January 2025 Newsletter Wines
The January newsletter is divided into three parts. The first four wines below are made from "international" grape varieties, famous grapes that have produced world-renowned wines from different parts of the world. The second set of four are made from "regional" varieties. These are grapes that are closely connected to their home regions, popular grapes that don't travel very far. The final four wines below are rare varieties, curiosities - even in their own region - that deserve our attention.
As a bonus this month, we're offering an additional discount on a case or more of January's Newsletter wines. We love these wines, and we think you'll enjoy having them again and again.
Before you pull out a map to find Auxerre, Let us preface. This was once a vital source of Chardonnay for Paris, situated on a river network that gave Auxerre’s port the shortest route to the city of any wine region in France. Auxerre is right next to Chablis, and while today it is less densely planted, there are still vineyards in these softly rolling hills, and growers who did not abandon them when railroads connected Paris with the Loire and the Rhone. Pascal Sorin’s family remained: he is the 18th generation to make wine here, and he maintains a minimalist approach to making this bright, clear headed Chardonnay. Nothing is added, nothing is taken away, from the vine to the bottle, and the cool climate and clay and limestone soils give this wine unusual tension. It shows aromas lifted right out of the wine guide of apple butter, orange blossom, lemon curd and crème brûlée. The palate doubles down on the zesty orange and crisp lemon fruit, with salty brioche on the finish. There’s a creaminess to it but the acidity keeps the wine buoyant and crisp. A perfect match for roast chicken and mushroom cream dishes.
It is easy to imagine clarity in a visual sense. We are used to thinking of picture clarity or the quality of eyesight with simple metrics that measure the sharpness of what we see. This scale actually applies to all our senses. We hear things with varying degrees of definition. We also smell and taste and feel things with different degrees of clarity. Those last three senses all engage with wine, and the best wines smell, taste, and feel sharper. Emile Balland’s wine from the Sancerre-adjacent region of the Coteaux du Giennois always comes across clear and vivid in all three senses. It smells of lemongrass and basil, rosemary and lemon and white pepper and flint, clear and fresh notes of classic Sauvignon Blanc. The palate is vivid, excitable and high toned texture that carries notes of lemon curd and basil that opens into apricot and orange towards the finish. This delightful wine is named Waiting for the Beautiful Days because 2023 was a cold, wet, and frosty vintage in the Loire. Thanks to Emile Balland’s hard work, we don’t have to wait for the beautiful wine.
Cantina Terlan’s vineyards cling to the sides of Alps in the Alto Adige, above the city of Bolzano. In this windswept terroir, the sun shines brighter than it does at lower elevations, and vineyards are watered by snowmelt. Some of Terlano’s best vineyards are improbably steep – up to 70% gradient. The estate’s best vineyards are pure mineral patches of quartz or volcanic basalt, and lend all their wines a steely element, which the winery generally preserves by using stainless steel to age their Tradition labelled wines. Pinot Bianco is the signature grape here, the grape used in the Cantina’s rarest and most prized wines, but also comes in this affordable bottle, still buzzing with mineral tones and clean cut fruits: apple, pear, tangerine and peach. Slate and lime zest come through too, and the steely minerality that most Terlano wines are built around continues on the palate, razor sharp acidity wrapped around a rich textured body of orange and pear fruits that land on a delicately salty finish. The list of foods this wine doesn’t go with is short, but it’s a winter weight white, full enough for hearty risottos or halibut.
Each fall, the Golden Oriol stops in the vineyards of Tuscany on its way to winter lodgings in central and southern Africa. The bird cuts a bright yellow dash, and eats so many nearly ripe Sangiovese grapes that local winemakers nickname it Il Golo, or “The Glutton”. Alessandro Sartini is just one of dozens of sardonic Tuscan winemakers to put the bird on their wine label. The grandson of Adomo Fanetti, who founded the Vino Nobile di Montepulciano appellation, Alessandro has old winemaking knowledge in his blood, and his wines have unusual purity and just the right note of rustic charm that Sangiovese should have. Aromas of pepper, suede, sage and dried earth come alongside juicy red cherry and currant notes. The palate is delicately balanced between acidity and tannin, with more cherry fruit, raspberries, and a strong element of savory spices like oregano, tarragon and bay leaf. Clay scented earth lingers on the finish. This is a wine for tender bistecca with basil pesto, pastas featuring pancetta, and very nice burgers.
