J Dusi Pinot Grigio (Summer Hold)

Tasting notes & discussion 1

This wine will ship between OCTOBER 5th and 16th. If you want protected summer shipping, click here

Typically $20/bottle from J. Dusi Wines
Vintage 2025 from Paso Robles
Available for AZ; CA; CO; CT; DC; FL; GA; ID; IL; IN; IA; KS; KY; LA; ME; MD; MA; MI; MN; MO; MT; NE; NV; NH; NJ; NM; NY; NC; ND; OH; OK; OR; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; TX; VT; VA; WA; WV; WI; WY
Sold by participating winery or licensee, fulfilled by Wine Country Connect

About J. Dusi Wines: “Bringing J Dusi into the public realm of the wine industry has been a life-long dream for me. I grew up living on the vineyard, participating in grape farming, and begging for my Grandfather to teach me the winemaking process. My first vintage was when I was sixteen.”

The Long Hand-Off

TASTING NOTES:

Color Profile: White Gold
Nose: Honeysuckle, Peach
Flavor Profile: Ripe Pear, Melon, Pineapple
Structure: Lively, Delicate Acidity (AbV 11.4%)

VARIETALS: Pinot Grigio

BARRELS: 100% Stainless Steel

PAIRS WITH: N/A

THAT REMINDS ME OF: Janell.

It is, statistically speaking, a rare name. The Social Security Administration’s baby name data shows it peaked in the United States sometime in the 1960s and has been sliding toward obscurity ever since — which is genuinely a shame, because “Janell” has this elegant, slightly-ahead-of-its-time quality that a lot of names from that era don’t. It sounds like someone who would, in fact, become a fourth-generation farmer and winemaker in Paso Robles. It sounds like someone who would grow up begging her grandfather to teach her things.

The grandfather-teaching-the-grandchild move is one of the great recurring motifs in human civilization, by the way. Odysseus teaches Telemachus. Mr. Miyagi teaches Daniel. Obi-Wan is basically a grandfather figure if you squint. The format works because the grandfather has no professional stake in whether you learn — he’s just trying to make sure something doesn’t disappear. Janell’s grandfather apparently did his teaching from memory, reconstructing the “real Italian way” from the 1950s Dusi Winery by sheer recollection, which is almost more impressive than any written recipe.

What I keep thinking about is the specific detail that she was sixteen for her first vintage. Sixteen. Most people at sixteen are trying to figure out how to seem interesting to other sixteen-year-olds. Janell was in a cellar getting a masterclass handed down from a man who learned it from his father, who learned it in Italy before emigrating to California in the 1920s. That’s a very long chain of people refusing to let something go.

ICYMI, you have two choices:

Worried Summer heat might get to your wine before your wine gets to you? Order from this sale, the page you’re on right now, and we’ll get it to you at a cooler time of year (October)!

Want Protected Summer Shipping and don’t think heat will be a problem? Order from the sale linked here! We’ll still try to get them to you with as little travel time as we can.

Some places get absurdly hot during the Summer, and in particularly unpleasant circumstances, it can damage a wine. Most people get theirs no problem, but there are a couple each Summer that fall victim to the sun no matter how fast we get them to you. If you’ve experienced that before or are afraid it’ll happen to you, we’ll hold your order for you until October, if you order from the Summer Hold sale. We are reasonably sure things will be cooler then.

Who's buying this?

How are you buying your bottles?

Did you have a grandparent who taught you something you still use?

Yes — a skill or craft I genuinely rely on to this day

Yes — a skill or craft I genuinely rely on to this day
More of a worldview than a skill, but it stuck with me

More of a worldview than a skill, but it stuck with me
They tried, but I didn't appreciate it until too late

They tried, but I didn't appreciate it until too late
Not really — that kind of hand-off skipped my family

Not really — that kind of hand-off skipped my family
Comments: What did they teach you?

Comments: What did they teach you?

19 votes