24 August 2016

Turkish Wine of the Week - Arcadia 2012 Pinot Gris

Recently I let the guys at La Cave talk me into another bottle of wine. I do need more whites now that summer is on and at only 49 TL I wasn't risking too much with this one. Plus I liked the art work. I'm not usually a huge fan of Pinot Gris. Like Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, also known as Pinot Grigio, wines have a wide range of flavors depending on whether they were grown in cool climates (Italy and most of the USA/Australia) or warm climates (the Alsace, France, Turkey). And as with Sauvignon Blanc I prefer the warmer climate "riper" styles but usually as a food wine.


Arcadia's 2012 Pinot Gris is a pretty nice example of a warmer climate style and given the price is actually a great bargain if you like this style of wine. While I was largely pleased with the flavor, again for me it was a food wine and my over all experience with this was enhanced a great deal by accompanying it with one of my favorite summer foods: chicken salad with red grapes and walnuts.


In the glass this estate-bottled Arcadia 2012 Pinot Gris is a beautiful gold color. For this particular wine, Arcadia uses limited filtration so there was some sediment in the glass-something I had not before encountered in a white wine. The nose was very citrusy which also came through on the palate-citrus, melon, honey, and a bit of something from the oak but I couldn't quite identify that. Like a cooler-climate Italian-style Pinot Gris, I also detected some minerality at the end of the finish. It seemed fairly high in acid, in fact that was my very first impression, but it smoothed out a little.


To be honest I liked this more than I thought I would and for only 49TL it's not a bad white to have on hand. However for me it was definitely a food wine and it definitely needed to be served quite cold.

No comments: