Burgundian Pinot Gris?

J

Jeff Pinhey

Jeffrey Pinhey
A friend tells me he has this expensive bottle of Pinot Gris from Burgundy for me to try next time I visit...

I know this is a "permitted" grape, but have never heard of a single varietal PG (or Pinot Beurot) before. I have read that some wines have some PG and/or Pinot Blanc in them, with the Chardonnay, but this is new to me.

Should I expect much?
 
originally posted by Jeff Pinhey, Halifax:
Burgundian Pinot Gris?A friend tells me he has this expensive bottle of Pinot Gris from Burgundy for me to try next time I visit...

I know this is a "permitted" grape, but have never heard of a single varietal PG (or Pinot Beurot) before. I have read that some wines have some PG and/or Pinot Blanc in them, with the Chardonnay, but this is new to me.

Should I expect much?
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I've had great bottles of the Ponsot Morey Blanc, if that is what you are speaking of.
 
I am thinking my friend must be confused and it is a Pinot Blanc. I shall be drinking it next Wednesday with some other white Burgs (probably some serious infanticide) and will report back.
 
The Ponsot Morey-Clos des Monts Luisants (or just Monts Luisants on older bottlings) is now 100% Aligot; older vintages did have various other things in it, too, but the base was always Aligot.

Comte Senard/Domaine des Terregelesses has an Aloxe-Corton blanc that is 100% Pinot Gris and that is quite delicious. Unfortunately, production is quite small. That's the only one that comes off the top of my head, but there could well be others, especially up around the Savigny-Pernand-Aloxe triangle.
 
I had a couple of bottles of 1992 Thevenot-Le Brun Hauts Cotes du Nuits Pinot Beurot some years back that inspired enthusiasm among several seasoned white burgundy afficionados. While not a white burg afficionado myself, I liked the wine, too.
 
Then there is the fifth white variety on the Cte d'Or, 'pinot noir blanc' (or 'pinot Gouges' in Clive Coates' nomenclature), the naturally-occurring mutation of a pinot noir vine which began producing white grapes, as Henri Gouges discovered on his Clos des Porrets-Saint-Georges vineyard in 1936. He took cuttings from it and planted a small patch of his Perrires parcel with them. They never reverted back to red: it seems this is always the case when such a natural mutation occurs ('tempranillo blanco', discovered in Rioja by the vineyard manager at Marqus de Murrieta, has never reverted back either). The Gouges family has been making their quite peculiar NSG Perrires Blanc with this grape ever since. I understand that they recently replanted a small part of the Clos des Porrets with it and are bottling a second white from that vineyard, but I've never tasted it.

Of course, in cold scientific terms, as ADN fingerprinting developed by Carole Meredith at UC-Davis has demonstrated, all those different forms of pinot (pinot noir, pinot blanc, pinot gris or beurot, pinot meunier, pinot Gouges...), which we consider as different grape varieties, are simply clones of one single variety, i.e. pinot, with varying polyphenolic content. And thanks to Dr. Meredith's work we also know that both chardonnay and aligot are siblings of pinot, the product of the highly productive 'marriage' (=cross) between pinot and the long-forgotten gouais blanc. As in many families with a lot of children, we have everything in the lot, from artists to tramps. In addition to chardonnay and aligot, the other sons and daughters of pinot and gouais are aubin vert, auxerrois, bachet noir, beaunoir, dameron, franc noir de la Haute Sane, gamay blanc gloriod, gamay noir, knipperl, melon, peurion, romorantin, roublot and sacy.

Now you decide which ones are the artists and which ones the tramps. To me, most of them are simply "the unknowns".
 
originally posted by VS:
Then there is the fifth white variety on the Cte d'Or, 'pinot noir blanc' (or 'pinot Gouges' in Clive Coates' nomenclature), the naturally-occurring mutation of a pinot noir vine which began producing white grapes, as Henri Gouges discovered on his Clos des Porrets-Saint-Georges vineyard in 1936. He took cuttings from it and planted a small patch of his Perrires parcel with them. They never reverted back to white: it seems this is always the case when such a natural mutation occurs ('tempranillo blanco', discovered in Rioja by the vineyard manager at Marqus de Murrieta, has never reverted back either). The Gouges family has been making their quite peculiar NSG Perrires Blanc with this grape ever since. I understand that they recently replanted a small part of the Clos des Porrets with it and are bottling a second white from that vineyard, but I've never tasted it.
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Chevillon's white Nuits-Saint-Georges also is from Pinot Gouges. I just had the 2001 the night before last and it was most delicious and original; a friend at table remarked on how it had come to a harmonious maturity, while the Gouges blancs always seem to be some years away, no matter when they are drunk.

A curiosity I've observed in Burgundy is white and red grape bunches on the same vine.
 
originally posted by VLM:
I was under the impression that the Ponsot had some pinot Gouges in it.
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He did at one time, or at least so he sometimes said. But a few years ago he replaced everything that wasn't Aligot with Aligot.
 
