Batch Winery Thomas Waiheke Island Blanc de Gris NV $50 
Paired with: Annabelle Langbein’s Provencal egg salad in the NZ Herald July 8th 2023
My first instinct when confronted by creamy, mustardy, eggy goodness is to reach for a great sparkling wine. Now loads of proper, grown-up, wine-and-food-folk say that prosecco or cava are the go-to styles for this sort of egg salad, however, I’m hands-down, fangirling over this fizzy blend of pinot gris and flora. The flora grape is a cross between gewürztraminer and semillon, but if that all sounds too frilly for you, fret not. This wine has a calm, soothing apple-laced elegance to it. Clean, zesty, aromatic (but subtly so) and the palate has nutty, lemony richness and a long, creamy finish which is a total triumph with this recipe.
Named ‘blanc de gris’ after the French term for the skins of certain grapes having a pinky-grey hue, this wine is crafted from a blend of three vintages. 2021 pinot gris and 2022 flora were cool-fermented to retain purity and fruitiness, and the final 10% of the blend is a portion of 2017 field blend rosé.
