Our first wine is a very special wine.

Okay, it’s a Pinot Grigio. But it’s unlike any other Pinot Grigio or Pinot Gris you have ever tasted.

It really is surprising what you can do with Pinot Grigio, if you try.

The clue is in the bottom righthand corner of the box (below). It shows it’s a collaboration between Slovenian winemaker Leon Gjerkeš and me.

‘PG Chris’, as it was called in the winery, started off as a crazy experiment to find an alternative style for Pinot Grigio; to see what would happen with a bit of skin contact, a cool fermentation, extended ageing on fine lees, and time in a used oak barrel.

This is the result. The first wine under the Crazy Experimental Wines label.

I told Leon about my half-successful experiments with Pinot Grigio, and he took up the challenge of producing something extra special that would show a completely different side of this grape variety.

This Pinot Grigio has been made for maximum flavour and colour. The colour – as well as some of the lifted aromas and deep flavours – come from the skin contact in dry ice at the beginning of the winemaking process. Additional complexity and even deeper flavours come from a cool, slow fermentation (nearly five weeks at 17-18°C) while some of the richer mouthfeel, creamy texture and fuller body come from four months on lees and eight months in a third-fill French oak barrique.

This wine is great now, but we have a feeling it will be a stonker in three to five years. The 300 bottles are due for release in February.

The first review

The first review of my unusual Pinot Grigio is in...

It’s from wine expert and influencer Janina Doyle (@eatsleep_winerepeat).

"Not as crazy and funky and weird as I was expecting....”

I then asked her if she’d ever tasted a Pinot Grigio like it before?

“No, not really,” she replied. “And, to be honest, this has got a lot more structure and savouriness than I would expect. I’ve left this out of the fridge for an hour because I expect with an orange wine it shouldn't be too cold... It’s medium bodied. It’s not really big and bold, but there’s this lovely kind of texture to it as well... This would be an absolutely great food wine. If you’re not an orange wine lover, it’s not gonna be for you. But I actually think, the tannins are in line, the fruits are in balance, the structure is good.”

‘This would be an absolutely great food wine’

In her podcast she recommends having it with grilled halloumi, spiced couscous, olives and salted nuts.

It's my first experimental wine, but others will follow later in the year. This 2021 wine is from Slovenia. In 2022 I made 6 wines in 4 countries (Slovenia, Hungary, Austria and Georgia). This year I aim to do something similar but in Spain, Italy, Croatia and Moldova.

#wineandfood #winetourism #winetravel #slovenianwine #orangewine #amberwine #flyingwinemaker #experimentalwine #pinotgrigio