Tag: organic

The sweet side of Champagne

Published 8. December 2023 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

There are many different dessert and fortified wines. This one is very little known, but I don’t understand why. It’s a moderately sweet wine that pairs well with typical Christmas fruit cakes like panettone and pandoro. The category is ratafia, elaborated throughout the Mediterranean, but this specific wine belongs to the sub-category Ratafia de Champagne (or: Champenois). It was my contribution to a blind tasting session in the local wine club, and one of the highlights of the evening.

The term “ratafia” can be used in about three different products; some may know the almond biscuit and the liqueur. The dessert wine has seen a solid upturn in recent years, and there are now at least 120 producers of ratafia in Champagne.

An anecdote explains that the name is supposed to have come from Catalunya, where three bishops are said to have argued fiercely, but finally reached an agreement. They wanted to celebrate this with a toast, and got some wine from a local farmer. As his drink had no name, they suggested “rata fiat” (Lat. ‘it is signed’), the last words of the document they had drawn up.

The wine is fortified, but it’s not marked by alcohol,. It’s fresh, and not overtly sweet. The basis are organically grown 1 cru chardonnay grapes from Montagne de Reims. They were manually harvested in october 2013. The alcoholic fermentation was blocked by adding distilled wine (marc). It was then aged for 7 years in wooden casks of 400 and 600 liters. The wine clocks in at 18% alcohol and 100 g sugar.

Vilmart & Cie is a récoltant-manipulant (RM) in Rilly-la-Montagne, just outside the city of Reims. They are now in their 5th generation and grow their grapes organically.

Ratafia Chardonnay (Vilmart)

Golden colour. Fresh aroma of mature lemons, candid apricots, menthol. Medium-bodied with good concentration, fresh acidity and a natural/integrated sweetness reminiscent of acacia honey. Great length and balance. Inspiring.

Price: Medium

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Wine of the Week

Arizcuren’s Garnacha

Published 10. November 2023 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Garnacha was once the main variety in the historic vineyards of the lower Rioja. This wine is a nod to this tradition. We are in the northern slopes of the Sierra de Yerga. Javier Arizcuren here works with some of the few old vineyards, in the Gobelet conduction system.

The wine seeks to be an expression of the both the variety and of the place where it grows, therefore no foreign products are used in the process (except a small amount of sulfur). The wood is used exclusively for thewine stabilization process, without being excessively marked.

The grapes were manually harvested, with grape selection in the field. De-stemming. Alcoholic fermentation with wild yeasts at around 25ºC. Daily stirring and pumping over, then only stirring. Malolactic fermentation in steel. 8 months in 225-litre American oak barrels (6th year) and an additional 2 months in new French oak barrels.Total SO2 is 50 mg/litre.

Solo Garnacha 2016 (Javier Arizcuren)

Dark cherry red. Youthful aroma of blackberry and cherry, a touch of coffee and sweet spice. Full in the mouth, rich with good weight and concentration, fine tannins, balanced acidity. Still young, and will improve.

Price: Medium

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Wine of the Week

Introducing: Esporão’s Colheita

Published 27. October 2023 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Esporão is an important and highly respected winery that has been featured here several times. This wine could well serve as an introduction to the company. It’s made from the varieties alicante bouschet, touriga nacional, aragonêz, cabernet sauvignon and touriga franca, from a 15 year old organic certified vineyard. The different varieties were co-fermented in concrete vats before malolactic fermentation. It stayed in concrete for 6 months.

Sandra Alves and Joao Ramos are the current winemakers of Esporão.

Esporão Colheita 2021 (Esporão)

Dark red, bluish hints. Mature dark fruits (dark cherry, blackcurrant), spice, almond, licorice. Young tannins, good fruit and body, light bitterness.

Price: Low

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Wine of the Week

Carefully crafted Caíño

Published 20. October 2023 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Zarate is Eulogio Pomares‘ family winery in Meaño, Rías Baixas. Eulogio still makes the wines here, as he has done since the 2000 vintage. But in recent years he has also put a lot of effort into making wines under his own name.

This wine originates from a vineyard close to the sea, with alluvial granite and river stones and almost 80 year old vines. It was fermented in large traditional chestnut fudres with a further eight months on lees.

