The 2015 Pinot Grigio is a limpid pale straw color. Its pleasing aromas include jasmine, honeysuckle, white peach and Asian pear. On the palate the wine is crisp, vibrant, and lively, with a clean refreshing finish. The wine is saturated with flavors, offering lemongrass, grapefruit essence, stone fruit and Mandarin orange with a flinty character.
This wine will pair beautifully with prosciutto and melon, cracked Dungeness crab, grilled halibut, or a pasta primavera with peas, fava beans and asparagus.
Winery: Benessere Vineyards
Owner: The Benish Family
Founded: 1994
Location: St Helena, CA
Benessere is the Italian word for “well being” or “living the good life” and the name reflects a dedication to producing fine, Napa Valley-grown, Italian varietals and a penchant for providing warm, casual hospitality.
That has been the Benish Family mission since 1994 when thirty vineyard acres surrounding the St. Helena winery were planted primarily to Italian varietals. Their distinctive Italian wine portfolio includes two varieties not found at any other Napa Valley winery - Aglianico and Sagrantino. Oter featured wines include: Sangiovese, Pinot Grigio, Rosato di Sngiovese, Old Vine Collins Holystone Vineyard Zinfandel, Moscato di Canelli, and our proprietary red blend - Phenomenon.
The eclectic, high-quality wine collection combined with a picturesque, vineyard-side setting provides a wine tasting experience unique to the Napa Valley.
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, IL, IN, IA, KS, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: Tax & Shipping not included in savings calculations)
2015 Benessere Pinot Grigio $30 =13.33%
@chipgreen@communist Actually, the savings, correct to the nearest hundredth of a percent, is 13.32%. It is mathematically unsound to use rounded values and express the answer to a greater precision than the inputs.
@communist@ddeuddeg We’re not producing O-rings for the space shuttle here. I round the numbers up for ease of calculating them in my head. I’ll start automatically shaving 1/100th of 1% off the result from now on. It’ll be right more often than not.
It’s fun to get surprises in the mail. It can be even better to get a surprise e-mail that free wine is coming in the mail. This offering was sent delivered overnight to me at my lab. My FedEx man is starting to worry about me now that he has seen multiple offerings of alcohol show up that need signatures. He also wants me to start tipping him in wine.
We typically do not buy white wines unless we are going to cook with them first. Our tastes sit around pinot noir, syrah, and blends. Let us see if I can be of any use to you today/ this long weekend.
The bottle arrived here during a cold snap and was rather cold. Some fun toys that we have around the floor proved fun but pointless.
/giphy Thermal Imaging
The bottle temperature measured in at 38 degrees F. So, I let it sit out on my desk before bringing it home.
I don’t have fun toys at home so I can’t give an arrival temp, but it did get a rest in the fridge before my kids bath, and was pulled and left out for 1 1/2 before tasting with my wife.
First impressions on looking it has a straw color and slight legs. The first nose I get are alcohol, wild flowers, and as it warmed up and the glass emptied I get fresh poured, or hot summer day asphalt. It has a light crisp flavor, that is slightly sweet, higher acid, and no tannin. On the front of my tongue we get typical peach, pear, and hay. On the back of the throat we get typical green apple, cut grass, wildflowers and a slight alcohol burn.
I got home Wednesday night a little late to be cooking anything for dinner so leftovers were had. This didn’t really pair to well with the buffalo chicken quesadilla’s that I quickly made for the wife and I. So we saved 2/3 of the bottle for Thursday night. I tossed together a 3 mushroom parmesan risotto. Using a 1/2 cup or so of this wine for cooking as well.
/giphy Julia child
I also think we did a better job of letting the wine warm up a little bit more tonight as the flavors were brighter. lemon or bitter grapefruit, stronger pear and peach.
As we do here in Baltimore during summer months or neighborhood gatherings. Turn on the O’s and stoop it with a Boh hun. This wine could be a hot summer, front porch (stoop) drinker.
@jml326 Thanks for the thoughtful report. You mention sweet; was it more of a fruity taste, not just sugar? From your description, and the winemaker’s, it sounds like this is not a grapefruit bomb, a one-note pinot grigio like so many can be. I’m intrigued by the pear, flint, peach and other descriptors.
@XsanityX sorry for the late response busy day yesterday. I guess I would say fruit sweet, but if also say it wasn’t the driest. It had a little more body to it then I’ve had with other pinot grigio. Any help?
