Pinot gris springtime deal on Irvine, Knappstein, Risky Business and Gudilly wines

The popular white variety gets serious with these highly-rated wines from four of Australia’s leading regions – offered at a special one-off price.

This week’s special offer case is available at a one-off price.

When gut instinct has served you well, it makes sense to keep following that instinct with every new challenge.

The wisdom in winemaker Lachlan Duncan continuing to trust his instincts can be measured in the Irvine Spring Hill Eden Valley Pinot Gris that stars in this week’s special offer case from The Australian Wine Club.

Among four excellent examples of this popular varietal – and with a deal discount of 30 per cent across the dozen – Duncan’s gold medal-winning 2023 vintage represents outstanding value.

Twenty-odd years ago Duncan’s instinct told him to turn his life upside down and follow a winemaking dream. Now head winemaker at Irvine, adding pinot gris to his creative output gives him the chance to “play around a bit” – he calls pinot gris fun to make and the variety’s booming popularity would attest that it’s fun to drink.

It feels like Duncan’s hunches have been paying off since the moment in his early 20s when he began to realise that a secure job studying horticulture for the Western Australian government might not be a career path to make his heart sing.

“I guess it was a lovely job, but after a while I realised that if I kept doing what I was doing, that would be the only job I would do, if you know what I mean … keep working for the government and then retire, and that’d be my life,” he says.

“I guess I was looking for new challenges. I did a little bit of beer brewing, and a few people in the WA government at conferences had introduced me to some half-decent wine, which opened my eyes as to what wine could be.”

At which point Duncan took a punt – “packed up my gear in my little Subaru and headed across the border (to South Australia) to study winemaking”.

With qualifications to his name, Duncan headed overseas to watch and learn at vineyards from Oregon to Italy, before returning to Australia to build a growing reputation in the Barossa.

“The thing is, I loved the horticultural aspect (of his first job) but I love the challenge of making wine, and the fact that every vintage is different,’’ he says.

“There’s a science to it, there’s an art to it. It’s creating things as well. There’s actually something tangible and physical I can point to that I’ve created, and hopefully something that gives people enjoyment.”

Duncan jokes that winemaking is also a fashion industry as public tastes change without warning – but pinot gris’s popularity shows no signs of abating.

Among the tasting notes from The Australian Wine Club panel for Irvine’s Springhill pinot gris is the striking phrase “bloody drinkable!”.

“While I want to make a fresh, fruity wine, I do a tiny bit of malolactic fermentation, just to add a little bit of complexity and a little bit of texture on to the end of what is a fruit-driven, fresh style of wine,’’ Duncan says.

“I can put a little bit of a stamp on it from a winemaking point of view … hopefully to create a wine that’s delicious and fresh and fruity, but has a little bit of interest as well.”

Irvine Spring Hill Eden Valley Pinot Gris 2023

The straw-gold colour has just a hint of pink, and the depths to this are evident on the nose too: nashi pear, grapefruit and spice are central, with a touch of cardamom and honey. The palate is rich and rounded: grapefruit and pear are unmissable again but also a flash of lemon sherbet. Crucially, there’s a lovely line of acidity for balance. 95 points, Barossa Wine Show. 12.3% alc, RRP $27 a bottle.

SPECIALS $21.99 a bottle in any dozen; $16.99 a bottle in our pinot gris case.

Knappstein Clare Valley Pinot Gris 2023

The freshness of spring is evident in a wine that presents as pale lemon in the glass and offers crisp green apple, citrus and pear on the nose, with vanilla and a touch of baked fruit with pastry. Those apples lead the chorus line in the mouth too, with cameos of citrus, orange zest and pear. A crisp, dry finish makes it very refreshing. 93 points from Sam Kim, Wine Orbit. 11.5% alc, RRP $22 a bottle.

SPECIALS $17.99 a bottle in any dozen; $16.99 a bottle in our pinot gris case.

Risky Business King Valley Pinot Gris 2023

Green fruits dominate as you breathe in, offering gooseberry, apples and pears with honey and spice. But after a few moments in the glass there’s an added layer of nectarine and melon, and the palate confirms a gorgeously ripe, balanced core of yellow nectarines, tangy gooseberry and warming spice. 90 points from Jenni Port, Halliday Wine Companion. 12.8% alc, RRP $25 a bottle.

SPECIALS $18.99 a bottle in any dozen; $16.99 a bottle in our pinot gris case.

Gudilly Single Vineyard Adelaide Hills Pinot Gris 2022

The first sniff tingles like a spring breeze, with citrus blossom, lemon peel and cut grass – but then pear, nectarine and yellow stone fruit come through, and a touch of marzipan. The complexity builds in the mouth from a palate that’s rich and spicy with ginger and pear, finishing with lemon pith and minerality. 96 points from Winestate magazine. 12% alc, RRP $24 a bottle.

SPECIALS $18.99 a bottle in any dozen; $16.99 a bottle in our pinot gris case.

PINOT GRIS DOZEN Three bottles of each wine above for $16.99 a bottle. SAVE $90.

Order online or phone [phone] Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm AEST. Deals are available only while stocks last. The Australian Wine Club is a commercial partnership with Laithwaites Wine, LIQP770016550.