This week's wine column is a little complicated.
We're talking about Pinot Gris -- the Okanagan's most planted white wine grape and most popular white wine.
Yet, for the 2024 vintage, Okanagan wineries had to make their Pinot Gris using Washington state grapes.
The vicious cold snap of January 2024 killed buds on the grape vines meaning there was virtually no grape harvest in the fall of 2024.
Therefore, the pivot to Washington state grapes.
The key for Okanagan wineries was to hit the right balance of foreign fruit-Okanagan style.
Many wineries in Washington state use Pinot Gris to make a fuller-bodied, softer expression of the varietal with a juicy peach, melon and spicy profile.
It's delicious, but different to what we're used to in the Okanagan.
The Okanagan style is cleaner, crisper, more mineral-driven with vibrant acidity and aromas and flavours of apple, pear, lemon, lime and maybe a bit of honey.
As such, Okanagan Pinot Gris is a sought-after, approachable, affordable, delectable crowd-pleaser.
To make Okanagan-style Pinot Gris of Washington state grapes, winemakers at Okanagan wineries got involved early in the grape replacement process.
They worked with Washington state grapegrowers to leave more leaves on the vines to shade grapes to let them grow without too much heat to maintain natural acidity and minerality.
When the grapes made their way to Okanagan wineries to be finished, Okanagan winemakers again put their individual stamps on the wines to maintain freshness, usually with fermentation in big stainless-steel tanks.
Okanagan-style Pinot Gris is a go-to patio wine for stand-alone drinking in the summer.
But, it also has a place in the winter as a happy hour wine and to pair with cheese, roast chicken, salmon, pasta in cream sauce, Asian dishes or pizza.
Following are five Pinot Gris made of Washington state grapes by Okanagan wineries that hit the mark.
We've also thrown in one Pinot Gris made by an Okanagan winery of Okanagan grapes as a benchmark.
Enjoy!
- Blasted Church 2024 ($24)
This winery from Okanagan Falls bills its Gris as "true ambrosia."
We agree.
It's exotic with a pear-pineapple-tangerine profile.
- Sandhill 2024 Destination Series ($22)
Made at the winery's Kelowna facility, this wine is medium-bodied with a peach and melon profile.
- Gray Monk 2024 Limited Edition ($22)
Gray Monk knows a thing or two about making Pinot Gris.
The founders of the Lake Country winery -- George and Trudy Heiss -- planted the first Pinot Gris in BC in 1976 using vines imported from Alsace, France, the region near the German border renowned for its Pinot Gris.
So, Pinot Gris is celebrating its 50th anniversary in the province this year.
In fact, Gray Monk is the English translation of Grauer Monch, the Austrian/German name for the Pinot Gris grape.
With that little history lesson over, we can tell you the 2024 vintage of Gray Monk's Pinot Gris is slightly off-dry with an uplifting pear, white flower and lemon profile.
- Tinhorn Creek 2024 ($24)
Made by the Oliver winery to a refreshing, textured wine with aromas and flavours of peach, melon and lemon zest.
- Red Rooster 2024 Outback Series ($21)
This winery on the Naramata Bench turned the Washington state grapes into an elixir with some tropical elements of pineapple and lime along with the Gris classic profile of apple and white peach.
- Haywire 2022 Switchback Vineyard ($29) from Summerland
Made with estate fruit from Summerland, this is the only Gris on the list with Okanagan origins.
It's similar, in that it has some of the peach and lemon profile of Okanagan and Okanagan-style Gris made of Washington grapes, but it's also different because its fermentation and aging in concrete tanks and large foudre oak barrels give it some additional structure, texture, minerality and creaminess.
Upcoming...
- It's your last weekend to Taste Around -- the province-wide restaurant promotion of three-course, price-fixed special menus with BC wine and beer pairing suggestions.
- Timed to fall on Super Bowl weekend, Soup R Bowl-Golden Spoon is a soup-making competition at Sandhill Winery in Kelowna on Saturday, 3-5:30 pm, featuring chefs from wineries, breweries and restaurants.
You can drop by to taste the soups and sip wines and beers for $29.
The proceeds of a raffle will be donated to the Central Okanagan Food Bank.
- Winter Wine-Derland is an Okanagan Wine Festivals wine tasting with DJ music Saturday, 6-8:30 pm, at the Laurel Packinghouse.
Tickets are $75.
Steve MacNaull is a NowMedia Group reporter, Okanagan wine lover and Canadian Wine Scholar. Reach him at [email protected]. His wine column appears every Friday afternoon in this space.