From Wine Enthusiast:
Benessere 2015 Pinot Grigio (Napa Valley)85 Points
With just the tiniest amount of residual sugar, this wine presents as thick and heavy on the palate. A woody, herbal, nutty tone underplays fruitier aspects of peach and pear. 3/1/2017 VB
And here are some pictures of the grapes. Surprise, they can be quite dark. In fact, modern ampelographers (grape variety identification experts) consider all the Pinots: Noir, Gris, Blanc and Meunier, to be a single variety, Pinot. The principal difference is mutations in the pigment-forming pathways.
@BenessereMatt “The excellent grapes that I work with at Benessere give me a running start on making great wine, but it still requires skill and creativity on my part to make sure the wines reach their fullest potential.”
Something I’ve always wondered, after you taste your finished effort, do you know what you would do differently the next year to have the wine taste closer to your original aim? After you taste the wine, are you able to say, “to get more pear and less grapefruit, I’ll do this next year”. If you know what is possible given the nature of a varietal, do you nurture that nature during growth and making the wine and tease out the aspects to your aim?
Or is the process simultaneously finite and uncertain? Maybe I should have started with this question: How specific is your aim of the final product? I’m sure it is more than, “I’m going to make a tasty wine.”
So often I’ve tasted a wine that has a decent pedigree to find out it tastes nothing like the varietal and I wonder - was it purposeful? I’m able to translate a wine label description into the aspects the wine is most likely to present, but when it does not have some element of the varietals, I wonder what was the original aim for that wine?
It may be too early in the morning for this. That’s a deep question, @XsanityX. But I’ll try. Most of the fruity aromas in a wine come from the grapes. Some come from the yeast. Many, from whatever source, are initially present in a bound, nonaromatic form that the yeast, or possibly the acid and alcohol, or possibly added enzymes, can help liberate, making the wine more aromatic. This is especially true of the sulfur-containing aroma compounds, including those responsible for grapefruit aromas, for example.
To go back to your “initial” question, it basically is as simple as saying, “I’m going to make a tasty wine.” What I mean by that is that I want to realize the full flavor potential of the grapes. For a varietal wine, I want the finished product to be true to the variety. In the case of an aromatic white, like Pinot grigio, I think that’s best achieved by a slow, cool fermentation in a neutral vessel. I do use commercial yeast but I do not use enzymes. If I were not happy with the results, I would first look to the grapes to see what we could do in the vineyard to boost the wine’s aromatic potential. If that failed I suppose I could give the enzymes a try to see if they would get us there, but I would also think about finding a different grape source.
There are not as many opportunities for tweaking the flavor profile during the fermentation/maceration process. In fact, enzymes are about all there is, and their impact, though noticeable, is less than when they are used during pressing, when the juice is still in contact with the skins.
Fortunately I’ve been very happy with the young wine.
I hope that answered your question. If it didn’t, I’ll get another cup of coffee and try again.
Aww, thanks, @rjquillin@XsanityX looks like I am logged in as PWR but in both cases it is great to be able to take part in a forum like this. I really am happy to talk about what I do and why I do it, and questions like this really make me dig.
@PWRWines@XsanityX And it’s participation like this that can, and does, push us over the edge and prompt a purchase.
I’m not a PG fan, unfortunately, but if I was for this post alone I’d be all over the offer.
I did snag the PWR that I picked up just today.
@BenessereMatt Thanks, Matt for the thoughtful response. So, I understand, you start with quality grapes and stay true to the varietal; and it’s not what you add during fermentation, but how you do the fermentation process. How early in the growth process do you know you’ll have good or not-so-good wine? Or is it truly a roller coaster ride until the bottling?
@XsanityX There is a lot more flexibility with reds, just because the juice stays in contact with skins and seeds for so much longer.
All the grower can do – which is a lot – is to help the grapes reach their full potential. It’s pretty easy to see when too heavy (or too light, but that’s rare) a crop is going to lead to ripening issues, or when stacked clusters or a woolly canopy will keep too many grapes in the dark with too little air circulation, and similar problems. But if the vines are well tended then the potential for great wine is there.
Whether the winemaker (or consumer) will be happy with the wine made from well grown grapes depends a great deal on the site, and while its character may change from vintage to vintage, its quality should not.
In sum, if the vines are grown well, and previous vintages (even if made by a different producer) are good, there is every expectation that this wine will be good. If there is no track record, the flavors in the grapes can be a good indicator, but by the time they can be judged harvest is imminent.
So not really a roller coaster ride, most of the time.
@BenessereMatt@XsanityX Ok- we were about to order a case, and this completely justifies it. Thank you so much for the extra knowledge and your participation!
