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.
Saša Radikon
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.
Oslavje 2017 with pumpkin ravioli
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.
Marcelo Araújo, Textura
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.