It is sometimes difficult for Americans to understand that people like the Winkler-Harmaden family actually exist. Georg Winkler Hermaden divided his early career between ski instruction in the winter and art restoration in the summer. In 1977, he inherited the family castle Kapfenstein, along with a small vineyard. His wife Margot had studied agriculture at Reichenbach monastery and a selection of research institutes, so a second act devoted to innovative – organic – viticulture seemed perfectly natural. Their sons Wolfgang, Thomas, and Christof have taken over the estate since 2015, but Thomas still finds enough time outside the cellar to compete on Austria’s national paintball team. It sounds pretty fun to be a Winkler-Hermaden, but it’s almost as much fun to drink this delightfully aromatic Zweigelt grown on Styria’s iconic volcanic basalt soils. Notes of black raspberry, cranberry, black pepper, rose petals and cinnamon come through on the nose. The palate is lean and fresh and silky, full of tart berries picked off the bush, pepper, and granitic earth, notes that linger gently on the finish. This is a wine for all seasons and most dishes, from simple burgers with strips of bacon to cheesy spaetzle.
Lagrein is a cheerful delight. There are Lagreins in this world that rise to surprising hights of quality, complexity, and longevity, wines that rank among the finest wines in Italy. Even those wines are friendly and delicious, just like this affordable edition from Elena Walch. The Walch estate was a sleepy family winery in Tramin until Elena married into the family in the 1980s. An architect from Milan with no formal training in winemaking, she started a small side project of estate wines farmed at lower yields than the traditional Wilhelm Walch wines. It was an immediate success. In 1988, her name first appeared on the label and remains one of the most important names in Alto Adige. This Lagrein comes from warmer sandy sites on the estate, and has been exposed only to large format, neutral oak barrels at the winery. Notes of lavender and orange peel, blackcurrant and blackberry shine clear and bright. The palate is medium tempered, juicy with black fruits and bouncy acidity. Notes of cinnamon bark and earth come towards the finish with chalky tannins before the finish echoes with blackberries and oranges. This is a powerfully flavored wine suitable for game and strong, salty cheeses.
Winemaker Vito Lauria’s operation in Alcamo, on the western tip of Sicily, is dedicated to indigenous Sicilian varieties, simple, straightforward winemaking, and organic farming. The wines are exactly what you would expect from this sort of production, they are pure, rustic in all the good ways, and always offer the unadorned character of traditional Sicilian wine. In the case of this everyday Nero d’Avola, that means rich fruity aromas of plum punch, burnt orange peel, dried strawberry and vanilla spice. The palate is delightfully full bodied, packed with fruit-pie like notes of plum and spice cake, orange and dusty earth woven through tannins that build slowly with repeated sipping. The finish lingers with notes of dried fruit, savory spice and underbrush. No oak was harmed in the production of this wine, and the fruit comes through from nose to finish clear and bright, despite substantial texture. This is a rich wine for food that comes out of the oven or out of a large pot after a long simmer.
Gregory Hecht and François Bannier met in Burgundy, each in the midst of successful careers in wine. Gregory ran a restaurant group in France, while François began his career in Champagne, and they were both studying to be Masters of Wine. While they met over Burgundy, their business venture began in southern France, in Languedoc and Roussillon, where their experience had already taught them how to blend wine. Hecht & Bannier wines are blends, purchased from growers across the Mediterranean plain and selected by Gregory and François for a number of appellation titled cuvees. For them, Languedoc wines are best as blends, where each variety may have a strong personality of its own, the grapes here just work better as part of a group. This blend is 60% Syrah, 25% Grenache, and 15% Carignan, grapes that offer their respective elements of structure, fruit, and savory earth. Aromas of fresh blackberry, blueberry and violets come with red and green pepper. The palate is filled with fruit, both black and blue, and floral touches of violet, rosemary, and rosehip. This is sturdy, savory, and hardy wine for beefy stews and mushrooms.
