Electric Whites and the pink pretty, another Wine offer for you
Good morning from the heart of this beautiful early summer morning! WOW! I'm absolutely stunned! by the beauty that surrounds us . . . and the stupidity that abounds in us . . . Or some of us . . . Or the loudest of us . . . Certainly not . . . The majority . . . The moral . . . Of us . . .
And who will get fuct . . . but the poorest
. . . of us
1. Art & Science Fruitful PetNat- $27 Well, not only is our first wine appropriate for the moment, as it celebrates the fecundity of us in the form of this flowering Uterus. It is also one of the more recent projects of our friends at Art & Science, in the form of this refreshing Pet' Nat' rosé, made not only of grapes and actually less so of grapes, than of Pear, Apple, and a bit of plum, and it's wine- The art on the label, is by Kim Hamblin, the science, is by Dan Rinke: with this disclaimer on the back label: In the Fertile Natural World, The possibility of life is balanced by the Certainty of Death.
2. Pomalo, Plavina PetNat' Rosé, Dalmatia- $29 Let's move down the frame, and keep with the pink theme for a moment... what my friend Foland is pushing here, is this lovely, vinous rosé sparkling bottle of sunshine and pale hairy chests. And indeed, Roland is the epitome of the meaning of the word, Pomalo, which, in the Dalmatian dialect, means, take it easy. It is both a greeting in the street, or a form of good night, when leaving a bar, and is eponymous with the laid back nature of life in the Dalmatian Islands. This is a wine vinified from the Plavina grape, and comes from vineyards, just inland from the coast, but is saline as the breezes that cottle the vines and regulate the temperature of midsummer on the island- signifier: light, bright, saline, and summer.
3. Domaine de Graveirette, 2021 Ju de Vie Blanc, Rhone Valley- $18 The next two wines are coming from my friend, Jason Marvin, at Petit Monde Wine Merchant. Don't let the furrowed brow fool you! Jason is one of the lights in the local wine purveyor firmament . . . and so what? So what, is that I love to work with him! He is the shit and the wines he represents, are honest and some of the best examples of the terroirs from which they are vinified. This is a blend of Clairette, Grenache Blanc, Roussanne, and Bourboulenc, from a small domaine in the Rhone Valley, whose production is mostly in Concrete vats and steel. I'm not sure what was happening on the day I tasted these with Jason, but both wines, this one and the Sylvaner from Leon Boesch wore their scents on their sleeves, each in their own way. More on the Boesch below; the Graveirette just kicks with apricot and herbs, with a dynamic mouthfeel that both coats and washes away all the iniquities of my soul, and if you believe in soul, it could wash yours too. But if you don't . . . then just let it mend the tears, rent in the fabric of your fettered mind.
4. Leon Boesch 2020 Sylvaner, Alsace- $21 I say this often, about lots of different grapes, but, I Love Sylvaner! Is there another grape that exudes mineral nerve, psychic verve, and the urge to perv? Well, yes, there are. Muller Thurgau is one . . . Riesling, is another. but we're talking about Sylvaner here, as expressed through the soils of Alsace. This wine fairly glimmers with flecks of quartz, angular and prismatic, refracting all the colors of the rainbow, as it explodes in your mouth. Raised in 200 year old foudres, there is no shortage of texture in this cuvée, and I think it is the wood barrel that allows this grape to expand upon itself and blossom the way it does, on the palate. And it needs this, to keep the Sylvaner from dying a cold hard death, dashed upon the rocks of its own cold, hard minerality.
5. Domaine du Petit Oratoire, Lori Haon, Saturday Night at Souvi, Grenache/Cinsault Pays du Gard- $34 Lori is the being behind this dynamic estate in Valliguieres, in the southern Rhone valley, not far from Avignon. His wines are super live with an electricity that is helped along by the fact that he ferments whole cluster/carbonic maceration which is efficacious in relieving the high alcohol, high extract, that comes from grapes grown in the sometime furnace of the Southern Rhone Valley. In his corner of the valley, there is a bit of protection from the heat in the form of a small river and mountain peaks that mitigate some of the direct lines of sunshine. Like blood on the palate, a copper penny on the tongue, the red fruit in this is super fresh in offsetting the earthen tones. The grenache brings the perfume, the cinsault brings the blood.
6. Grape Ink, En Plein Air, Tualatin Hills, Willamette Valley- $32 Pinots Noir, Blanc and Gris, with some Gewurztraminer and Chardonnay to boot! This is a light red, coming from friend, Jarad Hadi. I've offered Jarad's wines before and we had the one tasting we've done since the pandemic, with him last summer at Persephone before we were open. Jarad's wines have a point of view, and you might ask, what is that, when you're a non-interventionist in your approach to the process? good point, maybe look at this cuvee as an example. It is a blend of many and yet, you'll taste and see that it has a singular focus. It's light and perfect for these warmer months! I find that the wines, oftentimes, take time to reveal the sublime. But inevitably they come around, with time. Did I say, TIME? This comes from a single barrel, of the varietals mentioned above in a co-ferment.
THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME!
4 bottles gets me to your door, in Seattle
6 bottles outside Seattle
Order here: Cantina Sauvage
Much love,
Marc