September 2024 Newsletter Wines
Welcome to the September 2024 newsletter
Summer is coming to an end and the leaves are beginning to turn. The mid-day sun is still plenty warm but the nights are getting cooler. Grapes love this sort of weather, and will soon be producing a new vintage. While many of us are getting back to work after summer vacations, no one is getting back to more work than the vineyard workers, cellar masters, and winemakers who are about to pull a month's worth of 20 hour days to make sure we at L&E have something to sell next year.
This month's newsletter has a strong Italian flavor. The first six wines below are from somewhere along that long and mountainous peninsula (or a nearby island). We will be sampling those on Saturday, September 7th.
Santa Maddalena is a spectacularly beautiful village tucked into an alpine valley in the Dolomites. The northern half of the Alto Adige wine region, north of the city of Bolzano, uses the name to suggest the alpine clarity and freshness of the wines grown in this part of the world. Muri-Gris is an ancient monastery, first founded in the 15th century in a castle just outside Bolzano. Over centuries the monks there became one of the more important producers of wine for the city. Today, the monastery’s vineyards are still farmed by monks, all in or about the hills surrounding the city. Their easy and breezy Santa Maddalena cuvee is made mostly from the cheerful Schiava grape, with a dash of Lagrein. This is a wine for the last warm afternoons of the year, with notes of raspberry and cherry with alpine herbs underfoot. The palate is juicy and simple and refreshing, with a little touch of granite-carved minerality to support all those red berries and the finish offers a hint of licorice. A great pick for Margarita pizza, cheesy pasta, roast beef sandwiches, and other satisfying, rough-cut dishes.
This is the wine of the newsletter, the discovery of the year, and a new and exciting wine that’s about to take America by storm. L&E is proud to introduce to our readers: White Zinfandel!
But seriously folks, (if anyone is still reading,) this Primitivo rose is incredible and truly the wine of the newsletter. Grown on the hot, windswept Murgia plateau (roughly where the Achilles tendon of Italy’s boot is), Pietraventosa’s grapes are farmed by hand, and given just six hours maceration at the winery to achieve the color of a sunlit ruby. It ages only in stainless steel, so the pure and fresh red flavors remain as fresh in the bottle as they were on the vine. Primitivo is a near relative of Zinfandel, and it shows on the nose of wild strawberry, Rainier cherry, and buckwheat honey peppered with dried oregano. The palate is full and creamy with just a hint of tannin, setting this apart as a ‘gastronomic’ rose. Flavors of strawberry and tangerine and a few turns of the pepper mill come vividly to life with fresh waves of acidity. This is an autumnal rosato for surprisingly serious foods like mushroom risotto, polenta with bistecca, or a dish built around squash. Try aging a bottle or two for a unique experience in 3-5 years.
Piedmont is a little bit ridiculous. There are so many sorts of wine made in Piedmont – and each one is someone’s local specialty – that the appellation map looks like it was drawn by an overstimulated child taking their first turn with the markers. Among the head-spinning list of delightful curiosities, Nascetta is one of the most curious, a grape once called “An exquisite grape, tending towards art” in a 19th century wine text. It is nearly unknown today because it is difficult to grow and yields inconsistently. Throughout the 20th century, growers grafted it over to more reliable grapes until for a time Nascetta flirted with extinction. Only the recent work of a few wineries like Reverdito have stopped this from happening, and we’re eager for more of this tempestuous but brilliant wine. Exotic and punchy aromas of muskmelon and lemon rind, rosewater, almond butter, salt and flint lead into a palate that feels like you could eat it with a spoon, brimming dangerously with lemon and melon and orange cut with big salt crystals. This is a lush and creamy wine that’s being electrocuted with acidity, a pleasant sense of tension perfect for duck, rich polentas, and dishes featuring horseradish.
Mario Bagella has emerged as the undisputed champion of the Sorso region on the northern shore of Sardinia. His family has been growing grapes here for more generations than there are records for, and in his mind these are the best vineyards in Sardinia – the “Primo Sorso”. The island is a rugged country and many of its vineyards are surprisingly removed from the sea, but for Mario it’s a short walk to the beach, and the vines bask in a constant gentle salty breeze that tempers the Mediterranean sun. Vermentino is cherished in this part of the world for offering a reliable dose of thirst quenching acidity, but for Mario and his 100 year old vines, the bar is set much higher. The sea salt in the Sardinian air is the first aroma out of the glass, along with lemon curd and kiss melon and white pepper. The wine has incredible textural tension, with an oak-free leesy richness kept aloft by broad spectrum acidity. Orange and white cherry and Italian herb flavors follow before that salty minerality returns on the finish. Creamy pastas and crab dishes would be best, but this is a wine to encourage creativity in the kitchen.
