Spindrift Pinot Gris

*Bottle #59: Spindrift Cellars 2007 Willamette Valley Pinot Gris
*Price Tag: $15
*Running Tab: $772

My girlfriends are my rock. True and true, through thick and thin, always down for a good laugh and a cheap drink(s). More often than not, unless one of us is on some bizarre diet (sorry, Katie), we will get plentiful amounts of cheap drinks, usually enough to quench the thirst of many deprived small children in a starving third world country.

My girlfriends are rocks with bad wine taste. I take that bad, not bad, they just don't know, therefore they don't care. And I was the same way, two years ago. Now that I am the (obviously) more evolved wine drinker (and person, essentially), I try to press wines that might be $15 a bottle instead of $9 1.5L bottles aka magnums. Beringer, Gallo and Yellowtail, oh my!

My girlfriends LOVE the Pinot Gris and Grigio. Often times, I get phone calls from QFC or Safeway, from my perplexed friends asking the difference between the two.

Difference, I say? Nay. Example given to friends: They're like hot twin guys that were separated at birth, one just grew up in France and the other is from Italy.

"OOoooohh! I love hot twins!"

This week, I chose to put the hot French guy in my mouth. Heh heh heh.

For American Pinot Gris, the best way to go is Willamette Valley fruit. Oregon Pinot Gris' are typically light but not thin, full of good acid but not overwhelming loads and bursting with citrusy and summery fruit.

With the promise of that description plus some minerality and "unique notes," I went with the 2007 Spindrift Cellars Pinot Gris.

The nose was fabulous. The unmistakable lychee fruit on the nose gives off a lush and lavish fruit tone with something nutty lying in the background. Definite minerality seeping through and a caramel scent comes out after the wine warms up a little bit.

The palate was a little lackluster after such explosive aromatics but not disappointing. Lots of citrus and tart astringency up front forming a very well structured and far from thin midpalate. Grapefruit comes out in the finish and ends up tart and acidic just like the actual fruit does.

This is a French guy that when I usually drink it, he's cheap and skinny. This French guy was what I've come to expect from Euro descendants in Northwest soils: Distinct, beautiful and not as expensive as its origins.

I would take this Oregon-reinvents-Eurotrash any day. And my girlfriends will drink anything.

Score: 7.