Wine Chords

Making Sense

Published 17. December 2021 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Celler Batea speaks about duality. One expression of this is the mixture of Continental and Mediterranean influences in their home town Batea, DO Terra Alta (Catalunya). Another is the focus on two grape varieties, that is the black and the white version of garnacha, or let’s just name it garnatxa, like it’s written here. It is these two varieties that make up the series of non-added-sulphites wines called Sense (meaning without in Catalan).

In 2019 the producer launched these wines, with total sulphites less than 10mg per liter. They are completely organic, do not contain any chemicals, nor preservatives and have not been filtered. The white wine was fermented in steel at 14-16°C with native yeasts, stayed there for 6 months on fine lees, with “batonnage” (stirring) to give more complexity and mouthfeel.

Sense Blanc 2020 (Celler Batea)

Dark golden colour, hint of brown. In the front are aromas of mature apples and bitter almond, underlying we find fennel, aniseed and a touch of honey. Quite full and nutty in the mouth, with a good acidity that’s important to balance the ripe fruit and relatively high alcohol (14%). Somewhat bitter end. Lots of character.

Price: Medium-low

Food: Rice dishes, salads, white and red fish, tasty shellfish, pasta, pizza, cheeses and more

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Wine of the Week

Lambrusco ancestral

Published 10. December 2021 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Here is a wonderful ancestral from Emilia-Romagna, in the historic Lambrusco category, based on the grape with that name.

Il Farneto was founded in the 1990’s, always with the intention to produce environmental sustainable wines. Today they own 34 hectares, 8 of them vineyard, near Scandiano in Reggio Emilia.

This wine is a red natural wine made with the ancestral method from organic and biodynamic grapes. Some key words: Spontaneous fermentation, native yeasts, unfined, unfiltered, minimal added sulfites, low alcohol (11,5%)..

Frisant Rosso 2020 (Il Farneto)

Ruby red, bubbly. Aromas of red berries (strawberry, raspberry), a floral component. Fresh, luscious taste with herbs and licorice.

Price: Low

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The lamb lies down

Wine of the Week

The lamb lies down

Published 3. December 2021 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Lammershoek is located in the picturesque Paardeberg area of Swartland. Here the owners of the winery have found their breathing space, “close to nature with unbeatable views that speak to the soul”, they explain. The grapes are also grown in harmony with the rich animal and bird life of the place.

Lammershoek has been a cornerstone and a leading light in Swartland, and therefore in modern South-African quality wine for generations. Craig Hawkins, himself a mentor for others, was head-winemaker for almost ten years before he decided to put all his effort into his own project Testalonga in 2016. (Search these pages for several of his wines, and also Intellego and Mother Rock.)

Today Lammershoek is owned by Andreas Abold, originally from Germany, and Fedor Radmann, a business-man and friend from Switzerland. Footballer Franz Beckenbauer was also co-owner, but left the pitch a couple of years ago. Their famous wine Libero No 5 is attributed to him.

Lammershoek means “lambs’ corner” in the Afrikaans language. Local legend says that the sheep sought shelter for their babies in the nearby forest, from the black eagle and other birds of prey.

The Innocent is some kind of an entry-level range. Mostly from old dry-farmed bush-vines, the wines have always lots of character and a high quality. The pinotage is somehow taken back to its roots. This ruby red wine made in a subtle, youthful Beaujolais style, is different from what people have come to expect from a pinotage nowadays. The bushes are between 21 and 50 years old, all dry-farmed. Partial whole-bunch fermentation.

The Innocent Pinotage 2018 (Lammershoek)

Ruby red, a bit blueish youthfulness. Aroma of red berries (cherries), plums, over a hint of herbs and licorice. Subtle, youthful, luscious taste with with careful tannins, low alcohol (12%) and an energetic whole-bunch acidity, – and yet a sweet sensation that I often associate with pinotage lingers in the long aftertaste.

Price: Low

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Wine of the Week

Vegan friendly butcher

Published 26. November 2021 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

It might not at first right look like a vegan friendly wine. But the back label says so, and there is little about this wine that should be harmful. Or rather: The answer to this should be given by the vegans themselves. Fellow Burgenland producer Meinklang has become popular in several markets with labels showing their dear cows and oxen.

Anyway, Hans Schwarz was as a master butcher before he decided to found his own winery around 20 years ago. Now he has established a reputation of making honest wines according to local traditions, without thinking about what trends are going on internationally. His son Michael has also been involved in the work, and is now effectively the winemaker of the house.

Before establishing the winery in 1999 Hans Schwarz sold grapes to the area’s top producers, including top dessert wine producer Alois Kracher. The geographical location of their vineyards are more precisely Andau, Neusiedlersee and St. Georgen am Leithagebirge. They sit on different types of soil such as shale, lime and sand, silt and clay. Zweigelt is the most important grape variety of their 12 hectare vineyard.

