Posts Tagged ‘Private imports’
MWG June 20th tasting (6/8): An organic Negroamaro
Vino da tavola 2010, Anne, Azienda Agricola Biologica Natalino del Prete ($20.10, oenopole, NLA)
The winery is located in San Donaci in Puglia, the heel of the Italian boot, and has been certified organic since 1994. 100% Negroamaro from 70-year-old vines. Manually harvested. Fermented in termperature-controlled tanks with indigenous yeasts. Unfiltered, unfined, unsulphured.
Dark berries and plum (but not, praise be, prune) with overtones of dried earth, rubber, herbs, cedar and tomato. Round and smooth until you chew, then astringent with tooth-coating tannins. Earthy yet fresh, packed with ripe fruit and juicy acidity. Black pepper, minerals and olive emerge on the finish. The alcohol (14% or 15% if I’m remembering correctly) adds warmth, not heat. Rustic and authentic: the kind of appealing, old-fashioned, terroir-driven wine that internationalization is making an endangered species. (Buy again? Yes.)
We’d intended to taste this alongside Natalino del Prete’s even more affordable Salice Salentino ($17.35, oenopole, now also NLA) but that bottle and a Sicilian rosé were AWOL.
Glou trade tasting with Nicolas Vauthier
As affable as he is scruffy, Nicolas Vauthier entered the wine scene as the owner of a bar, Aux crieurs de vins, that was one of the first to specialize in natural wines. In 2008, he decided to start a négociant firm, Vini Viti Vinci, based in Avallon, near Auxerre, in northern Burgundy dedicated to making unmanipulated, terroir-driven wines with no added sulphur. He learned the basics by working with Philippe Pacalet in Beaune, who continues to advise him. Nicolas sees himself as a winemaker, not a winegrower. When I asked him if he thought he might at some point acquire his own vineyards, his reply was clear: no, never. He does, however, have a talent for sniffing out parcels with great potential. And while he’s happy when the winegrower farms organically, he doesn’t insist they do: the quality of the grapes and their expression of terroir are what matter most.
He buys the grapes à pied, on the vine, harvests them with his own pickers and transports them to his winemaking facilities. Fermentation, with native yeasts, is in old wooden foudres. Some of the reds undergo semi-carbonic maceration to bring out their fruitiness.
Though his first two vintages included AOC wines, Vauthier has decided to buck the appellation system and now labels his wines as vins de France. And speaking of the labels, their whimsical line drawings of men and women in various states of undress (to view three, click on the cuvée names below) so alarmed the SAQ that it refused to accept responsibility for the bottles in case scandalized buyers returned them. In other words, the monopoly suspects that private import customers are prudes. Go figure.
Back to the wines. The common thread is purity, freshness and not just drinkability but guzzleability (look at the alcohol levels!). Unpretentious, unadulterated, expressive of their origin, a pleasure to down: what’s not to like?
Vin de France 2011, O L’Agité, Vini Viti Vinci ($25.90. Glou, NLA)
100% Aligoté, which cannot be mentioned on the label, hence the anagram. 11% ABV.
Bright and citrusy with some chalk and quartz. Light-bodied yet intensely present. Restrained fruit, tart acidity, chalk. Long finish with an appetizing sourness. Lovely. The aperitif par excellence. (Buy? Definitely.)
Vin de France 2011, Sauvignon, Vini Viti Vinci ($27.20, Glou, 12 bottles/case)
100% Sauvignon Blanc from young vines grown in the Saint-Bris area. Manually harvested and sorted. Pressed in a vertical press, transferred by gravity into vats and Burgundy barrels for fermentation and maturation. Racked and blended the summer following the harvest. Natural clarification. Bottled using a gravity feed. No added sulphur. 12.5% ABV.
Definitely Sauvignon Blanc but not of the in-your-face variety: minerals, citrus and gooseberry, a hint of grass. Light, clean, pure: ephemerally intense with laser-like acidity and a leesy/yeasty aftertaste that Vauthier says is an artifact of the winemaking and will soon disappear. (Buy? Yes.)
