Daisy Pinot Grigio

Tasting Notes

Lets be honest, most Pinot Grigio out there is really boring! Sure, there are some exceptions but you have to spend quite a lot. The challenge was to make a distinctive, complex, and fuller style Pinot Grigio at a price that everyone can afford. The inspiration is the high tone and surprisingly full whites of Northern Italy. These wines are often built on Pinot Bianco or Pinot Grigio, and small amounts of complementary varietals like Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Robolla, etc blended in as grapes and co-fermented. At their best, these wines can absolutely soar in their aromatics and yet have a surprisingly broad mid-palate and always a powerful acid back-bone. I’ve been looking for the right terroir, combination of vineyards, and ripening window to pull off such a blend. I eventually pieced that all together in a high elevation vineyard in the Columbia Valley and thus Daisy was born. My belief is that the sooner you can integrate different varieties together, the more cohesive and energetic the wine.

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The Wine

Pinot Grigio from the Ancient Lakes AVA dominates and sets the tone for the blend. Riesling from the legendary Art Denhoed Vineyard lifts aromas and brings a racy key lime quality. Muscat from the Upland Vineyard brings an exotic depth of fruit, while Sauvignon Blanc from the Sunset Vineyard in the Ancient Lakes brings some citrus and savory elements. This results in gorgeous aromas of hay, grapefruit, lychee, licorice and summer flowers with an underlying flinty minerality. These characteristics carry through to a surprisingly rich mid palate and bright, crisp finish. Fermentation was held off until all the fruit was picked and pressed and all the juice blended together for a proper co-ferment. We also added a small amount of chardonnay lees from a previous fermentation to build mid pallet richness. 92% of the fermentation was in stainless steels tanks at cold temperatures. 8% of the wine was aged in neutral barrels to add an oxidative richness and it really adds a new dimension. We like it so much we plan to continue with a small amount of neutral barrel aging.

The Vintage

After a string of challenging vintages, 2023 in Washington State was near perfection. A mild spring lead into a typical hot and dry midsummer and cool, drawn out fall allowing for the extended hand time that we love. There were a few moments of precipitation during the harvest period that kept us on our toes and the berry sizes were unusually small resulting in small yields, but across the board the quality of fruit that came in was excellent. All of our fruit is grown above 1,100 feet, which may not sound that high, but in Washington only 10% of the total vineyards planted are above that level. The elevation ensures gentle ripening, which allows complex flavor development and natural acidity without much alcohol.

Terroir

Matching up the vineyards so that the fruit would ripen at the same moment was a puzzle and required a few different vineyards and even some adjustments to yields to game the pick window. The majority of fruit came from the Ancient Lakes AVA with the drop of muscat from the Upland vineyard in the Yakima Valley and from the Riesling from the Art Den Hoed Vineyard also in the Yakima Valley.