In the rolling granite hills of the Paardeberg, Adi Badenhorst continues to create some of the most characterful wines the Swartland. His Ramnasgras Cinsault is a profound expression of this place – a wine that leans on history, trusts its fruit, and speaks in fine detail rather than in bold strokes.
The fruit for this wine comes from a dry-farmed bushvine vineyard planted in 1956, rooted in decomposed granite soils. The vineyard, named Ramnasgras, is tucked into the Swartland’s rugged terrain and is naturally low-yielding, producing small, concentrated berries. In keeping with Badenhorst’s minimal intervention philosophy, the 2022 vintage was hand-harvested and fermented with around 20% whole clusters, using only indigenous yeasts. The wine spent about a year ageing in large old foudres before being bottled with low sulphur and no fining or filtration.
Ramnasgras Cinsault 2022(A.A. Badenhorst)
Pale ruby with a translucent core. The nose is fragrant and inviting, with scents of redcurrant, rosehip, pomegranate and sweet spice, underpinned by a gentle earthiness and a whiff of crushed herbs. On the palate, it is light in body but with a beautiful clarity of fruit and texture – bright, tangy red berries glide over fine, powdery tannins, while a savoury minerality brings balance and length. The alcohol is modest at around 11.5%, but the wine does not feel slight – rather, it is poised and precise, with energy.
This wine was served in a tasting of Lebanese wines in my local wine club this week. It was the only sparkling wine, or pét nat, and stood out in more than one way.
The producer is Mersel Wine, named after the region Maksar Mersel, which is the highest viticultural region in Lebanon. The grapes for this wine however are grown in Deir El Ahmar, Bekaa Valley at “only” 1.200 meters altitude.
Mersel’s wines are made naturally, with very little or no sulfites. They are unfiltered and unfined and fruits of organic farming methods.
Eddie Chami, the winemaker at Mersel Wine, was born and raised in Australia. He doesn’t speak French and didn’t want Mersel to be associated with the French wine making influence in Lebanon. He has a passion for wines made by local Lebanese indigenous grape varieties. This said, the red Leb Nat is made from cinsault. After almost 200 years in the country (first planted by jesuits in the mid 19th century) the grape has long been acclimatised to Lebanese conditions though. By the way, Mersel was the first winery in the country to launch a pét nat.
The grapes are pressed, then the juice and pulp spend 5 days together before fermentation starts. The wine then ferments for about 20 days at 14°C, is then bottled and completes fermentation in the bottle, where it rests on lees for 1 year.
Leb Nat 2022(Mersel Wine)
Cherry red with small bubbles. Smells of cherry and raspberry, with herbs. Fresh in the mouth with energetic acidity, lightly bubbly, with a slight touch of tannins (the same structure or dryness as the still red cinsaults in the tasting), and finishes dry. Quite peculiar; in a way it reminded me of a clarete (a mix of red and white grapes), on the other hand I also found a surprising tannic dryness.
Chance had it that the same vintage of Tempier that I tasted when visiting the domaine in 2013, appeared at a dinner last week. Tempier may be most famous for their stylish rosés. I am a huge fan of their reds (not to say: whites).
From my visit to Tempier
A little piece of history. When Lucie “Lulu” Tempier married Lucien Peyraud in 1936, her father gave them Domaine Tempier, a farm that had been in the family since 1834, just outside the Mediterranean village of Bandol. Tasting a pre-phylloxera bottle of Domaine Tempier Bandol (a wedding gift from his father-in-law) inspired Lucien to research the terroir of Bandol extensively. Up until that point, old vineyards planted with mourvèdre had been systematically replanted to higher-yielding varietals. However, more research not only showed its historical roots to the area, but the grape proved to be more resistant to oxidation, producing wines with great aging potential. By 1941, with the assistance of neighboring vignerons, Lucien worked with the I.N.A.O. (Institut National des Appellations d’Origines) to establish Bandol as its own A.O.C.
This story is told by Anthony Lynch, American importer, whose family are close friends with the people behind Tempier. Lynch calls Lucien the godfather of Bandol and the man who revived mourvèdre to its former glory. And he continues, “if any wine can be said to have soul, it’s Tempier”.
From my visit to Tempier
The wine comes from various sites with clay and calcareous soils. The varieties ate predominantly mourvèdre with small quantities of grapes such as grenache, cinsault and carignan. It was aged in large oak casks some 18 months before bottling.
