Here is a simple, light and fresh wine from Argentina’s national grape malbec. It’s made in Mendoza’s Valle de Uco in stainless steel, and with selected yeasts.
Camaleón Malbec Organic 2016 (Lea)
Dark, blueish. Young and fresh aroma of berries (mature raspberry, cassis), herbs and licorice. Quite soft taste with a touch of tannins and adequate acidity.
Price: Low
Leave a CommentThis wine was marked with my name in the wine cabinet, when we arrived an Airbnb flat in Barcelona, generously given by the host.
Here is a reserva made near Dalí’s Cadaqués and Figueres, in La Selva de Mar (meaning ‘the sea jungle’) in the high Empordà. It has nothing to do with the dramatic valleys of Priorat, nor the wide plains of Costers del Segre.
We are above the Saint Romà valley, where Diego Soto and Núria Dalmau bought this property in 1989. They restored a farm-house in the middle of the vineyards, and recovered the rest of the estate. 17 hectares of land are now planted with garnatxa, carinyena, syrah, monastrell and moscatel (the alexandria version). They were thinking organically from the start, and biodynamically since 1999.
The property is located within the Cap Creus nature park, bordering the Mediterranean Sea. It’s a steep farm with some terraces, and a soil rich in slate.
This wine is made from garnatxa 50%, syrah 30%, and the rest carinyena. In short, the altitude is 120-380 meters, the grapes were hand-picked, underwent a spontaneous fermentation and maceration in stainless steel at 22˚C, and the finished wine was aged 15 months in French oak casks.
Vinya Selva de Mar 2007 (Mas Estela)
Quite dark with brownish rim. Aroma of mature berries, cherries, plums, spices (cinnamon and pepper), some dried fruit and a slight touch of raisins. Full on the palate, adequate acidity, a nice wine at its height right now when the oak is well integrated.
Price: Medium
Leave a CommentIt was a surprise for several people in a recent tasting. Nevertheless, the Quinta Sant’Ana of Mafra, Lisboa has many times demonstrated its ability to make good wines in a sustainable manner.
As stated a few times, I really do appreciate the Lisboa region. It’s not among the most dramatic of wine countries, neither in landscape nor temperatures, but there are myriads of micro-climates, and often within very short distances.
At Sant’Ana, around 100 meters above sea level and only 12 km from the sea, there is a strong Atlantic influence. The quinta has steep slopes and calcareous clay soils. Typically here are cool nights and cloudy, misty mornings, but in the afternoon the sun shines through.
António Moita Maçanita, winemaker
Their winemaker has experience from Napa and Australia, as well as a period at Lynch Bages in Bordeaux. Back in Portugal he was consulting for several wineries while he was all the time exploring the local terroirs.
Earlier ampelographers linked the albariño/alvarinho to riesling, suggesting that the pilgrims could have brought it to the Iberian peninsula on their way to Compostela. While this has proved to be wrong this wine could well be heading a new caste of Atlantic rieslings, with a blend of the German steeliness and the richer Atlantic fruit.
The grape saperavi is so dark in color it’s called black in Georgian, according to producer Pheasant’s Tears. During the last few years I have tasted quite a few saperavi wines, and the colour varies from very deep, dark red to opaque black. This one is probably the Georgian saperavi most widely found outside its homeland.
Georgia has a 8.000 year long unbroken history of fermenting and ageing the wines in qvevri, big clay vessels lined with beeswax and buried under the ground, where the temperature is stable. All Pheasant’s Tears’ wines are made according to this tradition, and with a low-interventional approach.
As pointed out in many blogposts I appreciate this way of making wine, without any oak to disturb the natural flavours of the grape. One could also say that the way the beeswax is treated, or whether it is applied at all, is also a topic (and a discussion too long for this post), but generally speaking clay is more respectful to the grape than wood.
(photo: courtesy of Pheasant’s Tears)
Pheasant’s Tears is found in the Kakheti region. Here in the eastern part of the country, besides the snow-covered Caucasus, the family of winemaker Gela Patalishvili has been making wine for more than 8 generations. In summer there is more than 14 hours of sunlight a day, and the evenings are cooled down by the breezes from the mountains. The soil has limestone, chalk and dark clay over sandy loam mixed with gravel, that gives good drainage.