The wines undergo natural fermentation in neutral barrels or in steel tanks to preserve the fruit quality. This one in particular was fermented in steel with two weeks maceration and aged one year in old barriques.

The Butcher Zweigelt 2020 (Schwarz Weine)

Dark ruby garnet, violet reflections. Aroma of ripe plums, cherries, raspberry, flowers and a hint of licorice. Juicy in the mouth, with delicate tannin and fresh berry fruit.

Price: Low

Food: Salads, lightly spiced food, some Asian and (sorry, vegans out there) light meat, grilled fish, tasty shellfish such as crab.

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Wine of the Week

Beaujolais is back

Published 19. November 2021 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Beaujolais is back. The local people brings it back on the squares of central Beaujolais after two pandemic years. And as usual, from the third Thursday of November it’s arrivé here for us to enjoy.

One of the best I have tasted this year is a Beaujolais-Villages from Château du Chatelard. The château was first owned by the Tournus abbey of south Burgundy in the 12th century. Today the labels carry emblems of the families that have developed it further.

The actual 28 hectares were mainly established before 1955. They believe in integrated farming and grass cover of the parcels to preserve the soils and the biodiversity.

Aurélie de Vermont is now manager, and as winemaker she sticks to local traditions. She selects micro-cuvées from the many terroirs of both their Beaujolais and Mâconnais vineyards.

Typical for the area, low temperature semi-carbonic maceration is used for the nouveau. This means that whole and partial bunches of grapes are vatted and the alcoholic fermentation starts inside each grape. The low temperature allows a longer winemaking process (more than 10 days).

Baronne du Chatelard Beaujolais-Villages Nouveau 2021 (Château du Chatelard)

Deep purple, young. Aroma of sweet cherries, raspberries. Nice acidity, clean fruit, elegant and careful tannin

Price: Medium-low

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Wine of the Week

COS Zibibbo

Published 12. November 2021 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Here is a lovely white from southeastern Sicilia, from the zibibbo variety. I have earlier also highlighted the red version. (Read here.)

COS started in 1980, when the three architecture students Giambattista Cilia, Giusto Occhipinti and Cirino Strano, mostly as a fun experiment, founded the winery. Names are composed of the initials of the three classmates’ surnames. Today, they make top wines using ancient methods in Vittoria on the southern tip of Sicilia. Today they cultivate 35 hectares biodynamically.

The grape for this one is zibibbo, in the moscato family. The soil is calcareous and volcanic clay, with silica sand, in a vineyard planted in 2001. It’s of course spontaneously fermented, before a 7 months skin-maceration, and maturation a few months in clay. COS prefers the Spanish tinajas as made by José Padilla of Albacete (read here). Unfiltered.

Certification is organic, and they work according to biodynamic principles.

Zibibbo Pithos Bianco 2018 (Az. Agr. COS)

Light golden. Aromatics include apple, orange blossom, pineapple, and a touch of honey. Full-bodied, dense, adequate acidity.

Price: Medium

Food: Dried fish, salads, light meat, pork…

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Wine of the Week

Slovakian wolves at Bellies

Published 5. November 2021 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

I could have written a long introduction to the tasting. Here I will just mention that Nebbiolo Wines is one of the most important importers of natural wines in Norway, and Bellies, where Jan-Erik Hybertsen conducted this tasting (he is actually also a classical musical conductor) is probably the best 100% vegan restaurant in Norway. I came a bit late, so I chose to concentrate on the Czech and Slovakian producers of their portfolio.

Magula is the Slovakian producer that we shall focus on here. They make natural wines exclusively from their own, organically grown grapes of Slovak and regional varieties. They started out in 2007, and since 2016 the farming has been biodynamic. They are found in Suchá Nad Parnou, a traditional wine-making village in the Small Carpathian wine region, just northeast of Bratislava. Here we find deep loess soils with a high proportion of minerals, especially calcium, and there is scarce rainfall, coupled with a large proportion of sunny days.

At Bellies: Nestarec’s Czech wine Umami left

In 2001 they picked up the family tradition that been interrupted by the communist era. At that time they had an estate near what is in Slovak called the Wolf valley, from where this series of wines take its names.

Vlk is Slovak for wolf, and Oranžový Vlk becomes orange wolf. Among the other contributions the red, Cerveny Vlk, has a nice evolution while retaining its fine acidity; lots of red fruit and some leather and chocolate. The Frankovka (blaufränkisch in Austria) has a typical stony & herby aroma and fleshy taste. The pink wolf, Ružový, was a superb, fresh, lightly structured rosé.

