Category: Wine of the Week

Weird berries, stylish wine

Published 26. February 2021 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Adelaide Hills is a quite cool region northeast of Adelaide in South Australia. It’s varied in terms of soils and expositions, and many of the best vineyards are scattered over large distances.

Ochota is the young couple Amber and Taras Ochota, who started their natural wine project in 2008.

Surf trippers on the Mexican coast, where the idea was born (credit: Ochota Barrels)

They have a long list of wineries around the globe where they have worked and learned; the Hitching Post winery from the movie Sideways not least. By now they have half a hectare of vineyards of their own, high altitude on quartz and ferrous soil. They also tend an old grenache vineyard in lower McLaren Vale.

The wines are made according to natural methods, some whites with extended skin-contact. This one is more “normal” in that respect, a varietal gewürztraminer bottled with low sulfur values.

Weird Berries in the Woods Gewürztraminer 2019 (Ochota Barrels)

Light brilliant yellow with green tones. Aroma of white flowers, hay and herbs. Quite full but dry, good acidity with a trace of yellow tomatoes and also some stoney minerality. A stylish wine that strays from the often boring cliché of the grape.

Price: Medium

Food: Fish (both white and red, grilled and cooked), shellfish (crab, prawns), squid, salads, cheese (both creamy and hard, like parmesan), pizzas (especially good with white sauce (two of them pictured, in the making…)

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Wine of the Week

Both alter and native

Published 19. February 2021 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Clemens Busch and his wife Rita makes exciting wines mainly from the Pündericher Marienburg vineyard in Mosel. Everything is organic, and natural practices in the vineyards and cellar give a feeling of expressiveness between tradition and forward-thinking.

In the Marienburg vineyard, with vines placed on soils based on gray slate.This dry riesling is made with old style artisanal methods, including biodynamic practises. Alcoholic fermentation started with indigenous yeasts. The pressing was light, the maceration went on with stalks for 48 hours, before ageing15 months in large oak barrels in contact with the lees. It was bottled without any filtration and clocks in at 11,5% alc.

(alter) native riesling 2016 (Clemens Busch)

Golden, slightly turbid. Aroma of white flowers, yeast, lime peel, and a touch of honey. A bit fizzy, with rounded acidity and a dry finish. Refreshing and very quaffable.

Price: Medium

Food: A great variety, like fish (both white, red, smoked too), hams, pasta, cheese (hard, aged), and also quite unusual stuff like omelettes and pies

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Wine of the Week

Donkeys deliver

Published 12. February 2021 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

The Asinoi “we are donkeys” wine is maybe easy to forget. But it’s rather remarkable that the Carussin family manages to keep the quality up and the price down. The 2019 has an acidity as splendid as ever before. I have given some background here, when talking about a wine two years older.

Some keywords: Biodynamic farming, hand-picked grapes, spontaneous fermentation, low sulphur and no oak.

And, as producer Bruna Ferro says to Wine Chords: Asinoi is a simple yet complex wine – just like the character of the animal donkey.

Asinoi Barbera d’Asti 2019 (Carussin-Bruna Ferro)

Ruby red. Aroma of red berries (cherries, raspberries), herbs and a trace of almond. Fresh, luscious, low tannin, and a wonderful acidity that keeps on going from start to finish.

Price: Low

Food: Pasta, pizza, light meat, white fish, vegetables, and a variety of (mostly hard) cheeses

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Wine of the Week

A light orange Baden weißburgunder

Published 5. February 2021 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Sven Enderle and Florian Moll founded their winery in 2007 in Münchweier, Baden, close to the border to Alsace. They have now some 2 hectares of vineyards, mostly pinot noir, pinot gris and müller-thurgau.

This one is from pinot blanc, or weißburgunder in local nomenclature. The peak of their three level hierarchy are the single-site wines Muschelkalk, Buntsandstein and the Buntsandstein single location Ida.

The grapes are organically grown on shell limestone soils (Muschelkalk). Unfined and unfiltered. Very low SO2. It’s from Baden, but declassified by purpose to Deutsche Wein.

Weißburgunder Muschelkalk 2018 (Enderle & Moll)

The colour is somewhat between yellow and pinkish orange. Slightly reductive at first, some chalkiness, giving way to a more open aroma with yellow fruits and a white pepper/ ginger character. Careful skin-contact, some spice, a lively acidity, also with a hint of bitter almond. Shows some development too.

Price: Medium

Food: Light meat, tasty fish, salads, root vegetables, try with several Asian…

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Wine of the Week

Flip, flop & fly

Published 29. January 2021 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Conceito has been a long time favourite. And if you search these pages you will find a lot, such as this take about a white wine, and this report, that tells a bit about their range.

It is Rita Marques who is the driving force behind this -in my opinion- leading eastern Douro estate.

This wine is new in the portfolio, a fresh, dark red from touriga franca 40%, and touriga nacional and tinta roriz, each 30%. Harvested by hand, destemmed, spontaneously fermented and matured in steel.

Flip 2019 (Conceito)

Dark blueish red. Aroma of red and dark berries, lickorice and pepper. Fresh and charming, quite easy, but serious enough with some dryness from the skins, and just enough acidity.

Price: Low

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Wine of the Week

Mlle. M from Mr. Bain

Published 22. January 2021 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

This part of the Loire is infamous for its use of added yeast to “secure typicity” of grape and place. Alexandre was Bain (along with friend and neighbour across the river in Sancerre) is different, as he lets the grape, here sauvignon blanc, do the job.

He runs an estate of 11 hectares, where he uses natural methods to work the land. As we mentioned, without added yeast, also without chaptalization, or filtration – and with the help of the lunar calendar. This cuvée comes from the type of limestone called Kimméridgien.

