For just a second, consider this non-wine scenario: Imagine you give a whole chicken to some of the world’s most celebrated chefs of the last fifty years: Alain Passard of l’Arpège in Paris, the late Leah Chase of Dooky Chase in New Orleans, and David Chang. Then, you ask them to cook their most inspired creation from this chicken. Chang would likely boil his. Chase probably would have fried hers. And Passard would remove half his chicken, sew the remaining half to half a duck, and cook it in a hay-filled cocotte. All three would be delicious, but completely distinct despite coming from the same ingredient. Their vastly different creations would reflect both the traditions in which they learned their craft and their own individual geniuses.
     There is probably no grape that our producers in France and Italy cultivate that mirrors this potential for so many expressions more than Pinot Gris, called Pinot Grigio once you cross the French-Italian border. Our staff recently sampled a variety of wines that come from this purplish-pinkish-greyish cousin of Pinot Noir, and we were once again awed by how unique each glass was. This is a grape that, even more than Chenin Blanc, can get you through every course of an evening (though this 4-pack does not include any of the sweet renditions).
     To kick things off, we poured a pale rosé made by Domaine de Reuilly. The Reuilly AOC is the only Loire appellation where you’ll find prevalent Pinot Gris production and vigneron Denis Jamain is a master of this grape. If you like rosé and want to try something distinct from the pink wines of southern France, you can’t miss this one. It’s crisp and mineral with slight notes of grapefruit and sea spray—utterly refreshing and like no other rosé we import.
     We then poured two Alsatian whites that were completely different, from both the rosé and each other. Ostertag’s Pinot Gris “Les Jardins” is warm in character, inviting, round with a faint hint of lychee. Like Vouvray, which can be tendre in some years, this Pinot Gris sits irresistibly on the fence between fully dry and ever-so-slightly off-dry. Meyer-Fonné’s Pinot Gris Dorfburg, by contrast, is fully dry and though it too is round, it is subtler and more mineral than Les Jardins.
     To finish our tasting, we opened Vignai da Duline’s Pinot Grigio from Friuli. Italian Pinot Grigios are sometimes called neutral, boring, thin, etc., but Duline’s is none of those things. Nutty and chiseled, with an almost golden color and tons of texture, this was, again, so different from the rest and the most interesting in my opinion, though my colleagues all had their own preferences.
     Great on their own, and versatile at table, I think these expressions of Pinot Gris are perfect for fish and fowl—let’s say the Pinot Grigio for the fried chicken, the Reuilly rosé for Chang’s boiled chicken, and the Alsatian whites for the chicken-duck hybrid. If you have not opened yourself to the charms of this grape yet, take advantage of this discounted sampler pack to discover another love in wine.