Pinot Blanc is a versatile French white wine variety first spotted in Burgundy and widely planted in Alsace. Most often used as a blender, it flies under the radar. Pinot Blanc, however, seems to be gaining notoriety. More than 1,400 hundred tons of Pinot Blanc were crushed in California in 2018, much of it in Monterey, and the average price statewide exceeded $1,500 per ton. Per Wines Vines Analytics, there are 137 wineries in North America making “Pinot Blanc.” Seventy of the...  go to issue >