Jolie-Laide Skin Contact Pinot Gris

About Jolie-Laide Skin Contact Pinot Gris

Jolie-Laide Skin Contact Pinot Gris comes from the historic old Glen Oaks Ranch vineyard which is now part of the Sonoma Land Trust. With its deep rocky alluvial soils, this organic vineyard is home to mostly old vine Cabernet Sauvignon, but Pinot Gris was chosen almost as a frost protection, as it can handle the cold bottom swath of the rolling hillside. The Pinot Gris thrives here in its mini micro-climate, sitting near a meandering brook in gravelly, clay-loam soils.

Picked early to preserve acidity and crushed by foot, the grapes see a 2-day maceration which adds phenolic texture while lending a beautiful rosé champagne-like color. All wild ferment in a combination of stainless and neutral oak, then aged all in neutral barrique before bottling unfined and unfiltered with a minute amount of sulfur.

Wildly perfumed notes of Santa Claus melon, stone fruit, bergamot, and kaffir lime leaf. The palate is slick with noticeable citrus acidity and grape skin tannins. Take this orange wine to a great sushi restaurant and make everyone jealous.

About Jolie-Laide

Jolie-Laide is a two-person operation based in Sebastopol, California. The name Jolie-Laide translates loosely to pretty-ugly, a French term of endearment to describe something that is unconventionally beautiful. Founded originally by Scott Schultz, and later joined by his partner Jenny Schultz, their winemaking method is simple: grapes are left whole-cluster, foot crushed, and aged in neutral oak. All ferments are done with native yeasts, for both primary and secondary fermentation. They work with a handful of growers, all of whom farm organically; it is their ability to seek out spectacular vineyard sites which allows them to be hands-off in the winemaking process.

Scott’s passion for wine was ignited when he moved to Napa from Chicago in 2007. Scott began his transition into the winemaking world after a move to Napa for employment as Wine Director at Thomas Keller’s Bouchon in Napa Valley. As he explains, “everyone I met was a winemaker, so on my days off I followed people around to see what they were doing.” Before he knew it, he had secured the cellar master job at Realm Winery. That was followed by working with Arnot-Roberts and then joining Pax Mahle in the same capacity working on the Pax and Wind Gap labels. Scott’s passion for winemaking grew so significantly that he decided to start his own project, Jolie-Laide, in 2010. To this day, he shares a winemaking space with Pax and several other like-minded producers in Sebastopol.

One feature to note – the labels change every year, featuring a different artist or art collective. “Our wines are a celebration of the year and seasons in which they are made, always unique and different, no two bottlings are ever the same.”

Scott and Jenny’s approach is a natural one, a less is more ethos. But their keen eye for finding great fruit from only sustainably and responsibly-farmed sites, coupled with an impressive natural talent, leads to consistently delicious wines. As Scott says, “The do-nothing approach isn’t new by any means; it’s just funny how far many have gotten away from it.”