Vin de France 2011, L’Adroit, Vini Viti Vinci ($27.75, Glou, 12 bottles/case)
100% Pinot Noir. 11.5% ABV.
Red berries, some of them candied, slate and dried wood. The fruit is sweet and tart, shot through with minerals and wrapped in lacy tannins that come to the fore on the finish. Lingering dried herb note. Simple in a good way: direct and to the point, a wine with no complexes. (Buy? Gladly.)
Vin de France 2011, Les Rouquins, Vini Viti Vinci ($28.30, Glou, 12 bottles/case)
100% Pinot Noir from 20-year-old vines. Manually harvested and sorted. The whole grapes are macerated for about two weeks with occasional push-downs. Pressed using a vertical press. The free run and press wines are gravity-fed into Burgundy barrels for eight months’ maturation. Naturally clarified. Bottled using a gravity feed. No added sulphur. 11.5% ABV.
Like the L’Adroit but with more spice and a fresh, herbal note. Light-bodied, more structured, less of a vin plaisir but very tasty. Vauthier says it will benefit from some time in the bottle. (Buy again? Yes.)
Vin de France 2011, Le Molomon, Vini Viti Vinci (price TBA, Glou, arriving fall 2013)
100% Pinot Noir. 11.5% ABV.
Even more closed: less fruit, more wood, more structure. Tight though fine tannins. The potential’s apparent. Du sérieux as they say around here. (Buy? Probably.)
Vin de France 2011, Et pis, neuneuil !, Vini Viti Vinci (price TBA, Glou, arriving fall 2013)
100% Pinot Noir. 11% ABV.
Charming nose, a bit candied, with a crushed-leaf-like freshness. Rich and spicy, almost meaty, the fruit somehow deeper and more savoury than the other Pinots’. Beautifully structured. Fine, firm tannins give a lightly astringent edge to the long finish. (Buy again? Definitely.)
New arrivals from Glou (5/5)
Located near Templeton in the Paso Robles AVA, AmByth Estate acquired its land in 2001 and planted its first vines in 2004. With daytime temperatures reaching 100ºF (38ºC) or higher in the summer, the owners wisely decided to focus on southern European grape varieties. As hot as it gets at midday, cool Pacific winds bring the night temperatures down to around 50ºF (10ºC), helping to preserve the grapes’ acid balance and prevent overripeness. The estate is certified organic and biodynamic and its 20 acres (8 ha) of vineyards and olive groves are dry-farmed. Winemaking uses natural yeasts and no added anything, except sulphur (no sulphur in the 2012s). The wines are bottled unfiltered and unfined. The estate has begun experimenting with amphoras. Total annual wine production is around 1,000 cases.
Red Table Wine 2011, Paso Robles, AmByth Estate ($34.55, Glou, 6 bottles/case)
Having only small quantities of fruit in frosty springed 2011, the estate decided to concoct a one-off table wine from lots that didn’t make it into the regular cuvées. A crazy blend of Grenache (20%), Mourvèdre (19%), Sangiovese (19%), Tempranillo (18%), Grenache Blanc (10%), Counoise (7%), Syrah (5%) and Marsanne (2%), all from estate vineyards. 14 ppm sulphur was added. 138 cases were made; as of this posting, Glou has only one left. 13.3% ABV.
Savoury nose of red and black fruit (a bit Chambord-like), hay stubble, ink. Medium-bodied with good acidity, slender yet pleasantly raspy tannins and clean fruit, neither candied nor heavy. Tastes of the earth. Very drinkable. (Buy again? Yes but…)
Adamo 2009, Paso Robles, AmByth Estate ($47.00, Glou, 6 bottles/case)
Grenache (59%) Mourvèdre (17%), Syrah (13%) and Counoise (11%). Lightly stomped with the stems. Part of the GSM was fermented in a new French oak barrel, part in a neutral barrel; all was given two weeks’ maceration. The remaining GSM and the Cournoise were open-top fermented with regular punch-downs. 90 cases made. 13% ABV.
