2000 Late Harvest Pinot Gris

[barnesy]

My sister picked this one up cause it had a purdy bottle and looked interesting.

2000 Giradet Late Harvest Pinot Gris Southern Oregon
$15 375ml

Strong apricots on the nose and palate. Very round in the mouth. At 26% residual sugar, I wasn't sure if I was supposed to drink it or pour it on my flapjacks. I think it was something like 12% alcohol. Despite the high sugar, it wasn't too syrupy. What would have made this wine really good is a nice acidic backbone to make that sugar and strong flavor zing. It was just too flabby as is. Nice try though.

Barnesy

[Bucko]

One of my personal rants -- WHERE THE HELL IS THE ACID!!!!! Yeah, you can make a nice, sweet, concentrated late harvest wine but it is just fancy syrup if the acidity is lacking. The Loire Valley folks get it right, why can't we?

[winoweenie]

an' also them sauterneeeeses peeple. WW

[cpurvis]

OK, so we've ranted about this NW US lack of acidity problem over & over. Does anyone know TECHNICALLY what the NW winemakers are doing differently from the Loire/Alsace/German winemakers? Is it in the vineyard, in the winery or a combo problem? cp

[winoweenie]

CP ole' bean. The answer is simple and I've said hit over an' unner, they don' git none acidity in ther wines. WW

[Bucko]

I'm not a winemaker, so I stick my foot in my mouth on occasion, but hey, I like shoe leather. Part of it is simple Winemaking 101; as the grape ripens, sugars go up and acids go down. As sugars go up, so does alcohol in the finished product, depending on the yeast used as well. It seems that we worry too much about the brix -- the wines end up too soft and have 14+% alcohol. So what is the answer? I don't know, it just does not make sense to me.

[cpurvis]

Bucko, sounds like a straight-up comparison of brix at harvest would be an interesting starting point in understandin' differences. Bein' much more adept at drinkin' than biochemistry, I'll just rant between sips & leave that research to others [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/wink.gif[/img] cp

[Thomas]

..and some grapes naturally produce more acid than others by their nature. Riesling is a high acid producer as well as a late ripener, which is why it is great for late harvest wines, as are two French-American hybrids: Vidal and Vignoles, which are used in North America for late harvest and for ice wine.

Climate also plays a role in acidity--generally, the warmer the weather, the lower the acid, which is why mountainous vineyards produce those snappy, better-with-food wines.

But since ww drinks sw only in his closet, he wouldn't know about such matters--incidentally, thanks for the phone call Verne. Scoop and I were busy at the time, but we appreciate your concern.