The Reynard vineyard is on a beautiful, terraced granite hillside that overlooks the village of Cornas and is bordered by cedar trees.
Christopher Moestue, a knowledgeable and respected Norwegian importer, bought a plot at the top of the Reynard, and he got Vincent Paris to vinify. The 2007 was served at a private tasting a couple of weeks ago. The wine was maybe at its peak.
Cornas Coteaux de Reynard 2007(Vign. Moestue)
Dark red with touches of brick. Scent of blackberry, pepper and cooked sauce, over a layer of dried fruits and cinnamon. Meaty in the mouth where fruit still remains, polished tannins, still with some acidity. Good concentration and a long finish. Superb now, for my taste it will not get any better than this.
It’s beaujolais nouveau day again. The best producers have made light and delicate wines, while those from the more commercial wine houses are generally more thin.
Foillard and Brun are among those all time favourites who excel in this context. Dupond, that I discovered A couple of years ago, is delivering again. Last year’s find was Perrachon.
As I wrote then, Laurent Perrachon is based outside Juliénas and harvests six appellations. Martine and Laurent are fifth generation, and the sixth is also involved in the family business.
This nouveau is made exclusively from grapes grown in the Chânes municipality on granite and blue stone soil. The wine underwent 5 days carbonic maceration.
Beaujolais Nouveau 2024(Perrachon)
Dark cherry. Red fruits, predominantly raspberry and strawberry, with some dark berries and flowers. Fresh in the mouth, soft tannins, good acidity, and a very generous fruit.
This exceptional white wine from Jura was served in a private dinner a couple of weeks ago. It was paired with a vacherin mont d’or, one of the region’s formidable cheeses.
It was aged for more than 36 months under a veil of yeast (“sous voile”), and shows a delicate balance between the nutty richness of a vin jaune and the fruitiness of a young savagnin.
Grown in clay soils the savagnin grape is perfect for oxidative winemaking without fortification. The result is a wine with a complex flavour, reminiscent of a fino sherry, but without the added alcohol.
Savagnin Sous Voile 2019(B&STissot)
Light golden. Oxidation notes with nuts, dried fruits, salt- and a flowery note. Rich in the mouth, concentrated with good acidity, and good length. It’s both delicate and full of depth.
Bellies is probably Norway’s best vegan restaurant, which focuses on natural wine. In connection with their 5 year anniversary, they had invited the iconic producer Saša Radikon from Friuli, for a winemaker’s dinner.
The staff at Bellies had made impressive pairings between their “full bellies” menu and Radikon’s wines. Jakot 2018, made with 3 months skin-contact, was perfect with a sauce rich in umami, where I normally would chose a sherry, just to name one example.
It was an unbelieveable line-up of wines, that included mature wines such as Merlot 2006 and Pignolo 2011. The evening’s revelation for me was the Ribolla 3781 in the 2007 vintage. Pairing-wise it was an easy match for this wine, as it was set up with a plate of mushrooms – and could have managed much more demanding ingrediences. Anyway, it gave the wine an opportunity to shine. And it did.
Here is some background. Radikon’s 12-hectare estate is located in Oslavia in the far north-east of Friuli Venezia, literally on the border with Slovenia. Radikon has a natural approach, where everything is done without the use of artificial or chemical aids. All grapes are harvested manually and fermented in tanks of Slavonian oak. The soil is called ponka, or ponca, very rich in minerals. It has a large proportion of gray and blue marl, occasionally mixed with clay. Deposits from old rivers and seas have produced a high content of lime. Ponka produces wines with both weight and freshness.
3781 is the number of the parcel below the cellar. The wine from here is produced only in the best years. It’s a varietal ribolla gialla, made with 3 months of maceration, then 4 years in oak and 10 years in bottle. It comes in a one liter bottle.
Ribolla 3781 2007(Radikon)
The colour is golden with copper. Aroma of dried peach and apricot, curry and baked apple – almost like a well-matured cheese. Smooth in the mouth with high glycerin, rich, seamless, with an integrated acidity and great length. It has an autumnal air, still full of energy. This is a unique wine. It’s perfect, legendary.
Textura Wines is a relatively new star from the Dão region of Portugal. At the Simplesmente Vinho fair this year I tasted their whole range. Recently Marcelo Araújo visited my region in Norway, and I got a welcome update. Marcelo came to Norvald together with Alexander Sandli from his importer Belmonte Beverage Group.
Partners in Textura are Marcelo, and his wife. It was started in 2018 on the slopes of Serra da Estrela. They work 28 ha of organic certified vineyards in Vila Nova de Tazem and Penalva do Castelo. And appropriate for a winery named Textura, in 2020 they acquired an old textile factory in São Paio, in the outskirts of the Serra da Estrela Natural Park, that is now renovated and incorporated into the winery. (Read a bit more here.)
At Norvald I tasted three wines. Pura Branco 2022 was produced from old vineyards, and the grape juice fermented in barrels and foudre without temperature control.
