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WineSmith Arroyo Seco Pinot Gris 4-Pack

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WineSmith Pinot Gris: A customer profile

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(4) - 2014 WineSmith Pinot Gris, Arroyo Seco, Meador Estate Vineyard, 750ml

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2014 WineSmith Pinot Gris, Arroyo Seco, Meador Estate Vineyard
Arroyo Seco in Monterey is famed for the lushness and stone fruit aromas it imparts.  Doug Meador's famous vineyard has special soils that import a racy minerality to this massive and generous descendant of its pigmented progenitor, and its fine tannins resemble peach flesh next to the pit.  Grilled swordfish, scallops or lobster bisque will prove perfect complements.

This grape was originally discovered in Burgundy sometime in the Middle Ages as a mutation of Pinot Noir, and is genetically identical to its parent except for a single gene, and shares its florality, oily mouthfeel and stone fruit aromas as well as tremendous sensitivity to the terroir of a specific site.

Arroyo Seco is a sink hole in Monterey Valley sheltered from its daily high winds and famed for its lushness and peach aromas in whites as varied as Riesling and Chardonnay.  Doug Meador’s famous vineyard has special rocky soils that impart a racy minerality.  These cool conditions impart good ripeness so fruit can be harvested at relatively low brix yet still have time to acquire rich, ripe flavors.

Pinot Gris is really a pink grape, and can impart tannins that interfere with its graceful, oily palate impression and suppress aromatics in youth.  To prevent this, tannins were removed at the juice stage by hyper-oxygenative browning and flotation, resulting in a silky mouthfeel and alluring bouquet.  Fifty percent of the juice was fermented in neutral French oak barrels to enhance palate weight; the other fifty percent in small stainless steel barrels to preserve its freshness character.

The resulting wine is very delicate and alarmingly quaffable, yet its seductive aromatics provide the same dreamlike ethereality one finds in the best Pinot Noirs of Northern Burgundy. Its tannins are entirely silky and it is most at home with a firm fish such as grilled swordfish or with rich shellfish dishes such as oyster stew, scallops or lobster bisque, and will serve well to wash down a plate of mussels sauced with garlic, butter and the very same wine.  Its main flaw is its tendency to disappear more rapidly than one might wish.

Specs

  • Vineyard Location: Meador Family Vineyard, Arroyo Seco AVA
  • Harvest Date: 17 September 2014
  • Harvest Sugar: 21.3 Brix

Fermentation techniques:

  • 100% crush/destem
  • Anchor VN116 yeast inoculum
  • Hyperoxygenation and flotation at juice stage

Elevage details:

  • 50% fermentation in neutral barrel
  • TA 7.2 g/L
  • pH 3.38 at bottling
  • Production: 136 cases
  • Alcohol: 13.2%

Specs

  • Vineyard Location: Meador Family Vineyard, Arroyo Seco AVA
  • Harvest Date: 17 September 2014
  • Harvest Sugar: 21.3 Brix

Fermentation techniques:

  • 100% crush/destem
  • Anchor VN116 yeast inoculum
  • Hyperoxygenation and flotation at juice stage

Elevage details:

  • 50% fermentation in neutral barrel
  • TA 7.2 g/L
  • pH 3.38 at bottling
  • Production: 136 cases
  • Alcohol: 13.2%

Vendor Details

WineSmith Cellars

Owner:
Clark Smith
Founded:
1993
Location:
Sebastopol, CA

Clark Smith is an MIT drop-out who wandered out to California in 1972 and sold wine retail in the Bay Area for several years, where he acquired a love of Bordeaux, Burgundy and all things French and observed first hand the California winery explosion in the 1970s. After a three year stint at Veedercrest Vineyards, he secured enology training at UC Davis and spent the 1980s as founding winemaker for The R.H. Phillips Vineyard in Yolo County. In 1990, he founded WineSmith Consulting and patented a group of new winemaking techniques involving reverse osmosis, spinning off Vinovation, which went on to become the world’s largest wine production consulting firm over its 17-year history. Frustrated with California’s winemaking trends, Clark started WineSmith Cellars in 1993 as a teaching winery to make Eurocentric wines to explore traditions beyond the mainstream, expanding for his winemaking clients the range of possibility for California fruit.

Choosing to create long-term partnerships with committed growers rather than growing his own grapes, Clark has become an renowned expert on Cabernet Franc, having vinified twenty vintages from a wide variety of sites. Teaching at Napa Valley College gave him access to the Student Vineyard for Faux Chablis and his Pauillac-style $100 “Crucible” Cabernet Sauvignon. From Renaissance Vineyards in North Yuba County he has made a sulfite-free Roman Syrah and also produces a Pinot Noir from Fiddlestix Vineyard in the Santa Rita Hills in a delicate, age-worthy Côtes de Beaune style. These wines are vinified in an ancient beat-up warehouse in Sebastopol, California.

WineSmith wines are noted for their longevity, classic balance, structural integrity, minerality and understated soulfulness. They often are aged extensively prior to release. When drinking a WineSmith wine, always ask yourself “What is this wine trying to teach me?” Clark is a vocal advocate of living soil and graceful longevity, and generally avoids excessive oak, alcohol, or extended hang-time. He is not shy about employing new tools when they are needed, such as alcohol adjustment to bring fruit into balance or micro-oxygenation to build refined structure, but always fully discloses techniques which are controversial and is outspoken in explaining his rationale.

His book, Postmodern Winemaking, is the culmination of four decades of reflection on wine’s true nature.

Sales Stats

Speed to First Woot:
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Quantity Breakdown

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WineSmith Arroyo Seco Pinot Gris (4)
$64.99 Sold Out Food, Beverages & Tobacco > Beverages > Wine
$64.99 USD false 1 Retail EA
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