Tramin Pinot Grigio Unterebner: 2002-2015

BY IAN D’AGATA | MARCH 14, 2017

I sometimes think that every wine writer out there must feel like he or she hasn’t come of age until they’ve taken a shot at poor Pinot Grigio. The list of offensive descriptors I have read over the years is nearly endless: Pinot Grigio is a pedestrian grape (it is anything but)…it produces forgettable wines…boring, insipid, pointless, waste of time and industrial…a successful attempt at turning wine into water…wait a minute now, that last one is actually mine, written circa six years ago. It’s hard to blame all those who have turned Pinot Grigio into their favorite whipping boy. Many Italian wines so labeled really are nothing to write home about. However, the mistake lies in considering all Pinot Grigios as cut of the same cloth, or worse, to view Pinot Grigio as a lesser cultivar.

Vineyards in Alto Adige

Alto Adige’s Tramin cooperative (which takes its name from the small town of the same name) is one in a long line of outstanding cooperatives this idyllic region northeastern Italian is blessed with. Arguably, it is in Alto Adige that Italy’s best white wines are being made today (although some experts might argue on Friuli Venezia Giulia’s behalf). Tramin is an especially important cellar, as a number of its wines are either Italy’s best, or at a minimum rank in the top three, of their respective categories. And while the coop’s Gewürztraminer Nussbaumer usually grabs most of the spotlight, Tramin’s gently oaked Pinot Grigio Unterebner is one of the world’s better dry Pinot Grigios. Rich, nuanced and ageworthy, it showcases the high level of quality Pinot Grigio can attain.

Pinot Grigio, Pinot Gris, Ruländer, Graubugunder: Many Names, But Just One Noble Grape

Pinot Grigio is the Italian name of the grape variety known as Pinot Gris in France or Oregon, In Germany it is called Grauburgunder, while in Austria they might call it Ruländer (but this older name is now increasingly rare). Although the languages are different, the grape variety is one and the same. In fact, Pinot Gris has a long and distinguished history. In Burgundy, Pinot Gris was planted long before Chardonnay (have you ever asked yourself why the variety’s German name is Grauburgunder?), and Burgundy insiders are aware that many of the great white wines Burgundy is now famous for were actually made wholly or with large percentages of Pinot Gris (called Pinot Beurot), not Chardonnay, in the 18th and 19th centuries. In Alsace, Pinot Gris was officially named one of the region’s noble grapes and can be planted in Grand Cru vineyards (only Riesling, Gewürztraminer and the region’s two Muscats, Ottonel and d’Alsace, have been so honored). Today, few would argue that Zind Humbrecht’s Pinot Gris Clos Saint-Urbain Rangen de Thann isn’t one of the world’s twenty or thirty greatest dry white wines, while Domaine Weinbach’s Pinot Gris Altenbourg Séléction de Grains Nobles Quintessence has few if any peers in the sweet wine department. Pinot Gris are some of Oregon’s most delicious whites, and show well in other New World areas as well. In Italy Tramin’s Unterebner is joined by Vie di Romans’ Dessimis, Lis Neris’ Gris, and Marco Martin-Lo Triolet’s Pinot Gris (both the non-oaked and the Elevée in Barrique bottling) are amongst the country’s best white wines. So it would seem to me that Pinot Grigio deserves far more credit than it gets. Unfortunately, Pinot Grigio is a victim of its own success. Because the grape is remarkably capable, given even barely competent winemaking, to give something palatable, everyone seems to want to give it a try. And so the world has gone awash with inexpensive, innocuous Pinot Grigio whose only claim to fame is their early appeal and accessibility, but little else. The flip side to all of this is that it then becomes very hard to sell the best Pinot Grigios, as reserve bottlings are invariably more expensive. Until producers, importers and sommeliers succeed in getting the wine loving public to understand that Pinot Grigio wines can be so much more than just neutral plonk, the best Italian Pinot Grigios will continue to be a tough sell.