Light yellow with green hints. Aroma of yellow fruits, flowers and herbs. Good concentration, quite rich, still with a crisp acidity, with a long and salty aftertaste. A super wine, still in its youth.
Textura da Estrela Jaen 2020 comes from a single vineyard in Vila Nova de Tazem with 28 years old vines in granitic soils. It’s fermented with indigenous yeasts in cement vats, with 35% whole bunches. After the first winter in cement it spent 6 months in a French oak vats.
Ruby red. Aroma of red and dark fruits (cherry, blackberry), white pepper, and a hint of earth. Young tannins, fresh, nicely integrated acidity.
Pura Tinto 2020 is a single vineyard wine from a parcel at 600 meters altitude, with 55 years old vines planted in granite soils. It’s a field blend, the most important varieties being jaen, baga, alfrocheiro, tinto cão and tinta pinheira. The grapes were fermented in a used French oak vat with 40% whole bunches, only with indigenous yeasts. Then followed a post-fermentative maceration for 30 days. It aged for 16 months in a used French oak of various sizes.
Cherry red. Aromas of fresh red red and black fruits (cherry, blackcurrant), herbs and underwood. Full in the mouth, intense with fine tannins, a stimulating acidity and a pronounced mineral, earthy finish. A great wine with many years ahead.
This wine was one of many good wines in a xinomavro tasting in my local wine club last Monday. Xinomavro is the most emblematic grape in the northern part of Greece and is characterized by a light colour and crystalline tannins, not very unlike nebbiolo. The prices are generally sympathetic.
Kostis Dalamára is a sixth-generation winemaker in Naoussa, the historic region of Macedonia. When he took over the family estate in 2010 he introduced organic cultivation, spontaneous fermentation and reduced sulfur dioxide levels. The soil in the area is sandy loam to clay, which comes from former limestone and marl rocks.
The grapes for this wine are de-stemmed and fermented in steel tanks, macerates for some 25 days before being moved to 300-500 liter barrels to mature for 6 months in 10% new oak. The rest is 1-14 year old barrels.
Naossa 2021(Dalamára)
Ruby red. Aroma of mature strawberries, raspberry, sundried tomato and an earthy note. Medium-bodied, with those signature xinomavro tannins and a nice integrated acidity. It’s more fruity than most, somewhere between rusticity and elegance.
This wine was served at Vinmonopolet’s tasting this week. Herdade do Rocim is known as one of the leading producers of vinho de talha, clay-aged wine, in Alentejo, Portugal. They also host a festival for clay-based wines.
Here I chose the red version. Fresh from Amphora 2022 comes in a 1L bottle and is part of the Nat’Cool concept of easy drinking wines initiated by Niepoort.
The grape varieties are moreto 40%, and the rest tinta grossa and trincadeira. The ancestral method of making the wine in talha (large clay pots) is used. Vinification is carried out with no temperature control. Fermentation took place using indigenous yeasts and with no addition or correction. The must saw two months of skin contact inside the amphora.
Fresh from Amphora 2022 (Herdade do Rocim)
Light ruby colour. Aroma of cherry and strawberry, stonefruit, with an earthy note. Juicy in the mouth, fresh, with fine tannins, a touch of salt. Overall it’s light, clean and harmonious.
I have participated in a tasting with some of Vinmonopolet’s suppliers, organized by the Norwegian state monopoly. The relatively new importer Swirl has a portfolio that focuses on Portugal. Øystein Solvang presented a veritable wave of individual vignerons from various corners of the country, all of whom demonstrated high quality and a large degree of sustainable production. Here I can only name a few. Among those I already have a close relationship with, and which you can read more about on the blog, were Aphros (Minho), Espera and Marinho (both Lisboa), Vitor Claro (Lisboa and Alentejo), Cebolal (Setúbal/Alentejo) and Muxagat (Douro).
Among those who were new to me are Tabodella and Hugo Pinheiro, both from Penalva do Castelo in Dão, who represented two different approaches. Where Tabodella had a more classic cut, Pinheiro offered a distinctly fruit-driven, unfiltered style.
A strong impression was made by tasting wines from João Tavares de Pina, also from Penalva in Dão, with the following background. Tavares recently lost his house and 85% of his vineyards in the fire that has ravaged the interior of Portugal. He is a sociable and generous guy with many friends, and there is currently a large-scale campaign underway in Portugal and partly abroad for him to be able to replant the vineyards. João says that the best you and I can do to help is to buy his wines. I have myself bought a couple of cases recently.
Here I tasted a wonderfully developed wine, Terras de Tavares 2002, with a brick-red color, aromas of dried fruit, well-hung meat, prunes and a hint of smoke. This evoked memories of an evening at the home of João and his wife Luisa, with a fire on the fireplace in the cold winter, when we ate delicious food prepared by João himself and also had a similar wine (Terras de Tavares 1997, read about it here).
