Vine varieties: Pinot Gris/Pinot Grigio

With 62,228 tonnes crushed in 2013 and growing steadily, Pinot Gris/Grigio has quickly risen to be Australia’s sixth most widely planted white wine variety. Vinified either as an early-harvested, fairly neutral style loosely modelled on northern Italian Pinot Grigio, or picked riper to make a richer, more spicy, exotic and textural wine loosely based on the Alsace Pinot Gris style, it has become a wine of such importance that it is no longer considered an alternative variety. It is grown widely in the eastern states (but hardly at all in Western Australia, thanks to quarantine laws) and performs especially well on the mornington peninsula.