November 2024 Newsletter
The Holiday Season
Somehow, another holiday season is upon us. In our household, we've already started planning the menu for the upcoming festivities. Part of that planning - perhaps the most fun part - is picking the wine. Think of this Newsletter as a starting point for all your upcoming holiday needs.
Floral Newsletter selections
Newsletter wines from all over Europe that all have a touch of flowers in them. Whether it’s potpourri in a savory Catalan red, chamomile in a star-struck Gruner Veltliner, or cherry blossoms in a fresh Bardolino, each of these wines has a flower in the bouquet.
In lower Austria, wine comes from rocks. Vineyards all along the Danube are planted in thin layers of topsoil stretched across a complex strata of granite, schist, gneiss and basalt. Thus, the roots of any given Austrian vine are probably in direct contact with stone somewhere underground. In the eyes of sommelier Jesse Becker, winemakers Christian Ress and Markus Huber, that constant minerality animates Austrian wines, and has inspired this collaboration from a stoney vineyard in the Treisenthal district, where the rolling hills begin to look a bit more like alpine foothills. True to the name, this Gruner Veltliner begins and ends with a granite streak. Aromas of alpine lavender, yellow apple, quince and chamomile come through too, and on the palate apples and lemons and lime leaves weave around that stony core of live-wire acidity. The name Rockwerk translates as stone art, named in honor of Austria’s hard working geology. Like most good Gruner Veltliner, this pairs well with a wide range of foods, from simple creamy pastas to complexly spiced dals and baked chickens.
Giovanni Almondo is among the best known Roero houses imported into the United States, and this fame is largely because of the Bricco Ciliegie. The Almondo family has been in or around the town of Montà since the 1300s, but the modern history began with Domenico Almondo’s decision in the 1980s to produce fine wine. The Bricco Ciliegie was his prized vineyard from the very start, a hilltop site at 390 meters above sea level of sand streaked with chalky clay. The wine ages in a mix of neutral barrel and stainless steel for a balance of weight and freshness, and the wine always has plenty of both. Aromas of sun soaked apricots, jasmine, lemon, white strawberry, tomato leaf, celery salt and wet clay preview a well defined palate brimming with zesty orange and apricot and sage. The palate is intense because the wine is bold, reaching to every nook and cranny of the palate to deliver another pop of salty minerality. This wine is a benchmark that wineries all over Roero strive for but rarely reach. Great for squash raviolis and seared seafood dishes.
Bardolino is a region in between places. The wines of this region seem to draw inspiration from places next door. To the north, Monte Baldo looks over the entrance to the Valdadige and the Alto Adige region, from where we get fresh, mountain-crisp acidity. To the west, the Mediterranean warmth of Lake Garda tempers the climate and softens the wines. To the east the hills of the Valpolicella region curve towards the sunrise, and inspires the sun-bright red fruitiness found in Bardolino’s blends of Corvina and Rondinella. Matilde Poggi grew up amongst vineyards, and began helping with harvests in 1984. Today, Matilde and her daughters are among the best winemakers in the DOC. Their winery is small scale, and they only make wine from what they grow organically. Free of oak and other invasive practices, the wine is pure, gentle, and approachable. Aromas of cherry blossom, cranberry and blueberry with a dash of underbrush and pepper. The palate is juicy and mouthwatering, with fresh cherries, strawberries and huckleberries before a touch of clay and orange on the finish. This is a nearly ideal pairing for Thanksgiving, but it’s a pleasant match for almost any occasion.
Val d’Aoste is a difficult place to make a living as a small grower. Winters are cold and frosty, summers are hot and prone to drought, and there’s just not a lot of suitable vineyard land to go around. This is a perfect place for a cooperative like La Kiuva. About fifty growers own the winery and share the work, producing approachable and versatile wines from a blend of native varieties. This bouncy red is made from 70% Picotendro (the local Nebbiolo clone that shows the more delicate side of the variety), and the rest from Aoste-only varieties Gros Vien, Neyret, Cornalin and Fumin. The wine will taste familiar to any fans of Alto Piemonte reds or lighter style Langhe Nebbiolos, but this one is a screaming deal. Aromas of cherry cordial and strawberry, tarry earth and rose petals. The palate is etched with chalky tannins around a silky core of cranberry, cherry, and a bit of orange. dried herbs land gently on the finish alongside a lingering note of fruit.
