2002 Pinot Gris - Vin Glacé

From: The Colorado Wine News, April - June 2004

King Estate
The 2002 Pinot Gris, Oregon, $15, spent six months aging sur lie. It is bright and lively with flavors of crisp apple, very sweet cooked rhubarb, and sweet lemon which finish narrow and medium-long. It has nice structure, balance, and integration. At the other end of the scale is the 2002 Vin Glacé Pinot Gris, Oregon, $18/375ml., 19.4% r.s., which opens with nice sweet pear and floral aromas introducing very sweet, rich flavors of honey, apricot, peach and pear which continue through the medium-broad, truncated finish. The wine has an amazing amount of fruit for a Gris of this type and has enough acidity to balance the sweetness and give it good richness and texture, balance, and structure and keep it from being cloying. Excellent. BEST WINE.
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From: Oregon Wine Report, Issue 18

Score: B+

King Estate
2002 Pinot Gris, Vin Glacé
Willamette Valley

Summary: Deeply hued antique bronze gold color. Restrained aromas of honey, dried peach slices, and a hint of autumnal dried herbs. Pleasingly oily in the mouth, the wine offers a subdued kind of honey glazed peach sweetness, with additional notes of bright apricot syrup. Of particular note is an uplifting sense of spiced honey on the finish.

Comments: A deliciously fruity "ice wine" that rises above the simply sweet with good varietal focus. Made from post-harvest frozen grapes picked at 37.7° Brix, the residual sugar at bottling was 19.4% - yet as sweet as this wine definitely is, it is not cloying, nor does it seem as "sugary" sweet as some late harvest style wines containing even less sugar. Kudos to winemakers Bill Kremer and Ray Walsh!

King Estate, 2002 Pinot Gris, Vin Glacé listed as one of The OWR Top Ten Sweet Wines
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