First of the year offer for you!
Good morning from behind the wooley curtain of infancy . . .
First off, welcome to those of you, who have just joined the list! These newsletters/ offerings come out every three to four weeks.
In between releases, I spend time procuring for the next release and special bottles for the shop which I've just opened in Columbia City with Meredith, Chef/Owner of La Medusa, the OG Sicilian restaurant that has graced the address at 4857 Rainier Avenue South, for almost 20 years! The new space is right next door and is called Persephone. Cantina Sauvage has a small shop within the shop and I'm there whenever we're open! Come by! Current hours are 3-9pm Thursday through Saturday! Persephone is a small specialty grocery, with wine, both mine and Persephone's. Persephone specializes in wines and libations from the south of Italy, and the islands, along with food products and other inspirations from the sun! Cantina Sauvage' selections are procured from around the wine producing world, with a bent toward naturally grown and vinified wines that speak to authentic expressions of grape, place, and people!
With that in mind, this week's offering is five wines. pictured clockwise from top left, not including Kathryn!
#1: Grochau Cellars, Melon de Bourgogne, Willamette Valley 2019- $27. I tasted this with my close friend, the inimitable, the bubbly best, Kathryn Olson(pictured), of Vin2U Wines, on Friday. There are a couple of selections from her this week.
John Grochau's first passion is cycling. The gc on his labels is not just his initials but a wink for that passion! (gc = general classification, the designation for leaderboard in a stage race.) I won't get too geeky about that. Let's just say, he is a man after my own heart. John raced on a French trade team in the Loire Valley during his racing years. He fell in love with the wines of the Loire, which are inspired by his passion! I love it! Muscadet is the muse here. This western Loire region which opens onto the Atlantic is the region in which the grape, Melon de Bourgogne, has its most noted expression: bright apple and pear, austere minerality and a briney sea quality that lends itself to the slurping of oyster meats. Grochau does his inspiration justice here. I would be hard pressed to discern that his wine comes from the northwestern US rather than the northwest of France...
#2: Libertine, La Velle Vineyard Dry Riesling, Willamette Valley 2016- $44. I'm not sure what you look for in a Riesling or if that is even a question for you. It should be one of the guiding thoughts upon waking in the morning: "what am I looking for in a Riesling today?" and in your mindful meanderings, the tendrils of your neuronic pathways should be feeling their way toward this particular expression of one of the most noble of all grapes. RIESLING! Alex Neely is the master behind this homage to the god, Bacchus (pictured on the label). This waxy, bee's waxy, semi-botrytized dry riesling is brilliant, inspiring free-form verse and sex in the streets. From the moment it hits your nose, to long after it glides glycerally down the back of your throat, I guarantee, you will understand and agree to the adage that there is nothing as overrated as sex and underrated as a good . . . Riesling. Try them both together, in varying combinations.
#3: Les Grandes Vignes, 100% Cabernet Breton 2019- $29 This family has been farming and making wine in the Anjou region for more than 200 years! Jean-Francois Vaillard is part of this legacy, and as such, farms over 50 hectares of land, all of it biodynamically. This is over 100 acres of vines! No small concern here, and you would never suspect the breadth and depth to which this property produces its many different cuvées, all of them 100% unfuctwith, true expressions of the varietal. In this case, it is their Cabernet Franc; simple but not totally so, and easy to drink; so easy in fact, that you might forget to think before you drink the whole bottle and then realize it's gone and regret that you just guzzled that so easily. Make sure you have more than one bottle on hand, and pay attention next time! Juicy and ripe, but with undercurrents of fertile black soil- compost and blackberry stem. terracotta pots- full of geraniums.
#4 Cyrille Vuillod, La Derniere Goute, Beaujolais 2019- $37
Cryille was a ski instructor in the Alps who, in summer and fall went down to the Beaujolais to help in the vines and with the harvest. Eventually, he allowed winemaking to become his primary passion and worked/studied under Jean-Claude Lapalu for three years before buying vines just outside of Brouilly. Up until recently he has made only Gamay Noir but is working on obtaining Riesling(!) and Chardonnay from friends, to add to his repertoire. Carbonic macerations are the norm for him, followed by aging in larger format, neutral oak barrels. Again, with the bees wax, I cannot help it! When I smell it, I'm already smitten and bitten. The wine is a turbid mix of hazy blood-red sunshine in a glass, visually and sensually; spiced with clove and star anise. As my mom likes to say:
Deeeee-lish, Marc Stephen!
#5 Bojo do Luar "Tez" , Vinho Verde- $29 This is a beautifully brilliant, peach hued wine that spends time on the skins, (50% of the cuvee, in fact) while the rest is direct-pressed. It is bottled unfiltered and there can be little particles that resemble tiny flower petals in the bottle! And that's because there are flower petals! The resultant wine is at once, rich on the palate, with ripe pear and peach, but also beautifully saline and mineral framed. It is unctuous and wild with scent and flavor, yet under control with quiet complexity. Antonio Sousa is the producer behind these most amazing expressions to come out of the Vinho Verde region of northern Portugal. You've seen the Bojo do Luar wines offered here before: the Luar Rosa rosé, and the Deu Pinote red blend. The Tez is a 50/50 blend of Avesso and Azol, the Avesso is whole cluster fermented in stainless steel, the Azol is direct-pressed, with elevage taking place in concrete. There is a kilo of ground chestnut flowers added to the ferment per one ton of fruit, taking the place of sulfur, as a stabilizing agent in the process. It is bottled unfiltered and unfined.
There you have it, my friends!
Please get in touch with me here:
Cantina Sauvage with any questions and/or orders!
4 bottle minimum for delivery,
6 bottle minimum outside seattle city limits.
Much love,
Marc