2019 Maloof Thistle Vineyard Pinot Gris

Dundee Hills, Oregon

Maloof Wines is a husband (Ross) and wife (Bee) team based in Forest Grove, Oregon and they have now been making juice alongside their best pals from Fossil & Fawn at their estate vineyard, No Clos Radio, since 2015.

Ross and Bee are dedicated to making wines full of energy, with the number one goal of truly capturing a place and time in each bottle. They work closely with their farmers to achieve this goal, and consider them to be the true inspiration of their work. The duo are focused on producing single vineyard wines of often overlooked or misunderstood white varieties, in addition to making some fun and funky Cuvées of all colours.

The grapes for this wine come from Thistle Vineyard (now called Haaken Lenai), it’s located in the Dundee Hills AVA and was planted in 2000. The grapes are direct pressed into neutral barrels for both fermentation and elevage. After nine months the wine is racked and bottled with no fining or filtering. Only 316 cases were produced in 2019, which is actually a pretty large increase over the 75 cases that were produced in 2018.

This wine is in my top five for wines tasted in 2020. In the first week we had it I drank it three times!!! It’s got gorgeous weight and texture, but it’s still bright and zesty with super fresh acidity! Notes of peaches and cream and yellow plums jump from the glass. On the palate there are flavour of Asian pears, gooseberries, McIntosh apples and lemon balm.

This will pair well with a wide variety of dishes, but if you’re after a white to pair with Thanksgiving dinner, this is a winner!

EAT PIZZA! SUCK GLASS!

$41.95