Category: Wine of the Week

Kritt from Kreydenweiss

Published 28. April 2023 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

I was lucky to get a table at Vinkontoret (The Wine Office), Stavanger, Norway on their last day. Now they have closed the doors.

This is a biodynamically farmed pinot blanc, also with some auxerrois. The vineyards sit on iron-rich clayey soils outside Andlau village. Some keywords: Hand-harvested, whole bunches, natural fermentation in old Alsatian foudres without additives, aging on the lees for up to a year, bottled lightly filtered with only a tiny quantity of sulphites.

Kritt Pinot Blanc 2019 (Marc Kreydenweiss)

Light golden. Flowery, with pear, mature yellow apples and some herbs. Concentrated, round, creamy and somewhat buttery in the mouth, a small quantity residual sugar well balanced with the acidity. Long salty finish.

Price: Medium

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Wine of the Week

Monkeys in the mountains

Published 21. April 2023 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

4 Monos are four friends who all had fallen in love with the garnachas and the freshness of the Sierra de Gredos mountain range. Javier García and Laura Robles are a married couple, and their friends David Velasco and David Moreno are the two other monkeys.

We are in the town and the Madrid subzone of San Martín de Valdeiglesias. Here is a high proportion of clay in the soils. The wine is made with garnacha from three different plots at 750 to 840 meters of altitude. In short, it’s made with whole bunches, fermentation with native yeasts and maturation in barrels for 15 months.

Tierra de Luna 2017 (4 Monos)

Ruby red. Aroma of mature red fruits (raspberry), herbs (rosemary), earthy notes and a tiny sweet sensation (caramel). Medium-bodied with fine tannins, a taste of ripe cherries, good acidity.

Price: Medium

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Wine of the Week

Delicate Chilean bargain

Published 14. April 2023 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

This week’s wine is a bargain, a delicate Chilean red at an exceptionally low cost. I really don’t understand why it retails this cheap (149 NOK, 10.000 CLP in winery). Maybe that is why it hasn’t got more recognition.

Juan Segura is a family-firm, now in its 5th generation, in the Itata valley, not far from the city of Concepción. They make wines in the same line from cinsault and carignan. This one is from the variety país, from up to 200 years old bush-pruned, dry-farmed vines. The wines are labeled with DO Secano Interior.

Juan Segura País 2021 (Empresas H. Segura)

Ruby red. Aromas of red fruits (cherry, raspberry), red apple, herbs (nutmeg). Fresh and vibrant in the mouth, juicy, with a delicate structure, quite long. Serve a bit chilled.

Price: Low

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Wine of the Week

Premsal at Zaza

Published 7. April 2023 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

I tasted this wine with its maker Carlos and his wife at wine bar Zaza in Barcelona during the Vins Nus and Vella Terra fairs of April.

Carlos Rodríguez Furthmann began his project in 2015, focusing on native varieties made by minimal intervention. He is found in the small settlement of Selva in north-central Mallorca, where he farms around one hectare organically from clay and limestone soil, while purchasing a small amount of other grapes from local growers.

Premsal is a native Majorcan grape variety, here grown in a single vineyard in Felanitx. The winemaking process involves spontaneous fermentation, with part of it kept on its fine lees for two months. A small percentage of the wine is fermented in a Mallorcan clay amphora. Only a small quantity of sulphites were added. The wine is not clarified or filtered.

Premsal 2018 (Selva Vins)

Light straw colour. Aromatic, red apples, melons and citrus. Medium-bodied, dry, with good acidity.

Price: Medium

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Wine of the Week

La Bruja de Rozas 2020

Published 31. March 2023 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

La Bruja de Rozas is Comando G’s entry level wine. It’s a village wine from several plots around Rozas de Puerto Real, in the western part of Madrid province. The vineyards are located around 850-900 meters above sea level, and the vines are 50-80 years old. Cultivation is organical and according to biodynamic principles. The grapes are spontaneously fermented with a large proportion of whole clusters in open vessels. Long and gentle maceration for 30-40 days. Maturation partly in large foudres of 3-6,000 litres, used 500-litre barrels and a small proportion in concrete. Unfined and unfiltered.

La Bruja de Rozas 2020 (Comando G)

Ruby red. Aromatic with mature red fruits (raspberry), flowers, spices (cinnamon), smoke and a mineral layer behind. Energetic, with young tannins, fresh acidity. It’s in a way juicy and concentrated at the same time.

Price: Medium

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Wine of the Week

Motor with drive

Published 24. March 2023 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Francesc Grimalt is leading figure in the restoration of the callet grape variety. In 2006 he teamed up with Sergi Caballero and founded the 4 Kilos winery. The name is an expression for 4 million pesetas, which was their initial investment to launch the company.

4 Kilos is based in Felanitx, in the inland of Mallorca. On this well-known holiday island the climate is mild Mediterranean, with dry and warm summers and very little rainfall. Francesc and Sergi practice an environmentally-friendly agriculture with a minimum of intervention.