@BenessereMatt Thank you, Matt. I know I don’t have it in me to be a winemaker; when most most farmers are done shipping their produce, the next phase of your work is just beginning. I have always wanted to work on a vineyard; I’m fascinated every time I visit one. Looking forward to tasting your wine!
Tasting Notes
The 2015 Pinot Grigio is a limpid pale straw color. Its pleasing aromas include jasmine, honeysuckle, white peach and Asian pear. On the palate the wine is crisp, vibrant, and lively, with a clean refreshing finish. The wine is saturated with flavors, offering lemongrass, grapefruit essence, stone fruit and Mandarin orange with a flinty character.
This wine will pair beautifully with prosciutto and melon, cracked Dungeness crab, grilled halibut, or a pasta primavera with peas, fava beans and asparagus.
Specifications
Price Comparison
$317.69/case at Benessere Vineyards
About The Winery
Winery: Benessere Vineyards
Owner: The Benish Family
Founded: 1994
Location: St Helena, CA
Benessere is the Italian word for “well being” or “living the good life” and the name reflects a dedication to producing fine, Napa Valley-grown, Italian varietals and a penchant for providing warm, casual hospitality.
That has been the Benish Family mission since 1994 when thirty vineyard acres surrounding the St. Helena winery were planted primarily to Italian varietals. Their distinctive Italian wine portfolio includes two varieties not found at any other Napa Valley winery - Aglianico and Sagrantino. Oter featured wines include: Sangiovese, Pinot Grigio, Rosato di Sngiovese, Old Vine Collins Holystone Vineyard Zinfandel, Moscato di Canelli, and our proprietary red blend - Phenomenon.
The eclectic, high-quality wine collection combined with a picturesque, vineyard-side setting provides a wine tasting experience unique to the Napa Valley.
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, IL, IN, IA, KS, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Estimated Delivery
Monday, Mar 26 - Thursday, Mar 29
@jml326 has a Lab Rat Report for us.
Benessere Pinot Grigio
4 bottles for $49.99 $12.50/bottle + $2/bottle shipping
Case of 12 for $129.99 $10.83/bottle + $1/bottle shipping
2015 Benessere Pinot Grigio
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: Tax & Shipping not included in savings calculations)
2015 Benessere Pinot Grigio $30 =13.33%
@communist My work here is done
@chipgreen @communist Actually, the savings, correct to the nearest hundredth of a percent, is 13.32%. It is mathematically unsound to use rounded values and express the answer to a greater precision than the inputs.
@ddeuddeg Once a math teacher…
@communist If chipgreen doesn’t say it, I don’t believe it.
@InFrom Actually, it’s more about the CDO’s.
@ddeuddeg Wiki’s page on CDO does not help me. However Urban Dictionary tells me that you’re so beyond OCD, you’re CDO. And that would explain it!
@communist @kaolis @chipgreen I’ll drink to that!
@InFrom Sorry. CDO’s are just like OCD’s, but the letters are in alphabetical order, THE WAY THEY SHOULD BE.
@chipgreen @communist @ddeuddeg blame @chipgreen i copied his 13.33 format from a different offering
@ddeuddeg
@chipgreen @communist @communistjack No, sorry. You got greedy, posting it yourself. It’s on you.
@communist @ddeuddeg We’re not producing O-rings for the space shuttle here. I round the numbers up for ease of calculating them in my head. I’ll start automatically shaving 1/100th of 1% off the result from now on. It’ll be right more often than not.
/giphy begrudging-compromise
@chipgreen @communist @ddeuddeg
@chipgreen @communist I’m glad you guys are all being so good-natured about my teasing. I’ll see if I can put the CDO’s on hold.
/giphy tumbleweed
@rjquillin ikr? Waiting for lab rats me thinks.
I’m just excited to have a white finally, will likely go in for a split with someone. Hopefully the rats will weigh in and convince others.
It’s fun to get surprises in the mail. It can be even better to get a surprise e-mail that free wine is coming in the mail. This offering was sent delivered overnight to me at my lab. My FedEx man is starting to worry about me now that he has seen multiple offerings of alcohol show up that need signatures. He also wants me to start tipping him in wine.
We typically do not buy white wines unless we are going to cook with them first. Our tastes sit around pinot noir, syrah, and blends. Let us see if I can be of any use to you today/ this long weekend.
The bottle arrived here during a cold snap and was rather cold. Some fun toys that we have around the floor proved fun but pointless.
/giphy Thermal Imaging
The bottle temperature measured in at 38 degrees F. So, I let it sit out on my desk before bringing it home.