On the banks of the Volturno river north of Naples, there is a town called Casale Campagnano, where Dr. Antonio Buono founded Selvanova in 1997. The winery is devoted to the strictly local varieties of this part of Campania, Pallagrello Nero and Bianco. Aglianico, the most iconic Campanian variety, counts as a foreign grape recently introduced to the area. Pallagrello was once relatively famous and a favorite of the king of Naples, but it was thought to have gone extinct after phylloxera until the 1990s, when it was rediscovered by chance. We’re happy to have it back for its lovely, lush aromas of black raspberry, inky black cherry, and rich, fruity body. One quarter of this wine is Aglianico, which adds pepper spice and smoky soil, touches of lavender and a bit of chalky tannic backbone. The finish is fresh and cherry scented. Selvanova farms organically and intervenes as little as possible in the cellar to maintain the purity of flavor for the cuvee. This would be an excellent choice for Pizza.
The Normanno estate is in the town of Marsala on the westernmost spit of Sicilian land. This is a region famous for the fortified wine named after the town since the early eighteenth century, and for producing an enormous quantity of factory-issue bulk wine. The Ciello – named for Cielo of Alcamo, a Sicilian poet who was among the leading lights of Palermo’s extended golden age – is an effort to change what western Sicily is famous for. The winemakers farm organically and use a “pied de cuve” method to ferment to avoid store-bought yeast, despite the large volume of wine they make. For this red wine, the Vesco family farms Sicily’s favorite Nero d’Avola. Their aim is to make a high quality, low-intervention wine at an accessible price. We think they nailed it. The aromas bring to mind a mid-summer trip to the berry patch and sticky fingers: ripe plum, currants, raspberry fruit leather, blueberries and sun-dried herbs. The palate tastes like all those berries were stewed into a pie, full bodied and satisfying with a juicy, clean finish. There’s a lot to love in this late summer quaffer. Try it with cassoulet, ragu and other full-bodied Mediterranean fare.
The second half of the newsletter is from a variety of other countries: France, Austria, Argentina, and Spain. We will be sampling this half of the newsletter on the afternoon of Saturday, September 14th.
Harald and Daniela Frank are the latest of ten generations of Franks making Gruner Veltliner in Austria’s Weinviertel. The vineyards are near the town of Herrnbaumgarten, just a few miles south of the border with Czechia. It’s both cold and dry in this part of Austria, a rare and ideal combination for fine Gruner Veltliner. The grapes get to hang a little longer on the vine without losing acidity, and the relative lack of humidity is a big help for a grape that’s susceptible to rot. Together with the family’s attentive viticulture, the result is a beautiful, even keeled Gruner with a classic nose of preserved lemon, orange peel, white pepper, green apple and meringue. The palate gives lemons, limes, and green apples before sticking the landing in a cloud of white pepper and lemon zest. This is priced like a humble everyday wine for sausage, poultry, freshwater fish, and vegetable stirfry; but since it’s such a versatile food pairing wine it’s a great choice if you’re invited to a dinner party and don’t know the menu.
Bodegas Norton is among the most important wineries in Mendoza. Founded by British railroad engineer Edmund Norton in 1895, it was the first wine bottled in Mendoza and then transported to Buenos Aires. In the 1970s, it was the first Argentine wine to be exported, and today it is still one of the largest landowners in Mendoza. It would be tempting to turn our nose up at such a large winery if their wine wasn’t so darn good. With so much vineyard to choose from, and the talented winemaker David Bonomi blending this reserve, this wine stands as a fantastic expression of classic Argentine Malbec, made with the consumer in mind rather than the wine critic. The nose is bold and rich and filled with blackberries, strawberry jelly, star anise and nutmeg and burnt orange peel. The palate, thanks to a year in oak, has long and refined tannins and flavors of stewed black plum and blackberry and a dusting of black soil. Serve this with any kind of steak, roast beef, stew, or other hearty, earthy fare made for the first cold nights of fall.
Adrien Berlioz is among a small group of talented winemakers redefining wine from Savoie. As recently as the 1990s, growers in Savoie wanted only Jacquerre and Gamay made as cheaply as possible to serve at the local ski resorts. Never mind the potential of the steeper, smaller vineyards planted before the age of tractors. When Adrien Berlioz began making wine in 2006, there simply was no such thing as fine wine from Savoie. Now there is, because Adrien, his cousin Gilles, and people like Michel Grisard and Frederic Giachino have created it with one stunning vintage of Mondeuse, Altesse, or Jacquerre at a time. Today, most of Adrien’s wines are for special occasions, made in miniscule quantities and commanding high prices, but we’re happy to have La Pepie, an everyday Jacquerre made in the mold of traditional Jacquerre – but better. The nose offers lemon, quince, tarragon, wintergreen, and a hint of granite. The palate is perfectly balanced (at a delightfully fresh 9.5% abv), with flavors of pineapple, pear, and salt. There’s acid woven throughout this beam-of-sunshine-bright wine, but it’s never sharp or biting. Serve with a simple charcuterie board with firm cheese on it.
