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!

The Pinot Gris You Never Knew

Pinot Gris is often thought of as the grape next door - commonplace, approachable, and pleasant. Originating from France, Pinot Gris is mostly used to make a dry white wine that is zesty with notes of stone fruit. The grape is also known as Pinot Grigio in Italy, where the style of wine made tends to be lighter and livelier with higher acidity. Either expression of the white wine makes for easy sipping in the summer but not something that wows the palate.

Grayish-pink Pinot Gris by Reinhold Möller

It’s Not Really White

What you may not know is that Pinot Gris is not even a white grape. In fact, it is a mutation of Pinot Noir, where one of the two cell layers responsible for berry color is missing anthocyanins. It is crazy to think that both grapes are genetically identical except that the skin of Pinot Gris is grayish-pink (“gris” is gray in French) while the skin of Pinot Noir is deep dark red (“noir” is black in French).

Anthocyanins by Bruna Branco on Unsplash

Anthocyanins are color pigments found in many blue, red, and purple fruits and vegetables. Although anthocyanins by themselves are odorless and nearly flavorless, they do interact with aroma substances during the vinification process to enhance the flavor of the completed wine. Because of its lower level of anthocyanins, Pinot Gris is seldom made into a red wine. 

You Say Rosato

In recent years, I have seen more Pinot Gris being made into rosé (or rosato in Italy). That was actually how I found out that Pinot Gris is not a white grape. SMAK, a woman-owned winery in Walla Walla that makes rosés exclusively, has a summer blush that is 100% Pinot Gris. Depending on the vintage, the color ranges from light copper to pink hue. But it is always crisp, with notes of peaches and melons as well as delicious minerality. I have since tasted other pink Pinot Gris and generally prefer it to the dry white expression.

SMAK Summer Rosé

I Say Ramato

Last year, I had a taste of the 2020 Holocene Pinot Gris that blew my mind away. It had a beautiful deep orange-red hue and the aroma was a juxtaposition of smoke, cigar, and stone fruit all at once. On the palate, it was vibrant yet smoky and complex with notes of whiskey.

Is this a red, pink or orange wine? As I savored the wine, I knew this much - that was not a white wine! I would have pegged it as an orange wine except that it was not made with white grapes. Holocene website describes their Pinot Gris as a “great balance between a ramato-style orange wine and a rosé.” 

2020 Holocene Pinot Gris

So what exactly is ramato? Wine scholar Lynn Gowdy of Savor the Harvest described it best when she wrote “(o)range wines are made from white grapes, rosé from red grapes, and ramato only from Pinot Grigio.” Ramato style of Pinot Grigio originated from the Friuli-Venezia-Giulia region of Italy. It was the traditional way of making Pinot Grigio till the 1960s when white Pinot Grigio was popularized and exported.

Because Pinot Gris (or Grigio) is technically a red grape, one could argue that ramato is closer to a rosé or rosato than a traditional orange wine. However, the length of skin contact for a ramato sits somewhere between that of a pink wine and an orange wine. Depending on the winemaker’s style, maceration may last from 24 hours to two weeks and hence the wine develops the kind of complexity that is more commonly found in an orange wine than a pink wine.

My Verdict: Why limit yourself to dry white Pinot Gris? In my opinion, Pinot Gris blush and ramato are far more interesting and delicious. Give it a try this summer and prepare to be wowed. The grape next door does not always have to be plain.