Results of the 2017 WineAlign National Wine Awards of Canada (The Nationals)

Pinot Gris/Pinot Grigio

Intro by Treve Ring

Pinot Gris suffers an identity crisis. This white grape is actually a mutation clone of the black pinot noir grape. The grape’s skin colour varies wildly, sometimes even within the same bunch. Gris, French for grey, references the typical greyish-blue fruit, though the grape can also range from a tanned pink to plummy black and even very pale rose. The wines produced from pinot gris also vary in hue, from palest yellow to deep golden to blushing salmon, and it is one of the more popular grapes for orange wine (just to introduce more colours into the rainbow). Of course, pinot grigio paints everything else in an entirely different hue. In sweepingly broad strokes, wines made in the fresh, crisp and unoaked style of Veneto adopt grigio, while those in a richer, riper version go by gris, though of course these are generalizations and lines are blurred.

Within Canada, you’ve no clue what to expect from a region; the style has all to do with the vintner. The most planted white grape in BC for many years, styles vary from crisp, lean orchard fruit to ripe (plus), luscious and honeyed. Nineteen of the top twenty medals went to BC this year, no small surprise. What was a special treat however, was to see Closson Chase crack the top 20 with their 2016 from Four Mile Creek.

Arrowleaf 2016 Pinot Gris, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Hillside 2016 Un-oaked Pinot Gris, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Wild Goose 2016 Pinot Gris, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia

Backyard 2016 Pinot Gris, British Columbia
CedarCreek 2016 Pinot Gris, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Church & State 2016 Pinot Gris, Vancouver Island, British Columbia
Closson Chase 2016 K.J. Watson Vineyard Pinot Gris K.J. Watson, Four Mile Creek, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario
Hillside 2016 Reserve Pinot Gris, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Lake Breeze 2016 Pinot Gris, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Laughing Stock 2016 Pinot Gris, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Poplar Grove 2016 Pinot Gris, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Quails’ Gate 2015 The Bench Pinot Gris , Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Thornhaven 2016 Pinot Gris, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia

Baillie-Grohman 2016 Pinot Gris , British Columbia
Casa Dea 2016 Pinot Grigio, Prince Edward County, Ontario
Evolve 2016  Pinot Gris, British Columbia
G.Marquis 2016 Pinot Grigio The Red Line, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario
Gray Monk 2015 Pinot Gris, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Inniskillin Okanagan 2016 Reserve Estate Pinot Gris, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Marynissen 2015 Pinot Gris, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Niagara Peninsula, Ontario
Moraine 2016 Pinot Gris , Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Noble Ridge 2016 Pinot Grigio, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Red Rooster 2016 Rare Bird Series Pinot Gris, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
River Stone 2016 Pinot Gris, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Rocky Creek 2016 Pinot Gris, Vancouver Island, British Columbia
Screaming Frenzy 2016 Pinot Gris, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Therapy 2016 Pinot Gris Tada Vineyard, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Tinhorn Creek 2016 Pinot Gris, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia
Unsworth 2016 Pinot Gris, Vancouver Island, British Columbia