Loop de Loop 2020 Borderline Red

“redwood bough, pear blossom and wild seagrass”

Jackson’s Notes: 

Loop de Loop is the winemaking project of husband and wife Scott and Julia Bailey Gulstine, two well-heeled world travelers who decided to take a leap and put roots down in the emerging Columbia Gorge wine region. They could have tried more tried and true options, but to the frontier they went. And the Gorge is a frontier. They regularly encounter bobcats, black bears, and red-tailed hawks in their vineyards, many of which are above 800 feet or more in elevation!

This is not our first foray into the wines of Loop de Loop, and their side label Wallflower Wines. There’s good reason to recognize their work–it’s outstanding, and we’ve come back to their wines time and time again because of how wonderful they are. From their commitment to organic viticulture and low-intervention winemaking to their creative labels and interesting grape varieties, they are a brand that is close to our heart and exemplifies what we’d like to see more of in Washington state.

The Gorge as a region continues to surprise and confound me. Here’s a place that’s produced fantastic warm-climate Grenache and Syrah, but also more moderate-climate wines like Mencia, Grüner Veltliner, and Pinot Noir. Everything comes across with finesse and balance. We chose this Pinot Gris because it’s fantastic, and exemplifies how awesome and diverse wines from the Gorge can be. Some vineyards close to the river can be downright hot, and ones at higher elevations can produce leaner and more elegant wines.

This wine represents the future not just of Washington and the Columbia Gorge, but of the Pinot Gris grape. What’s fascinating is how winemakers are rediscovering Pinot Gris’ inherent redness. If you look at Pinot Gris on the vine, it’s rarely white at harvest. The berries have a good deal of red, orange-ish color. Even though it’s often been made as a white wine–consider the oceans of cheap Pinot Grigio from northern Italy that are most people’s first exposure to the grape.

This Pinot Gris looks like a cross between a rosé and an orange wine, and drinks like a light red. That color comes from extended skin contact. Rather than separate juice and skin, this one gets extended skin maceration to extract all that color and flavor. It has notes of baked tangerine, Rainier cherry and red apple. On the palate these fruits remain, with redwood bough, pear blossom and wild seagrass.