Pinot Gris Goes Down the Riesling Trail to Transparency

The Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI) has recently come up with a PinotG Style Spectrum, which is supposed to tell consumers what kind of Pinot Gris they’re getting, on a scale that ranges from “crisp” to “luscious.” As an industry response to the multitude of Pinot Gris styles now being made in Australia, it makes sense as shorthand, so that prospective purchasers don’t have to actually read descriptive back labels or know how to interpret technical notes.

Researchers correlated organoleptic data from a trained tasting panel with spectrographic analyses to develop the scale, allowing a wine to be classified according to its spectrographic “fingerprint” rather than according to some winemaker’s or marketer’s subjective impression.

As an attempt to remove subjective taste criteria from style description, the PinotG Style Spectrum parallels in some ways the development of the International Riesling Federation’s (IRF) Riesling Taste Profile, which purports to tell consumers how sweet their Riesling is based on the relationships in the finished wine between residual sugar, total acidity and pH. That’s it: just numbers, crunched into a linear scale from “dry” to “sweet.”

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Red Wine Ice Cream Recipe! Made some last night at home, a fun and unique treat.

Red Wine Ice Cream

adapted from Food and Wine on a blog called Melle Cotte

6 large egg yolks
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup milk
½ cup sugar
½ tsp. vanilla
¾ cup Santa Barbara Winery Cabernet Sauvignon

In a heatproof bowl, mix the egg yolks. In a saucepan, combine the cream, milk and sugar and bring to a simmer over moderate heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar and vanilla, about 4 minutes. Gradually whisk the hot cream into the eggs yolks; return the mixture to the saucepan. Cook over moderate heat, stirring constantly, until the custard is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 5 minutes; do not let the custard boil or it will curdle.

Strain the custard into a bowl. Stir in the red wine. Cover and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, about 1 hour. Freeze in an ice cream freezer according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Cover and store in the freezer until serving time.

Thursday Concerts in the Park

Call for your picnic 962-1455
Goleta Jazz – hummus, garden tomato f’bread, cookie
Carpinteria Classical – tomato salad, soppressata & white bean puree flatbread, farm cake
Summerland Jazz – grilled veggies, ahi nicoise salad, pudding
SB Salsa – beet & farro salad, lamb kabob, wine cake
Montecito Melody – cheese & charcuterie, grilled chicked breast with fingerling potatoes, shortcake
Pick up after 4pm

Concerts at the Park is 6 consecutive Thursday evenings through the summer at Chase Palm Park, 6-8:30pm