I said hello to 2 x Ole Martin. It was the first time I had met Ole Martin Alfsen, who is known in several disciplines of gastronomy and wine. -Now it’s mostly wine, he says. He has developed his own portfolio of wine made in collaboration with producers in several countries, often abbreviated to his initials OMA. He always hits the mark with quality at reasonable prices. The wine name XinOma probably says it all; it is made by him on the grape xinomavro. Ole Martin also tells how he works in collaboration with producer Oenops. This grape often produces light coloured wines. The wine is light, but also has a nice concentration, with good primary fruit and an aroma of flowers and herbs.
We also tasted a rosé version of the same wine, a pét-nat and a blaufränkisch made in collaboration with Heinrich in Gols, Austria. Ole Martin also talked about his collaboration with Loimer in Austria, Quintas de Melgaço in Portugal, Giovanni Rosso in Italy and Au Bon Climat in the USA. Finally, we tasted a pinot noir, in which Ole Martin had collaborated with Broc Cellars in Santa Bárbara, California. It’s a fruity, mellow wine. It has a touch of oak, but Ole Martin Alfsen knows better than anyone that such wines also have a place on the table.
At importer Vinarius, Ole Martin Brodvall served wines from the prominent Fitapreta, where António Maçanita is the winemaker. First we tasted a phenomenal white wine from typical Alentejo and Portuguese grapes, mostly arinto. Palpite 2022 had a clean and beautiful fruit with hints of apricot and orange peel and good body, together with a significant acidity. Fitapreta Tinto 2022 was a relatively light and luscious wine with aromas of red berries with balsamic hints, from a typical Alentejo blend. Tinta Carvalha 2022 was also light in colour. Red berries, cherries and a hint of anise and other spices, good length. A good ambassador for the region..
I also met Henriette Batt, who has worked for importer Engelstad for many years. One of the producers she presented was Herdade do Rocim, which is known as one of the leading producers of vinho de talha, clay-aged wine, in Alentejo, Portugal. They also host a festival for clay-based wines. Fresh from Amphora 2023, which came in a 1L bottle, was a textured white. Discreet aroma, but with a mineral and spicy character, with a great and fruity middle part and a salty finish. The red in the 22 vintage has 40% moreto and has a fine touch of cherry and stone fruit, clean and lovely.
I was running out of time, so I indulged myself with just a few highlights from several importers. John Sonnichsen (VinJohn) served wine from his colleague Autentico. I tried MA Doña Blanca 2022 from producer Mufatto, who is Argentinian but operates in Bierzo, Spain. There doña blanca finds itself in the shadow of godello. But it stands out: Light in colour, rich with almonds, a bit of spice, good lees character, well-integrated barrel. A great wine, good for medium-term storage.
It is always a pleasure to try wines from the Spanish producer Envínate. Ove Kvalheim at Unico had brought the white Benje 2023 from Tenerife, that is made of palomino fino and has been under a thin layer of flor, but without skin contact: Light in colour, rich, ripe citrus, nuts, fine texture. Superb. Lousas Viñas de Aldea 2022: Bright red, great berry fruit, with some pepper, a cool touch, nice concentration. I also tasted António Madeira‘s red Vinhas Velhas 2021, an elegant wine from a relatively cool vintage and two wines from Areanna Occhipinti. The normal SP68 in the 23 vintage lived up to the usual standard. Siccagno Nero d’Avola 2021 had a wonderful fruit, with flowers and discreet spice, young tannin, great acidity, juicy and concentrated at the same time and good length.
Château Thivin dates back to 1877. Today the 6th generation of the Geoffray family runs the estate.
The name of the wine comes from seven plots at Mont Brouilly in Côte de Brouilly, each contributing to the complexity with their various orientations and characteristics.
The soils are dominated by the blue stones of the region, stonier for the highest plots and more clayey for those closer to the foot of the hill.
The wine is made partly with whole bunches and matured in oak tuns for 7 months. Blending is done in the spring.
Côte de Brouilly Les Sept Vignes 2023(Château Thivin)
Garnet red with bluish hint. Aroma of cherry, blueberry and flowers, with a mineral touch. Round in the mouth with fine tannins, good acidity and a spicy finish.
Tonight at Tempo wine bar in Sandnes, Norway we were served this wine. This is Niepoort’s interpretation of his fascination for Bourgogne. It’s made from local grape varieties, but it’s light coloured and elegant, and clearly in line with the model.
Whole bunches were lightly foot trodden in granite lagares, before a short extraction. The fermentation was initially carried out in lagares and then the process was completed with 15 months ageing in used barriques. The grapes are tinta roriz and touriga franca
Charme 2022(Niepoort)
Bright ruby colour. Aroma of red fruits (raspberry, strawberry), flowers, graphite, earth. Smooth in the mouth with fine tannins, aromatic herbs and slight caramel nuances, and a long aftertaste provided by the acidity. It’s an elegant wine, but due to a slight wood presence even better in a couple of years from now.