Bandol 2011 (Domaine Tempier)
Cherry red with brick nuances. Rich nose of mature fruits (cherry, plums), herbs (cinnamon, thyme), mushroom, a touch of barnyard (maybe game). Good volume in the mouth, still plenty of fruit and some fine tannins, hints of earth and toast. Subtle and balanced, maybe at its peak now.
An armada of Spanish producers visited Stavanger, Norway this last Tuesday with their importer Moestue Grape Selections. I participated at the following dinner at Matbaren Renaa.
Visiting from Spain were Telmo Rodríguez, Fernando García (Comando G) and Carlos “Curro” Bareño (Fedellos and Vinícola Mentridiana). Pedro Parra from Itata, Chile should have been there, but was left somewhere in Europe with covid.
Paired with the restaurant’s lobster, lamb and quail dishes were seven wines. The fino Caberrubia Saca VI from Luís Pérez was a welcome drink, a natural sherry from pago Balbaína outside Jerez. It’s a grapey, salty and fresh sherry with no added alcohol.
Telmo Rodríguez introduced his white Branco de Santa Cruz 2020 from Valdeorras. He tells that this is one of the places he spends most time nowadays. It’s made from that premium northern grape godello, with some treixadura, doña blanca and palomino, all found in a mixed vineyard together with red varieties, and matured in used oak vats. It’s a super elegant wine with good volume, textured, and a complex aroma of citrus, herbs, a touch of menthol and a stony minerality.
Fedellos started as Fedellos do Couto because they were based in that village. Now they have moved. They make wines from the Bibei valley. Peixeda Estrada2019 is a village wine from Viana do Bolo outside both Valdeorras and Ribeira Sacra designated areas, a field blend of 60-80 year old vines with predominantly mencía made with whole bunches in partially used barrels, steel, concrete and/or fiberglass tanks. Long maceration time and light extractions. It’s a fresh, delicate wine with aromas of red and dark fruits along with herbs and some balsamic.
Pedro Parra couldn’t attend as he was sick with covid and stuck somewhere in Europe. But his wines made it to Norway. Pedro is a leading figure in the new terroir-focused Chilean wave, concentrating on cinsault on granite soils. He tries to make his wines in a reductive way, at present with 20 days skin-contact.
Trane was obviously (?) dedicated to John Coltrane, an innovator and creative jazz musician. It’s a single-vineyard cinsault from a plot of highly decomposed granite soils. It fermented in concrete with indigenous yeasts and some 30% full clusters and matured in big oak vats for 11 months. It’s a light wine, but also structured. The fruit is both dark and red, with hints of flowers, anise and smoke.
Fernando García represented Comando G, that has contributed to putting the Gredos mountains on the wine map. They were also on this trip promoting the book Calicata, about the wine region. The English edition was released a few months ago, and Moestue sells it on the Norwegian market. In fact I was visiting Fernando at his table when another wine was passed around. I didn’t realize this in time, but my fiancée gave me a few drops to taste. It had a strong signature of a Gredos garnacha, ruby red, ethereal, with red fruits (raspberry), flowers and smoke – in a way light, but intensely full of flavours. It turned out to be Las Iruelas 2019, a parcel wine from El Tiemblo in the Ávila province. It was earlier made by the Jiménez-Landi family winery, but is now labelled Comando G.
The last wine was a lovely rioja from the new wave, that I advocate, Telmo’s Tabuérniga 2019. It comes from a cool vineyard in the village of Labastida, planted with old tempranillo vines, some graciano, mazuelo, garnacha and garnacha blanca. The soil is shallow and calcareous. It’s a serious wine; somewhat austere and maybe a little closed, but underneath are red and wild berries waiting to burst; it’s full of fruit and the tannins are elegant. It’s a wine that invites you to meet again, so let’s remember it and follow. A wonderful evidence that a wine does not need to be oaky to be complex nor ageworthy.
In naming a restaurant, managers can provide a headline, if the content follows suit. Here it does. The relatively new restaurant Bravo of Stavanger’s ever more trendy eastern district can be summed up like this: Good food, a select wine list at good prices in a cosy atmosphere.
