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289 products
Munjebel White 2018,
Originally, this was an orange skin-macerated wine, but since the 2015 vintage, Frank Cornelissen has sought the precision and finesse of classic Loire Valley white wines and has adapted the winemaking technique accordingly: a shorter maceration period, extended aging in the coolest part of the cellar. Elegance, purity, and density characterize this fresh and straightforward dry white wine, which will prove suitable for all occasions. Munjebel Blanc is produced on mid-altitude plots from equal parts Grecanico Dorato and Carricante, on the Calderara, Borriglione, Crasà and Picciolo plots. Remarkable for its great maturity, it combines beautiful concentration, freshness and oriental aromas: orange blossom, jasmine, dried apricot. The vines are over forty years old; the grapes are destemmed, lightly crushed and macerated for about four days. No fining, no sulfiting, light filtration before bottling. This wine will pair with an almost infinite variety of dishes, meat and fish, oysters and shellfish, and all Asian cuisines.
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A must-have in natural wine, a universally respected figure in this category of wines, Frank Cornelissen is a classic. This man of constant questioning lives in human and cosmic resonance with his contrasting terroir: he has demonstrated that the powerful minerality of a great volcanic soil can be enhanced by the naturalness of his wines. The brilliance, the directness and the exquisite fruitiness of his vintages earn him the admiration even of those reluctant to "natural". They are good introductory wines.
His Sicilian azienda is located in Passopisciaro, in the north of the Etna valley. It is, he says, the "côte de Nuits" of Etna for the great diversity of its wines spread over many localities (contrade) at different altitudes. The climate is continental and harsh, even snowy, in winter, but very warm and sunny from June to September. The altitude gives the wines tension and elegance. The vines coexist with a Mediterranean mixed crop: olive trees, almond trees, vegetable gardens... (Frank also produces olive oil). The vines range in age from forty to over one hundred years. The nineteen plots, covering twenty-four hectares in total, are all at altitude, between 600 and 900 meters, on several volcanic flows. They are all vinified separately: Frank decides on the blend based on the quality of the wines from each plot. Generally, seven or eight vintages are made in addition to the generic wines (rosé, basic red, and white). The soils are made of different types of basalt, between powder and rock, with perfect drainage that allows for concentrated and refined wines. Nerello Mascalese dominates the estate's grape varieties. This great traditional red grape variety from the northern valley of Etna is the only grape variety used in the great vintages. Its growth cycle is long, which allows the vine to work the soil and capture its minerality in the fruit. Other grape varieties include: Nerello Capuccio, Minella Bianco, Minella Nera, Alicante Bouschet, Malvasia, Cattaratto, Moscadella, Grecanico Dorato, Carricante…
Grande Pestilence Rouge 2019
La Sorga
Antony Tortul loves old vineyards: he devotes his life to finding and vinifying them. Just as there are landless shepherds, he can be defined as a landless winegrower, in other words, a wine merchant whose area of activity extends throughout Languedoc and, eastward, as far as Châteauneuf-du-Pape, in search of the best terroirs. Born in Foix, with six years of experience as a wine technician and oenologist in various vineyards in the south of France, he created La Sorga in 2008. His enthusiasm leads him on a path filled with favorites, and each of these favorites is a vineyard. The result is a dizzying mosaic of natural, lively, and spirited wines, which reinvents itself each year with around thirty cuvées per vintage. Few winemakers can list such a variety of grape varieties on their menu: the whole of southern France is there with muscats, grenaches, picpoul, mauzac, carignan, cinsault, marsanne, alicante, braucol, duras, viognier, len-de-l’el, and tutti quanti.
The label and the name with their pestilential connotations should not make this wine pass for what it is not: no morbid stench will disturb your experience once the bottle is opened. The nose, on the contrary, is of great aromatic complexity: black fruits, humus, white pepper, peony, and on the palate the citrus peel typical of the schist soils of the Faugères region and particularly Cabrerolles, from which this wine comes. The texture is very rounded, the finish is long and already very straight! No sulfites, no filtration, nothing else for that matter. The blend is made from sixty percent Cinsault (sixty-five-year-old vines), twenty percent Grenache (sixty-five-year-old vines), and twenty percent Carignan (sixty-five-year-old vines). Vinification is done in whole bunches in a quasi-infusion for sixty days for Cinsault and forty-five days for the other grape varieties. Once everything is blended, aging is one year in vats. It will keep well for a good ten years.
Natural wine with no added sulfites.
