2020 Pinot Gris comes from Brandborg winery, one of our favorite producers from Southern Oregon.
It looked like anything that could go wrong for Brandborg and other boutique Oregon producers did in the 2020 vintage.
Brandborg winery persevered, despite lockdowns that heavily impacted wine sales, despite cold weather snap and wildfires that tainted grapes and made it impossible for some wineries to produce wine at all.
In light of that, we were looking forward to tasting 2020 vintage wines.
2020 Brandborg Pinot Gris
In the Bottle
The grapes for 2020 Brandborg Pinot Gris came from Elk Valley and Anindor vineyards located three miles from the winery in Elkton AVA (American Viticultural Area) of Southern Oregon.
The first challenge of the season came in spring. Unseasonably warm weather of early spring woke up the vines, but the cold weather snap later in spring put them back to sleep and delayed bud break.
Just when vintners thought all is well, rainy, cold weather came during bloom time and reduced the size of the future crop. It’s terrible news from a production volume perspective. On the other hand, it may result in more concentrated wine flavors because the vines will send all those nutrients to fewer grape bunches.
Luckily, wildfire smoke didn’t affect these grapes, and Terry Brandborg, the winemaker, turned it into an excellent wine.
So what did we get in a glass?
In the Glass
In the glass, 2020 Brandborg Pinot Gris is a very pale lemon-green wine. It’s an excellent example of how color can be deceptive when it comes to the quality of the wine.
Brandborg Pinot Gris is a perfumed wine with aromas of apple candy, sweet nectarine, and tropical white flowers. On the palate, it’s in tune with flavors of fresh-cut yellow apple sprinkled with lemon, ripe nectarine, and pleasant bitterness of nectarine skin that compliments fruit in the wine.
Finish
2020 Brandborg Pinot Gris is an excellent interpretation of this grape varietal and is among the best value Oregon Pinot Gris.
If you’re like us, a fan of this refreshing varietal, you might want to know how it compares to French or Italian.
Within the last year, we tasted lots of Pinot Gris from France and Pinot Grigio from Italy. Both are benchmark wines of this varietal, albeit of a different style.
If you find Italian Pinot Grigio too crisp but Alsace too sweet to your taste, you might want to try Brandborg Pinot Gris because it fits nicely between those two styles.
