My favorite candidate for the most unjustly overlooked wine grape award is undoubtedly pinot gris. This pink skinned cousin of both pinot noir and chardonnay can produce wines of great power and real fruit expressions, yet at the same time remain soft and delightfully accessible. And it’d not saddled with chardonnay or riesling’s haughty, aristocratic pretensions.

It’s original home is in the Alsace region of northeast France but it is grown successfully in the new world as well, so this week and next I am pairing two versions, the first from Alsace and the second from California.

The Lucien Albrecht Pinot Gris Reserve Romanus 2008 ($20) is named for one Romanus Albrecht who started making wine in the town of Thann near the Swiss border in 1425. The family must be doing something right because after one move, in 1698 to nearby Orschwir, an event following which the company literature claims, the “modern” era began, they are still making superb wines. I am particularly enamored by the Pinot Noir Amplus – yes, a pinot noir from Alsace.

But back to the wine at hand — and yes I am pleased to report that there is a glass at hand as I write. This beautiful pinot gris has a delicate, ethereal quality to it, with pretty floral notes and pronounced citrus elements.

It is a young wine and evolved quite noticeably in the glass over an hour or so showing as it did the apparently contradictory nature of this intriguing grape, the ying/yang of its feminine delicacy matched by it’s far from obvious yet none the less very real assertive strength. So make no mistake – despite it’s pleasing approachability this is no wimpy white here.