For better or worse, Italy sends a gazillion bottles of Pinot Grigio to be quaffed by Americans 
each year, with the great majority of quaffing taking place in the warm months of the year. By mid-winter of the second calendar year after the wines were made (e.g., right now for Grigios made in 2010), the wines are almost all growing tired and need to be relieved by replacement from the intervening year. And sure enough, wines from 2011 will appear here shortly. However, if you want to know which 2011s to buy, a very good test is to see which 2010s are still fresh and flavorful at this juncture.
This is a task that I’m engaged in every January and February along with fellow WRO contributor Paul Lukacs, as we work as consultants for the highly successful Clyde’s 
Restaurant Group based in Washington, D.C. This year we tasted more than 1,900 wines in search of 55 winners to place on wine lists for Clyde’s, and this undertaking (which sometimes seems like it might end up involving an undertaker) is probably the most illuminating wine activity that either of us engages in all year.
We learn a lot about what categories seem to be on the rise (Moscato this year, though most of it is unspeakably awful) and what’s surprisingly scarce (whites from Spain, though there’s no way to know whether they’re losing favor with importers and distributors or doing so well that stocks are too low to supply a sales juggernaut like The Clyde’s Group).
These commercial indicators are interesting enough, but what is most revealing in the midst of all the sloshing and spitting involved in the Clyde’s Core Trials is seeing which producers pull away from the pack when their wines are bench-tested against all of the other contenders in a peer-group tasting. A category like Pinot Grigio is a perfect example since the wines are all nearing the end of their vintage release cycle, and the wines that are still on their stride–even as the rest of the pack is faltering–really shine as admirable exception. So here’s my tip for the day: If you’re in any city other then Washington, D.C. and have a taste for Pinot Grigio, head out to find yourself a couple of bottles of Zenato, Delle Venezie Pinot Grigio 2010 ($13, imported by Winebow) or Kellerei Kaltern, Alto Adige Italy 2010 ($13, imported by Siema). At this price level, for the next couple of months, these may well offer the only game in town….
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