Drew's Wine List

2019 A to Z Wineworks Pinot Gris Vintage:  2019 Region:  Oregon, USA Winery:  A to Z Wineworks Varieties:  Pinot Gris (aka Pinot Grigio) Price:  $9.99 Expert Rating:  90 Points My Rating:  88 Points The Review:  Today we answer the age-old question- are Pinot Gris and Pinot Grigio the same thing? The simple answer is yes! Both Pinot Gris and Pinot Grigio are the exact same grape, but Pinot Gris is from France, and Pinot Grigio is from Italy (Gris and Grigio being French and Italian respectively for "grey"). However, like most things in wine, there's a more complicated answer as well. While the wines are the same grape, winemakers have started to use the different names to refer to the style that the wine is made in. The Italian style, which most people are quite familiar with from every wedding ever, is light, fruity, and pretty straightforward  (what wine people politely call "neutral").  To be a little frank, Pinot Grigio is made to ge...

2019 Kirkland Signature Carneros Pinot Noir Vintage:  2019 Region:  Carneros, Napa Valley, California Winery:  Kirkland Signature (made by Alison Crowe) Varieties:  Pinot Noir Price:  $9.99 My Rating:  88 Points The Review: Howdy folks. Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day! Today's blog covers what I think is one of the all-around best value wines out there. The 2019 Kirkland Carneros Pinot Noir is consistently a really good Pinot for $10! As I think I've mentioned in the past, Pinot Noir is really hard to make well for cheap. It's finicky, very sensitive to the weather, and can easily be screwed up by the winemaker. This one, however, from the very famous Pinot region of Carneros, is typically very good! From the Napa side of Carneros (this subregion is really interesting because part of it is in Sonoma and the other part is in Napa), Alison Crowe puts out a wine that checks all of the boxes for what we want in a wine from this region. One of the really ...