Roeno 2023 Tera Alta Pinot Grigio

The Wine

One of my favorite New Yorker cartoons shows a couple dining at a restaurant. As they look over the wine menu one of them says "I really want Chardonnay but I just love saying 'Pinot Grigio'!" And when you get spoofed by one of the talented New Yorker cargoonists, you know you've had your moment in the spotlight. 

But, over the past couple of decades, Pinot Grigio's poplularity nearly caused its downfall. Surging demand led profit-seeking growers to plant vineyards in lower-quality areas, gobs of chemical fertilizers and pesticides and other farming practices designed to over-crop the vines - all intended to maintain low prices and a good supply to meet the global thirst for Pinot Grigio. The result was a sea of cheap wine that was also thin and watery and unexciting. It ruined a whole generation, who think of Pinot Grigio as cheap and insipid.

Enter Roeno, a family-owned grower who has never played that game. And while a $20 wine is pricier than the Pinot Grigios on your supermarket shelves, the wine offers great value for the money.

The owners are dedicated to promoting their region's native grapes despite the temptations of far more profitable options. And their location in the valley of the Adige river, with its pest-resistent sandy soils, make it easier for them to grow sustainably, without chemiclas that flow into the watershed. 

Pinot Grigio lovers  

The Winery