{"product_id":"villa-wolf-2025-pinot-gris-pinot-gris-pfalz-germany","title":"Villa Wolf -- 2025 Pinot Gris -- PInot Gris -- Pfalz, Germany","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn the first decade of the 21st century Pinot Grigio\/Pinot Gris surpassed Chardonnay as the most popular white grape on the world market. While Pinot Grigio is thought of as a white grape, it is actually a mutation of Pinot Noir with blue-gray to brownish-pink skins (often within a single bunch) which is usually pressed off its skins at the beginning of the winemaking process in order to make a white wine. There is also a long tradition in the Friuli region of Italy and in neighboring Slovenia to make ramato style Pinot Grigio where the skins are allowed a few days of contact with the fermenting juice, achieving a copper color (ramato in Italian), such as the Kobal Pinot Grigio that was in the June 2020 case. But Germany? Well, it was here in what was then known as the Palatinate, which contained both the Pfalz region of Germany and Alsace in France, that Pinot Gris was first recognized as a separate variety and made into varietal wine. The Pfalz also enjoys the same sunny, dry climate and soils as Alsace, where Pinot Gris has long been one of the leading grapes, so its surprising that Pinot Gris from the Pfalz is not better known. Villa Wolf was formerly known as the J.L. Wolf Estate and enjoyed a stellar reputation from the mid-eighteenth to the mid-twentieth century, but the estate then languished for a few decades until famed Mosel producer Ernst Loosen bought it in 1996. Sustainably farmed grapes from  sandstone and calcareous clay soils are hand harvested, native yeast fermented and aged in stainless steel, producing the same full bodied style one finds in Alsace, but with more minerality. Apple, lemon and tangerine notes that are well suited to appetizers, salads and schnitzel.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Kompas Wine Club","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50525013409869,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0078\/4515\/0797\/files\/wolf.jpg?v=1790209437","url":"https:\/\/kompaswineclub.com\/products\/villa-wolf-2025-pinot-gris-pinot-gris-pfalz-germany","provider":"Kompas Wine Club","version":"1.0","type":"link"}