This tiny negoce project is owned by my good friend Robert Morrison, a fixture in the Bay Area wine and food scene for decades, and his longtime collaborator Laurent Montalieu who has access to over 700 acres of top vineyard land in the Willamette Valley.  Together they had the idea of using these resources to create wines that offer both great style and great value as well.  They employ French winemaker Bruno Corneaux to make the wines with  the goal of creating elegant, understated, dare we say, French style wines in a beautiful facility in Dundee.  The wines, resplendent in some of the coolest packaging ever, have won us over.  Oregon Pinot Gris is can be a unique animal.  Not as rich and unctuous as some of the examples we’ve had from Alsace, say, nor as simple and one-dimensional as the ocean of Pinot Grigio made in Trentino and the Veneto in Italy, the best Willamette PGs have a lovely, fresh character, a beautiful mouthfilling but not overdone  texture and remarkable staying power and personality.  The problem, though, is many in Oregon tend to overcrop and under-make the wine in an effort to keep it affordable and, we have to say, after trying scores and scores of Oregon PGs for under $25 that are either frankly sweet, annoyingly sweet and sour or just plain bland, we’ve more or less given up on the category.  But, lo and behold, the 2025 Voix de la Vigne Pinot Gris really got our attention when RoMo brought it to us the other day!  Whole cluster pressed and fermented and aged in steel, it’s as pure and crystalline a version as we’ve tasted.  Shimmeringly bright with electric lemon-lime acidity, the fresh orange-y citrus and stone fruit really shines through.  Zingy but also pleasingly rich and satisfying on the palate, the finish pops!  What a great wine to sip in the backyard all on its own, we thought.  Better yet, with all the veggies coming in from the garden, what a partner for a fresh herby salad.  And, at under $20 a bottle, it has few peers.