Several years ago I had a Vougeot blanc (maybe even Clos de Vougeot) from Bertagna that was a field blend of chardonnay and pinot gris. The speculation was that the pinot gris vines were volunteers.
Best, Jim
 
originally posted by VS:
all those different forms of pinot (pinot noir, pinot blanc, pinot gris or beurot, pinot meunier, pinot Gouges...), which we consider as different grape varieties, are simply clones of one single variety,
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Victor,

Not to nitpick an interesting story, with a list of grapes also mostly unknown to me, but my simple country chemist's version of molecular biology wouldn't apply the word "clone" to that group of grapes--they pretty clearly contain some genetic diversity in them. I'm blissfully ignorant of Prof. Meredith's actual publications on the subject, but at a minimum, the white varieties either fail to express some of the genes in the biosynthetic pathways for pigments, or they express inactive versions of the enzymes encoded by those genes. It would also appear to me that there are other differences in secondary metabolism--the terpenes and other smelly things are differentially represented among that group.

It's been a while, but when the whole genome of a Vitis vinifera was published, my recollection is that they sequenced a highly inbred clone of pinot noir that was chosen to elide the high genetic diversity typical of that cultivar.
 
I didn't say aligot or melon are clones - they are varieties indeed. They contain different percentages of genes inherited from both pinot and gouais, which are their parents, so they have different DNAs. But the various pinots - noir, blanc, gris... - are really clones of a single variety, the generic 'pinot', despite their varying anthocyanin and aromatic content. Their DNA is the same. Many other grape varieties have markedly different clones - for instance, here in Spain, the birthplace of grenache, we have two markedly different families of clones, the much darker Aragonese-Catalan family and the paler Madrid-Castilian family.

Here's Carole Meredith's answer to the questions, 'What is a clone? Why are there so many? Are they all different? How do those differences arise?':

"A clone is a variant within a variety that has some difference of interest to grape growers and/or winemakers. The older the variety is, the more variants exist within the variety because there has been more time for the differences to arise. The differences can be in visible features like berry size or cluster shape or they can be differences in such things as aroma or acidity. Pinot noir, being among the oldest of all the varieties, has many known clones. Chardonnay, being somewhat younger, has a smaller number of clones. A relatively young variety like Cabernet Sauvignon has only a few clones and they are not very different from each other.

Lots of clonal variation will exist in old vineyards in the original home of a variety (such as old Burgundy vineyards for Pinot or Chardonnay), but a variant only really becomes a "clone" when a variant vine is identified by someone as being of interest and cuttings are taken from it and then given a name or number and propagated separately.

A clonal difference arises as the result of a naturally occurring mutation in a single cell in the growing point of a grapevine shoot. As the cell multiplies, with time it will come to occupy a larger and larger proportion of the cells in the shoot tip. The shoot tip may eventually consist entirely of this new type of cell and eventually an entire shoot may carry the new mutation uniformly in every leaf and every berry. If the mutation affects something of interest to growers and/or winemakers, such as berry size or fruit color or flavor, then the part of the vine that has the new characteristic may be preferentially chosen as a source of buds or cuttings for new vines. But if a mutation does not affect something of interest, then it may never be noticed at all and may or may not persist in the vineyard, by chance alone."

BTW, Dr. Meredith is now retired as a teacher and has become a winemaker and winery owner at Lagier-Meredith. Ah, those older people who turn to making syrah...
 
originally posted by VS:
all those different forms of pinot (pinot noir, pinot blanc, pinot gris or beurot, pinot meunier, pinot Gouges...), which we consider as different grape varieties, are simply clones of one single variety,
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Sorry it's taken me a while to come back to this. I misread you the first time through. If I say, "Joe' is a clone of Joe," I mean to imply that Joe and Joe' are genetically identical. The various pinots are all close relatives of pinot noir, but even pinot noir itself is subject to wide variation. Hence the highly inbred clonal selection that was picked to stand for Vitis vinifera in the sequencing effort. (I had always thought that pinot's wide variation was partly due to age and partly due to inherent mutability, though I have no personal evidence to offer on that point).

But you can have completely nonclonal pinot blanc, for instance. Pinot blanc undoubtedly originated with a single plant, as did all other varieties. But it need not be propagated in a way that retains genetic identity to the parent, so the population in a massale vineyard is not clonal.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
originally posted by VS:
all those different forms of pinot (pinot noir, pinot blanc, pinot gris or beurot, pinot meunier, pinot Gouges...), which we consider as different grape varieties, are simply clones of one single variety,
Click to expand...
Sorry it's taken me a while to come back to this. I misread you the first time through. If I say, "Joe' is a clone of Joe," I mean to imply that Joe and Joe' are genetically identical. The various pinots are all close relatives of pinot noir, but even pinot noir itself is subject to wide variation. Hence the highly inbred clonal selection that was picked to stand for Vitis vinifera in the sequencing effort. (I had always thought that pinot's wide variation was partly due to age and partly due to inherent mutability, though I have no personal evidence to offer on that point).