The orange wolf is made from white grapes by open vat fermentation on skins and stems, followed by further maceration for two weeks. The blend is welschriesling 50% and grüner veltliner 30%, both from an old vineyard in Wolf’s valley, with the variety devín from a young vineyard on Rose mountain. It’s spontaneously fermented, unfiltered, unfined, and with no SO2 added. It’s aged in old barrels and amphorae. Half of it had two months of skin-contact with stems, most of the rest had ten days of skin-contact.

Orange wolf bottle next to the glass on the left

Oranžový Vlk 2019 (Magula)

Deep orange. Aroma of stone fruits, apricot, peel and a touch of smoke. Medium-bodied with light tannin, good concentration and fruit, and adequate acidity.

Price: Medium

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Wine of the Week

Fonterenza Brunello di Montalcino 2014

Published 29. October 2021 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Here is a “young” and dark wine from a vintage with problems and where many producers chose to declassify their brunello to rosso. It was one of several good wines from a private brunello tasting last week.

Fonterenza was created by two twin sisters from Milano. They planted their first vineyard in 1999, and now all the plots are cultivated biodynamically, as natural as possible and with minimum intervention.

The grapes are sourced from a small plot with clay and shale soil. The must ferments in 1.750 litre Slovenian oak foudres with native yeasts. It is aged in 2.000 and 2.300 litre barrels for 47 months. The final wine is not filtered or clarified before bottling.

Brunello di Montalcino 2014 (Fonterenza)

Dark cherry red, a bit brick-toned; aromas of dark and wild berries and a touch of smoke and leather; fresh in the mouth, dense, with quite elegant tannins, long. Will keep.

Price: High

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Wine of the Week

Luca Roagna’s selected rosé

Published 22. October 2021 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Luca Roagna is a well-known producer of delicious barberas and stylish barolos. But there is much more. This rosé is a collaboration with local farmers, where Roagna has been part of the whole process and did the final selection.

We are in northwestern Piemonte in the cool area Bricherasio. This region is capable of making fresh wines with excellent fruit. There is barbera, nebbiolo, dolcetto, freisa and several lesser known local varieties.

Everything is natural, on sugar added, low sulphur, and the wine is naturally fined and filtered.

Selezione di Luca Roagna Piemonte Rosato 2020 (Vignaioli Piemontesi)

Light red, touch of salmon colour. Lots of fresh berries in the aroma (raspberry, wild strawberry) and flowers. Some structure, concentrated fruit on the palate, fresh acidity, long.

Price: Low

Food: Light meat, antipasti, fish, shellfish, pasta…

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Articles and Wine of the Week

Nadal at a Corpinnat tasting

Published 15. October 2021 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

While Norway changed government with parades and speeches, an interesting tasting took place just across the street at the Grand Hotel. This tasting in Oslo was the first official Corpinnat tasting outside of Spain.

To be short, Corpinnat (meaning born in the Penedès, after Roman etymological roots) is a group of Catalan producers of sparkling wine that has left DO Cava. All ten producers with wines in the market were represented. Leading the tasting was Carles del Amor, export director of Nadal, one of the six founding members – together with Liora Levi, Norwegian sommelier and wine writer.

Carles del Amor while preparing the tasting in Oslo

The tasting showed a variety of styles. Some wineries contributed what they consider the more typical from their range, while others offered “top” wines. There were examples of restrained, mineral wines, while others were more on the fruity side. Some dominated by the xarel.lo grape (also varietals), others with more parellada. One rosé.

There will be a longer report that I will link to here. Now I will just present one wine in the ever ongoing Wine of the Week series.

Since Carles is here (on behalf of Corpinnat, that is) I still want to focus a bit on Nadal‘s contribution. Their Brut Nature Reserve 2015 was maybe the most flowery/fruity of the lot. This can maybe be seen from the grape composition; parellada 57%, xarel.lo 22%, macabeu 21%. While xarel.lo is a variety with a lot of acidity and preferred in wines made for ageing, parellada contributes more finesse and aroma. This said, Carles tells that they have a project going on, trying to prepare parellada for more ageing, for example by moving higher up towards the Pyrenees. By doing this they also prepare themselves for new, hotter times. The wine has an ageing of 60 months on the lees, is a non dosé obviously organically grown (as is mandatory without Corpinnat), and it’s degorged 21st June 2021 (also obligatory information within the group).

Here are other posts about members of the group (search the site for more):

Gramona

Recaredo

Mas Candí

Brut Nature Reserve 2015 (Nadal)

Light golden; fruity with aromas of white flowers, elegant yeast notes, a subtle hint of ginger and nuts; quite soft structure, but enough acidity – wonderfully balanced.

Price: Medium

Food: Fish, shellfish, light meat, salads various tapas and the best serrano hams

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