There is a stretch of the Mosel between Germany and Luxemburg where the iconic Riesling-lined slate gorge gives way to limestone terraces, the edge of the same limestone formation that underlays Sancerre, Champagne, Burgundy and Dover’s cliffs. This is the only place in the world where Elbling is still planted. It is one of Europe’s oldest grapes, once common throughout Germany and thought to date back to Roman times, but over time, more popular grapes replaced Elbling everywhere except in the vineyards of Matthias and his son Jonas Hild, who are have been the grape’s only growers for a couple decades now. For Matthias, it’s a matter of cultural preservation more than an economic venture, which is a good thing, because in order to make good Elbling, he keeps yields far smaller than he could, and even so, the wine rarely reaches above 10% abv. It is a simple, fresh, lively thirst quencher so stuffed with minerality that it’s fair to wonder if this is just dissolved limestone juice. Aromas of lemon curd pear blossom and salt give a hint that grapes were involved, but the palate is pure stone with a shot of lemon and green apple that bursts on the finish. Drink with simple seafood dishes, sauerkraut, charcuterie, and classic lunchtime fare.
Tempranillo Blanco didn’t exist until 1988. One day, a cluster of yellow-green grapes grew on a Tempranillo vine. Someone noticed, and five years later it was confirmed as a new variety. It is still a very rare variety, but the now 35 year old vines produce some compelling wines under the tutelage of Germàn Blanco. La Bicicleta Voladora is a label he makes for easy enjoyment, but with excellent grapes and simple, unadorned winemaking, the wines are far more interesting than they need to be. This sturdy yet lively white gives aromas of green apple, lemon zest, white soil, chamomile and bee pollen. The palate is seamless and polished, with fresh acidity giving life to flavors of white strawberry, lemon, thyme, and a finishing kick of almond oil. We think Tempranillo Blanco has an exciting future in Rioja, if people like Germàn keep making knockouts like this. In his words: "The wines we want to make at La Bicicleta Voladora were defined from a vineyard perspective: We want fresh, fluid and vertical wines! Made from happy grapes, with no chemicals and no wood!"
The Montonico Bianco grape is a rare grape with roots in Abruzzo’s Teramo district that run 400 years deep. Antonio Lamona’s La Quercia is one of the very few wineries to make it, under the Santapupa label reserved for his rarer wines. In a part of Italy devoted to large scale production of Montepulciano and Trebbiano, this organically grown curiosity is especially surprising. After harvest, the wine spends just a few months settling in stainless steel before bottling to give the Montonico grape its best chance to shine. The vineyard is just 3 kilometers from the Adriatic Sea, and the salty morning wind gives a briny note from the first whiff to the last crisp burst of acidity on the finish. Aromas of peach and tangerine, sage and tarragon come through clear and bright, and the lightly creamy palate offers up additional notes of apple and pear before acacia blossoms linger on the salty finish. Fans of Pecorino and properly handled Trebbiano will recognize a kindred spirit in this wine, especially when set beside pan seared seafood or mushroom risotto.
The talented Manseng family of grapes has lately welcomed back a long lost cousin. Manseng Noir was once recognized as a bit player in red wines from the Southwest regions of Bearn, Tursan, and Saint Mont. Then it went extinct. No one particularly noticed because wines from this rural part of France were and largely remain strictly local. However, when growers from the towns of Plaisance, Aignan, and Saint Mont formed the Plaimont cooperative in the 1970s with the mission to revive the fortunes of the region, the Manseng Noir grape gained an advocate. It only had to wait thirty years for someone to find it in a disused vineyard. For nearly a decade the cooperative slowly replanted the vine and made experimental batches of wine to re-learn the grape’s character. This mesmerizing, elegant Cotes de Gascogne is the fruit of their effort: Aromas of crushed black cherries give way to the whole spice cabinet, oregano, sage, rosemary and thyme. There’s notes of tomato leaf and underbrush and roses too. The palate offers a short, firm tannic handshake paired with fresh acidity and dewey black plum and cassis before a purple bouquet of lilac and lavender on the finish.