2018 Keller Estate Pinot Gris, La Cruz Vineyard
Divvy-Up
80 Points
Tasting Notes
91 Points, Wine Enthusiast
"Nutty and bright, this is a sleek, acid-focused and fresh white wine with earthy minerality. It showcases deft aromas of white flowers and citrus while leading to a core of succulent peach and melon." The 2018 La Cruz Vineyard Pinot Gris is a bright, dry, and highly aromatic wine. Upon the first sniff you are greeted with intense aromas of white peach and jasmine. Flavors of nectarine, Meyer lemon, and yellow apple burst with tingly minerality on the palate. The smooth, full-bodied mouth feel provides a long, refreshing finish.
Vintage
The 2018 vintage started with a cool spring, with fruit set being consistent. The moderate summer temperatures, with very few heat spikes, gave us a perfect ripening season. This ideal weather allowed us to harvest each block at our perfect ripeness, with excellent flavor development and the natural acidity just right. The long growing season gave us wines with great structure and concentration. The Pinot Gris yields are kept very low and fruit is allowed to hang a little longer to ensure we get the fruit intensity, mouth feel, and vibrant aromatics we are looking for.Pinot Gris naturally draws intense amount of minerality from the ancient sea bed soils of the La Cruz vineyard, making for an intense, Alsatian style wine. Once pressed, the juice is transferred to neutral oak barrels for native yeast fermentation and aging. We used Nomacorc 100 closures, with a specific low oxygen ingress rate, eliminating any oxidation. Nomacorc 100 is a 100% plantbased closure with a carbon neutral footprint, aligning with our mission.
Comments
You say Gris and I say Grigio
Like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, you say Gris and I say Grigio - but there's no reason to call the whole thing off!
Pinot Gris and Pinot Grigio are the same grape varietal, cousin to Pinot Noir. So why are they called by different names? The nomenclature primarily reflects the region where the wines are made and the styles.
A native of France, the varietal tends to lead with citrus aromas. Cool-climates emphasize these flavors and sometimes the minerality. With warmer exposures, aromas of tree fruit, stone fruit and honey can emerge. Pinot Gris is a common varietal in the Alsace in France, where the wine tends to be dry, rich, more full-bodied with stone fruit, floral and spice notes. In Alsace, Pinot Gris is also used for sweet dessert wines.
Pinot Grigio is a common wine from Northeastern Italy. It is the most exported wine from Italy. The Pinot Grigio style is also dry, but lighter with crisp acidity and sometimes a bit of a nutty quality on the finish. An interesting variation made with Pinot Grigio fruit is called Ramato, which is a pale copper rosé made by macerating the fruit on the skins for several days before fermentation.
Hey Sonoma who wants to share a case!
A great change of pace for summer sipping and light meals. I'll deliver in the city of Sonoma.
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First time Divvy-Up reviewer here and excited to join the community by sharing my thoughts on the 2018 Keller Estate Pinot Gris. Seeing as I work in finance and evaluate all things based on numbers, I’ve developed my own (very subjective and amateur) scoring system. I look forward to hearing from those who passionately agree and/or vehemently disagree with my thoughts because after all, the beauty of wine lies in the palette of the taster.
Bobby’s Barrel Score: 7.8 out of 10 Barrels
SCORE CATEGORIES
First Impressions (1.8 / 2.0): This Pinot Gris owns a luxurious pastel gold color (to be expected) and shows off some thickset legs when given an excited swirl. When put to the sniff test, this wine was curiously aromatic, leaving me in anticipation of a full bodied white...or as full bodied as white can be. It was challenging to identify specific scents, but sensed slight citrus scents and in general, reminded me of a fruit salad on a hot summer day.
Texture (2.0 / 3.0): I expected this wine to be like riding on one of those old wooden roller coasters - very fun but offering an edge (like wondering if this thing is about to fall apart but in a way that adds to the excitement). Instead I got a ride on a state-of-the-art metal coaster with hydraulics offering the smoothest ride around.
Taste (3.7 / 4.5): The citrus flavors shine through as the silky viscosity offers a welcoming sensation, but without the sour bite that one might expect from citrus flavors. This is a pleasant juxtaposition, given the sweetness of the wine against the expectation of something harsh and acidic. However, my critic lays in the sweetness of this wine. The 1st glass - fantastic. The 2nd glass - wonderful. The 3rd glass - none for fear of an inbound headache. Given my single, solo-living bachelor status, this is not a bottle I’d recommend putting down by yourself given the sweetness starts to become a little much for those sensitive to it (like myself) after the 2nd glass. But hey, that’s just me.