Red and black berries, lightly candied, along with some dusty garrigue notes. Soft-textured, pure and, for a Southern Californian, restrained, an impression only heightened by the bright acidity and sinewy tannins. Long, lightly astringent finish. Not a lot of depth but a really enjoyable surface. Ready to go. (Buy again? Yes but…)
With their lean fruit, strong acidity, reasonable alcohol levels, overall poise and great savour, these are some of the freshest, food-friendliest, most non-palate-clobbering (digeste, as the French succinctly say) Rhône-style wines from the New World I’ve tasted. Why the “yes buts” then? In a word, QPR, which is low relative to the wines’ Old World counterparts. But that’s true for many Californians these days, let alone micro-production natural wines from artisanal producers. Relative to other Golden State wines, they’re not overpriced (e.g. $47 Adamo vs. $49 Cigare Volant).
New arrivals from Glou (4/5)
Founded in 2008, Domaine des Trois Petiotes farms organically and, since the fall of 2012, biodynamically. The name refers to the owners’ three daughters but also to the three one-hectare parcels – respectively planted with Malbec, Merlot and Cabernet Franc – that comprise the estate’s holdings. Production is entirely red, though plans are afoot to make whites from a plot of soon-to-be-planted Sauvignon Blanc, Sauvignon Gris, Sémillon, Muscadelle and Colombard vines.
Côtes de Bourg 2010, Domaine des Trois Petiotes ($32.20, Glou, 6 bottles/case)
Malbec (45%), Merlot (30%) and Cabernet Franc (25%) from vines averaging 35 to 40 years old. The grapes are manually harvested, mechanically destemmed and lightly crushed. Alcoholic fermentation in fiber vats lasts two to four weeks and uses indigenous yeasts and no temperature control with one pump-over or punch-down a day. The grapes are subsequently pressed with a manual vertical press. Matured 12 months (on average) in a mix of one- to three-year-old barrels with one or two rackings and occasional stirring. The wine is unfiltered and unfined. Sulphur dioxide is used but sparingly. 13.6% ABV.
Like sticking your nose in a berry farmer’s dirty laundry bin: earth, compost/barnyard, sweat, cassis. Medium-bodied with a velevty texture, ripe fruit, raspy tannins and enough acidity. The strong finish and a lingering astringency of the tooth-coating kind. Seemed a little rustic or maybe reductive. Worth revisiting in six months or a year. (Buy again? Maybe.)
Côtes de Bourg 2009, En attendant Suzie, Domaine des Trois Petiotes ($40.75, Glou, 6 bottles/case)
A blend of Malbec (70%) and Merlot (30%). Vinification is as for the basic wine, except the destemming is manual and the wine is fermented and matured in barrels for 24 months. 13.3% ABV.
Clean nose of slightly jammy red fruit and spice. A silky-textured mouthful of ripe cassis and kirsch that’s finely structured and showing some depth. The wine’s tannins come to the fore on the finish, giving it a velvet astringency. Definitely a Bordeaux, not a Cahors. Enjoyable now but with the balance and structure to age and improve. If I owned a restaurant, this would be on the wine list. (Buy again? Yes.)
New arrivals from Glou (3/5)
These two wines actually came fourth in the tasting but the notes on the third-flight wines have yet to be written up. Guttarolo is based in Gioia del Colle in Bari province in Puglia, the heel of the Italian boot.
IGT Puglia 2009, Lamie delle vigne, Cristiano Guttarolo ($28.10, Glou, 6 bottles/case)
100% Primitivo from 30-year-old vines. Fermented 18 days on the skins. Matured 24 months. Sees only stainless steel until bottling. Native yeasts, no added sulphur, unfiltered, unfined. 14% ABV.
Simple but attractive and unexpectedly fresh nose: ripe fruit, candied cassis, slate. Medium-bodied (for a Primitivo?!), clean and bright with vibrant acidity and tight, airframe tannins. The sourish/puckery fruit has darker notes including a slatey undercurrent. Long. Unlike – and far more appealng than – other Primitivos I’ve encountered. Very much along the lines of the wines from new generation Sicilian producers like Occhipinti, Calabretta and Cornelissen. (Buy again? Definitely.)
