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00:00 – INTRO TO PINOT GRIGIO: What makes the Pinot… into a Grigio?
00:40 – INTRO TO DELLE VENEZIE DOC
00:53 – WHAT’S THE POINT OF DOC LAWS?
01:10 – WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AN IGT REGION AND A DOC REGION?
01:51 – PINOT GRIGIO IS A WILD CHILD THAT NEEDS SUPERVISION
02:19 – WINE HISTORY LIFE LESSONS: the downside to wine celebrity
02:57 – NEW DOC LAWS: what has changed for Delle Venezia DOC?
04:16 – GEOGRAPHY: where is Delle Venezie DOC?
04:30 – WHO INVENTED THE GUYOT VINE TRAINING SYSTEM?
04:50 – WHAT DOES THE WINE TASTE LIKE?=====================

Italy – or more specifically Veneto has been the largest producer of Pinot Grigio in the world for some time now. The trouble is that there has been very control over the quality levels of the Pinot Grigio leaving Italy and being sent (and critiqued) around the world. Having watched the German wine industry be shamed for decades as a result of the rise and fall of wines like Liebfraumilch on the international market, and having seen rosé scorned in the US right up until modern day thanks to a few million unfortunate bottles of Mateus, the Italian government decided to get stuck in and begin regulating the way these wines are made.

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To do this, the longstanding Delle Venezie IGT was upgraded to Delle Venezie DOC, and along with it came a bunch of rules and regulations to try and eliminate the bottom of the barrel productions, and distance the Italian Wine institution from anything that didn’t carry the DOC status.

Today’s wine present a delightful opportunity to test whether indeed these changes in legislature had the desired effect in the bottle. Of course, if you have yet to sign up for your Monthly HanDrinksSolo Wine Subscription then you won’t be able to taste and assess the situation for yourself, but in order to try and minimise your sense of FOMO, I left my tasting notes and some technical specs:

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👃🏼 The nose carries delightfully pleasing (though certainly not overly generous) elements of melon freshness. clean, tart, hint of apple, lemon candy,

👄 👄 As per the nose, palate presents lovely crisp green apple freshness, which are couched in sweeter green melon and hint of lemon bonbons. The whole affair is very balanced and clean, with a very faithful delivery of the what “the textbook” says one should expect from a dry Pinot Grigio.

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🔬 The vineyards that contributed to today’s wine are located in the west part of Veneto, in the hills surrounding the Verona and Vicenza wine regions. The vines are on average between 5 and 10 years old, and trained with the Guyot system. Yields are controlled to remain below 11,600 litres per hectare. All fruit is pressed and tank-fermented.

Alc : 12.0 % | RS : 5.5 g/l | pH : 3.5 | ta : 6.0 g/l.