Category: Wine of the Week

SP68 Rosso 2018

Published 16. August 2019 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Back at Sentralen yesterday, we not only had a simple meal and two delicious wines by the glass. It’s Oslo’s annual jazz festival this week, and the festival uses the building as a “festival office” for the 4th year. There are good vibes in the whole building. So after the meal we found our way through a festival crowd and took went up to 3rd floor to enjoy another gig.

The food was pizza this time, a spicy and tasty vegan version, and a more “wine friendly” white pizza. One of the wines was Arianna Occhipinti’s red SP68.

Occhipinti is located in the Vittoria region of Sicilia, and SP68 is the main road in the area. Arianna has now 25 hectares certified-organic vineyards, only local varieties, and practices biodynamic.

This wine is made from frappato 70%, that gives acidity and elegance, and nero d’Avola, that is there more for body and colour. It has been a favourite for many years, and it was nice to try the fresh vintage 2018.

Arianna says that the secret to make more elegant wines in the area is not irrigating, harvesting late and not using fertilizers. The freshness comes from the subsoils. Contrary to this, a wine made from young or chemically grown vines would most often take its nutrition from the topsoil and would as a result have a warm, cooked character. The SP68 wines are vinified and aged in small concrete tanks, with no oak and no punchdowns.

The two varietals are native to Sicily and are grown on red sand soils over limestone rock, with vines averaging 15 years old on four different sites. The vines are organically farmed and hand-harvested. The fruit is mainly destemmed (4% stem inclusion in the upcoming 2017 vintage) and co-fermented with native yeasts in concrete tanks and with a two-week skin maceration. The wine is aged in concrete tanks for 8 months and bottled unfiltered.

SP 68 Rosso 2018 (Arianna Occhipinti)

Dark, young red, blueish hint. Fresh, fruity, aromas of blueberry, cherry, some herbs. Juicy, luscious in the mouth, with young tannins, and a fresh acidity.

Price: Medium

Food: Pizza, pasta, light meat, vegetarian dishes

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Wine of the Week

Dancing on the tongue

Published 10. August 2019 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

This Loire pét nat was served at restaurant Söl, Stavanger, Norway. It was a starter, outside the set menu, and a fresh and inviting start of their five course meal.

British Toby Bainbridge and his wife Julie are found near Angers, in the western Loire.

In a modest winery they make three different wines. This cuvée is a pink lightly-bubbled méthode ancestrale (lightly sparkling) wine made with the local grolleau noir grape. The second fermentation is in bottle and sulphur additions are very low.

La Danseuse means “The Dancer” in French. One of his importers tells that it can also refer to “the barrel of wine that a vigneron would put aside for his mistress”. In the past, we should add.

Part of the story is that Denmark was the first export country. Toby went with a friend. Noma, one of the world’s top restaurants, was the first stop. And the wine has been found there ever since.

Cuvée La Danceuse 2017 (Bainbridge)

Salmon pink. Discrete smell of raspberries and red currants. Delicate red berries in the mouth, fresh acidity and a refreshing carbonic feel, and a long and dry finish.

Price: Medium

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Wine of the Week

Momento Mori: An orange wine to die for

Published 2. August 2019 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

This is a wine that you just read about in the article from the orange wine tasting at London’s Real Wine fair.

Momento Mori means something like ‘Remember that you have to die’ in Latin. Dane Johns from New Zealand is the man behind this winery, that makes use of grape from growers in Heathscote, Victoria. He thinks that many Italian grape varieties are well adapted to this area, and the grapes for this particular wine are vermentino, fiano, moscato giallo, and malvasia – fermented separately, then blended.

We are always talking about small batches, wild yeast, no new oak, no fining, no filtration, and no additions. This one spent one and a half months on skins.

Staring At The Sun 2018 (Momento Mori)

Light yellow colour. Aromatic, smells of white flowers, citrus, spice, some ginger. Just a touch of tannin, very delicate, yet very flavourful, and a lovely acidity that makes it last. This is a proof that aromatic grapes like moscato can be really successful with extended skin-contact.