IGT Puglia 2010, Amphora, Cristiano Guttarolo ($36.96, Glou, 6 bottles/case)
100% Primitivo from 30-year-old vines. Fermented with native yeasts. Fermentation and maceration on the skins last six months and take place in terracotta amphorae. The wine is then transferred to stainless steel tanks for an addition eight months’ maturation. No added sulphur. Bottled unfiltered and unfined. 13.5% ABV.
More complex and savoury than the Lamie. Slightly jammy fruit, slate and, yes, a hint of terracotta. Medium-bodied. Fresh – again the zingy acidity. The texture is softer and a little weightier, the tannins rounder and more velvety. Possessed of a hard-to-describe directness. Very appealing though the Lamie is the QPR winner. (Buy again? Yes.)
New arrivals from Glou (2/5)
MunJebel Rosso 8, Azienda agricola Frank Cornelissen ($51.59, Glou, 6 bottles/case)
Nerello Mascalese from various vineyards and mostly (84%) from the 2011 vintage. The remaining 16% is 2010 that’s passed over the pulp before pressing. All grapes are destemmed. A starter cuvée is made from grapes picked a week earlier than the rest. Fermentation, with natural yeasts, is in 1,000-litre plastic vats. The post-fermentation wine is clarified by settling, then matured on its fine lees. Unfiltered and unfined. No added anything, including sulphur dioxide. 15% ABV.
Engaging “natural” nose: red plum and cherries, volcano dust, animale and unspecified funk. Intense and complex in the mouth. The pure fruit is ripe and dry, present but not oppressive, shaped by high acidity and fine tight tannins, humming with overtones of dried herbs and maquis and undertones of dark minerals. Long, savoury, astringent finish. No heat, though the alcohol may explain the glyceriny, liqueur-like texture. A wonderful, fluent, elemental wine. (Buy again? Pricey but, yes, especially since it’s $15 less than the 7.)
New arrivals from Glou (1/5)
The good guys at Glou recently held a trade tasting of some of their new arrivals.
Champagne, Brut Nature, Christophe Mignon ($55.00, Glou, 6 bottles/case)
The century-old estate has 6.5 hectares of vines (90% Pinot Meunier, 5% Pinot Noir and 5% Chardonnay) in some 30 parcels located between Le Breuil and Festigny. Viticulture is “alternative,” by which is meant semi-organic and biodynamic but with recourse to synthetic products in extreme circumstances. This blanc de noirs is 100% Pinot Meunier from 35-year-old vines. Vinified on a parcel-by-parcel basis: fermented in stainless steel and enameled steel tanks and matured on the lees for five months. Blended, bottled and aged for around 24 months before disgorging on a date determined by the lunar calendar. No dosage (also made in Extra Brut and Brut versions with 3 and 6 g cane sugar per litre respectively). Minimal sulphur dioxide. Unfiltered. 12.5% ABV.
Abundant foamy mousse. Nose dominated by leesy lemon and white fruit. Light and fruity in the mouth with a soft, super-fine effervescence and crystalline minerality. Dry, acid bright, long. A pure and refreshing winner. (Buy again? Done!)
Puligny-Montrachet 2011, Julien Altaber / Sextant (c. $65.00, Glou, NLA)
Based in Saint-Aubin, Altaber, who works for Dominique Derain, has run a négociant business on the side since 2007. He makes red and white Burgundies with grapes purchased from growers he trusts. The wines are fermented with indigenous yeasts and no chemical additives other than sulphur dioxide, which, if used at all, is done so only during racking, never at bottling. This grapes for this 100% Chardonnay come from 40-year-old vines located on a slope above the 1er crus. Only one cask was made, which is why Glou received only 60 or so bottles. 13% ABV.
Classic if closed nose: faint lemon, chalk and quartz, hints of oats and oxidized butter. Medium-bodied and dry, with clean, clear fruit, tons of minerals, tense acidity and a long buttery finish. So coherent, so beautifully balanced. An elegant wine that, while tight and taut at this stage, is full of potential. (Buy again? Def.)
