White Heat, White Light…August bottles for you!
Marc here! Welcome back and get ready for some serious shit! I kid you not. Two releases this week: one offering of five wines that are appropriate to these late summer (and more silvering of the light), and three wines that I'm offering from friend, Alex Klinec, of Klinec Medana, one of the most amazing producers in this world and by far, (to me), author of the most compelling wines to come out of the Goriska Brda zone of Slovenia. This is an extension of the Collio Goriziano zone, in N.E. Italy. HANDS DOWN! one of my favorite wine regions in the world, did I say, favorite, amazing & Compelling? YES! (more colorful expletifs inserted here). especially for white wine. And to me, Alex is to Goriska Brda, what Jasko Gravner is to Collio Goriziano. (More on the wines of Klinec below). First, let's get into the five below!
1. Bertrand & Lise Jousset, Exilé, Blanc Petillant- $35. A bear of a man...(that's him in the photo, at a fair in Paris in June). He and wife, Lise, make beautiful Petillants Naturels, and I've carried the rosé Exilé before. The blanc is a blend of 50/50 Chenin Blanc & Columbard. The Exilé is a beautiful bubbly wine that prickles the palate with pepper and spice...that's nice! The Colombard provides lift for the show providing some acid framing the loveliness of the more sumptuous Chenin...
2. Chateau Landra, Pur Jus, Ventoux Rosé- $29. Doing things lovingly and naturally, since 2007, Landra is a natural wine maker in the Ventoux, that produces this blend of Grenache ana Cinsault, with a couple of twists, in that there is some extended lees ageing after pressing off the skins, with elevage taking place in both steel and oak barre...what this means for you? A wine that is at once your classic summertime pink wine, and yet, also providing some texture and lusciousness that not only makes your mouth water, but gives you something to roll around in your mouth, before you swallow it and when you do, you say...shiiiiitttttt that is good, pur jus! I don't think you need a translation for that...
3. Alvaro Gonzalez, A Temps, Xarel-lo, Catalunya- $23 The next two wines are from two sides of the Catalan region; Gonzalez on the other side of the border from France... vinifying Xarel-lo so fragrant and lovely on the nose that i peed my pants with joy! (do you believe me?) yet on the palate, savory & hard with salinity and herbs! Fucking amazing and unfuctwith. Sniff this up your nose! Wash it around in your mouth and roll around on the floor in a puddle of your own piddle. Dirty!
4. Riberach Synthese Blanc, Cotes Catalanes 2019 -$29 What the #@%^*^! (I'm trying not to say, fuck in everything...) it's a crutch, right? for the unintelligent, who can not come up with a better way to say fuck, without saying fuck...well...fuckity fuck fuck fuck... I can't help it! I'm unintelligent, I guess. But I will say this: F U C K this is the best iteration of this cuvée yet! Truly. and every vintage I've had, is better than the last! How does it happen? How do they do it? Do they do anything? If Gonzalez made me pee my pants, this made me do something far more and more ecstatic, in my pants, WHAAAT?!! Yes, it did (do you believe me?) Wow. again, I am a sucker for scent, and it is the thing that draws me in and when it does, but the palate disappoints, I feel as though I've been had, fuct out and thrown to the floor, left to be swept up like garbage on a Sunday morning. Really, I just want to throw the glass, shatter and say, get out! Need I say, this does not happen with this wine...what promises on the nose, to be transcendent... delivers on the palate, with a rich stream of love that just flows down the back of my throat... (is it just reductive?)
5. San Lorenzo di Gino Rosso- $26 Well, why not follow up with something off the cuff, from the Marché region of Italy? If you were at our tasting three summers ago, in my friend, Jane's backyard, you would have met Natalino next to Fabrizio of Iuli. They are close friends and totally different from each other. Natalino is quiet and keeps his conversation short (maybe because he doesn't speak english?) I don't know. I've offered the Di Gino Bianco here before. The red! Montipulciano of an iron blood red color, and the scent of leather thong, drawn around the neck of a sweaty horse... balanced by baked cherries! I'm not giving you tasting notes here! these are just my impressions when I drink wine and dose on mushrooms. Natalino makes white wine, mostly. But there are a few cuvées in red. This is one of them and as with his whites each has its own expression, and does not get released before it's ready.
Three Wines from Alex Klinec
Okay, second part of the offer and really, another offer, entirely! It's a new day that I'm writing this, so the tone may be different than above. I know I was saying the F word alot. Well, FUCK! Three wines from Alex Klinec! I know I top loaded expectations in the opening paragraph, and rightly so! You should have expectations here....expect to be moved by these wines, all of which are variations on white or off-white varietals...the off white, being the Sivi-Pinot, the Slovenian name for Pinot Gris.
There is something to be said, for actually being in the place where the wine is made. Some of the above photos are from a visit with Alex! His wines were favorites before the visit and the visit was much anticipated. I write these wines up, oftentimes with an image in my mind, of where the wine is made; what the winemaker looks like; the countryside surrounding it... YOU KNOW!? It's kind of like listening to music on vinyl, before MTV; not to date myself, HA! Who the fuck wanted to see what Rob Halford really looked like on Another Thing Coming? So, as a purveyor, when the chance of a meet-up or visit with a producer comes, I'm slightly hesitant. I don't want my image destroyed! My mind's eye is highly romantic and as with most romantics, the reality rarely stands up. KLinec was not one of them... seamless was the experience; between person, place, and that person's wines. What more can I say? The visit deserves a whole other write-up! The wines stood up and continue to stand up, doing back flips over the top of my head from a standing position!
6. Malvazija 2018- $65- The lightest, in color, of the three. The lightest in extract and the one with the shorter time on skins, 4 days, to be exact. I'm putting these in the order of intensity, due to time on skins and properties of the grape. This is the one I would start with, in a tasting. Lighter, with a mouthfeel that prepares for the other two, were you to open all three. And you should! enjoy them through several hours, into the wee hours, in fact; around a meal, with people you love and who love you and will love you even more, because you're generous, and thoughtful.
7. Rebula 2018- $65- This might be the most savory of the three wines. It seemed to me that there was a not of almost Fino Sherry. Not full on Sherry, as in oxidized, but that there might have been a bit of flor that had developed on this, maybe he didn't top off the barrel? Whatever it may be, there is a briny quality to the wine. That's all I will say. I don't want to stick notes in your head! Figure it out for yourself! Maceration on skins here, 14 days
8. Gardelin 2018- $65- I think, (IN MY OPINION) that the best expression of this grape, comes from the the environs of northeast italy/slovenia/austria. Not just any style, either. The soils, the height of the vineyards, the influence of the mountain spirits, all conspire to present some of the most profound wines... in Friuli-Venezia-Giulia, they have a name for the style of making Sivi Pinot/Pinot Grigio/Pinot Gris....RAMATO! Leaving the skins in contact with the juice for a period during maceration... this can vary with each producer. Klinec does 14 days. Suffice to say, that even looking at the wine through the green glass in-bottle, you can see the darker pigment! I love all three of these wines and I won't choose one over another, but if I had to choose one, it would be this one. It straddles several worlds, quite easily, and thus brings versatility. Drink it chilled! Let it come to temperature and watch it blossom! Seriously.
That's it for this week... I know it's a long one. Thank you for reading!
4 bottle minimum in Seattle; 6 outside city limits for delivery.
But! If the only thing you'd like is three bottles of the Klinec wines, I will deliver those to you too!