At the same time as he was putting his Pinot Noir vines in the soil, David Lett planted America’s first commercial Pinot Gris vines in 1965. Pinot Gris vines can now be found in the Roland Green, Sisters and Daphne vineyards, as well as the original 1965 plantings in the Eyrie Vineyard. Not only did Eyrie’s Pinot Gris make the early running, to this day it remains a yardstick for others to follow. Like every practice at this historic address, Eyrie take the long way around when it comes to Pinot Gris. The wines age on lees for up to four times longer than many of their more commercial competitors, and the team do not block malolactic fermentation.
The low-yielding but high-quality 2020 season gave fruit of a density and concentration, Jason Lett categorising it alongside the greats of 1988 and 1998. Hand-picked fruit was destemmed, pressed and fermented in stainless steel tank before resting for 11 months on lees before bottling.
A Pinot Gris of depth and bounty, this is layered with citrus and florals, enticing sweet spices and some subtle wispy smoke. It’s beautifully textured, with linear acidity flowing through a melange of ripe fruits, toasty richness and generous weight. Great length too. It’s very easy to see why this is considered the benchmark Gris of the Willamette Valley.