Labors of Love to You For Labor Day!
A trove of wine this week and even as I write this, I can't quite decide how to narrow it all down! Pics will follow! I have a little bit of everything, from super nat' pet' nat', (Joao Pato) to a super clean and still super nat' blend of Gruner and Riesling (Arndorfer); a skin contact Xarel-lo from a most excellent producer in Penedes: Pardas (so good!); to a Ramato style skin contact rosé not quite rose, salmon colored jewel of sunlight from (Colin at Alto Cirus) to 2 reds from the Vaucluse (Les Maou) Vaste Programme and Haut les Coeurs also SUPER LIVE! In fact, all of these wines slay it this week and there is something here for every one of you!
Okay! This is the narrowed down list:
Joao Pato (aka Duckman), Lucky Duck Petillant Naturel- $30
What can I say about this bit of caramelized sunshine? A blend of 50% Baga and 50% Fernao Pires, two indigenous varietals from the Bairrada region of Portugal. This is another Savio Soares selection and, as with the Bojo do Luar wines of the last offer, this is another producer working with indegenous varietals, grown and vinified in the most unfuctwith way possible. The result is this caramel apple pie crust with salt on top, in a liquid form, pouring down the back of your throat, with a little pepper to liven it up even more . . . I recommend drinking it and feeling the briny sea air that sweeps over the cliffs of this coastal zone. Soils for the varietals are sand.
Arndorfer, Vorgeschmack White Wine- $29
A blend of 80% Gruner Veltliner and 20% Riesling from this most fastidious couple of wild wine people! This is a great example of natural wine that is so clean, it almost feels sterile after tasting the Lucky Duck! Please don't be turned off by the word, sterile! What I mean is that theirs is a very clear and focused style of wine making, done naturally with very little to no sulfur, resulting in a focussed, mineral driven, beautifully aromatic wine that is so textbook correct that it seems almost, boring? Sterile? Boring? "Exactly what are you getting at Mister?" What I mean is that not everything has to be horsetails and broomsticks and flies sticking to cowshit, in order for it to be natural! There is room for the focussed and the fastidious and this is a great example of it and is intended for those who like the thought of natural wine and what it stands for in the grand scheme of this brave new wine world!
Pardas, Pell a Pell, Xarel-lo, Penedes 2020- $30
Whoa! Whoa Whoa...is what I mean when I say: this wine hits me from all sides with elegant surprise! On the nose, I thought, Pineau d'Aunis on the palate, I thought, Pineau d'Aunis and then on the mouth-feel, I thought, Viognier and WTF! Put this wine in a black cup and you might think it was red! Beautiful black pepper and peach! You could drink this with grilled lamb and feel refreshed! It quietly sneaks up on you and before you know it, you are on the ground, bleeding, the victim of this surgical strike of a wine....and you bleed bliss...
Alto Cirrus, Crooked Acres Rosato, "Red Wine" 2019 Columbia Gorge- $29
What I meant earlier, is that this wine is brilliant and does taste like a ray of sunshine, with bright droplets trickling down the sides of one's mouth . . . it is a gorgeous glass of sunlight and when I drink it, I'm reminded of the film from long ago: Microcosmos! If you never saw this when it was out, I recommend watching this incredible piece of meditative movement delving into the creature world that we never see...and how does that work with this wine, you may ask? I guess it just seeped into me in a sublime kind of way, and altered my perception of the world in which I thought I lived. Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris co-fermented; Chardonnay 1/3 each goes through six months in barrel before all is blended back together and settled in tank for several months before bottle. Colin Shirek is the author.
Les Maou, Vaste Programme 2020 Vaucluse- $31
These last two wines are from the famille Aurelie et Vincent Garreta. A gregarious blend of Carignan (33%), Aubun (33%), and Grenache (33%), Aubun being a little known and practically extinct varietal, indigenous to the Vaucluse. Alive as one could want, this is a dancing bear of a wine that balances upon its ball, light as can be, with a slight prickle on the palate that dissipates shortly after opening and that evanesces in the glass, if you can keep it there long enough...Honestly! There is a hint of Dard et Ribo at work here, in that the wines are so energetic and live it's almost as though you are drinking electricity.
Les Maou, Haut les Coeurs, 2020 Vaucluse- $33
This is 100% Carignan This is another semi carbonically macerated cuvee that is a bit more toothsome, a bit more edgy, a bit more feral and fairly emitting pheromones out the top of the glass.... I am definitely triggered! What does this mean? as with the first, this is a truly wild wine that can barely contain itself and can fairly jump you, throw you down and have its way with you... THAT'S WHAT I MEAN BY PHEROMONES!
NB There were two more wines that I almost put in this offer: both of a similar cepage, and also, naturally made! and beautiful in their own right but comparatively speaking, would be to admire a marble statue's lifelike qualities and sensual insinuations, versus a good throw down in the mud! know what i mean?
That's the list for the week!
Contact me here: Cantina Sauvage
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Much love,
Marc