Nobody expected the Catalan Renaissance. It is a part of France where heat and drought make growing grapes difficult in the best of times, and growers constantly risk total crop loss when droughts last too long. Olivier Pithon grew up in the Loire in a family of winemakers and vine growers, but when he embarked upon his own career, he was drawn to the undeniable potential of this southernmost corner of France and the potential to farm organically. The Cotes Catalanes offers the holy grail of terroir, a substrate of rocky clay soil including schist, marl and limestone, with abundant sunshine and warmth tempered by the presence of nearby mountains and seas. When the weather cooperates, Olivier can make magic with this classic blend of equal parts Grenache, Mourvedre, and Syrah. The P’Tit Pithon is savory and spicy on the nose, with notes of fire roasted meat, elderberries, pie cherry and strawberry, stony soil and pressed wildflowers. The palate is richly textured, juicy and full of Mediterranean herbs, ripe red berries, all woven through with dusty tannins. Earth and lavender and berries linger on the finish. Serve with exotic burgers, roasted potato dishes, or wood-fired duck.
Spicy Newsletter Selections
Four spicy wines from here and there. Black pepper and bergamot tea, sage and fennel, these are a few of our favorite things to find in wine, and these wines all feature a pleasant dash of spice.
The hill country south of the Po River in southern Lombardy is some of Italy’s most overlooked wine country. Whether people rowed by on the Po in the middle ages or today drive by on the E70, relatively few have made the choice to stop the way Alessandro Verdi did, settling his family and vines in the town of Canetto Pavese in the 18th century. Seven generations later Bruno Verdi is still making wine in these hills, uncumbered by the strict denomination rules of nearby Piedmont. For his white wines he grows Pinot Grigio, a common grape in northeastern Italy but almost unheard of in these parts. He harvests by hand and vinifies the grapes in cold stainless steel to preserve both acidity and fresh flavor, but the wine still shows impressive weight and lightly creamy texture. From aromas of orange and lemon, sage and salt through to intense flavors of orange juice, orange blossoms, orange zest and orange oil, there’s nothing shy about this wine. A dash of salt lingers on the finish along with a burst of fresh acidity. A great choice for minestrone, polenta, brined birds, or cheesy pastas.
Bordeaux Blanc is not a particularly thrilling category. It is a place where growers generally meet expectations, because there is almost limitless demand for the traditional, cheerfully fresh wine that neither costs much money nor demands much attention. There is nothing wrong with this, but it is still unreasonably exciting when something like Chateau de Cranne comes along. From the first whiff of peach, pear blossom, basil and white strawberry it’s clear there’s something very different in this glass. No grassy notes here, instead there’s a distinct, flinty minerality. The palate is peach sorbet, with full body and silky-textured acidity and generous helpings of aromatic herbs like rosemary and tarragon. How did the Lacoste family manage to make such a different sort of Bordeaux Blanc? They used different grapes. This is half Muscadelle, a rare variety usually used to add acidity and a floral touch, and half Sauvignon Gris, a vanishing rare mutation that gives more body and structure than Sauvignon Blanc. We’re not sure who among the seven generations of the family chose to plant such iconoclastic grapes in their vineyard, but the result is compelling, a wine not quite like any other. Serve with squashes and mashed things, roasted chicken or autumnal soups.
On a crisp autumn evening, Once you’re back from apple picking and you’ve got something with squash ruminating in the oven, this is the sort of wine you need. It smells of orange peel, English Breakfast tea, almond butter, black pepper, rose-scented Turkish Delight and rock salt. The palate gives more orange and tea leaves, Mediterranean herbs. A touch of vanilla bean peaks in on the finish with lilting notes of beeswax and dried orange peel. This amber wine comes from northern Sicily, a blend of organically farmed Zibibbo and Cataratto, left on the skins for two to three weeks to gain the sort of tannin structure and complexity these grapes are not generally known for. Tannins enough that you want to drink this at a cool room temperature - perfect, because the fire’s on in the living room. Serve with something hearty, like pot pie or casserole.