Price: Medium

Food: Light meat, grilled fish, dried fruits, smoked cheese, paté

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Wine of the Week

Quinta da Palmirinha and chestnut flowers

Published 26. July 2019 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Fernando Paiva has been one of the pioneers of biodynamic farming in Portugal, with his stylish and inviting Vinho Verde wines. I have written about them several times, like here. Following this year’s Simplesmente… Vinho fair I got the chance to meet him at his Quinta da Palmirinha in Lixa, near Amarante, where he lives.

Fernando Paiva tidying up a little as he passes

From the 2017 vintage he uses the unlikely element of chestnut flowers. They grow just outside the door, and he adds them to the press, and they act as an anti-oxydant, so there is no use of added sulphites.

Lixa is in the sub-region of Sousa, where there is less rainfall than further out to the coast, but also moderate compared to the continental inland. So we could say it’s a zone in between. This place is excellent for a grape like azal, that is difficult to ripen, and that makes up half of this wine, together with arinto.

The chestnut grows just outside the winery door

Quinta da Palmirinha Branco 2017

Light straw coloured, tiny bubbles. Floral and fruity, with some citric notes. In the mouth it’s in a way mellow, but with a fine citric touch, dry, with a lovely minerality.

Price: Low

Food: Fish, shellfish, vegetables

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Wine of the Week

Malhada, a great value vinho

Published 19. July 2019 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

I have known André Pereira for many years, but for some reason his wines have never featured as a “wine of the week”. His wines are all well-made and of splendid value, and you can read about some of them in this post.

The farm Quinta do Montalto has belonged to his family for 5 generations. It comprises 50 hectares of vines, olives and other crops. It’s found in the municipality of Ourém, that is actually belonging to Leiria, but most of the wines are still classified as regional Lisboa.

Even if the 17 is already in the market I chose the 2015 vintage here, because this is the one I enjoyed last. And it’s not always necessary to drink the last edition. One is not better that the other; they are different. This one has lost its young blueberry character, but it’s nevertheless a superb, fruity wine that will last still a couple of years. The 2015 vintage of this wine was made from aragonêz and castelão in equal parts. The fermentation was natural, and it was made in steel. It’s certified organic and vegan.

Vinha da Malhada 2015 (Quinta do Montalto)

Red cherry colour with some sign of evolution. Smells of red and dark berries, lightly spicy and some dried fruits start to show. Still fresh and luscious in the mouth, with an integrated acidity.

Price: Low

Food: Light meat, bacalhau, vegetables

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Wine of the Week

Gentle wine from Gentle Folk

Published 12. July 2019 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

This wine I tasted at the Real Wine fair of London quite recently. Gentle Folk are Gareth and Rainbo Belton, who have seven hectars in Basket Ranges of Adelaide Hills. They farm their grapes are organically in the vineyard, and in the cellar all treatments are gentle, and with little or no additions.

Blossoms has traditionally been a merlot-based blend. But this year a change has been made: It has now become a varietal pinot noir from Norton Summit, not far away. This is a new vineyard for them, planted 25 years ago, and organically from the very first day. Whole bunches are gently pressed, before a short maceration.

Blossoms 2018 (Gentle Folk Wines)

Light cherry red. It’s full of red fruits (raspberry, strawberry) and flowers. In the mouth it is light, with a crisp acidity, but it has a surprisingly concentration of flavours. It’s honest and clean, bangs no drums, but lightly chilled it’s in perfect harmony on a mild summer’s day.

Price: Medium

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Wine of the Week

Exciting white Málaga

Published 5. July 2019 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Viñedos Verticales is the brain-child of two friends; Juan Muñoz, of the family that runs Bodegas Dimobe, and Vicente Inat, winemaker with experience in different regions.

We are in Moclinejo, a small town of the Axarquía landscape in the Málaga province. This is an area close to the Mediterranean Sea, with steep slopes, poor slate soils and old vineyards. See more in yesterday’s article.

This week’s pick is their wonderful, but maybe not so easy, Filitas and Lutitas. The name refers to the soil composition. It’s made from moscatel 90% (three vineyards) and the rest PX (a high vineyard at 1.000m). The fermentation was spontaneous in a 3300 liters fudre over 100 years old. It was then kept 10 months in that fudre on its fine lees.