Note: This wine may contain tartrate sediment. It is a perfectly harmless, natural byproduct of fermentation at cool temperatures. Pour carefully as you get to the last glass.
Yorick and Sophie Lavaud bought Domaine Les Carmels in 2010, converted it to organic farming, and began making one of the quiet gems of Bordeaux. It’s a short, simple story that belies the complexity of their wine. The vineyard is rare in Bordeaux for being on a hill in the Cadillac Côtes de Bordeaux region, a multicolored patchwork of clay, limestone, and gravel. Les Caprices is composed of two thirds Merlot, with descending proportions of Malbec, Cabernet Franc, and Cabernet Sauvignon for the rest, all from healthy, happy vines that reach at least 30 feet into the soil. The wine is made naturally, with sulfur added only at bottling. There are certain wines that have a definition of aroma and flavor similar to the feeling you get seeing a painting in person rather than a poster of it. There’s a sharper quality to the aromas of blackcurrant, raspberry fruit leather, and pepper smoked meat. You can feel the tensile strength of tannins on the palate, with rich raspberry and deep clay streaked earth that lingers gently yet firmly on the finish. It's difficult to describe this sense of definition, and it's exceedingly rare in inexpensive Bordeaux. This is a full-blooded wine best with a cut of steak, but a tender one.
Christophe Thorigny’s cave is adjacent to the Tours airport. We’re not sure if this is the most romantic way to describe the winery, but his wine nonetheless manages to evoke something important about his vineyards. Americans often struggle to comprehend the European concept that the place is far more meaningful than the grape variety, but this wine is far more Vouvray than it is Chenin Blanc. It smells of roasted pears and hay and lemon oil, honeycomb and lanolin and snickerdoodle spices. It tastes of apple and lemon and beeswax and bursts with baking spices on the finish like a fresh apple pie. All those words describing sweet things come in an absolutely dry and mouth watering crisp wine that feels rich but lively. That tension makes this a perfect wine for almost any sort of food short of red meats. Chenin Blanc may be planted all over the world, but wines that taste like this only come from Vouvray, a single patch of tuffeau soil on the north bank of the Loire just outside the city of Tours.
The Valle de Yerri is in the northernmost quarter of Navarra, just a little way southwest of Pamplona and not terribly far from the Bay of Biscay. Where much of Navarra is hot and dry, it is much cooler here, at elevation where alpine winds cool the vineyards. For a valley so close to Rioja, there’s remarkably little wine grown here, which had always seemed a shame to Alicia Eyaralar and José María Fraile, who came from other corners of the wine industry to found Tandem in 2003. From the start, the vines have been farmed organically, and the winery was built with gentle winemaking techniques in mind. Ars In Vitro means ‘art in the glass’, and this seemingly simple cuvee of Tempranillo and Merlot has surprising depths, offering aromas of black cherry fruit leather, violets, orange cordial, black olive tapenade, potting soil and braised beef. The palate gives rich black cherry, strawberry, and baker’s chocolate with full bodied enthusiasm, textural elegance, surprising acidic energy and just a touch of orange on the finish. This is a rib-sticking wine best paired with, well, ribs.
The Winemaker's Barrel: Alexis Harrington of Vitae Springs
Vitae Springs was first planted in 1978, one of the first vineyards in the area just outside Salem. Today, the family-owned farm is dedicated to sustainable practices from the vine to the bottle, and with a light touch in the vineyard and the cellar, they produce classic and great value Willamette Valley wines. Come taste their latest releases with winemaker Alexis Harrington the afternoon of September 21st
Wines to be sampled
Vitae Springs Willamette Valley Pinot Gris
Vitae Springs Heure Doree Dry Riesling
Vitae Springs Willamette Valley Gruner Veltliner
Vitae Springs Willamette Valley Pinot Noir
Styrian Wines of Austria Tasting with Dana Frank of High-Five Selections: Tuesday, September 24th, 6PM
Join Dana Frank, owner of High-Fi Selections for a tasting through the beautiful and underrepresented Austrian region of Styria. There’s something exciting happening in this part of Austria, where a new generation of winemakers are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in the foothills of the Alps. With Dana we will zoom in on two producers to tell the story of this emerging quarter of the wine map.
This is a ticketed event, reservations are required. $50 per seat.
Ploder-Rosenberg from Vulkanland
2019 Ploder-Rosenberg Gelber Muskateller
2019 Ploder-Rosenberg "Cara"
2020 Ploder-Rosenberg "Vivas"
NV Ploder-Rosenberg "Blanca"
2017 Ploder-Rosenberg Chardonnay "Linea"
2017 Ploder-Rosenberg Pinot Gris "Linea"
Schnabel-Ermihof from Sausal
2021 Schnabel-Ermihof "Legionärin"
2021 Schnabel-Ermihof "Legionär"
2021 Schnabel-Ermihof Blaufränkisch "Kor"