Francesco Giuntini ran Selvapiana for four decades, from 1957 to 1997, during which time he essentially created the modern era for Selvapiana in particular and the Chianti Rufina appellation in general. This was always the wilder side of Chianti, higher in elevation, with more forest and wild boar roaming between the vineyards than in the Classico zone. It was Francesco’s belief that the area had potential to rise above the humble reputation as a source of simple country wine. He started making a single vineyard Riserva, the Bucerchiale, for which the winery is now famous, and modernized the winery substantially over his tenure. Selvapiana is today the standard bearer for Rufina. These are Apennine foothills, and the flavor of Sangiovese here is a bit sharper and redder than normal. This workaday Chianti Rufina is probably the purest example of this sort of Chianti, and a stunning value. Aromas of dusty cherry, cranberry, saddle leather and fennel sausage lead into a precise palate, with supple, clean-edged tannins, refreshing acid, and flavors of raspberries, fresh herbs and dry clay. Fermented in steel and aged in neutral oak, this wine is totally seamless. If you pair this to steak, it should be a delicate cut, but pastas, burgers, and pizzas are also perfect.
Fruity Newsletter Selections
Wine is made of fruit. Most wines taste like one sort of fruit or another – sometimes even grapes! – but these four wines below take it to the next level, These wines are all about the fruit, whether that’s cranberries, pears, plums, or blackberries, each of these selections wears the fruit on the outside.
Quinta de Porrais is a relatively small property in that part of the Douro Valley that has lately become fashionable: the canyon’s rim. More and more famous wineries and winemakers are looking up from the river’s edge to see what sort of wine they can make in the cool, windswept vineyards unsuitable for Port production. Many of these new wines fetch premium prices, and while they are often fantastic and noteworthy wines, Quinta de Porrais was up there before anyone took note, and the winery remains one of the most impressive values in Portugal – or anywhere else. The wine is a blend of Rabigato and Codega de Larinho, two classic whites of the valley with a yin of minerality and a yang of fruit. The nose is flint and pear, lemon balm, yellow apple and a little salty. The palate is apples and pears all over, minerality comes in on the finish with a steely note. The wine is fairly weighty with juicy acidity that leaves the finish fresh and lemony. A wine for shrimp, clams, scallops, or traditional Portuguese Feijoada.
When lava is hot and spewing fresh from a volcano it is probably the worst sort of soil you could imagine to grow plants in. For one thing, your plow would melt. When lava cools down and has a few millennia to decompose, it becomes some of the very best soil in the world. Rich in essential minerals like potassium and porous enough to retain water in just the way vines like it. Massimo Setaro and his family farm their vineyard inside the Vesuvio Denomination (and National Park) with a focus on native varieties, gentle vinification, and organic farming. It is his belief that Vesuvio has the same sort of potential evident in wines from Mount Etna, and this charming Aglianico is strong evidence that he’s right. Aromas of cherry, cranberry, baking spices, wet clay, white smoke, pipe tobacco and orange zest lead to a palate of red berries from cherry to strawberry, orange, and smoky soil. Aglianico tannins can be terse, but here they are strung like violin strings, bringing tension to this even tempered wine. Serve with two foods invented in Naples: Pizza and pasta.
Domaine de Rapatel is a fever dream. Gérard Eyraud farms a vineyard first planted by his grandfather in 1904 in the rural-est part of Rural Languedoc. His winery is an 800-year old barn built by long-forgotten monks. He farms his vines without chemical additions and after one vintage using sulfur, he stopped using it entirely because he didn’t like the smell. The winery is a maze of fiberglass tanks containing wine from any one of a dozen vintages he ages concurrently, an eclectic array of grapes and wines he ages and releases “when they’re ready”. Some of them wait a decade or two. Gérard is far better at making these potions than at marketing himself, so even in France only the most plugged in wine bars recognize him for what he is, a genius and one of the most talented makers of natural wine on earth. This humble VDP is a perfect introduction to Rapatel, a blend of Grenache and Syrah with powerfully set aromas of stewed plum, blackcurrant, figgy pudding with cinnamon and clove, orange cordial and organic earth. Luxuriously textured and brimming with more cooked black fruits, with a touch of citrus and iron earth on the finish. This is a wine for overstuffed leather chairs, roaring fires, board games, and roast beef.