MWG April 18th tasting (2/9): Vernacchia pure and simple
Vernacchia di San Gimignano 2011, Solo, Mattia Barzaghi ($25.53, Agence PF, 6 bottles/case)
100% organically farmed Vernacchia. Manually harvested. Gently pressed then fermented in stainless steel tanks with indigenous yeasts at 16-18ºC. Matured on the lees for five months with frequent stirring. 12.5% ABV. This is Barzaghi’s entry-level Vernacchia. Following a divorce, he has “reset” his branding (whence the reZet on the labels, the Z a vestige of the former line), renamed the cuvées and changed the label illustration to a photograph of him playing chess in the snow with his dog.
Subdued nose: wax, straw and a suggestion of flowers and nuts. Minerally and bright with an appealing leesy quality. High acidity but no shrillness due to the compensating extract. Long finish with a hint of salinity and a telltale bitter note. Clean and fresh: not the old-style Vernacchia some of us are on a quest for but lovely in its own right and light years better than the insipid-by-comparison Rocca delle Macìe. (Buy again? Yes.)
Hi-yo, Silver! It’s the lone Vernaccia!
Vernaccia di San Gimignano 2011, Rocca delle Macìe ($14.30, 00731570)
100% Vernaccia. The winemaker’s tech sheet (PDF file) appears to have been written by the marketing department and so provides no useful technical information. Likely fermented with commercial yeasts and matured in neutral containers. 13% ABV.
Engaging nose: lemon fruity and surprisingly floral. Light and fresh on the palate. What fruit there is – besides the obligatory citrus – is of the pear/quince variety. Lively acidity. Little depth and a rainwatery finish with only the faintest hint of bitter almond (often a marker for the variety). Yes, it’s industrial and, yes, you can find Vernaccias with more personality and follow-through*. Then again, it’s $14. Best as an aperitif or with light, vegetable-based first courses like fried zucchini flowers stuffed with fresh ricotta. (Buy again? If in search of an inexpensive, innocuous, dry Italian white, sure.)
*Not at the SAQ these days, though. For the time being, the Rocca delle Macìe is it. Yet Vernaccia is one of Italy’s oldest and most storied white wines. “Old-style Vernaccia was made as powerful as possible, fermented on its (golden) skins and aged in barrels for gently oxidized flavours to emerge. This was the wine Michelangelo loved. It can still be found like this, or in a modernized, pale version,” writes Hugh Johnson. Leave it to the beloved monopoly to stock only the modernized, pale version. It’s yet another reason to turn to the private import channel. This, for example, looks like it could be interesting.
Recipe for a cheerful marriage
And a mixed marriage at that.
One of the best uses for leftover roast is in a tian, a simple Provençal preparation in which the chopped meat is combined with vegetables, aromatics and white wine and baked in a earthenware dish of the same name (recipe after the jump). I recently made one with the trimmings from our vernal equinox leg of lamb. As a believer in regional parings, I’d normally reach for a lighter-styled Provençal red. Having none on hand, I popped the cork on this: an outlander, yes, but it made a fine match.
IGT Sicilia 2010, Gaio Gaio, Calabretta ($21.90, oenopole, NLA)
100% organically farmed Nerello Mascalese grown on the north slope of Mount Etna. Fermented with indigenous yeasts. Matured in stainless steel and Slavonian oak barrels (neutral, I’d guess). The wine is named after the winemaker’s father, Gaio, which also means cheerful, merry, chipper. 11.5% (!) ABV.
Pale red. Nose of red berries, obsidian dust, dried orange and a umami note (dried porcini mushrooms?). Light and flowing in the mouth, with a caressing texture, singing acidity and soft tannins. The fruit plays sweet over a ground base of dark minerals and finishes on a savoury note. Fresh and pure, a wine that almost drinks itself, a joy. The closest analogue would be one of the lighter Beaujolais crus – a Fleuri, say – except the flavours are more southern, solar, volcanic.
oenopole’s first-ever shipment of Calabretta wines arrived in March and sold out within days. Going by the quality of this bottle, it’s easy to understand why. Those who didn’t get any or enough can try it in local restaurants, hope for a second shipment and keep an eye peeled for the next vintage. Wines like this are why people turn to the private import channel.
Brett happens 