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NYT: putting a face on pinot blanc by eric asimov

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NYT: putting a face on pinot blanc by eric asimov

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The Pour

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A harvest of pinot blanc grapes at Domaine Henri Gouges. Credit Credit Jean Luis Bernuy

If it were possible to probe the collective consciousness of wine drinkers for their impressions of pinot blanc, you would be left with little of consequence. Few love it, few hate it, few give it much thought. It's not the dominant grape in any particular region. An even closer examination reveals pinot blanc to be a phantom grape and wine, a cipher that offers few answers but raises many questions.

It always struck me as a mild, milquetoast sort of wine. But I've started wondering more about pinot blanc in the last few years, and I became fixated last fall when I was entranced by a bottle at Blaue Gans, Kurt Gutenbrunner's casual Austrian restaurant in TriBeCa. It was a 2008 Rudi Pichler weissburgunder, as pinot blanc is known in Austria, from the Kollmütz vineyard in the Wachau. I ordered it for the novelty, as I rarely see weissburgunders on any list, much less with a bit of age.

The wine was rich yet dry with more texture than fruit flavors. It tasted not unlike almonds, with a hint of a corn-like sweetness balanced by plenty of minerality, as if hundreds of microscopic pebbles were coursing through the mouth. It was opulent but not overbearing and went beautifully with a plate of smoked trout. I've got to have more of these wines, I thought.

Over the course of the last few months, I set off on a bit of an exploration. But pinot blanc turns out to be maddeningly evasive. You reach out to grasp it, and - poof - like a vapor, it's gone, only to show up where you least expect it.

The French term, pinot blanc, is far more familiar to English speakers than weissburgunder, and it is mostly associated with Alsace. Yet paradoxically, the vast majority of pinot blancs from Alsace contain very little if any of the pinot blanc grape. They are in fact made largely of auxerrois, a workhorse grape that has in common with pinot blanc a mysterious aromatic neutrality, but needs to be carefully managed to avoid a dull flaccidity.

Some of my favorite pinot blancs from Alsace are auxerrois. I love Pierre Frick's creamy, pure, refreshing pinot blanc, which is 100 percent auxerrois, made from biodynamically grown grapes and bottled under a crown cap to avoid cork taint. Another favorite, Zind-Humbrecht's 2011 pinot blanc, dry, tangy and lip-smacking, is 70 percent auxerrois and 30 percent pinot blanc.

Plenty of pinot blanc is grown in Alsace, where it is mostly used for crémant d'Alsace, a sparkling wine. A 100 percent pinot blanc still wine is extremely rare. In good years, Albert Boxler makes a Pinot Blanc Reserve, but even that wine is only sometimes entirely pinot blanc. One reason for the dominance of auxerrois, says Olivier Humbrecht, proprietor of Zind-Humbrecht, is that much of the pinot blanc planted in Alsace today is from clones created to increase quantity rather than quality.

"Over-yielding pinot blanc can make a diluted, bland style of wine, not very interesting," Mr. Humbrecht wrote in an email. "But from the right vineyard, with controlled quantity, it is a very interesting wine."

Many of the best old vines, he added, have been pulled out in favor of more fashionable grapes.

If pinot blanc is elusive in Alsace, it can turn up unexpectedly in Burgundy and Champagne. In both regions, chardonnay is often mistakenly thought to be the only white grape permitted. In Champagne, however, the dominant grapes, pinot noir, chardonnay and pinot meunier, are just three of seven that are legally permitted. The other four, pinot blanc, fromenteau, arbanne and petit meslier, are still technically permitted, though they long ago ceded primacy. Still, they occasionally turn up, particularly pinot blanc, although in minute quantities.

Piollot Père et Fils produces a superb extra-brut Champagne from pinot blanc, chalky, refreshing and almost saline. Cédric Bouchard also makes a pinot blanc cuvée, Roses de Jeanne Bolorée, that is fruitier and creamier than the Piollot. Laherte Frères and Drappier make Champagnes that incorporate pinot blanc in their blends.

Pinot blanc is also a legacy grape in Burgundy. Though it has been replaced almost entirely by chardonnay, a tiny bit persists. But is pinot blanc what is found in probably the most famous Burgundian cuvée of pinot blanc, from Henri Gouges? Gouges itself contends that its three white bottlings, including two from Nuits-St.-George and one Bourgogne Blanc labeled pinot blanc, are in fact mutations of pinot noir that lost their color, rather than the true pinot blanc grape. Go figure.

According to "Wine Grapes," the essential grape reference, pinot blanc was often confused with chardonnay through the end of the 19th century. This explains the German words weissburgunder (or weisser burgunder), which basically translates as white Burgundy.

I've had some good German versions of weissburgunder, like Koehler-Ruprecht's creamy, floral Kallstadter Annaberg from the Pfalz. I've had some lively pinot biancos from northern Italy. Lieb Family Cellars makes an excellent pinot blanc on the North Fork of Long Island, and I loved Teutonic Wine Company's light, refreshing 2012 pinot blanc from the David Hill Vineyard in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, though sadly that will be the last vintage, as Teutonic no longer has access to the grapes. Eyrie also makes a top-notch Willamette pinot blanc.

But my favorite weissburgunders have come from Austria, where the wine seems to achieve a higher level of complexity than I've had elsewhere. They also age surprisingly well. A 2000 Wachau Steinporz weissburgunder from Franz Hirtzberger that I drank recently was absolutely delicious, rich and stony with a faint whiff of licorice, while a 1992 Brundlmayer from Kamptal was smoky and minerally. I don't believe Brundlmayer makes weissburgunder anymore, but other top Austrian producers include Heidi Schröck, Prieler and Hiedler.

I'm not claiming greatness or profundity for pinot blanc. I am saying that from the right place and in the right hands, pinot blanc can make distinctive, delicious wines that deliver much pleasure. I'll always have a place for a wine like that, no matter how plain, mild-mannered or nondescript it may appear.

EMAIL: Asimov@nytimes.com. And follow Eric Asimov on Twitter: @EricAsimov.

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The Pour If it were possible to probe the collective consciousness of wine drinkers for their impressions of pinot blanc, you would be left with little of consequence. Few love it, few hate it, few give it much thought. It's not the dominant grape in any particular region.

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