Inauguration Week Wine, Delivered to Your Door!
Wow! so much happening and so much being written about what’s happening! I will add only this: I feel like I just stepped out of a bad dream, an abusive relationship, or the ring just dropped into the fires of Mount Doom, and, like Middle Earth, we are entering upon a new age. . . but with a veil of mist that will never quite dissipate . . .Could it be, we’ll be suffering now from PTSD?
Six Wines for you this week
#1 Tunia, Sottofondo, 2019, IGT Toscana Bianco Frizzante- $28
Chiarra Innocenti & Francesca Di Benedetto are the partners behind this naturally sparkling Trebbiano. Grapes are harvested in two passes, the first happening early when grapes are not quite ripe and the acids are high. Grapes are pressed immediately in to tank. The second pass happens at full maturity. The grapes are left on the skins for thirty days after which the wines are combined and ferment together for three months before bottling with a bit of passito (dried) grape must to spark the second fermentation. The result is this golden hued autumnal bottle of sparkling lovliness . . .
#2 Block 16 Sylvaner, 2019, David Hill Estate, Tualatin Hills-$23
I love Sylvaner! I could do an offer of just this grape, in four different wines from four different places. All of them would be different, all of them brilliant . . . Sylvaner is the A personality type cousin to Chenin Blanc IN MY MIND! So many expressions of lovliness, all of them sharing this lazer sharp focus, (as in, pissing diamonds) like the Odenstahl from this summer! to the Rheinhessen expression from Battenfeld Spanier, such nuance and expression on the nose! This version comes from Chad Stock, who is making the wines at David Hill. This is Chad’s day job, while he works on his own winemaking art. FOCUS! yes, MINERAL! yes, DEPTH! yes, citrus and herb, with some salinity that mingles so amazingly with the pithy lemon lollipop.
#3 Les Grandes Vignes, Pineau d’Aunis 2019-$32
If you’ve been on this list for awhile, if you know me, you know that I love Pineau d’Aunis. Another grape that I’d be happy to feature solo, with several different expressions, coming from several different producers, from several different places; all of them super-brilliant! Expressions of black pepper and fresh herbs, fruit that jumps out of the glass, reaches through your sinuses and rips at your guts, in the best way possible . . . maybe something akin to having your psoas muscle massaged. Such a disconcerting feeling and yet somehow amazing, as long as you don’t soil yourself!
#4 Les Errances, Cartouche, 2019 VdF-$23
70% Grolleau, 30% Cabernet Franc from this lovely couple, Maité Perroucheau & Warren Truchon in Rablay-sur-Layon! Super live and probably the wildest and most unfuctwith of all the unfuctwith offerings this week; there is a bit of spritz upon opening, that dissipates in a few minutes. I had this wine open for three days and each day was an expansion in flavor and depth . . . until the the final day when it had settled in to a super fruity expression that was nothing like the Alf looking drawing on the label. And that’s not a value judgement. Beautiful from day one to the end!
#5 Claus Preisinger, Puszta Libre! 2019 Weinland Austria- $28
I will say only this one expletive for this wine: FUCK YEAH! ok, a little more. This is a blend of St. Laurent and Zweigelt that is so alive and well and so full of synergy that it fairly jumps out of the glass! And all of the wines this week, especially in the reds, do this! But that is the point of the wines, for me. They have to say something to us. Sometimes it’s quiet, sometimes insistent, sometimes just barely a whisper that one must bend one’s ear with intent and consciousness, to hear its message. This is not one of those! It is brash and dancing about like a dervish in ecstasy . . .
#6 Fred Niger, Trinity, 2019, Vin de France-$23
80% Grenache, 20% Cinsault, grapes brought up from the southern rhone valley and vinified in amphora by Fred at his winery, Domaine de l’Ecu in Muscadet! Much is written about this domaine and its role in bringing Muscadet into its own, and much has been written about Fred, the dynamo who is Domaine de l’Ecu. This wine is a beautiful, deep and spirited exchange between place, vessel, and grape . . . and if Preisinger’s wine above is an ecstatic dance, then this is a slower, lugubrious meditation on the nature of darkness . . . vibrating yes, but in a lower octave, sounding deep beneath the surface with the whales . . . and it’s laughing with joy . . . telling me to not take myself too seriously! Ha!
There you have it friends! As always, hit me up here, with any questions and/or requests.
4 bottle minimum brings me to your door!