Mademoiselle M 2015 (A. Bain)

Golden colour, clear. Concentrated, rich, mature yellow fruits, hint of pineapple, beeswax and honey. Full in the mouth, good integrated acidity, very long.

Price: Medium

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Wine of the Week

Biodynamic Bordeaux

Published 15. January 2021 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Château Peybonhomme-les-Tours is found in the village Cars, just outside Blaye. Here they have 64 hectares in the hills by the Gironde. The soil is predominantly chalky clay, and the vineyards themselves have a sustainable ecosystem, with grass between the rows and nearness to woods and water.

Catherine and Jean-Luc Bossuet Hubert run the estate with their children Guillame and Rachel, and they also make wine at Ch. la Grolet in Côtes du Bourg. Both places they apply biodynamic techniques.

This wine is made up of 60% merlot, 10% cabernet sauvignon, 30% malbec – and is matured in amphorae for 12 months. They use double Guyot pruning, and soil tillage in spring. There has also been used small quantities of Bordeaux mixture with herbal teas, such as horsetail or nettle. The use of sulphur is limited (50mg/l). No fining, but two careful rackings.

Energies 2016 (Ch. Peybonhomme-les-Tours)

Dark cherry colour. Aroma of black fruits (blackberry and blueberry), plums, herbs. Quite full, but lots of energy, with fine-grained tannins in the mouth, a mineral touch and a fine acidity. A very fine bordeaux, completely without oakiness, and with elegance rather than power.

Price: Medium

Food: Red meat, light meat, poultry, tasty dishes with mushroom, hard cheeses

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Wine of the Week

Dangerously drinkable South African red-rosé

Published 8. January 2021 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Jurgen Gouws makes cool, fresh and focused wines in Swartland, South Africa. An earlier assistant winemaker under Craig Hawkins at Lammershoek, he soon established his own label Intellego.

The rented vineyards and the wines are managed with least possible interference. He was one of the first in Swartland to experiment with skin-contact for Chenin Blanc, very lightly in the fabulous (almost) orange wine Elementis.

The vines used for the Pink Moustache were planted in 1988 and 2001. The grapes are syrah 59%, cinsault 33% and mourvedre 8%. Whole clusters are pressed before spontaneous fermentation four days in used barrels. The wine matures 5 months, also in used barrels.

The Pink Moustache 2020 (Intellego)

Light ruby red. Aroma of dark and red berries (raspberries), flowers, herbs and pepper. Luscious, juicy, with a light tannin touch, and just enough acidity. Lovely glou-glou, best lightly chilled.

Price: Medium

Food: Light meats, pizza, pasta, salads and cured meats.

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Wine of the Week

Clandestina

Published 1. January 2021 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Clandestina travels from Catalunya to new destinations with accordingly named labels, such as Blanc Fugitiu (fugitive), Orance Censurat (censored), Ancestral Confiscat (confiscated). Read more about these here in an article from the cancelled Rawfair this March, where I met winemaker Ferrán at wine bar WineO in London.

This week’s wine, Blanc Sense Papers 2019, has made it all the way to my northern local wine shop. It originates from a more than 50 years old xarel.lo vineyard. The grapes from the three plots were harvested seperately at different times to ensure perfect ripeness, the different harvests are fermented in steel and aged in demijohns for different periods of time, and the last harvest kept in oak for 4 months, before blending it all and bottling unfined and unfiltered. -I base my wines on acidity, says Ferrán, -and I like Bourgogne Aligoté, he answers to my question what he tries to achieve. And acidity he has managed to retain. It really is acidic. I am not sure if it has the body to match, but time will show.

Blanc Sense Papers 2019 (Bodegas Clandestina)

Yellow with green and grey hints, slightly turbid. Aroma of green apricot, flowers and grapefruit. Fresh and luscious, dry, good acidity, good length.

Price: Medium

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Wine of the Week

@Roca #Cava?

Published 25. December 2020 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Time to celebrate. Maybe not the year that lie behind us, but rather a toast to life, art and good wine itself. There are many possibilities; champagne, crémants, cava… Cava? All right, listen.

Agustí Torello Roca (AT Roca) belongs to the family that gave us Kripta and other great great cavas and wines from Sant Sadurní d’Anoia. While Agustí Torelló Mata (ATM) has turned to organics AT Roca goes further; with a more natural approach, and has also joined the ranks of those who leave the very strange DO Cava, that in reality stands for a way of making wine rather than a sense of place.

Agustí Torello Roca and his father and aunt Agustí and Lali founded AT Roca in 2013. One of the first priorities was to join DO Classic Penedès, a subdivision under the DO Penedès formed in 2012. It started with just 10 members, and has been growing ever since. DO Classic Penedès is perhaps the first governing body that requires organic certification in order to be a member. In addition to the farming requirements, 15 months aging on the lees is the minimum (while only 9 months within DO Cava), and all wines must be made by the traditional method and vintage dated. AT Roca goes further by only using indigenous yeasts and harvesting 100% of their grapes by hand.

For their single vineyard wines, they ferment in used barrels and age the wines on the lees under natural cork instead of crown caps, both of which are rarities in the region. Sulfur is only used once to block malolactic as an effort to retain the acidity. All their wines are zero dosage. They only work with indigenous Catalan grape varieties, with a focus on macabeu.

AT Roca Reserva 2016 (AT Roca)

Yellow with greenish hints. Aroma of fennel, lime, breadcrumbs. Good body and concentration, nice acidity, and a salty dry finish.

Price: Medium

Food: Good Spanish ham, light meat, salads, dried fish and tasty shellfish

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