The food is down to earth, but it comes with a creative twist. At the moment the menu consists of eight medium-sized dishes from mainly local ingredients, and a number of snacks. The by-the-glass wine list contains around 20 references, and there is also a longer wine list. The selection largely consists of what you would call natural wines, and all of them are made in an organic, sustainable way. To call the pricing moderate would be an understatement. Look carefully and you can find wines at only 1,5 times the price of the state monopoly.
We were there last Friday, and one of the owners, Rakel Juklestad Helgheim, guided us through four courses and nine wines, assisted by her partner and chef Daniel Vigdel Hansen. Eight of these were chosen from the glass menu and the last one was kindly offered from the longer list by Rakel and Daniel. The platters were shared and most of the wine glasses too.
While enjoying some Spanish olives from the snack menu we decided to go with smoked salmon from producer Jana, right down the road, with carrot and a creamy cheese. It was followed with beetroot with almonds and guasacaca (a Central American sauce), for me the best dish of the evening. Tender cucumber slices struggled to compete with the tasty crab with mustard and lime. Then the kitchen excelled again with a seafood platter with baked ling and spring onion in a mussel sauce with celery and soy.
Knochentrocken 2021(Der GlücksJäger), a sauvignon blanc-chardonnay-riesling from Pfalz, had the volume and roundness that often come with the varieties, with matching acidity. It has some yellow colour, an unfiltered appearance, with melon and lime aromatics.
Smoked salmon with carrot and a creamy cheese, and La Mer, a mineral Muscadet
More mineral with a stony character, sea and salt and some pear was the next, La Mer 2022(Dom. de la Fessardière), a Muscadet, before we with Alsacian Sons of Wine’s Soulographie 2021 were back in a darker and richer style. Made from all the so-called non-aromatic grapes of the region (pinot blanc, chardonnay, auxerrois, pinot gris and riesling) it was nevertheless aromatic, with mature apples, flowers and fennel, and full on the palate with a fresh acidity.
Beetroot with almonds and guasacaca, accompanied by Pommier’s Chablis
It’s not every day that we can add a new Chablis to the repertoire. Pommier‘s 2021 would deliver. It’s light yellow/golden, and smells of green apples, lime – and luckily only a touch of butter. In the mouth it’s concentrated and full of flavour, and has a long, saline finish.
Malterdinger 2020(Bernhard Huber), a chardonnay-weissburgunder (pinot blanc) from Baden came in a light, greenish robe. It showed a richness on the nose, with herbs and butter. The oak was maybe more evident on the palate, and added to the feeling of fullness. I would have given this wine a few years in a cellar.
Scions of Sinai is located in Stellenbosch, South South Africa. Nomadis 2020 is based on cinsault, with contribution of pinotage. Ruby red with red and dark fruits (blackberry, raspberry) and spices. Luscious and savoury. North to Germany and Pfalz, Lebenshilfe is an ecological and social organization, offering work for people with intellectual disabilities. Together with the professionals they have here made the fruity Spätburgunder Trocken2020, a wine with cherry and raspberry fruit, combined with spices and a touch of vanilla. On the palate the fruit follows up, a bit spicy and with a light structure.
Clotaire Michal offered a structure and dark entry for a beaujolais gamay. Maybe not strange, as he had worked several places in the Rhône Valley before settling there. A Fleur de Peau 2019 opens with an animal whiff together with raspberry, plums and spices. It follows up with an impressive structured palate. It’s first of all impressive to taste now, and a terrific gastronomic wine for tasty dishes. However it would easily benefit from a few years more ageing. Back to a white wine, or to be exact… Matassa of Roussillon makes all their whites with skin-contact, so the colour would be darker. Cuvée Marguerite2021 (predominantly muscat varieties and some macabeo) is no exception: Light orange or amber colour, slightly turbid. On the nose there is citrus, white flowers and peach, and in the mouth it’s grapey and quite full, also with a slight tannin.
This wine can be said jo be dangerously drinkable. It’ contains “only” 11% alcohol, but it’s hard to stop once poured, with all its inviting fruit and low acidity (5g, the 2021 has only 3, by the way).
Domaine Cazes has been producing wine since 1895 in Rivesaltes, south of France. Cazes is operated according to biodynamic principles. Cazes is France’s largest certified producer of organic and biodynamic wines with 220 hectares of vineyards. (Read about a vin doux naturel here.)
