Wine of the Week! 07/29/24

Punzi Pinot Grigio

Normally $12.99 / Now on Sale for $10.96
100% Pinot Grigio (Friuli Venezia Giulia DOC)

Pinot Grigio grows throughout Italy, but the best Pinot Grigio comes from the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region up in the northeast Alpine foothills. There, where the snow capped mountains rise in the distance, winemakers consider Pinot Grigio to be a high-end grape and treat it accordingly. They grow them in low yields in mineral driven soils; in well-drained, medium altitude vineyards. Warm days ripen the grapes while cool nights assure that they maintain enough acidity to give them character. The resultant wines, therefore, can be flavorful, rich (even lush), and layered — not what you may be used to from lowland, high yield Pinot Grigio.

The Punzi is made by Reguta di Giuseppe e Luigi Anselmi outside the city of Udine in Friuli, not too far from the Roman town of Aquileia. There, the Anselmi family has been making wine since 1928. Brothers Giuseppe and Luigi represent their third generation (and they’re training their sons!). They grow on 250 hectares of clayey soils, rich in mineral salts and ventilated by sea breezes blowing in off the Adriatic.

The Punzi Pinot Grigio is as approachable as a friendly northern Italian winemaker offering you a glass after your afternoon touring Udine’s castle. Its aromatic fruitiness is balanced by a crisp acidity on the edges, its readily pleasing taste hiding quiet layers of complexity. If you’ve “moved on” from Pinot Grigio, the Punzi is enough to make you fall in love with it again.