The soils are clay loam containing ferric oxide. After the manual harvest with grapes selected in the vineyard, the juice was fermented in cubs (brick and concrete vats traditional in the area). Here the wine was aged for about 3 months. There was no added sulphites during the process.

Motor Callet 2021 (4 Kilos)

Ruby red. Aroma of mature raspberries and orange, and a layer of herbs. Juicy in the mouth, expressive, round and at the same time a fresh drive, some coffee in the back palate.

Price: Medium

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Wine of the Week

Crescendo from Liguria

Published 17. March 2023 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

I don’t taste wines from Liguria too often. Here is a delicious white from the lesser known pigato variety.

Pigato has been in the area for centuries. Genetically it is a clone of vermentino. But it has differentiated over time and developed its own characteristics. Pighe means freckles in local dialect, a reference to the spots on its skin. Pigato has generally more aromatic qualities than its twin, possibly also more structure.

Tenuta Selvadolce is overlooking the sea in the extreme western Liguria in Bordighera, a few kilometers from the border with France. It extends for about 7 hectares in one of the most panoramic heights of the town.

The vineyard sits at an altitude of about 150-200 meters with a southern exposure, and managed biodynamically. The soils contain limestone and clay. Harvest is by hand, and fermentation takes place spontaneously in wood. The wine ages in stainless steel vats on lees with batonnage for 6 months and is bottled without clarification or filtration.

Crescendo 2020 (Ten. Selvadolce)

Light yellow. Expressive aromas of white fruit (white peach), citrus (lime), white almonds and a touch of butter. On the palate it’s full, savoury, harmonious and ends with a pleasant salinity.

Price: Medium

Food: Seafood, spaghetti vongole, other pasta ‘frutti di mare’, fish soup, grilled fish

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Wine of the Week

Landi’s Uvas de la Ira

Published 10. March 2023 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

At home after two lovely days in Sierra de Gredos I was inspired to extend the trip a little. So I fetched a wine from the cellar. I had a couple of other quite recent vintages. But I chose the current, 2020, to be able to refill.

Daniel Jiménez-Landi is part of the dynamic duo Comando G. But his family has deep roots in the Toledo province, and this wine is from there, within the Méntrida denomination to be more exact.

Las Uvas de la Ira, meaning The Grapes of Wrath, is a village wine made from old-vine garnacha in four different vineyards high up in El Real de San Vicente, Gredos.

Uvas de la Ira 2020 (D. Jiménez-Landi)

Ruby red, blueish hint. Red fruits (raspberry, strawberry), flowers, a layer of smoke and stone minerality. It’s youthful and a bit fleshy in the mouth, with young tannins and a fresh acidity. It’s quite concentrated, at the same time it has an ethereal quality typical of Gredos garnachas.

Price: Medium

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Wine of the Week

Alba from Albillo

Published 3. March 2023 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Fabio Bartolomei was born in Scotland to Italian immigrant parents. There he studied accounting and finance. In 2001 he decided to move to Spain to make wine. For many years he also worked as a translator. It was not until 2019 that he became a full time winemaker.

Fabio knew from the start that he didn’t want to use pesticides or additives. But he didn’t know that natural wine was an expression for that kind of wines. Since 2014 he has used the old cooperative building in El Tiemblo as his winery.

Here you can read a short piece about yesterday’s lunch in that bodega.

Alba is an orange wine made with albillo real grapes. The grape was fermented with native yeasts with the skins, then pressed and finished in stainless steel. It was transferred to clay amphoras and matured there for five months. Unclarified, unfiltered and without added sulphites.

Alba 2021 (Vinos Ambiz)

Golden colour, hazy. Aromatic, with yellow apple, peach and flowers in front, then a layer of nuts with a touch of honey. Medium-bodied, luscious, drinkable and also quite long.

Price: Medium

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Wine of the Week

Rawditis

Published 24. February 2023 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Have you ever heard of roditis? This grape comes in many variations and clones throughout Greece. Robinson, Harding and Voillamoz (in the book Wine Grapes) say that it has generally low ambitions and often comes in field-blends. Here it is in its crude version, and with serious goals, a lovely natural wine from producer Oenops Wines of Drama.

Winemaker is Nikos Karatzas. The grapes come from old vineyards and are picked by hand. Fermentation is carried out with native yeasts in a clay pot, where the juice remains on the lees for a month. The wine stays in a for further a 6 months. No additions are made.

Rawditis is accompanied on the market by the equally ambitious and raw red Xinomavraw, also recommended.

Rawditis 2021 (Oenops)

Golden with orange hints. Expressive aroma of peach, apricot, white flowers, citrus peel, honey and a touch of smoke. Rich in the mouth, with a good acidity and some bitterness towards the end, long and dried-fruity finish.

Price: Medium

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