Tag: organic

A modern Arinto classic

Published 2. August 2024 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

I picked two bottles of this wine from my own cellar to enjoy at private dinners. In both cases it was served blind. It’s made by my good friend Pedro Marques, now a classic producer on the coast of Lisboa.

Marques’ wines come from organically farmed vines in the Lisboa region. The estate is located around eight km from the Atlantic Ocean, on limestone soils rich with fossils. The limestone content contributes to the freshness and saltiness in the wines.

The arinto grapes are spontaneously fermented on the lees at relatively high temperatures (around 18 degrees), as Pedro values texture and body in the wine. He uses barrels in the fermentation and the maturation process, to increase the complexity and make the wine less reductive. This matches well with the grape’s high natural acidity.

Arinto 2017 (Vale da Capucha)

Deep golden colour. Aroma of lemon peel, yellow tomatoes, pickled apricot and a touch of mature apples. Unctuous in the mouth, concentrated and packed with fruit, an acidity that gives it a special nerve, and a long, saline finish. A modern classic that speaks of its homeland near the sea.

Price: Medium

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Wine of the Week

Fresh Aire

Published 26. July 2024 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

The last few days have been bakingly hot in Central Spain. So some freshness was needed. I finally got the opportunity to visit my friend Samuel Cano in Mota del Cuervo, Cuenta province. You can read about several of his wines elsewhere on the blog, such as here and here.

We visited La Tarancona vineyard. It sits on clay-calcareous soil at 800 meters elevation, and the vines have an average age of 70 years. The harvest was done at the end of September, after a rainy spring and a very long and hot summer. The grapes were destemmed and placed in a stainless steel tank, where it macerated for 5 days and began the alcoholic fermentation. It was then passed to a cement tank to finish fermenting and aged on the lees until bottling in March without filtration or stabilization.

Aire en el Patio La Tarancona 2023 (Vinos Patio)

Light golden colour. Yellow apples, mature lime, wax. Juicy with a light dryness, tasty, with a fresh acidity and a saline finish.

Price: Medium

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Wine of the Week

Tinácula from tinajas

Published 19. July 2024 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

I have just come back to Murcia after a few days in Castilla-La Mancha and Madrid. One of the highlights of the trip was a visit to Las Calzadas in Pozoamargo, in the DO Ribera del Júcar.

Daniel Sevilla hosted me, with his girlfriend Raquel and his father José Julián. They showed me around their different vineyards, gave me a tasting of an excellent range of clay jars aged wines and even offered a delicious lunch with lechazo (young lamb), the local manchego cheese and so forth.

Moreover, this was also a trip down memory lane. Some years ago I visited José Miguel Jávega, who is the cousin of Daniel’s father. José Miguel was director of the Casa Gualda cooperative, that I happened to collaborate with at the time. He supported me this time via social media, and suggested that i gave this wine a try. So I did, and we also visited the same chapel as many years ago and saw the same old Roman roads, the Calzadas, that gave the name to this new company.

The wine is made exclusively with pardilla, a local low-yielding grape that has practically disappeared. I was more common in the Pozoamargo area before. Las Calzadas is involved in a recovery process for the variety. The soil is calcareous clay with a layer of rounded pebbles, typical of the banks of the Júcar river.

The grapes were destemmed and there was skin contact for 12 hours. After manual pressing it settled in a jar. The juice fermented in more than 100 years old clay jars, then aged 4 months on lees in the same jars. The wine was bottled without filtering or clarifying.

Tinácula Blanco 2023 (Las Calzadas)

Light golden colour. Deep and complex aroma of yellow apples, white flowers, wax and citrus peel. Unctuous in the mouth, creamy with good acidity and a saline finish.

Price: Medium

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Wine of the Week

Our Mann at Elliott’s

Published 21. June 2024 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Back in London and a busy Borough Market at lunchtime. Elliott’s was opened in 2011 by Brett Redman, from Australia, with the aim of serving only produce sold at the market. It has long been one of my favourites, and you can read a couple of posts here and here.

Andi Mann is based in Eckelsheim, Rheinhessen. He makes lively, energetic wines, organic with some biodynamic methods. The soil is limestone (to which the name Calx alludes), and the age of the vines is around 40 years.

This wine is based on grauburgunder, whose official name is pinot gris. Many of you will know that this variety is not completely “white”. It has red spots, so as a skin-contact wine it will take on a red or reddish colour, depending on the length of contact. (Read about another wine of that kind here.)

Half of the grapes were directly pressed, the other half had fermentation on skins for 2 weeks. The juice was then fermented and stored in large German oak barrels for 1 year. It was bottled without filtration or addition of sulphur.

Calx Grauburgunder 2022 (Andi Mann)

Beautiful blushing colour. Aroma of citrus peel, flowers and ripe peach. Delicate tannins, quite full and juicy, with a fresh acidity. Dangerously quaffable.

Price: Medium

Food: We had it with lightly spiced chicken and beef carpaggio, but it should go with a variety of fish and light meat.

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Wine of the Week

Fresh north Lisboa tinta roriz

Published 14. June 2024 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

This is a wine from a winery that I’ve met several times at the Simplesmente Vinho fair in Porto. Quinta do Olival da Murta is located in the Cadaval area of the Lisboa region, near the mountain range Serra de Montejunto. Joana Vivas and her family make honest low-intervention wines here, only 15 kilometers from the Atlantic ocean, thus giving the wines a fresh, saline character.

