and de-stemmed. Once processed, the crushed grapes and juice (also known as the must) went into my fermenter with a bit of sulfite to kill any microbes and wild yeasts, preventing any off-flavors during fermentation.

My Pinot gris grapes

Adding sulfite to the must

At home, I kept the must in my “garage winery” at around 60 degrees Fahrenheit, the optimal temperature for my chosen yeast strain. If I were to make a white wine, I would immediately press the grapes to minimize skin contact. In this case, I decided to let the grapes macerate in the must and watch the color of the juice.

Day 3 - Press and Ferment

As the sulfite wore off in 48 hours, it was the time to pitch the selected wine yeast and start the fermentation process. I needed to decide if I would do it with or without skin contact. Judging from the deep salmon hue of the juice, I made the call to press the grapes prior to fermentation, ending the two-day skin contact. (In the video, my friend and wine sidekick helped collect some free-run juice during press.)

The grape skins and seeds as well as random stems were discarded as part of the process. The remaining juice was funneled into a couple of glass carboys with the yeast starter. Before long, the yeast started eating the sugar in the juice to produce alcohol. Carbon dioxide was also released as a byproduct that protected the must from pesky bacteria-carrying fruit flies.

Start of alcoholic fermentation

Day 7 - Measure and Rack

 

Four days after the yeast was pitched, the Brix reading on the juice had reached zero, indicating that most of the sugar had been fermented. That was probably the fastest alcoholic fermentation I had experienced. It was also my first time using a white wine yeast strain.

Sediments settled after racking

I racked the juice off the sediments and into new carboys to minimize the headspace. This would prevent oxidation and spoilage as fermentation slowed down and less carbon dioxide was released. The sediments (or the ‘lees’), which consisted of dead yeast cells and grape debris, soon settled to the bottom of the carboys. The clear juice that sat above was a beautiful neon salmon pink.

Day 14 - Rack and Cold Stabilize

I waited another week for the long tail of the remaining fermentation to complete. The Brix reading finally reached -1.5 degrees. The wine tasted dry but had a light fizz, indicating a bit of fermentation was still underway. In a glass, the wine was a gorgeous light salmon in color. The nose was aromatic, perfume-y, and citrus-y. On the palate, it tasted like a tart lemonade with high acidity, medium body, light tannins, and a long finish. Alas! This was trending more towards a rosé than an amber wine. But oh so pretty!

Taste test before cold stabilization

This final step was to rack the wine off the sediments again and into a freshly sanitized carboy. I added a bit of sulfite to stop any residual alcoholic fermentation and to prevent any native malolactic fermentation. Malolactic fermentation is the conversion of malic acids in the wine into lactic acids. I typically orchestrate this secondary fermentation when making red wine to soften the acid and to give it a creamier fuller mouthfeel. In the case of this Pinot gris, I decided to keep it bright and cheery.

Thoughts and Next Steps

Winemaking is such a learning experience, and I have enjoyed this Pinot gris experiment. If I had to do it all over again, which I just might with my next vintage, I would make three changes:

1. Increase the length of maceration and start alcoholic fermentation on the skin
2. Use a red wine yeast strain
3. Encourage natural malolactic fermentation 

These would allow me to extract more phenolic compounds from the grapes and give the wine more complexity. The result will be more like an orange wine. But for this year, it will be a pink Pinot gris. The wine is right now going through cold stabilization in the fridge for at least three weeks. After which, I will do another taste test. If it tastes great, it may be time to bottle. It is all very exciting! Cheers!