Though the family has been farmers for a long time it was only in 2007, when American John Wurdeman joined forces, that the modern company came to being, and 2009 was the first vintage to be bottled.
The must underwent a spontaneous fermentation, 10 days maceration with skins, and the finished wine was bottled unfined and unfiltered. Just a slight amount of SO2 (10 mg) was added before bottling.
Saperavi 2013 (Pheasant’s Tears)
Black as ink, as a november night, dense. Ink, peppery, raisiny aroma. In spite of the black colour saperavi wines are often juicy, grapey, with not at all the extremely powerful body and tannin structure as indicated by the colour, nor a very long aftertaste. This one is just like that, surprisingly drinkable. Highly personal, deliciously different!
Price: Medium
Food: Lamb, pig, fowl and game. Try with mature, hard cheeses
Leave a CommentYesterday was the third Thursday of November, also known as the day of the Beaujolais Nouveau release. Our readers will know that we (journalistic pluralis) love this style. And among the various nouveau wines we often prefer wines like Lapierre/Cambon (featured last November), Foillard (reported on a few times) were again among the best. Brun is also one of my favourite producers of the area, but has so far not been highlighted. This year I think he may have made the best of all nouveaux.
Jean-Paul Brun’s winery is located in Charnay in the southern part of Beaujolais, a beautiful landscape with the golden stones that give the name to his estate.
Today he owns 45 hectares, mostly around the winery, but some in other crus and communes.
His winemaking philosophy can be summed up in a few words: natural yeasts, spontaneous fermentation, low SO2, traditional Beaujolais maceration.
Terres Dorées L’Ancien Beaujolais Nouveau 2016 (J.-P. Brun)
Ruby red. Berry-driven aroma, raspberry, and behind that, more mature morello, a hint of animal too. It has the full, luscious appeal that we expect of a nouveau, but it’s more structured than normal, with tannins and acidity in balance. Allow it to breathe in glass or carafe. Will keep well for a couple of years.
Price: Low
Food: Light meat, cod with bacon, hors d’oeuvre, pasta…
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This week’s pick comes from a winery that never converted to organic growing. It wasn’t necessary because it has always been, as they count on a history of five generations and 200 unbroken years of making natural wines. They were also key figures in establishing the AOC for Bandol during the German occupation. François Dutheil (father to current owner) was one of the people behind AVN (l’Association des Vins Naturels), where Marcel Lapierre of Beajolais participated and soon became a leading figure. The only ingredient except for the grapes is SO2, only in tiny amounts and only in the vineyard against fungus.
Raphaël Etienne
The vineyards of Bandol lies for a great part on south-faced terraces in the in-land from the seaside town that gives the wine its name. As for the rest of the region rosé is dominating in quantity, around 80% even here. And much wine is classified as Côte de Provence. Myself I am drawn towards the red wines of the region, often a bit mystic, not lightweight, neither heavy and «clumsy». They can have a fresh fruit, but they are never sharp. They have long oak-ageing, often more than the obligatory 18 months. But the best will never smell of wood, as they are subject to a treatment in big, used foudres that make them «breathe». At Ste. Anne, red is the most important wine.
The mourvèdre grape is king. Just like its equivalent monastrell on the Spanish Levante coast Bandol is one of the few places where you can be sure that the grape will mature. But still the general alcohol levels in Ste. Anne’s range of wines are low. This is due to the special microclimate below the Gros Cerveau peaks, that gives very cool summer nights. The cold air is accumulated because of special metheorologic phenomena between the mountains in the area. The tannins are soft and rounded. Mourvèdre is harvested later here than other places, around mid-October. It must be fully ripe, otherwise the wine will be hard and bitter. A way to understand when the time is right, according to Raphaël, is that the skin is no longer elastic and that the pips are brownish.
The Bandol 2010 is made from 60% mourvèdre, and equal parts of grenache and cinsault. This is their main wine, and 30.000 bottles are made. Their bandol stays 20-22 months in foudres, and the various vintages are released when they are considered «ready». As a result the 2003 was released after both ’04 and ’05.