This wine is made with traditional maceration, and fermented without yeasts for 6 days at low temperature (between 19 and 22°C). It was pressed with integrated presses. The end of alcoholic fermentation took place in in wooden vats before racking, then malolactic fermentation. The appellation is IGT Côtes Catalanes.
Finally a piece of ampelography (“grapeology”) here: Samsó is a synonym for cinsault in this part of Catalunya, also spelled sinsó. Samsó can also refer to carignan (a much more thick-skinned variety).
Samsó 2020(Dom. Cazes)
Light red, violet rim. Fresh and fruit-driven with raspberries, wild strawberries, hints of licorice. Medium full, rounded, some spices at the end.
Price: Low
Food: Delicious on its own, with charcuterie, patatas bravas, pasta…
This was my first opportunity to visit restaurant Angr of Stavanger, Norway. It’s a restaurant that serves natural wines with nicely elaborated food with interesting tastes. Their by-the-glass list is not very extensive, but they will open bottles outside the menu too.
Credit: Angr
We had whites from Swartland (Mother Rock) and Beaujolais (J.P. Brun) and reds from Crozes-Hérmitage (Les 4 Vents), and for the second time Swartland (Badenhorst).
Then we had this fabulous, energetic wine also from Swartland, South Africa. Jurgen Gouws of Intellego tells that after a great surfing experience in Bali he ended up naming the wine after a special spot, and thus transferring the surfing energy to the wine.
It was whole bunch fermented under semi-carbonic conditions for 8 days in stainless steel tanks and aged in old barrels of different sizes.
It’s made from Rhône grapes syrah 50%, cinsaut (he spells it without an -l-) 20% and mourvèdre 30%, dry farmed bush wines.
Kedungu 2019(Intellego)
Ruby red. Scented, aroma of wild fruits (cranberry) and plums, with a hint of black olives. Juicy in the mouth, light tannin, fruity, and finishes off dry.
Price: Medium
Food: We had it with smoked salmon and tortillas, but should go well with a variety of salads, white fish and light meat.
La Sorga is something of a superstar on the natural wine stage. It was started in 2008 by Antony Tortul, now accompanied by his wife and by David Adell. They work as a kind of négociants, as the grapes are bought in. There are more or less 50.000 bottles produced per year. There is no shortage of creativity, so 30-40 different labels are created every year.
All grapes come from organic or biodynamic vineyards. La Sorga wines are always “zero zero”.
They work in different regions around Béziers, in the Languedoc. The climate is warm and maritime, close to the Mediterranean, so the grapes are often harvested early to maintain freshness. The soils are lime, clay and slate.
For this wine -from Corbières and Cabrerolles- cinsault 40 years old are used in 60%, the rest more than a hundred years old carignan. The grapes were picked by hand and underwent maceration carbonic for 60 days. Then followed 12 months in amphorae and bottling, clearly, without filtration or SO2.
SorGaahl 2019(La Sorga) Dark red with blue hue, somewhat turbid. Clear-cut aromas of blueberry, cherries and a spicy component. Luscious, juicy, but also concentrated, with a dry finish.
Price: Medium
Food: Rich vegetable dishes, light and tasty meat (chicken, lamb, pig), pizza and pasta…
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.
ThePink 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.
Here is an old favourite, dressed up in Christmas costume. The southern French classic La Vieille Fermé is made by the famous wine family Perrin, which stands behind some of the South Rhône’s finest wines, among them the great châteauneuf-du-pape wines from Château de Beaucastel.
The Christmas label was designed especially for the Norwegian market by designer Kaja Vedvik, but the Perrin family liked it so much that they also want it to use it in other markets.
The wine originates in vineyards situated in the sunny Ventoux hillsides southeast of the Rhône on the border to Provence. While grenache makes up the main part, grapes like syrah and cinsault give extra spice. In addition, there is ripe fruit that makes it cope with tasty food.
La Vieille Fermé 2019(Fam. Perrin)
Young red. Fresh, cool aroma with ripe elements (dark cherry, blueberry, blackberry); lickorice, provençal herbs and a hint of marzipan. Round and fresh in the mouth, with light tannin, herbs, and with berry fruit all the way.
Price: Low
Food: Christmas turkey, other light meat, coq au vin, salads, rice dishes and much more.
