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Month: June 2020

Wine of the Week

Pure fun, Frankenly speaking

This Franken wine is maybe perfect to exemplify the natural wine movement. Not only are the words Pure & Naked that make up the name among the most dominating when describing these wines. It’s also a pét-nat, a style that has come to prominence in this era, and it’s un-filtered, murky as a morning mist.

Ludwig and Sandra Knoll can be found in Würzburg, on the river Main, where they practise bidynamic vituculture. Among their most important vineyards are Würzburger Stein, and maybe even more famous: Stettener Stein, hence the name of the company.

The wine is made from sauvignon blanc and cabernet blanc (a Swiss hybrid) in equal parts. It was cold-macerated 6 days, un-filtered and un-sulphured.

Pure & Naked 2019 (Weing. am Stein – Ludwig Knoll)

Cloudy yellow-greenish, lightly bubbly. Aroma of pineapple, going towards lime and grapefruit, a flowery component too. Juicy, lovely acidity, nice grapefruity aftertaste. Pure fun!

Price: Medium

Food: Fish, shellfish, sushi, salads, some strawberries, on its own…

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Wine of the Week

Lifted Lambrusco

Who has not experienced that sweet, uninspiring stuff called lambrusco? Now thankfully more and more producers try to lift it from that bad reputation. In the past it was made by what is now dubbed the ancestral method, that involves bottling before it is finished, sometimes with a small addition of unfermented must, and the bubbles were developed during this process. Some are also made by the “traditional” (champagne) method. But most are made with the second fermentation in steel tanks.

Lambrusco is a family of grapes that has also given name to several DOC regions in Emilia-Romagna. This wine here comes under the less specific designation Lambrusco dell’Emilia.

Camillo Donati is found in Langhirano, just south of Parma, where he cultivates 21 hectares of vines biodynamically. It was his grandfather who first planted vines. The soil here is calcareous clay, and this particular vineyard was planted in the 1970’s. They were spontaneously fermented, with the secondary fermentation in bottle. It’s unfined and unfiltered, and the certification is organic.

Il Mio Lambrusco 2018 (Camillo Donati)

Dark red, bubbly. Aromas of cherry, raspberry, flowers. Fresh, slightly textured, yet juicy and appealing in the mouth, with a good natural acidity.

Price: Medium

Food: Characuterie (don’t forget the prosciutto of Parma), light meat, pasta, salads, aperitif…

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Wine of the Week

From Pieropan, a Soave Pioneer

I was touring the Veneto region in the summer of 2018. One of the producers I would have visited was the unique Leonildo Pieropan. But sadly he passed away only two months before. But he had given me many good memories with his wines, from the lovely entry-level Soave and up to the vineyard wines. La Rocca was a regular when I was responsible for the wine selection at a restaurant during the 1990’s, and it was a delightful revisit when the latest issue appeared in a private tasting lately.

Founded in 1880, the Pieropan family was thought to have been the first to use the term Soave on the labels, several decades before the DOC was born. Leonildo Pieropan was among the first ones to recognize the potential for single vineyard wines, and for the ageing potential of Soave wines and the much overlooked garganega grape.

The Calvarino vineyard was bought by his grandfather in 1901. This was the first single vineyard Soave Classico in 1971.

The La Rocca vineyard is located on the hillside of Mount Rcchetta near Soave’s medieval castle. The soil is calcareous, the south-west, and there are several long, narrow terraces. The harvest is usually done in late October. The harvest is manual, the maceration short but some skin-contact. After fermentation the wine is aged for one year in old barrels of 500L. And the variety? Garganega, obviously.

La Rocca 2018 (L. Pieropan)

Golden yellow. Aromas of yellow apples, white flowers, white peach, a touch of tropical fruit, and a nutty touch. Full, glyceric and juicy on the palate, with a pineapple-like acidity, and some bitter almond in the end. It’s complex, quite concentrated and long.

Prive: Medium

Food: Grilled and tasty fish, light meat, cheese, risotto…

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Wine of the Week

Castell d’Age Fragments

I had quite a lot of contact with Castell d’Age when they started their way towards the top some years ago. I also used a picture from one of their vineyards as header for this blog for a while.

3rd generation Olivia Junyent now leads the cava and wine company in the village of La Beguda Baixa. 6 different vineyards below the Montserrat mountain range allow the varieties to be planted where it’s most suitable for a good ripening. All vines are tended in a biodynamic way.

This wine is based on 70% sauvignon blanc and the rest xarel.lo, from slate and chalky soil. It is spontaneously fermented, aged on fine lees for 6 months and bottled unfined and unfiltered with low sulphur.

Fragments 2017 (Castell d’Age)

Light golden colour. Ripe fruit aromas, mature apples, a touch of citrus (lime) and ginger. It still has a freshness in the mouth, quite full and with good length. Lovely now, and I don’t think it will improve.

Price: Low

Food: Fish, shellfish, salads, Spanish ham, tapas…

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