California Central Coast Wine and Food Guide.

A recent popularity survey in Restaurant Wine Magazine, along with the inevitable white Zins and Chardonnays, placed Three Italian Pinot Grigio's in the top 10 wine choices of restaurant diners. Now the few import Italian Pinot Grigios I have tasted I would not rank as great wines. No doubt they were formulated for American tastes with lower acidly than we like.

Pinot Grigio can be a great white wine, but it really needs a cool environment to develop its complexity. Monterey and Santa Barbara have areas of cool micro climates, so we went looking for a Pinot Grigio from one of those areas. Linda Cooks Of Albertsons in Paso Robles suggested Norman Pinot Grigio 2006.

From the normanvineyards.comwebsite:

"A crisp and refreshing wine, the aromas are bright and floral with ripe melon, kiwi and lemon. With a light and delicate body, peach and citrus flavors dominate the perfectly-balanced acidity and residual sugar, leading to a mouth-coating, glycerol finish."

Background.

Pinot Grigio is the Italian clone of the French Pinot Gris, both apparently mutations of Pinot Noir. The grape when ripe has a pink to blue grayish color, hence the "Grigio" name. Like Pinot Noir, Pinot Grigio performs best in cooler climates where it can produce very complex wines. In warmer climates the grape does not do as well producing rather thin wines of low acidity

Pinot Grigio is now developing its own cult following, and there are massive plantings going in in the warm Central Valley. But, cooler micro climates like the Santa Barbara California Coast are better environments for the grape to fully express itself. Here the grape produces medium bodied wines with aromas and flavors of melon, citrus and apples with good acidity perfect for pairing with the Northern Italian style of cooking.

Our Observations.

The appearance of the wine was a very pale straw almost clear. Transparent, and clean, the wine sparkled in our glasses as we swirled the wine. The swirled wine coated the glass smoothly with slow developing tears, indicating a substantialness in the structure.

The wine had a citrus-lemon-tangerine aroma with melon and floral overtones, characteristic of what this grape can do from a cool environment.

The taste of the wine was moderately dry, with good balanced acidity and an overall smoothness. The alcohol at 14.3 % was a bit higher than expected, but in balance with the rest of the flavors. The overall impression was of a full mouthful with lemony acidity.

The finish was long and smooth, with a light lingering citrus aftertaste.

This wine is a good choice for any Northern style seafood dish like a pan fried Sole Meuniere or a shellfish risotto like Shrimp Risotto