There are very few certainties in life, but one of them is that Joseph Drouhin’s Bourgogne Rouge is going to be good. One of Burgundy’s largest wineries, Drouhin can choose vineyards from nearly every village in Burgundy to blend into this wine. They choose twelve carefully selected organic vineyards, and blend with the object of capturing the essence of the vintage. In 2020, that meant a powerfully aromatic and full throated wine as rich as many village rated Burgundies with aromas of blackberry, blood orange, iron streaked clay and rhubarb. The palate colors well outside the lines, juicy and lush yet bursting with energy and flavors of black fruits, clay soil, and orange oil. Substantial and smooth tannins offer plenty of direction for all this flavor before a finishing kick of acidity. Flavors linger of citrus peel, black cherry, and a touch of vanilla. We’re amazed there’s any of this wine left, as generally Bourgogne Rouge follows just a year or two after the vintage, but we’re certainly happy to have it. This is a sturdy and versatile Pinot Noir for food pairing, but the very best pair would be duck.
The Winemaker's Barrel: Landmass
Melaney Schmidt and Malia Myers founded Landmass Wines on a Willamette Valley Crushpad in 2018, aiming to make Oregon Sparkling wines. As often happens, their portfolio of wines expanded as opportunities came along, and now they offer great red, white and sparkling wine from sites across the Willamette Valley and Columbia Gorge. Help us welcome them to the shop on November 23rd to taste their latest releases.
Multitudes Pinot Gris 2023 $20 / $216 case
This wine is a testament to the Columbia River Gorge. The wild winds and extreme elevation of the area produces some of the best Pinot Gris and we are beyond excited to present you with the latest vintage of this wine. Big notes of pear, apple blossom, vanilla and loquat on the nose and palate are paired with bright acidity.
Willamette Valley Chardonnay 2022 $20 / $216 case
A truly beautiful testament to Oregon Chardonnay. Featuring fruit from the highest AVA in the Willamette Valley, this Chardonnay is vibrant with high acid and notes of dried pineapple, yellow apple skins, and vanilla yogurt. Fermented in French oak for just two months, and then moved to stainless steel to rest for an additional 8 months before bottling. This wine shows the restraint of a classical Chablis, but with the energy of Oregon’s fruit-driven profile giving it structure and ageability.
Heavy Glow Sparkling Rose 2023 $24 / $259.20 case
Refined yet playful, this Underwood Mountain sparkling rosé of comprised of Champagne varietals, shows off notes of honeydew melon, vanilla biscuits, pears, and bright minerality. 34% Pinot Noir in stainless steel, 48% Chardonnay & 18% Pinot Gris in neutral French oak. Producing sparkling wines is Landmass’s specialty and this wine is not to be missed. Fruit was grown between 1400-1800 feet elevation in the majestic Columbia River Gorge.
Eola Amity Hills Pinot Noir 2023 $30 / $324 case
Each year we make a small but thoughtful amount of red wine. Because our focus is quality, each barrel is fussed over with the utmost care and rested until the wine sings. We recommend enjoying a bottle now, and then snagging another bottle to age so you can experience how time changes tannin and fruit structure. Pair with mushroom toast, roasted beets, and grilled chicken with chimichurri.
Holiday Sparkling Selections
Sparkling wine is a drink for all seasons, but it is especially a drink for this one! These three bubbly wines are our favorite go-to selections for all your festive needs.
A light, fresh take on Italian sparkling wine from Emilia Romagna that offers delicious white peach, acacia, and fresh yeasty notes, as dry as can be. Made from a blend of the native Pignotello grape with a helping hand from Trebbiano and other local curiosities.
Pineau d'Aunis made as natural sparkling wine. It tastes like sunshine and fruit salad, with ginger spices, basil, lemon pepper, tangerine, and lime, with a touch of yeast. The wine has the same kinetic energy suggested by the label.
A brilliant, singsong Champagne made from a blend of all three main varieties, Pinot Meunier, Pinot Noir, and Chardonnay. Notes of apples, lemons, and sourdough brioche on a palate as silky and creamy as Champagne gets before a dry, crisp burst of minerality on the finish.