Spanish Mediterranean Fruit – Bordeaux Style

Alemany i Corrio “Pas Curtei” (Penedès 2011)
Special 6-pack Price: $134 (~$22/bottle) SOLD OUT

One often hears the word “bold” in the context of red wine. While there are many interpretations for the term, thick ripe fruit or big young tannins to name just two, bold should not mean unbalanced. A wine that is bold should have the shoulders to pair with the burliest of cheeses and the most marbled hunks of red meat but it should not be cumbersome or tiring to your palate. In the spirit of boldness and balance, we submit 2011 Pas Curtei.

In a glass the Mediterranean meets Bordeaux with heady notes of the herbal maquis shrubland and licorice over the lush aromatics of crème de cassis and spicy cedar. Although the warmth and dryness of the 2011 vintage in Penedès posed a bit of a challenge, Pas Curtei remains remarkably fresh to balance all that upfront boldness. A blend of 60% Merlot, 20% Carinyena, and 20% Cabernet Sauvignon, the wine is aged for 14 months in a mixture of one, two, and three-year old French oak barrels. While drinking well now it easily has another few years of cellar development ahead of it.

This is a wine with the physique of Saint-Émilion and the soul of the Alt Penedès — the most inland and mountainous subzone characterised by relatively low yield, high quality, and the moderating climate to keep too much of that boldness from tipping the wines out of balance. It’s there that passionate winemakers Irene Alemany and Laurent Corrio are producing a range of world-class wines. Their true garage winery is located in the center of Vilafranca del Penedès where they vinify by variety and batch. The couple, who met at the University of Burgundy in Dijon, apprenticed in vineyards in France and California before settling into the Penedès region to start their own operation using Irene’s family vines.

Pas Curtei is not even the couple’s top wine. That honor goes to Sot Lefriec ($79/bottle), a true vin de garde and one of the most acclaimed wines from Spain. We currently have a few bottles left of the 2006 vintage. Most anyone making a such a well-regarded wine certainly is not going to slouch on any of their products, as evidenced by the superior quality of Pas Curtei.

Since we have a few more six-packs in inventory than we’d prefer, we’re offering Pas Curtei at an even more significant discounted price than our usual Saturday featured wine. It’s a good time to stock up.

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Posted on 2017.02.08 in Saturday Sips Wines, Spain DO, Catalunya  |  Read more...

The Champagne Society – February 2017 Selection: Especially for Lovers (of Great Wine)

Champagne Veuve Fourny & Fils “Cuvée R” Vertus Premier Cru Extra Brut

“The honed restraint of Fourny‘s pristine fruit, meeting the ravishing complexity of old oak and swirling, tossing minerality, makes for quite a display. Fermentation in old oak barrels amplifies bath-salts minerality drawn from the thin soils of the north of Vertus near Le Mesnil-sur-Oger by grand old vines. Carefully crafted old oak cranks things up a notch from Fourny‘s other non-vintage cuvées, making for a taut and dry blend of Cuvée R, with a mouthfeel of grapefruit pith texture.” – Tyson Stelzer

Clearly Tyson Stelzer, award-winning wine writer and author of The Champagne guide, likes this wine as much as we do. We opened a few bottles of “Cuvée R” over the course of the holiday season and it was drinking beautifully every time. It’s a perfect, crowd-pleasing bottle for gatherings or an intimate Valentine’s Day dinner.

Champagne Veuve Fourny is located in the prestigious Côte des Blancs in the village of Vertus, one of the most highly regarded of the Premier Cru villages and one that allows the estate to grow high quality Pinot Noir alongside some of the Champagne region’s finest Chardonnay. Brothers Charles-Henry and Emmanuel Fourny sustainably farm about 22 acres of vineyards, although Cuvée R is predominately from a small 2 acre plot of the Les Barilliers vineyard growing vines that average 60 years in age.

Because of their absolute focus on ripeness and quality fruit in the vineyard the Fournys seek to add minimum dosage to all of their wines. Indeed, Cuvée R is classified as an Extra Brut with only 3-4 grams/liter of dosage. The blend is 90% Chardonnay and 10% Pinot Noir from the 2010 and 2011 vintages. The wine is vinified in 100% Burgundian barrels (between 3-15 years old) and then aged for at least 4 years in bottle before release.

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Posted on 2017.02.02 in France, The Champagne Society, Champagne  |  Read more...

The Soul of Great Piedmont Nebbiolo

Silvio Giamello “Vicenziana” (Barbaresco 2013)
$31.50/bottle SOLD OUT

From a tiny plot of 40-50 year old vines on less than five acres Silvio Giamello is crafting a classic, old-school wine with the delicate, nuanced fragrances of flowers, tar and minerals that one expects from high quality Barbaresco. With elegance, complexity, and a lengthy finish, this is showcase “feminine” Piedmont Nebbiolo when compared to some of the bruisers of Barolo. And when mere Langhe Nebbiolo has begun creeping toward $30 bottle, this is a great value to boot.

The Giamello estate lies in the northernmost part of Barbaresco in Ovello, one of the famed Barbaresco crus. The lieu-dit Vicenziana started out as the Giamello family farm that included small parcels of vines, grain, forest, and pastures where their animals grazed. These clay soils with lime-rich marl produced such quality wine that eventually much of the estate was wisely replanted to vines. Yet even with this prime terroir the family still sold most of the fruit to Langhe négociants. It wasn’t until the 1990s that fourth generation winemaker Silvio decided to bottle the estate’s wines for more than just the family’s consumption.

