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Es d’aqui Trachéo Red 2019

Jean-Louis Pinto

A superb wine, refined and fresh, beautifully fruity. A nose of raspberry, rose, licorice, and Languedoc garrigue. On the palate, very well-integrated tannins. Beautiful energy, sunshine, and plenty of structure. This is a pure Grenache, made from grapes grown in the schist soils of Cabrerolles, in the Faugères region. It has a aging potential of six or seven years, but can be enjoyed now. The harvest macerates for twenty-three days in whole bunches and the wine is aged in resin vats.

To find out more

A child of Ariège, Jean-Louis Pinto chose to stay in the country and make wines that resemble their terroir, hence the name Es d’Aqui (“It’s, it’s from here”) that he gave to his winemaking business, located in Moulin-Neuf, a town near Aude, between Mirepoix and Limoux. A region where vines once abounded, until the major mildew attacks at the beginning of the 20th century. Jean-Louis buys grapes grown organically by other winegrowers, his friends, in whom he has complete confidence. He doesn’t just buy the product, he monitors the fruit set, the ripening, and makes regular visits until August, in order to know the grapes before harvesting them. He vinifies it at home using natural methods, practicing long macerations with whole bunches. A three-week maceration is common for him, as are very gentle pressings in a vertical press. He says he has "a lot of vines in common" with his friend Anthony Tortul (La Sorga, see link). His collection area extends throughout the Languedoc, particularly in the Hérault, around Adissan, Faugères and Saint-Chinian, as well as in the Aude (Limoux) and Tarn (Gaillac), two terroirs that are dear to him. It turns out that the typical Languedoc soils – schist, basalt, pebbles, clay-siliceous – particularly appeal to him for the freshness they give to the wines. "I make wines from the South," he says. "I especially look for terroirs that give freshness, even if the wines have an alcohol content of 14%." » The grape varieties are, of course, typically Languedoc: Grenache, Carignan, Mauzac, Cinsault, Braucol, Duras and Sauvignon. The most powerful reds are made in five terracotta jars, which help him control the extraction and give his wines, he says, "a very crystalline side." The soil, the location, as we understand it, are of the utmost importance to him: once again, the name of his estate Es d'Aqui was not chosen by chance.

Skin Contact Sous Roche Red 2016

Domaine de Chassorney

This Pinot Noir comes from a plot with a steep, south-southeast facing terroir located between 280 and 400 meters above sea level in the Saint-Romain appellation. The soils are mainly marl, limestone and clay. The grapes, from fifty-year-old vines, macerate in whole bunches. Aging takes place for about a year in barrels. Beautiful structure, well-rounded tannins, and lovely notes of black fruits.
Natural wine with no added sulfites.

Magnum Tracheo 2016

Es d'aqui Jean Louis Pinto
This pure Grenache comes from the schist soils of Faugères. It is a superb wine, refined and fresh, beautifully fruity. It has aging potential for six or seven years, but can be enjoyed now. Nose of raspberry, rose, licorice, and Languedoc garrigue. On the palate, very well-integrated tannins. Beautiful energy, sunshine, and plenty of structure.
Natural wine with no added sulfites.

Xarab Silver White 2006

Bodega Barranco Oscuro

On south-facing schist hillsides at an altitude of 1,300 meters, Manuel Valenzuela has created this astonishing sweet white wine from the Xarab series, made from Pedro Ximenez and Xarel·lo grapes, raisined on the vine and harvested in December. Golden-amber in color, with a nose of candied grapes and buttery caramel, the palate is rich and taut, avoiding the pitfalls of excessive richness and syrupiness. The finish lingers on dried fruits and caramel, and the cellaring is very long.
Natural wine without added sulfites.

Mahlon White 2017,

Domaine Ruth Lewandowski

Mahlon is a dry white wine made entirely from the Piedmontese arneis grape variety, which, in the dialect of its native region, means "little rascal," an allusion to the difficulties it presents to winegrowers. Ruth Lewandowski is convinced that this difficulty is worth it, even if she only releases this cuvée once every two years. Six hours of skin maceration after foot-treading, complete malolactic fermentation, then six months of aging on lees. When it's good, it's very good! And if you see this bottle on our site, you know you have to enjoy it.

Natural wine with no added sulfites.

Magnum Les Vignes de Jeannot Red 2017

Nicolas Chemarin

This red wine from the Beaujolais-Villages appellation (of course, 100% Gamay), offering a more than reasonable price-quality ratio, comes from old vines that belonged to Jean Chemarin, ancestor of our current winemaker: hence the name on the label. A freshness that is explained by the altitude of the plot (450 meters). This wine has undergone two years of aging, half in vats and the other half in Burgundy barrels. He is charming, captivating, fruity, with beautiful notes of strawberry.

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Nicolas Chemarin, nicknamed "P'tit Grobis" as a resident of Marchampt (Beaujolais), is the fourth generation of winemaker on his family wine estate in the Beaujolais-Villages appellation, on a land full of stones where he crafts wines of surprising depth and sincerity. In 2005, he took over two hectares of vines from his father and in 2006 he signed his first vintages. In 2008, he acquired other vines and decided to devote himself solely to his estate, whose terroir, very steep, consists of rocky and poor soils on a gray granite rock. The vines rest on the bedrock through very thin soil, and their roots plunge deep into the rock. Depending on the soil configuration, the vines are pruned in goblet or raised on stakes. Their average age is eighty years. The grape varieties, Gamay and Chardonnay, are classically Beaujolais. Nicolas also cultivates two other terroirs in the Régnié appellation: Les Bullats, with light, filtering sandy soils, and La Haute Ronze, very close to Morgon, whose deeper, clayey soils produce full-bodied wines. The vintages undergo long macerations (from 18 to 30 days) with punching down and temperature control (Nicolas works cold, around 20°C). Aging is partially done in temperature-controlled concrete vats for a third, the remaining two-thirds being spent in barrels of four to ten wines to provide oxygenation but little or no oaky sensation. Nicolas Chemarin is already well known in the natural world for his sweet and fruity vintages, pleasure wines, and for vintages from difficult and magnificent terroirs, with admirable and complex mineral, aromatic and spicy notes.