But you can have completely nonclonal pinot blanc, for instance. Pinot blanc undoubtedly originated with a single plant, as did all other varieties. But it need not be propagated in a way that retains genetic identity to the parent, so the population in a massale vineyard is not clonal.
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It strikes me that Professor Meredith's definition of "clone" is at odds with general usage. Once you allow for natural variation, the offspring are no longer "clones", strictly speaking. Also it seems to me impossible that "Pinot Blanc" could have originated from a single vine, given the frequency with which Pinot Noir throws off Blanc sports. Call Pinot Gouge Pinot Gouge. I do myself. But you can also call it Pinot Blanc.
 
originally posted by Jeff Connell:
Also it seems to me impossible that "Pinot Blanc" could have originated from a single vine, given the frequency with which Pinot Noir throws off Blanc sports. Call Pinot Gouge Pinot Gouge. I do myself. But you can also call it Pinot Blanc.
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Very fair point. I should say, "each pinot blanc," perhaps. But this naturally renders each one even more divergent.
 
I promised I'd report back on what turned out to be a Burgundian Pinot Blanc. Here are my notes from the entire tasting.

White Burgundy, January 14

This was the first of what I hope will be a long series of tastings, with the theme of splitting the cost of some new arrivals in town, to try to identify what might be worth acquiring, and possibly limiting future disappointment.

All wines were tasted blind, notes made, then uncovered and discussed over an hour or more. All the white wines were opened in advance, poured in full size Burgundy stems, cool, but not cold.

The intro wine served while waiting for everyone to arrive (there were only 5 of us). It was an Henriot NV Champagne Blanc de Blanc, probably from 2004. It showed good Chardonnay character with a very bready, yeasty, and drying nose. It was tasty stuff, with again, more Chardonnay character when tasted. Nice aged fruit, leesy, dry finish. All were quite happy with it. Hand carried from New Brunswick, I did not get the price.

The first wine was a 2005 Domaine Fontaine-Gagnard Chassange-Montrachet, 1ere Cru La Romane. It smelled of piney wood, nettles, mineral, with obvious alcohol. It had good acidity, but with an odd finish, burning the upper back corners of my throat. Spicey, peppery. I was not crazy about this one. $103/btl (Canadian dollars)

Next was a 2005 Daniel Rion Nuits-St. George, Les Terres Blanches. This was the wine Id been wondering about when I heard there was a non-Chardonnay white in the flight. 100% Pinot Blanc, according to their product sheet. It has an interesting, even beguiling nose, perfumey oak and vanilla, with some red berry fruit. As time passed, the wine opened up even more to berry fruit reminiscent of Bakeapples, or white raspberries. It was clean, balanced with very subdued oak. Initially I called the fruit a white peach, and with time it changed to more of the aforementioned white raspberry or Bakeapple berry fruit. It was long. Obviously, I liked this a lot. We had been asked to pick out the Pinot Blanc, and I did. About $85 here.

The third wine was brought by one of the participants, a 2003 William Fevre Chablis Grand Cru Vaudesir. One hears all the traffic on this vintage, and it really is true. This did not remind me of any Chablis Ive ever had. It was closed at first, but opened up to minerally fruit (good) and then went on to smell like pineapple juice for most of the evening, morphing to other tropical fruit smells as it warmed. It tasted of pineapple juice, and was waxy, honeyed, showed oak, vanilla and a tropical fruit I called breadfruit. I liked the wine, but was a bit surprised at where it was from. About $80 here.

Number four was a 2004 Bouchard Pere et Fils Meursault Geneveres. This smelled piney, oakey, woody, with a sharp nose of malolactic at the start. It showed a major mineral character on the palate, grape tannin, OK acidity, and a full body with restrained fruit. Some vanilla. It settled down with time, and although identifiable as Burgundy, was the least balanced of the lot. About $85 here.

The final white Burg was a 2005 Domaine Fontaine-Gagnard Batard-Montrachet, Grand Cru. It smelled like a middle of the road white Burgundy at the start. Then, as it opened there was some burlap, wood/oak, red fruit, cinnamon, and vanilla. The palate was balanced, young, and the mouthfeel almost watery at the start. With time it filled in, with increasing intensity. Still disjointed, I think we were all guilty of some crime, somewhere, for opening this so early in its life. It is $208/btl here. We had been asked to pick out this wine and I did not come close.

After the whites were mostly gone (some of us still had some of the Pinot Blanc and Batard left in those glasses) the host opened a red for us to have a guess at. It was bricked at the rim, and into the glass at least a centimetre, showed a med red core and was slightly cloudy. It smelled of mushrooms, nettles, pine, and barnyard. It still had good tannins despite the age showing. With dry cherry, earth, and all that good Pinot stuff. It was drinking very well, and I was enjoying it when I had one of those aha moments. The first ever OK red Burgundy I had was the 1999 Bouchard Pere et Files Beaune de Chateau, which I paid $34 for back in 2002. Could this be that same wine, now 10 years old?

It was.
 
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