José Vivas (photographed at Simplesmente Vinho 2021)

The soils are clay and limestone, and the vines are quite young, around 20 years. The gapes were harvested manually. The bunches were totally de-stemmed without crushing the grapes. Semi-carbonic fermentation was carried out in 500-liter French oak barrels, with indigenous yeasts, for one and a half days. The grapes were gently pressed in a vertical hydraulic press in a wooden basket. The fermentation process ended in barrels. Then it was aged 10 months in used 500 liter French oak barrels. Unfined and unfiltered.

Serra Oca Tinta Roriz 2022 (Quinta do Olival da Murta)

Ruby red. Aromas of fresh fruits (cherry, strawberry), with a layer of wild berries also. Fine tannins, fresh acidity and a saline finish.

Price: Medium-low

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Wine of the Week

Claro’s Colar

Published 7. June 2024 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

I have met Vítor Claro several times, and I’ve had the pleasure to taste his wines at the Simplesmente Vinho fair in Portugal. Vítor is a former chef, and has worked at a well-known restaurant owned by Dirk Niepoort. Now he makes wine together with his partner Rita Ferreira in Portalegre, Alentejo – from vineyards near the winery and in Colares.

They work naturally and so-called low-intervention. The wines are not clarified nor filtered, and sulphite is typically low (around 40mg total). The varieties are local, and the style is fresh, fruit-driven and elegant, with less alcohol than you might expect.

Colar is produced with grapes sourced in a tiny plot by the Adraga beach in the Colares wine region – in limestone soil with clay. Colar means necklace, but the word also hints to where the wine is from. It is made mainly with the red castelão and the white malvasia varieties, and as Vítor puts it, “seasoned” with the red caladoc. It’s made with whole bunches. After a short maceration, it’s fermented in stainless steel, then aged for 6 months in concrete.

Dominó Colar 2021 (Rita Ferreira & Vítor Claro)

Ruby red. Aromas of red fruits (raspberry, strawberry), backed by flowers and herbs. It has technically a low acidity, but appears fresh and fruity. The weight is light, yet it shows a nice concentration, the tannins are pleasant, and a nice saltiness shows in the finish.

Price: Medium

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Wine of the Week

Great white Godello

Published 31. May 2024 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Verónica Ortega has been featured on this blog several times. Here is a bit of background.

Tormenta is a new wine beginning with the 2021 vintage, that has taken over from the fabulous Cal from the same municipality. I tasted this wine in a wine club tonight where my topic was The New Spain, illustrated by ten wines.

We are in the Bierzo area. 0.8 hectares of godello grapes are grown organically in a paraje called Garbanzal in the village San Juan de la Mata, north in the appellation. The vineyard is more than 25 years old on and sits on clay and calcareous soils, at 650 meters altitude. The grapes were harvested manually, destemmed and experienced a night’s cold maceration. The fermentation was spontaneous from native yeasts. It was completed after thirteen months in barrels and amphorae.

Tormenta 2021 (Verónica Ortega)

Light yellow colour. Floral scent with yellow apples, peaches and a hint of sultanas. Delicate in the mouth, dancing between dryness and softness, tasty with a lively acidity, and a marked minerality. It tends towards some sharpness, but this is just held back. A great wine

Price: High

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Wine of the Week

Askaneli’s saperavi

Published 10. May 2024 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

The Askaneli winery was founded in 1998 by the Chkhaidze brothers, taking its name from the village of Askana in the Kakheti region.

As the name implies Saperavi Qvevri is made from the saperavi grapes and vinified in qvevri, the typical Georgian earthen vessels.The Askaneli brothers make wine as it has been done for thousands of years in Georgia, still bringing out modern and stylish wines.

Saperavi Qvevri 2020 (Askaneli)

Dark red colour. Aromas of black and red fruits (blackberry, cherry), spices, a touch of earth. It’s quite full-bodied, though not heavy, firm tannins, and good mature fruit.

Price: Medium.

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Wine of the Week

Alternative Ribera

Published 3. May 2024 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Pablo and Andrea of Magna Vides offer an alternative to the many oaky and heavy reds of Ribera del Duero. At their estate in La Aguilera (Burgos) they work eco-friendly in every possible way. This wine is made from garnacha grapes from 90 year old vines on sandy loam soils. They are fermented with stems and with local yeasts. It’s aged 12 months in used French barrels.

Alma de Cántaro Garnacha Tinta 2020 (Magna Vides)

Dark cherry red. Fresh aroma of raspberry, wild strawberries, plums and herbs. Clear and focused garnacha fruit on the palate, it’s juicy with timid tannins, and a fresh and lively fruit. It’s carefully extracted and with no disturbing wood influence.

Price: Medium

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Wine of the Week

Silky spätburgunder

Published 19. April 2024 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Weingut Georg Mosbacher is a family-run vineyard comprising 20 hectares of vineyards. The vineyards are located around the picturesque village of Forst in Pfalz. The farm is run today by the third generation Sabine Mosbacher-Düringer and her husband Jürgen Düringer.

The vineyards are protected by the high Haardt mountains, which lie in a semicircle around Forst. The grapes are hand-picked. The wine undergoes a cold maceration for 4-5 days before the must is spontaneously fermented in large oak barrels over 3 weeks. Aged for 12 months in used barriques and tonneau.

Spätburgunder 2021 (Georg Mosbacher)

Cherry red. Aroma of raspberry, cherry with hints of price and licorice. Silky palate with good fruit, adequate acidity and sweetish hint in the finish. It had a sense of CO2 that disappeared with airing.

Price: Medium

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