From a tasting of wines from Viñedos Verticales and Bodegas Dimobe

Filitas y Lutitas 2016 (Viñedos Verticales)

Yellow colour. Yellow fruits, flowers, plums, herbs/spice. In the beginning it showed some trace of toffee and brandy, but with 5-10 minutes of airing it was giving way to a slight hint of raisins. The overall impression is however that of a dry wine. On the palate it’s full, concentrated, and with a persistent acidity.

Price: Medium

Food: White and grilled fish, seafood, light meat, vegetables, cheeses and much more

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Wine bars and restaurants and Wine of the Week

A meaty red at Matritum

Published 28. June 2019 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Matritum, an old name for Madrid, is maybe not an especially well-known wine bar and restaurant. It’s located in the neighbourhood of La Latina, where I often stay when in the Spanish capital, and I have never been disappointed.

The Matritum kitchen proposes delightful dishes such as home-made foie-gras micuit, and seafood and meat dishes inspired from all corners of Spain. “Anchoas del Cantábrico con ‘pa amb tomàquet'” thus means traces of both Cantabria and Catalunya/Baleares.

The wine list has close to 400 references, many of them served by the glass. They are both local, they cover the most of the important Spanish wine areas, some less known, and also international. It seems that they have a special love for the wines of Sanlúcar de Barrameda, all of them also served by the glass.

So over the years I have had a great many different wines here, and so this choice would maybe seen casual. Anyway, this time I had three wines, one of them a garnacha from Viña Zorzal. Okay, we are in Madrid, and beautiful garnachas are made right in the backyard. But let’s not forget that the grape has a long history in Navarra. It’s even possible that it once originated there.

Zorzal started in 1989, when Antonio Sanz, after a life in wine, fulfilled his dream of producing his own wines in Navarra. Today it’s his sons who carry on what he started, and created Viña Zorzal, as we know it today.

The wine is made from garnacha of 35 near old vines grown in stony soils 520 meters above sea level in Fitero, single vineyard. Early harvest, spontaneous fermentation with wild yeast in 3500-litre wooden vats, soft winemaking. 9 months ageing used French used barriques.

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Wine of the Week

Carbonic Cabrónicus

Published 21. June 2019 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

This bottle was bought from natural wine bar La Casa del Perro in Málaga (a report to follow). Out from the fridge it didn’t take long before it reached optimum serving temperature on a hot summer day.

Producer Cauzón, or Ramón Saavedra, can be found in several articles on this blog (such as here, after a visit, and here, in a report from a fair earlier this year).

In 1997 Ramón left a successful career as a Michelin star chef, to start making wines without additions up to 1.200 meters above sea level in his home town Graena. This is rather a small settlement in the Sierra Nevada mountains, some 30 minutes east of Granada city.

Cabrónicus is made from tempranillo grapes grown on red clay soil. The name is derived from the use of carbonic maceration, that went on for three weeks in whole bunches.

Cabrónicus 2017 (Bod. Cauzón)

Pale red. Smells of red berries (raspberry), pomegranate, and a slight touch of white pepper. Juicy and delicate, with fine, discrete tannins, and a long, integrated acidity. A very fresh, clean and appealing natural wine.

Price: Medium

Food: At the wine bar we had it with as different dishes as carpaccio of beef and guacamole with nachos, but it goes well with everything from light meat, white fish, and a variety of salads

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Wine of the Week

Another beautiful Cambon

Published 14. June 2019 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

This château was acquired by Marcel Lapierre (Dom. Lapierre) and Jean Claude Chanudet (Dom. Chamonard) in the mid-90s. After Marcel passed away a few years ago it’s Marie, his widow, who runs the estate. (I met her at a London fair. Have a look here.)

The vineyards for this wine is located between Morgon and Fleurie. Cambon places itself towards the “natural” side of Beaujolais; unfined, unfiltered, and barely sulphured… a pure expression of the gamay grape. The fermentation was spontaneous in steel tank, then ageing on big oak vats on lees.

Château Cambon Beaujolais 2018 (Ch. Cambon)

Deep red with purple hints. Cool aroma of flowers and cherries, with some meaty notes. Fresh and juicy, a touch of cherry comes back, and there is a long, natural acidity here. Elegant, beautiful.

Price: Low

Food: Light meat, pasta, tasty white fish, salads

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