I don’t have fun toys at home so I can’t give an arrival temp, but it did get a rest in the fridge before my kids bath, and was pulled and left out for 1 1/2 before tasting with my wife.
First impressions on looking it has a straw color and slight legs. The first nose I get are alcohol, wild flowers, and as it warmed up and the glass emptied I get fresh poured, or hot summer day asphalt. It has a light crisp flavor, that is slightly sweet, higher acid, and no tannin. On the front of my tongue we get typical peach, pear, and hay. On the back of the throat we get typical green apple, cut grass, wildflowers and a slight alcohol burn.
I got home Wednesday night a little late to be cooking anything for dinner so leftovers were had. This didn’t really pair to well with the buffalo chicken quesadilla’s that I quickly made for the wife and I. So we saved 2/3 of the bottle for Thursday night. I tossed together a 3 mushroom parmesan risotto. Using a 1/2 cup or so of this wine for cooking as well.
/giphy Julia child
I also think we did a better job of letting the wine warm up a little bit more tonight as the flavors were brighter. lemon or bitter grapefruit, stronger pear and peach.
As we do here in Baltimore during summer months or neighborhood gatherings. Turn on the O’s and stoop it with a Boh hun. This wine could be a hot summer, front porch (stoop) drinker.
@jml326 great report, thanks. I’m in for a case.
@jml326 Thanks for the thoughtful report. You mention sweet; was it more of a fruity taste, not just sugar? From your description, and the winemaker’s, it sounds like this is not a grapefruit bomb, a one-note pinot grigio like so many can be. I’m intrigued by the pear, flint, peach and other descriptors.
@XsanityX sorry for the late response busy day yesterday. I guess I would say fruit sweet, but if also say it wasn’t the driest. It had a little more body to it then I’ve had with other pinot grigio. Any help?
@jml326 Yes, thank you. I’m OK with fruitiness; the residual sugar is not high so it will not be overly sweet.
Know nothing of this wine, but a fan of the winery.
(aka useless post)
From Wine Enthusiast:
Benessere 2015 Pinot Grigio (Napa Valley)85 Points
With just the tiniest amount of residual sugar, this wine presents as thick and heavy on the palate. A woody, herbal, nutty tone underplays fruitier aspects of peach and pear. 3/1/2017 VB
fwiw
Good morning, all! I’m here at last! Pinot grigio for breakfast? Why not! I’m Benessere’s winemaker, so ask away. (PS I’m also the PWR winemaker, so…)
@BenessereMatt busy man
@BenessereMatt I love this wine! Please can we have more???
So glad you love the wine, @jmruru! Please give Ryan Shenk a holler @ ryan@benesserevineyards.com or 707-963-5853x107.
PG - All in for a white… /giphy majestic-spotted-asiago
My /giphy didn’t work?
/giphy majestic-spotted-asiago
Never mind…
@hey_zeus needs to be the start of a line to work
/giphy like this
@jml326 Yeah - after I looked in MEH I figured it out but I couldn’t edit anymore. Thanks jml326!
Here are some pictures of our vineyard. Just because.
And here are some pictures of the grapes. Surprise, they can be quite dark. In fact, modern ampelographers (grape variety identification experts) consider all the Pinots: Noir, Gris, Blanc and Meunier, to be a single variety, Pinot. The principal difference is mutations in the pigment-forming pathways.
@BenessereMatt Viticulture Nerd Alert
@billmort That’s me!
@BenessereMatt I enjoy the science tidbits - ampelographer - now that’s a perfectly nerdy job I would like to do.
@XsanityX It’s fun, and a great party trick.
One last picture–couldn’t resist.! Yes, this is for our 2015 Pinot grigio.
@BenessereMatt Congrats!
Thanks, @ddeuddeg!
@BenessereMatt Category?
@trifecta Pinot Gris/Grigio, $20 and over
PG pairs great with popcorn for that Rocky marathon!
@NightGhost I bet it would pair well with toast, for a Rocky Horror marathon.
@InFrom …or meat loaf.
The wife said she’d give this a try… in for 4.
/giphy distinguished-unhealthy-cover
@BenessereMatt “The excellent grapes that I work with at Benessere give me a running start on making great wine, but it still requires skill and creativity on my part to make sure the wines reach their fullest potential.”
Something I’ve always wondered, after you taste your finished effort, do you know what you would do differently the next year to have the wine taste closer to your original aim? After you taste the wine, are you able to say, “to get more pear and less grapefruit, I’ll do this next year”. If you know what is possible given the nature of a varietal, do you nurture that nature during growth and making the wine and tease out the aspects to your aim?
