More than just Pinot Grigio

ASC recently hosted an Italian Grand Tasting featuring seven wineries from Alto Adige to Sicily. Wines were diverse but I was surprised to find five Pinot Grigios from three wineries, and each has its own different style.

It’s true that a lot of Pinot Grigio being served as house wine is inoffensive but often bland. A well-made Pinot Grigio should be delicate with citrus, apple aromas and vibrant, while some serious ones, like those below, are concentrated with a depth of flavour.

Alois Lageder Porer Pinot Grigio: Single vineyard biodynamic wine from Alto Adige. 20% was barrel fermented while the rest in stainless steel tank. The wine has an uplifted aroma, a round mouthfeel and an integrated spice.

Masi Masianco Pinot Grigio: Blended with semi-dried native Verduzzo grapes, the wine is more aromatic and intense than an average Pinot Grigio, with fresh stone fruits and honey notes. Definitely a wine to serve with food rather than just gulping.

Banfi San Angelo Pinot Grigio: A 100% Pinot Grigio IGT wine from Montalcino, richer than the typical Pinot Grigio from northern Italy because of the warmer Tuscan sun but still retained the acidity. The minerality from the calcareous soil added the extra dimension. I tried it the other day with dim sum and it was perfect!

The Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI) developed a PinotG Style Spectrum from crisp to luscious to differentiate them. It would be fun to have a PintoG dinner with wines from Italy to New Zealand and see how they fare and pair with food.

All the above are available from ASC Fine Wines.

Lunch with Rathbone: PinotG, Chinese food pairing

Most of us know Pinot Grigio and Pinot Gris are the same - both means Pinot Grey in English. Pinot Grigio is Italian and the bulk comes from Northern Italy which is usually lighter and simpler, while Pinot Gris is from Alsace in France and is more opulent and fruitier. Pinot Grigio is usually the one featured as house wine or wine by the glass, while Alsacian Pinot Gris is usually available by bottle at a higher price. So it was surprising that Darren Rathbone, CEO and Group Winemaker of three Australian wineries: Yering Station, Mount Langi Ghiran and Xanadu, said the opposite.

It was a small lunch hosted by Darren with the Northeast team where his Mt. Langi Ghiran Cliff Edge Pinot Gris 2010 was featured. It has only 12% alcohol so I asked why the wine was called Pinot Gris instead of Pinot Grigio. To my surprise, Darren actually thinks that Pinot Gris is the lighter one and Pinto Grigio the heavier one. In fact, he said he has organised blind tastings where consumers and winemakers alike always confuse the two. Granted, this wine, although was light, did have a dense texture, stone fruits and spices aromas of a Pinot Gris probably because it has been aged in old barrels for a short time. No wonder it could stand up to the steamed dumpling with pigeon and porcini mushroom (牛肝菌乳鴿小籠飽).

Australian and New Zealand produce all shades of Pinot Gris/Pinot Grigio. Because of this many variations, the Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI) developed a PinotG Style Spectrum from crisp to luscious to differentiate them. I hope more wineries, from both New and Old World, could adopt this to make it easier for consumers.

By the way, the lunch with Darren and the Northeast team was really entertaining. The plan was to pair each wine with a dish but luckily Betsy from Northeast at the last minute decided against it. Instead, the three white wines were served together with the first four dishes (dim sum and seafood), followed by a flight of three red wines with the remaining four courses. I’m all for this approach as everyone has different palate and it will be too uniform to only follow one way of wining and dining.

The verdict was consistent. All the three wines matched with dim sum but we agreed that the Yering Station Reserve Chardonnay 2010, was the best overall match. Its multi-dimensional flavour and creamy texture went nicely with the fresh yet intense flavours of deep-fried scallop and prawns.

The rest of the dishes, Cantonese barbecued combination and deep fried chicken, were matched with three reds. Both the Xanadu Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2012 and the Mt Langi Ghiran Langi Shiraz 2006 were winners. Betsy was pleasantly surprised that the Cabernet went well with the sautéed kale in ginger sauce. It made sense because the kale was quite intense, nothing like the average stir-fried or steamed vegetables.

As a wine, the Yering Station Village Pinot Noir 2011 was great. It was elegant but the food were too overpowering. In my opinion, it would go better with the dim sum and seafood.

