Sunshine For you!
Good Morning! Wow! FINALLY, a glorious Spring day, and I think it appropriate, the first offer to come out since early spring, is on a day when it feels like maybe(?) we've moved onto the threshold of some truly warmer weather . . . And yes, it's been too long.
WINE! Yes, wine...
WINE! Yes, wine... I have six for you this week and they have a point of view... as all the wines I choose, do, it is true! Firstly, two of the producers here, have two wines each in the line-up; red and white, Italian (Emelia Romagna) and French (Savoie); two more are French (Bordeaux and Muscadet)
What they all share in common, is that they come to me through Goatboy Selections. I won't get into who they are here, but these are the narrative threads that pass between them all:
-Reflexion of their individual terroirs
-totally unfuctwith wine making
-products of people who are passionate about what they do and the way they interact with their individual terroirs... I GUARANTEE, upon passing these wines down the back of your throat, after swirling them in the glass, after gettting a scent from them, you will have had a conversation with four different poets, channeling the universe through vine into bottle, passing through to your organoleptic receptors... and blowing your fucking minds...WOW! REALLY!? YES....
1. Romain Petitteau, Bohale, Muscadet Sevre et Maine 2020- $29- straw yellow in color, redolent of hay and bosc pear, dripping with bee pollen...did I say, redolent? straw yellow? Hay? bosc pear? what? Why pin it down thus? Suffice to say, there is a sheep on the label, suspended by a cloud baloon. Yes, the wine is golden hued, yes it has the scent of bee's wax, and yes! there is far more to this Muscadet than most you will have had...
Decades ago, Muscadet was synonymous with mediocrity (and it was cheaper)... NOT ANTMORE!
2. Castel Vieilh La Salle, Merlot (50%), Caberney Sauvignon (25%), Cabernet Franc (25%) Vin de France (Bordeaux) Non-Vintage (2011-2012)- $30 - Look at the photo of the swirling red wine...you can see the amber borders flung up the coping of the glass, while at the center, there lie beautiful ruby jewels of color, sloshing about, barely able to contain themselves....it's a fucking party in there! and this is Bordeaux, Entre deux Mers, that is farmed biodyamically, 100% naturally, 100% unfuctwith-ly, where Mikael Jaumin makes his wine outside the confines of Bordeaux wine law, preferring his wines be judged in and of themselves and not from where they were born . . . and this is a looking glass into another world that will grip you by your genitalia and not release you until you have found release.
3 & 4. Azienda Agricola Andrea Cervini, Vino del Poggio $44 (Elephant on the label in photo!) Andrea Cervini is from Emelia Romagna- his family has been there for generations, his grandpa made wine; and what is important for us to know here, is his association with Giulio Armani of La Stoppa! (truly some of the greatest wines I've ever tasted) until now . . . seriously. My friend, Kathryn said this about the red: "i found the world in this wine" and isn't that what we all wish we could say about our wines? maybe? or, the universe...I mean, isn't that what truly great artists do? present secrets, decoded in ways that imbue our confounding existence with meaning? Chances are too, that those who find the world in this wine, find the world in a lot of things... because they are truly alive, sentient...receptive...
Malvasia Bianco- Golden! The color of a dehydrated bikeracer's pee, if they were to pee in a glass and not down the drain in the shower, which is the only thing that would cause them to have to pee...really? do you have to use that analogy? Well, why not?! Okay, it's the color of honey, or amber with an insect petrified in its death throes and the resultant liquid, feels nourishing, fortifying, enabling one to continue on . . .
Navel Rosso (Barbera & Bonarda) - "I Found the World in This Bottle" Need I say more? Okay, well, how about I found worlds in this bottle . . . ripe rose petals, both in hue and in scent . . . and yes, you will find the world in this bottle . . .
5. Claude Quenard et Fils, La Gerbelle Sanssoufrir Blanc 2019 $43- Another two cuvées from a single producer, this family, whose land is the result of a purchase from the Carthusian Order, back in 1905, when church and state separated in France, compelling the sale of land, by many religious orders, os they could no longer afford to hold large tracts. The resultant property, owned by Quenard, spreads across two communes in Savoie, Chiignin and Saint Jeoire Prieure. The Savoie spreads from the foothills of the Massif de Chartreuse, across a Valley, up the other side, into the Hautes Alpes, not far from the Italian border....
this cuvée- Jacquere and Chardonnay crystalline and focussed, and a mouth-ful of light . . . Not light as might be implied by the fact that it really is a mountain wine; spending 48 hours on the skins, but pressed off, left on the lees, giving the wine a richness, that takes it beyond the realm of simple, sunny, summertime wine...but, if you look out your window at the day today (here in Seattle, anyway) or you're out in it... you should probably be looking at the day through the sun-ray hue of this wine . . .
6. Sansoufrir Rouge, Mondeuse, $37- The Quenard expression of this grape is in keeping with the rest of these wines; it needs to be considered in the continuum of its sibling Jacquere, above, which is to say, a mountain wine that reflects the schistous, decomposed limestone of the surrounding hillsides, pulverized rock and viney herbs. It's a crossroads of the Northern Rhone, and Beaujolais, not so far to the west and south, grippy and deep, Mondeuse that goes beyond expectations, of simple, country wine and enters the world of something that has its own cru status.
There you have it!
Four bottles for delivery in Seattle
Six if I'm coming to you outside city limits!
Orders: Cantina Sauvage