Pinot Gris wines are all about texture, not obvious fruit flavour. Our winemaking reflects this.
Whole bunches are gently pressed and juice is allowed to oxidise before being run to barrel. Oxidative juice handling tends to remove harsh phenolic characters at a very early stage in our process. We want Pinot Gris to retain soft phenolics to add complexity but the harsh phenolics can be bitter. We do not settle the juice before it is run to barrel. This “dirty juice” is a lot like cloudy apple juice you might purchase direct from an orchard in contrast to clean juice you would see in a supermarket. Fermenting “dirty juice” adds to the complexity of the wine by retaining the soft phenolic flavours. Ferment is encouraged to commence without inoculation with cultivated yeast. I don’t believe there is any “magic” with using “wild” yeast. However, a long slow start to fermentation adds complexity to the flavour of the Pinot Gris as the yeasts are stressed by the slow process.
We use a combination of new 500 litre oak puncheons
made by Remond and older, small old 228 litre barriques. I do not
want oak character in the wines but am looking for gentle interaction
with oxygen and natural lees stirring in barrel as the wine moves
about under the gravitational pull of the moon and slight temperature
variation. The yeast lees add a brioche or sourdough element to
the palette and aroma of Pinot Gris.
Once primary ferment is almost complete the fermentation is stopped.
This leaves a little sweetness as well as bright grapefruit acidity
in the Pinot Gris which are two of the counter-points in the flavour
profile. Some of the other flavours are the slightly higher than
normal alcohol, the soft phenolics, the lees and the subtle poirre
and pomme fruits.
Our Pinot Gris is usually bottled in late Spring following vintage, giving plenty of time to integrate the complex flavours.