Bandol 2010 (Château Ste. Anne)
Deep purple in colour. Very complex aroma of red fruits (raspberries), flowers, balsamic notes (red lickorice), combined with some mineral notes. There is a slight touch of volatile acidity too, that is by no means disturbing, but in my opinion it adds to the freshness. Medium to full body. When I last tasted this wine, at the winery before the release, the tannins were more evident, now everything is in perfect harmony. Mature, but will keep.
Price: Medium
Food: Beef, game, duck and other full-flavoured meat. Cheese, both manchego type and some blue cheeses. Fiona Beckett writes about steak pie that red bandol can be a perfect choice. The possibilities are endless.
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Have you ever heard about roter veltliner? It’s not a cousin of grüner veltliner, nor is it a grape for making red wines (although the skins have some colour). It’s a grape mostly found in Austria and maybe most prominently in Wagram, Niederösterreich. We don’t know exactly where it came from. What we know is that red muscat is one of the many synonyms, along with various traminers.
The Söllner winery is located in Wagram, some 70 kilometers west of Wien, very near Wachau. It has a view over the Donau valley and lies on sandy terraces with red gravel, organic since 1997. They claim that the variety is the oldest in the region, probably introduced by the Romans.
For the roter veltliner they use hand-picked, selected, ripe grapes from differnent plots around the village Gösing. The fermentation, spontaneous from indigenous yeasts, is carried out in stainless steel.
Roter Veltliner von Gösing 2015 (Söllner)
Light yellow with green hints. Aroma of citrus and white flowers, apricot and herbs. Fresh acidity, dry and very appealing.
Price: Low
Food: White fish, seafood, salads, lightly spiced Asian
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Many would hesitate to mention the Canary Islands among the regions capable to grow serious vineyard based wines, and in a sustainable way too. But they are, and here is a terrific white from northern/central Tenerife.
Near the mighty Teide peak, in mineral and volcanic soil of the Orotava valley, there is adequate sun conditions for making quality wines. The family behind Suerte del Marqués established quite recently this project, but it’s based on more than 100 years old vines with traditional varieties.
You will not you see any new barrels in their cellar. And in more technical terms there is no industrial yeasts nor enzymes at work. if any sulphur is used it’s only a tiny amount before bottling.
The variety is listán negro, the same grape that is used for sherry, in combination with other local white grapes such as pedro ximénez and the local variety of albillo.
The term trenzado signifies the way the vines are trained, like a braid.
Trenzado 2014 (Suertes del Marqués)
Yellow-orange-light brownish colour. Complex aroma with flowers, yellow tomatoes, herbs and spices. Creamy mouthfeel with a fresh, citrusy mineral fruit, and a nice and spicy finish.
Price: Medium
Food: Tapas made with fish, shellfish or meat, light meat and grilled fish
Leave a Comment100% Verdicchio from Castelli di Jesi in Marche on the Italian Adriatic coast.
After harvest and pressing the must was fermented spontaneously. The wine was kept 9 months on lees in big, old oak vats and steel.
PassoLento Classico Riserva 2013 (La Marca di San Michele)
Orange, light brownish. Fresh, juicy, appley with citrus, slightly buttery with some nuts. Good acidity and length.
Price: Medium
Leave a CommentThe Perricone grape variety originated from western Sicilia. In the past it was mostly noted for full bodied, bitter and alcoholic wines. But with today’s farming methods, often organic growing, low yields and early picking (or earlier, as it ripens very late) it has more appeal for modern palates, and still with high antioxidant qualities.
The small cooperative Valdibella in Camporeale (Palermo province) was among those who took part in the rescue operation, as the variety was in danger of extinction. Valdibella takes their pride in preserving the biodiversity, and they make natural wines in the sense that the interventions in vineyards and cellar, as well as chemical additives, are held on an absolute minimum, for some wines absolutely nothing.
Acamante is made only from perricone, hand-harvested, only with indigenous yeasts, and with no fining nor filtering. It comes with a low alcohol at 12%.
Acamante Perricone 2013 (Valdibella)
Dark colour. A floral, perfumed scent, red berries, with some earth and spicyness. Balanced tannins, and refreshing acidity on the palate, a slight hint of bitterness. Delightful drinking.
Price: Medium
Food: Light meat, pasta, antipasti with salami and other…
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