Carralcoba Caíño Tinto 2016 (Eulogio Pomares)

Cherry red. Cool red fruits (raspberry, cherry), spice (nutmeg). Juicy and delicate, but also with crunch, salinity and a savoury acidity. Maybe optimal drinking at the moment.

Price: Medium-high

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Wine of the Week

Picaresque Toro

Published 29. September 2023 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

El Pícaro is a young red wine from the D.O. Toro made with tinta de toro (tempranillo) grapes from vines between 50 and 70 years old. It’s made by Bodega Matsu that work by minimal intervention, in the field according to organic and biodynamic principles. Matsu, meaning to wait in Japanese, is a project originated by the Riojan company Vintae.

The harvest was carried out manually during the first half of October. Fermentation happened in concrete tanks at temperatures not exceeding 24ºC. Malolactic fermentation was done in French oak barrels. Then came a 3 month period in wood. Not filtered nor clarified.

The winemaking is done in the facilities that Matsu rents from the Covitoro cooperative.

El Pícaro 2022 (Matsu)

Deep red with blue hint. Aroma of mature fruits, dark (blackberry, blueberry), eucalyptus and coffee. Medium-bodied, young tannins, mineral, powerful but also with a nice acidity.

Price: Low

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Wine of the Week

Raro rufete

Published 15. September 2023 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

I have tasted two varietal rufete wines from Sierra de Salamanca, both from producer La Zorra (meaning: the fox) and both in the 2018 vintage. Ituero is an ambitious, well-made paraje wine from a paraje (single site) called Itu. Here I chose Raro as this week’s pick, a very fresh fruit-driven wine.

Owner Agustín Maíllo is one of several that is currently recovering the winemaking traditions in the area and its indigenous red grape rufete.

The name La Zorra is inspired by the fable The Fox and the Grapes, written by Félix María de Samaniego,. At first, Agustín planned to make wine just for the family restaurant, but the current production is 50,000 bottles. They grow 20 hectares of vines, seven are their own and located in and around Mogarraz. Bunches are destemmed and fermentation takes place with indigenous yeasts.

Raro 2018 (La Zorra)

Cherry red. Fresh, fruit-driven, smells of cherry, raspberry, herbs, some licorice, there is also an earthy note. Fruity in the mouth, with fine tannins, decent concentration and a fresh acidity.

Price: Medium

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Wine of the Week

Brilliant bobal

Published 8. September 2023 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

This brilliant varietal bobal from Manchuela is one of the finest that exists. The producer Bodegas Ponce is described in several posts, such as this one.

The grapes for Ponce‘s Pino come from a one hectare farm with 35 years old vines, planted at an altitude of 900 metres above sea level, cultivated organically. After a careful maceration and treading of the grapes, fermentation spontaneously in oak vats. Then it spends 11 months in used French oak barrels of 600 litres.

Pino 2021 (Bodegas y Viñedos Ponce)

Dark cherry red. Cool fruits, red and dark, herbs, a mineral component. Medium-bodied with concentrated flavours,, good acidity, expressive and energetic.

Price: Medium

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Articles

From inside the Sekt

Published 24. August 2023 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Our local wine club featured Sekt, sparkling wines from Germany, the other day. The tasting showed an overall good quality-price ratio, I would say better than the tasting of spätburgunders a couple of months ago. There are four categories of German sparklers, from the basic Sekt, where the grapes can be of shopped around Europe, narrowing down to Winzersekt, where a smaller manufacturer owns the grapes himself.

Among the best, and also with a very good price, was this one. Raumland is a specialist located in Rheinhessen, with facilities for making sparkling wines offered to several famous German producers. All their vineyards are worked organically, and their sekts are normally fermented out dry.

Riesling Brut 2018 (Sekthaus Raumland)

Light yellow colour, fine bubbles (small mousse). Aromatic, green apples and lime, hint of bakery (after 36 months on the lees). Mellow entry, with apricot, a citrussy acidity grows in the mouth, it’s complex, it’s crisp and energetic, and it finishes off dry.