Today Silvio Giamello and his wife Marina Camia run the estate very traditionally. All work in the vineyard is natural and chemical-free and the wines are vinified using natural yeast. Vicenziana Barbaresco is fermented in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks and then aged in 2,000-3,000 liter, Slavonian oak botti for two to three years. While this wine drinks well now, it does have the potential to develop in a proper cellar for another five to ten years.

If you’ve never heard of Silvio Giamello it’s most likely because he has no interest in self promotion and makes very little wine – 5,000 bottles of Barbaresco in a highly productive year. We were fortunate to have access to a handful of cases but at this price the wine likely won’t be around long.

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Posted on 2017.02.01 in Saturday Sips Wines, Piedmont, Italy  |  Read more...

Fresh & Fleshy Alpine Red

Domaine Jean-Pierre & Jean-François Quénard “Elisa” Mondeuse (Savoie 2014)
~$29/bottle SOLD OUT

It seems improbable that the mountain landscape of Savoie in far eastern France near the Swiss and Italian borders is capable of producing ripe and fleshy red wines. After all, this is a region known more for its ski hills than its wine. But a well directed slope and mountain buffers can do wonders for creating the kind of heat that allows a vine to produce fully ripe fruit over the course of a growing season.

Viticulture in Savoie is pure opportunism, only two percent of the region’s agricultural lands are occupied with vines. As such, production is small and generally consumed by locals and the tourists that flock to the region for hiking and skiing. Yet this patchwork of vineyards encompass more than twenty crus and account for over a dozen significant grape varieties. It’s in the cru of Chignin – part of the crescent-shaped stretch of limestone scree known as the Combe de Savoie that is known to produce the greatest Savoie wines – where Jean-François Quénard is doing his life’s work.

You can find up to a half dozen domaines named Quenard just on a single signpost along the route du vin southeast of Chambéry but only one of them is the impressive Jean-François Quénard. He owns 37 acres of vineyards around the village of Chignin and took over winemaking from his father in 1987 after studying winemaking in Burgundy, Gigondas, Bordeaux, and California.

The primary grape for Jean-François’ red wines is the indigenous Mondeuse, a spicy, sappy variety high in acid. Cuvée “Elisa” is classic Mondeuse, blackish-purple and laden with juicy wild berries. Old vines give the wine concentration while vinification in barrel provides depth. Structurally, it can be compared to the most ambitious of Cru Beaujolais but with fruit that tends more toward mulberry and blackberry. Pair it with a thick, heritage-breed pork chop from our new favorite local butcher.

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Posted on 2017.01.25 in France, Saturday Sips Wines, French Rarities  |  Read more...

Charming & Unique Southern French Red

Maxime Magnon Rozeta (Corbières 2015)
Special 6-pack Price: $194 (~$32/bottle)

It was only a few decades ago that the Languedoc-Roussillon was known mainly for its cheap and plentiful wine. Yet the best growers have proved that the region has far more to offer and continue to push the quality envelope. This reawakened focus on excellence over quantity is attracting young winemakers from all over France. Like native Burgundian, Maxime Magnon, who is reclaiming old-vine plots in high-altitude vineyards to produce wines that not only speak of the land from where they come but also made in a way which emphasize purity of the fruit and immediate drinkability. Wines of sun and stone.

A naturalist at heart, Maxime cultivates his vines with respect for nature and the soil – although what stands for soil here is mostly just pure rock and Mediterranean shrubland (garrigue). He’s certified organic, but also incorporates biodynamic practices into his vineyard management. A mule and several cattle serve for weed control and fertilization. In the cellar, sulfite usage is minimal and strictly governed. Aging of the wine is done in second-hand, Burgundian barrels sourced from a producer in Chassagne-Montrachet.

He has studied under some of the most respected winemakers in the Northern Rhône and Beaujolais, perhaps explaining his predilection for using whole cluster fermentation to create vibrant, balanced and juicy wine that still maintains its sense of place.

The 2015 Rozeta is a blend of old vine Carignan, Grenache, and Cinsault. It is full of bright red fruits and floral aromatics, with a crunchy backbone to balance it all out. Its medium body makes it ideal for pairing with lighter protein, pork chops for instance, while the energetic finish will buoy a winter plate of roasted root vegetables.

Other current-release cuvées available from Maxime Magnon

Maxime Magnon “Campagnes” (Corbières 2015) Red $46
Concentrated Carignan from 100-year-old vines. Capable of developing for a decade or more.

Maxime Magnon “La Begou” (Corbières 2015) White $42
Grenache Gris, Grenache Blanc, and a splash of Vermentino. Clean, complex, and refreshing.

Maxime Magnon “Metisse” (Corbières 2015) Rosé $29 SOLD OUT
A crisp, deep rosé of Grenache, Carignan, Cinsault, and Grenache Blanc.

We also have a small amount of the 2012 vintage of both the Rozeta and Campagnes cuvées.

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Posted on 2017.01.04 in Saturday Sips Wines, France, Languedoc-Roussillon  |  Read more...

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