This may come as a shock, but the best-selling wine made by Oregon’s largest producer is not pinot noir.

While Oregon’s wine industry has built its national (and international) wine reputation on the pinot noir grape, which produces a light red varietal, King Estate’s tour de force is crisp, white pinot gris.

In fact, nearly two-thirds of its annual production is in pinot gris — around 250,000 cases a year.

“Pinot gris has never been as well-known as pinot noir,” acknowledged King Estate’s senior director of communications, Jenny Ulum. “But we have 314 acres planted in gris, as compared with 165 acres in noir.”

Popularized as pinot grigio in Italy, where the grape is trained to produce a lighter bodied and more floral wine, the French-style pinot gris is slightly more full-bodied and spicier. That helps to make it more of a food wine than a summer sipping wine.

It was always the favorite of Ed King, Jr., who founded the King Estate in 1991 with his son and current chief executive officer, Ed King III. Indeed, the Kings have been credited with bringing the pinot gris varietal into national consciousness.

The hillside estate in the Lorane Valley, 22 miles southwest of Eugene, spreads across 1,033 acres once used to grow forage crops for livestock. Certified organic, it is the largest biodynamic winery in the United States. As a self-contained ecosystem, it controls vineyard pests with a raptor program.

Besides pinot gris and pinot noir, the estate grows limited quantities of chardonnay. Additional acreage is planted in orchards, flowers and vegetables used in the property’s gourmet restaurant.

Elegant balance

King Estate presently is offering three pinot gris selections from 2015, a year notable for the earliest harvest in its history. After a mild winter, buds appeared in mid to late March, about two weeks ahead of schedule, so that by early June there was abundant fruit on the vines. Weather stayed warm and dry through the summer, letting up only near the September harvest time, which helped to preserve the grapes’ acidity and flavor development.

The 2015 Domaine King Estate pinot gris ($29) earned a 91-point rating from Wine Enthusiast magazine. Fermented in stainless steel and 100 percent estate-grown, it is an elegant and silky wine, bright straw yellow in color. In a tasting, it shows fresh, ripe pear and pineapple both on the nose and the palate, balanced with minerality and zesty lime for a long, clean finish.

The 2015 King Estate pinot gris ($19) is 60 percent estate grown, with the balance of grapes sourced from other vineyards in the lower Willamette Valley. Fruit-forward but at first slightly tart to the taste, with flavors of apple, pear and peach, it deepens into a balanced wine perfect with hearty fish dishes like halibut and swordfish.

King Estate’s Acrobat label, whose wines Ulum describes as “good ones for everyday drinking,” also has a pinot gris ($14) that recently was named a “best buy” by Wine Spectator magazine.

A little color

New to the winery’s list of estate-grown wines is its 2016 King Estate Mountain Blocks Rosé ($40), its first rosé since 2008. Made with whole cluster-pressed pinot noir grapes, it has some green stem flavor up front, but a dry finish.

I found the 2014 King Estate pinot noir ($15), aged for eight months in French oak, to be a great selection for the price. Its bright ruby color, subtle smokiness and aromas of strawberry and red currants invite further exploration. Dark cherries open into complex flavors of cranberry and walnut, framed by soft tannins on the palate.

For a special meal, the 2013 Domaine pinot noir ($70) comes from 100 percent estate-grown fruit. After 20 months in French oak, much of the fruit in the estate pinot noir has evolved into flavors of leather and cigar box. Unlike its younger cousin, which might be perfect with salmon, this selection cries out to be enjoyed with pork loin or beef steak.

Acrobat wines typically have 25 to 30 percent estate grapes, with the remainder from other Oregon vineyards. King Estate sources from 40 or more locations throughout the state, including southern Oregon, as well as eastern Washington.

That enables the winery to produce small lots of chardonnay, viognier, sauvignon blanc, gewürztraminer and sparkling wines. It also offers riesling, syrah and cabernet sauvignon — the latter from its NxNW (North by Northwest) label — sourced from the Yakima, Columbia and Walla Walla valley regions.

— John Gottberg Anderson 
can be reached at janderson@bendbulletin.com.