When the Suez Canal was opened in 1869 wine from Reichtsrat von Buhl was offered for the celebration. This cuvée is named to honour the occasion, 150 years later. Organically grown riesling grapes were harvested manually. The base wine was fermented in stainless steel and in tonneaux, followed by a traditional bottle fermentation on the lees for 40 months.

Suez Riesling Brut Nature 2015 (Reichtsrat von Buhl)

Light yellow, small mousse. Yellow fruit, mature apples, brioche notes. Full in the mouth, creamy texture, integrated acidity and a long finish. Mature style, elegant.

Sven Leiner’s domaine is located in Southern Pfalz. It consists of 15 hectares of vineyards, that he runs organically with biodynamic methods (and certification). Only a little sulfur is added to the wines before bottling, and no filtration is done. Some key words: Spätburgunder with chardonnay, age of wines 60-70 years, grapes harvested manually, fermented and matured in big oak vats and cement. I guess it’s assembled from three vintages corresponding with the numbers on the label.

Leiner Brut Nature (Weingut Leiner)

This wine lived up to the natural wines’ reputation of being living things, as it changed “colours” several times, from closed and square to open and well-assembled. In the beginning it showed a slight mousiness, but the day after (you see, this bottle I smuggled home after the tasting) it was clean and cutting.

Let’s try to assemble the many impressions: Light with very little bubbles. Aroma of ripe apples, some nuttiness and a stony minerality. Full in the mouth, a rich texture, and a fine mousse on the palate, integrated acidity, quite concentrated and long.

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Wine of the Week

Great Garnacha from Rioja

Published 11. August 2023 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Carlos Sánchez has a background from Sierra de Gredos (4 Monos). But he had early on fallen in love with the Sonsierra area of Rioja. And here he is. Since 2019 he has used the facilities of the former cooperative in Labastida.

This is a wine from a single plot (0,3 ha.) in San Vicente de la Sonsierra, on 100% garnacha. It’s spontaneously fermented with a high percentage of whole bunches, and kept in large oak barrels. Not clarified nor filtered. A modest production of 1.700 bottles.

Buradón Las Plegarias 2020 (Carlos Sánchez)

Cherry red. Good ripe fruit, red plums, cherry, some strawberry, and a layer of dried herbs and lavender. Good volume, soft and fleshy, fine tannins, integrated acidity. It’s rooted in its landscape, yet has a noble air to it. Really good.

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Wine bars and restaurants and Wine of the Week

Classic classico

Published 4. August 2023 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

I have been a couple of days in Grimstad, Norway, the beautiful seaside town of my childhood. The most inspiring restaurant these days is Smag & Behag. They have also opened another restaurant in neighbouring Kristiansand. But this is the original. The wine list is not very extensive, but they have a magnificent underground cellar, high ambitions – and the selection is well-crafted and consists of organic and natural wines of good quality.

Hans Petter Klemmetsen, founder and chef
(Credit: Smag & Behag)

For a four course meal I selected four wines together with the waiters. The three first wines -young and beautiful- were Brocard‘s saline Chablis Sainte Marie 2022, Domaine de Nozay‘s flinty Sancerre 2022 and Olivier Merlin‘s raspberry-scented Bourgogne Pinot Noir 2021. Instead of going for a dessert with a sweet wine I chose a selection of cheeses and this week’s wine, a classic style Chianti

Castell’in Villa is located in the south of Chianti Classico, just outside the village of Castelnuovo Berardenga east of Siena in Tuscany. The farm is run by the Greek-born Princess Coralia Pignatelli della Leonessa, who lives in a medieval tower on the property. Out of a total of 300 hectares, 54 ha are vineyards that are all grown organically.

The sangiovese grapes are grown in old river deposits with pebbles and sand, in a vineyard planted in the 1960’s. The grapes were picked by hand and spontaneously fermented, before 3 weeks’ skin maceration. The wine is aged in large oak barrels. Unclarified and unfiltered, and low sulfur (<40 mg/l).

Chianti Classico 2018 (Castell’in Villa)

Dark cherry red, with a beginning hint of brown. Aroma of red berries, herbs, leather, mushrooms. Firm and fine-grained tannins, good acidity, notes of tea and plums, with a decent concentration and length.

Price: Medium

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