Bottle Art (0.3 / 0.5): Some say not to judge a book by it’s cover, but c’mon, who doesn’t love to judge on appearances now and then? The art appears to be a watercolor flower (or tree?) that I cannot identify for the life of me, with a hummingbird enjoying the sweet extraction of nectar from the flower (tree?). Would I hang a print of it in my apartment? No. But it does suit the wine well, offering a springtime vibe with a wine that would accompany such a wholesome nature moment wonderfully.
Occasions & Conclusion:
I really enjoyed this wine and it would make for a wonderful date on a warm summer evening on the patio, paired nicely with a lean meat like herb roasted chicken. But those with a lower sugar tolerance beware! For this wine’s sweetness starts to make a grand appearance after a couple glasses.
@BobbyBarrels AWESOME REVIEW!! The barrel scoring may just become the newest way to rate. Many thanks
Go figure, signing up for the PrevView worked. I got a bottle of the Keller Estate Pinot Gris and was excited to taste a wine I would normally not have tried. Let me cut to chase, I liked it and started a Divvy-Up in Sonoma. I hope some folks will join in.
Upon Opening
I decided to open the wine directly from the wine cellar - temp around 60%. Color is yellow golden on the lighter side. It looks rich in the glass and you can see it will be more full-bodied than the typical white. Well defined legs confirm the initial impression of a fuller-bodied wine.
I got an initial slight acidity upon first sniff which immediately expanded into broad citrus and stone fruit. It was extremely aromatic and I couldn't wait to take a sip. But I resisted and with the second pass began to pick up some mineral aromas. A slight dry flint aroma.
First Taste
I expected a crisp welcome given the initial aroma, but was pleasantly surprised by the gentle entry that was all rich citrus and some stone fruit. The wine is really broad on the palate with a luxurious mouth feel. Then just as I was thinking it was going to be too soft the acid appeared, perfectly timed, to deliver a crisp, clean finish.
Pairing
I had the wine for dinner with a frisee salad with avocado, asparagus and soft-pouched egg. We added a touch of tamari to the dressing of oil and lemon. The wine paired really well. The fruit was expressive, the richness complemented the egg and avocado and the acid was a perfect finish. I could taste how this wine would marry well with Asian foods and a bit of spiciness.
Temperature
I put the bottle in the refrigerator to cool, just to check what it would be like chilled. The aromas are much tighter with more prominent citrus and I got more apple as opposed to stone fruit. As expected the flavors were more lean, although mineral was still present and perceived acidity higher.
Recommendation
As I said, I liked this wine. It was well balanced, layered and rich with multiple dimensions. It paired well with our light meal. My preference would be to serve it less chilled because I enjoyed the rich spectrum of aromas and flavors. If you like un-oaked Chardonnay with expressive fruit this would be similar in style and weight, but more aromatic. This wine might be a nice choice for you.
When well chilled, this was more like an aromatic Sauvignon Blanc. More lean and crisp in character with aromas more focused on citrus. For lovers of southern hemisphere Sauv Blanc this might appeal, just know its more full-bodied and more dense in flavor and mouth feel.
Who's in to share a case?
Two time domestique the Giro d'Bottiglia!
Great Review. this sounds tasty!
It's a new program we're launching at Divvy-Up to help people try new wines that are a bit outside the normal varietals. There's so much variety in the artisan wine community, but often these wines don't get much distribution. We'll be identifying these wines for special discounts with the discovery wine coupons. Discovery takes a little effort. Start looking around, we may quiz you on this later.
Hello Divvy-up. Ana Keller here, happy to answer questions, or share wine pairings. I see that some are chiming in on the aromatics of our Pinot Gris. We make our Pinot Gris in the Alsatian style, the wine is dry, so the fruit notes and sweetness is more a perception of sweetness than any RS. Hit me with questions!
Hi Ana. Thanks for joining in. Also some discussion about serving temperature. What's your favorite way to drink your Pinot Gris?
Hey San Francisco who wants to share a case?
This looks like an interesting change of pace for the summer. Who wants to give it a try? At this price with a 90 pt rating it's a pretty good deal.
I just saw a coupon offer for an added $20 off on the pop-up. That's another couple dollars savings per bottle.
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Great deal, great wine, easy to order! The presentation of the wine on the website really helped us understand what we were ordering and delivery was seamless. We are so happy with the value of our order and can't wait to order more!
Hi Wolf. Welcome to the community. So glad you're enjoying that wine. It's special. We're looking forward to having more Keller Estates on Divvy-Up. Thanks!