THE HOLIDAYS ARE UPON US AND I HAVE SOME THOUGHTS ON WINE FOR YOU!
Hello and best of the season to you!
Sending this out under slate gray skies. I have been loving this weather!
It feels like sleep; it feels like Solstice, and I am enjoying the silence that the season brings;
the stillness is immense. I hope we can create some time and some space, to access the silence and stillness . . .
To try and remember what is important
Six wines for you to consider! All with a mind toward togetherness and celebration, and suggestions in pairing either with your meals, or even gifts for loved ones!
#1&2- Domaine Pierre Richard Cremant du Jura Blanc or Rosé $28 - Jura...hmmm. One of the regions I love most! This quiet corner of France has ages old wine making traditions that have grown up alongside its noble neighbors in Burgundy. The is a rusticity and a quiet elegance to the wines that is unassuming, yet self-possessed, with a strong point of view that is more relevant than ever! Domaine Pierre Richard has been in existence since the early 20th century. This is not a long time by Jura standards. At nine hectares, the family domaine sits in the commune of Le Vernois.
The Rosé "Perles d'Automne"; 60% Pinot Noir/40% Chardonnay- of the two, the more refreshing, bright and austere of the two. This is not to say the wine is mean, or in itself austere, but the lees aging (15 months), is not as long (as the blanc) and the wine keeps its levity. The loveliness about this is that the varietal character of the Pinot Noir shows through with bright cranberry and strawberry...
The Blanc "l'Harmonie" 100% Chardonnay with 24-36 months sur lie, with batonage or stirring of the lies. This is the creamy, rich one of the two, more ponderous and deep.... a lovely addition opener to first courses, if the rosé is the aperitif! Also, quite elegant, but with toasted hazelnut and mineral that has a cracked stone flintiness to it on the palate and on the nose...pears, apples? Honey and aphrodisiac?
#3- Pranzegg, Tonsur, White Blend, 2019 Alto Adige $38 - The next two wines come from the same producer as well and they are revelations! first because they come from an area that makes some of the most amazing wines to be had from this part of the world. Mountain wines with a minerality and structure that are the wine-reflections of the crags that surround their vines. Pranzegg farms 4 hectares in the hills above Bolzano; biodynamically from vine to wine, with minimal to no additions sulfite-wise. The blend here is mostly Muller-Thurgau, with Pinot Bianco, Sylvaner, and Chardonnay; grown at 700 meters. Length on the palate, a finish that just doesn't, and a heft that helps it stand up to anything, short of grilled red meat...truly amazing ... half the cuvée sits on skins during fermentation in large foudres; giving it the mouth feel and structure of something not white, but with a complexity and elegance that belies the skin contact aspect. WOW!
#4- Pranzegg, Campill, Schiava, 2019 Alto Adige- $47 - The grape alone would have been enough for me, as we don't see a whole lot of this varietal around here, BUT AND couple this with the fact that upon contact with the senses the wine lets you know this is FUCKING SERIOUS no playing around wine that blows minds, even more than its white sibling above! Smoke and stone, with an undercurrent of berry fruit wrapped in bacon, thrown into a fire of burning bracken. The wine is like a stone cousin to a Volnay, and as such will only continue to deepen over the coming years. The wine is truly alive and continuing to evolve in bottle. I don't know if you were ever able to get hold of Castell Stallegg's version of this grape, but if you were, let me say, that version was like a non-village level Beaujolais, compared to Guy Breton's, Cotes de Brouilly, and I loved the Stallegg. It is all to say that Pranzegg is treating this grape like cru Pinot Noir or Gamay- and the result is on another level, entirely...
#5- Marula, Baconelle, Cabernet Franc 2019 Vin de France- $29 - Totally unhinged, nervy as fuck, and about to jump out of the bottle, grab you by the throat and pull you in. Those were my notes when I tasted this wine, among other scribblings that I cannot now transcribe. I can't read my writing sometimes... This is coming from the netherworld between the Loire Valley, Massif Centrale, and Beaujolais, the French countryside where there are still wolves, dragons, and knights willing to ride out regularly and attempt to slay them. In fact, I don't know that that there is a moniker for where this wine comes from. Super live, unfuctwith... the designate of this offer, and yet, it is a well wrought wine; it has something to tell you, if you'll put your ear to the bottle, Be careful it doesn't swallow you whole. Because really, this wine is that wolf and dragon... and you are the knight that must attempt to slay, to understand, to speak its language. But it's speaking to you on a non-cerebral level. Give in!
#6- Christophe Semaska, Lancement 2014 Cote Rotie- $125- That's right! Syrah from the place that is THE MOST PROFOUND EXPRESSION of that grape. I am always open to tasting the wines of Cote Rotie, Cornas, and Hermitage, as those are the zones where Syrah becomes the true bridge between Burgundy and the Rhone. The savagery of the stone and slope, of the wind-swept precipices that hurl down to the banks of that stream, where vine is hewn from rock and cling like thorn bushes... and when I taste one that speaks to me of the struggle it has gone through to get here, into this glass, and it stinks of roasted meat, of stone, of bramble, and black olive, then I just say....OKAY! I succumb. Is this wine worth it? Every penny of your hard earned cash, yes!
This is THE line-up, brought to you with a mind toward your holiday pleasure!
Special note:
Buying in sixes and more, brings a 10% discount for any order that comes in before Christmas! Wines will be delivered to you before the 25th, in Seattle and the surrounding areas.
Still a six bottle minimum for outside city limits; four bottle minimum inside city limits!
Much Love,
Marc