Wineries across America are, according to Bon Appétit, updating wines typically considered “mom wines” and adding edge to grape varieties like pinot grigio and white zinfandel long considered banal.
Walsh highlights some wineries experimenting with these more “familiar” grapes like Channing Daughters which produces pinot grigio in the traditional Friulian “Ramato” style, which entails skin-on fermentation for a short period, resulting in a orange-pink hued wine. Unlike industrially produced pinot grigio, Channing Daughters’ wine “smells sweet, drinks dry, and is subtly sexy.” Napa Valley’s Turley Wine Cellars is producing a new-school white zinfandel, “made in dry style—crisp and acidic rather than sweet—and aged in neutral French wood, giving it a little body.” The winery made 200 cases, which sold out in two hours. The Scholium Project in northern California ages its chardonnays in 30-gallon oak barrels for 24 months, and introduces a lot of oxygen to the wine. The result is a “funky, meaty, almost smoky wine.” [Bon Appétit] [Photo: Flickr/Jesse Court Manche]