Or is the process simultaneously finite and uncertain? Maybe I should have started with this question: How specific is your aim of the final product? I’m sure it is more than, “I’m going to make a tasty wine.”
So often I’ve tasted a wine that has a decent pedigree to find out it tastes nothing like the varietal and I wonder - was it purposeful? I’m able to translate a wine label description into the aspects the wine is most likely to present, but when it does not have some element of the varietals, I wonder what was the original aim for that wine?
It may be too early in the morning for this. That’s a deep question, @XsanityX. But I’ll try. Most of the fruity aromas in a wine come from the grapes. Some come from the yeast. Many, from whatever source, are initially present in a bound, nonaromatic form that the yeast, or possibly the acid and alcohol, or possibly added enzymes, can help liberate, making the wine more aromatic. This is especially true of the sulfur-containing aroma compounds, including those responsible for grapefruit aromas, for example.
To go back to your “initial” question, it basically is as simple as saying, “I’m going to make a tasty wine.” What I mean by that is that I want to realize the full flavor potential of the grapes. For a varietal wine, I want the finished product to be true to the variety. In the case of an aromatic white, like Pinot grigio, I think that’s best achieved by a slow, cool fermentation in a neutral vessel. I do use commercial yeast but I do not use enzymes. If I were not happy with the results, I would first look to the grapes to see what we could do in the vineyard to boost the wine’s aromatic potential. If that failed I suppose I could give the enzymes a try to see if they would get us there, but I would also think about finding a different grape source.
There are not as many opportunities for tweaking the flavor profile during the fermentation/maceration process. In fact, enzymes are about all there is, and their impact, though noticeable, is less than when they are used during pressing, when the juice is still in contact with the skins.
Fortunately I’ve been very happy with the young wine.
I hope that answered your question. If it didn’t, I’ll get another cup of coffee and try again.
@BenessereMatt @XsanityX I really enjoyed reading your thoughtful answer. Thanks for joined us this weekend.
@BenessereMatt @XsanityX It’s posts like these that made ww, and hopefully will make CM, something special that you just can’t get anywhere else.
Aww, thanks, @rjquillin @XsanityX looks like I am logged in as PWR but in both cases it is great to be able to take part in a forum like this. I really am happy to talk about what I do and why I do it, and questions like this really make me dig.
@PWRWines @XsanityX And it’s participation like this that can, and does, push us over the edge and prompt a purchase.
I’m not a PG fan, unfortunately, but if I was for this post alone I’d be all over the offer.
I did snag the PWR that I picked up just today.
@BenessereMatt Thanks, Matt for the thoughtful response. So, I understand, you start with quality grapes and stay true to the varietal; and it’s not what you add during fermentation, but how you do the fermentation process. How early in the growth process do you know you’ll have good or not-so-good wine? Or is it truly a roller coaster ride until the bottling?
Thanks, @rjquillin. I hope you enjoy the PWR!
@XsanityX There is a lot more flexibility with reds, just because the juice stays in contact with skins and seeds for so much longer.
All the grower can do – which is a lot – is to help the grapes reach their full potential. It’s pretty easy to see when too heavy (or too light, but that’s rare) a crop is going to lead to ripening issues, or when stacked clusters or a woolly canopy will keep too many grapes in the dark with too little air circulation, and similar problems. But if the vines are well tended then the potential for great wine is there.
Whether the winemaker (or consumer) will be happy with the wine made from well grown grapes depends a great deal on the site, and while its character may change from vintage to vintage, its quality should not.
In sum, if the vines are grown well, and previous vintages (even if made by a different producer) are good, there is every expectation that this wine will be good. If there is no track record, the flavors in the grapes can be a good indicator, but by the time they can be judged harvest is imminent.
So not really a roller coaster ride, most of the time.
@BenessereMatt @XsanityX Ok- we were about to order a case, and this completely justifies it. Thank you so much for the extra knowledge and your participation!
/giphy troublesome-respectable-bread
@BenessereMatt Thank you, Matt. I know I don’t have it in me to be a winemaker; when most most farmers are done shipping their produce, the next phase of your work is just beginning. I have always wanted to work on a vineyard; I’m fascinated every time I visit one. Looking forward to tasting your wine!
My pleasure, @benguin986!
You are most welcome, @XsanityX. Come on by our vineyard; we may just be able to put you to work!
Fantastic question and a very sound answer. nice!
I keep thinking of “Dune” when I see the winery name.