Once again, it proved that wine and food matching is not that difficult. The palate weight is the crucial point. We just have to remember that light food goes with light wine, and heavy food goes with heavy wine, and don’t be shy to have two glasses of wine of different palate weight with your Chinese meal to match with your food.

Yering Station, located in the cool Yarra Valley, is the first winery that the Rathbone’s family purchased. Looking for wine to compliment those from Yering Station, the family subsequently bought Mount Langi Ghiran in the Grampians, another cool climate region renowned for Shiraz, as well as Xanadu in Margaret River for its elegant Bordeaux blends (both white and red). All the wines are available from Northeast Wines & Spirits.

Dialogue with Banfi

Castello Banfi, considered one of the top estates in Brunello, hosted a media lunch recently. It was an intimate event with around 10 wine writers, two ASC members, Paolo Fassina, Banfi’s Asia Manager, and Cristina Mariani-May, its co-CEO.

I had met Cristina briefly before and judging by her accent and her address I thought she was American, probably married into the family... but how wrong could I be! So it was nice that I could finally set the record right at the event. Cristina is in fact 100% Italian and the third generation owner co-managing the company with her first cousin. Yes, she lives in New York but so did her grandfather, who was a wine merchant, and founded the company Banfi. The company’s name was inspired by his aunt Teodolinda Banfi, a lady with a big personality who was the head of household at the Vatican and an expert on wine.

Longing to find its roots back in Italy, the family established Castello Banfi in Tuscany in 1978, gradually assembling a contiguous estate of 2,780 ha in Montalcino. Banfi is not the biggest estate in Montalcino but it does have the biggest single vineyard. Only about a third of the property is planted with vines, the rest is home to olive groves, fruit trees and woods. In addition, the family also owns the historic winery Bruzzone in Piedmont, now dedicated to producing sparkling wine.

Probably because of the American influence on discipline and the quest for perfection, John and Harry Mariani, the second generation, collaborated with the University of Milan on a Sangiovese Clonal Research project that eventually identified 15 clones out of 650 on the Banfi estate and the surrounding area that best represent the characteristics of the Sangiovese grape. Since 1992 Banfi’s new plantings of Sangiovese always have at least three or four of these 15 clones that are suitable for the specific soil and are complementary to each other.

The other thing that Cristina is proud of is the hybrid fermenters made of a combination of wood and stainless steel, which help produce the optimal wine: less stringent, softer and fleshier. The evidence? James Suckling rated Banfi’s 2010 as its best vintage.




The lunch turned out, it seemed to me, to be a two-way interview. While we were asking Cristina about the wine and the estate, she was quizzing the media at the table about the Hong Kong/China wine market with questions like why the Chinese prefer red wine, are drinking habits changing, what is the future of Italian wine in this part of the world, resulting in a lively and entertaining discussion. Although we all had different opinions, one thing for sure is that the recent consolidation resulting from the anti-corruption drive on the mainland is a positive thing in building a sustainable wine market in China. We should focus on the younger generation and instead of talking about wine in a technical and inaccessible way, we should help them to enjoy and welcome wine as part of their everyday lifestyle.

Going back to the wine, the welcome drink was Tener, a sparkling wine with an unusual blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay using Méthode Charmat (fermentation in tank). Simple but pleasant, it was perfect both as an aperitif and to pair with the shrimp spring roll we had for lunch. I particularly like the San Angela, a 100% Pinot Grigio IGT wine from Montalcino. It is richer than the typical Pinot Grigio from northern Italy because of the warmer Tuscan sun. These two value-for-money wines would be an ideal introduction to new consumers especially alongside dim sum.

The Brunello di Montalcino 2010, with its black fruits accompanied by hints of earthiness and spices, is drinking well now, thanks to those hybrid wood/stainless-steel fermenters, while the single plot Brunello di Montalcino Poggio Alle Mura 2010, with more depth and concentration, will age beautifully.

Banfi is certainly not the artisan producer one may be looking for in Brunello and its wine may be made with the American market in mind, but so what as long as it is made well and with such a passionate owner behind it?

Banfi is available from ASC Fine Wines.