A-Muse-ing Pinot Gris

Considering how far behind I am with my posting at the moment - there are consequences other than Visa bills following vacations - I could use a little muse to get my posting mojo flowing a little more smoothly.

639. 2008 Muse Winery Estate - legally blonde Pinot Gris (Vancouver Island - BC)

This was one of the bottles that we picked up during our '09 visit to Vancouver Island to see Bella Jianna and Flyboy B. Muse is the new name for Chalet Estate, the winery having changed hands a couple of years ago. Boo and I have made a number of visits to the winery when it was still Chalet and I thought that there would have been at least a couple of the old bottles on The List but I took a quick look and it seems that we haven't sipped at the Chalet since I started up the blog. We had a bottle of Muse with Bella Jianna's paella last year (#227), but we haven't actually had a bottle of Chalet. I'll have to see if we still have a bottle in the "cellar."

Peter and Jane Ellman, the new owners of Muse, are both veterans of wine and hospitality businesses and they fell in love with the Saanich Peninsula while they were looking at the possibility of investing in a winery. They took over while Chalet was still very much a boutique winery. In those couple of years, however, the Ellman's have almost doubled the production - from 1800 to around 3800 cases. Like the previous owners, they've realized that the Saanich area is never likely going to allow them to grow the fruit needed to produce the big reds that Peter was used to when he was working in the California wine scene. Those grapes will have to come down from the Okanagan.

However, the Peninsula can produce Pinot Gris and this one won a Gold medal at All Canadian Wine Championships last year. It never hurts to be able to add that sticker to the outside of a bottle, but Muse hasn't stopped at just that. The change of label has also seen a spritely approach to advertising the wines. Not only have all the wines been given names - like this Pinot Gris' "Legally Blonde" - but there are snappy bons mots on each of the back labels to give a bit of identity to the wine for the consumer.

The wine at hand is "a festive giddy gal with lots of snappy one-liners. A crisp wit and a tart approach to life...she plays well with others." I recently heard a radio commentator refer to Pinot Gris as the "Pamela Anderson of the wine world." Looks like Muse doesn't disagree.

Neither Boo, nor I, seemed to think that this Pam lived up to the billing though. It might have been that the crisp acidity was a bit overwhelming for the hot and sour soup that we paired it with, but my guess is that I still don't think she had the "curves" needed to make this a regular in our home.

We'll be back though. I have a feeling there'll be something more that can keep us a-Mused.