Champagne Fleur d'Etoile Extra-Brut White non-vintage,
Fleur d'étoile is a zero-dosage extra-brut vinified without sulfur. Alcoholic fermentation takes place in 228-liter Burgundy barrels and aging is 99 months on slats. The result is a ripe and distinguished champagne, a textured wine with a brilliant color with golden yellow highlights, very emblematic of the Aube terroir. The nose, clean and aromatic, offers floral and vinous aromas. The attack on the palate confirms the balance, the mid-palate is characterized by freshness and acidity, and the finish offers aromas of citron peel with a nice bitterness. To serve it at the table, think of a galette des Rois filled with almond cream with candied citrus peel, aged comté cheese, or fine dishes in sauce (fish or poultry with yellow wine).
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Four generations of winemakers have succeeded one another at the head of Maison Fleury, a pioneer of biodynamics and natural wine in Champagne. Organic farming has been practiced for around thirty years with Demeter and Biodyvin certifications, and the vines have not seen any herbicides for fifty years. Fleury stands out for its organic and natural vintages, typical of the Côte des Bar, where Pinot Noir dominates, the main grape variety in this Fleur d'étoile vintage, with a touch of Chardonnay. The vines grow mainly on Kimmeridgian limestone, with a few plots on calcareous marl.
Adonis Red 2022,
Adonis is the red counterpart of Aphrodite and a superb organic (Ecocert) and natural dry white wine from the Coteaux du Loir, vinified by Renaud Guettier of La Grapperie, without additives, sulfites, or chemical additives.
Vinification
Adonis is made from Pineau d'Aunis, one of the oldest grape varieties in the Loire Valley Western. The vines, pruned in goblet form, are on average seventy-five years old and grow on black silt and limestone (tuffeau) soils. The harvest is manual, transported on horseback. Aging is twelve months in barrels.
Tasting
Draped in a beautiful garnet color, Adonis offers a complex nose of red fruits: strawberry, cherry, smoked blackberry, sweet herbs… On the palate, a beautiful structure between black pepper and raspberry. Spicy, fruity and peppery, with a lovely sweet and yeasty note on the attack that adds to its deliciousness, it is a gastronomic wine. You can pair it with oily fish (tuna, mackerel, sardines), sea or freshwater fish stews with red wine, but also roasts or grilled beef, charcuterie and traditional stews.
Learn more about Renaud Guettier and La Grapperie
In the Coteaux du Loir appellation, La Grapperie is the name of the estate of Renaud Guettier, who can be described as a master of Chenin, but also of Pineau d'Aunis, which is one of the oldest grape varieties in the Loire Valley.
The estate
Renaud's 60 hectares of vines, on the hillside, are protected from the north winds by the Bercé forest. Depending on the altitude, the terroirs are predominantly clay, flint or sand. The grape varieties are the two traditionally authorized in the appellation: Chenin for the whites and Pineau d'Aunis for 90% of the reds, the rest consisting of a few ares of Côt, Gamay and Grolleau. Some vines are more than a hundred years old.
In the vineyard and the winery
The entire estate is cultivated organically. The soils are worked and all viticultural interventions are manual, including the harvest, carried out at full maturity, which is reflected in the fullness and smoothness of the wines. For the reds, the Pineau d'Aunis is partially destemmed (depending on the plot) and the macerations are quite long, three to four weeks, with punching down, to promote aging potential. The wines are aged in barrels for between twelve and twenty-four months, then racked, blended and bottled without filtration. For the whites, the Chenins are pressed directly at low pressure then put into barrels with complete malolactic fermentation, for at least eighteen months, malolactic included, and sometimes up to thirty-six months.
XLC Xarel Lo Culinaries White 2022
Partida Creus
Culinaries Exclusive! This fruit of our collaboration with our favorite Catalan-Piedmontese, Antonella and Massimo, is a superb dry white from Catalonia, a unique and rare cuvée, and we are proud to present its first vintage. Classified as Vino de Mesa (table wine) and composed entirely of the indigenous Catalan Xarel·lo grape variety, this Culinaries cuvée is modeled on the estate's XL Xarel·lo, with notable differences. The wine is aged for a longer period and is done in demi-muids (large 500-650 liter barrels), which provides micro-oxygenation that enhances its complexity and fullness. It is therefore an "augmented" version of the XL, and it already tastes admirably, with a promise of great stability. Smoky, mineral, this Vino de Mesa (table wine) is already a classic, offering a pure and typical expression of xarel·lo. You can pair XL Xarel·lo Culinaries with the best of seafood, fish, white meats, roasted, grilled or cooked poultry in sauce...
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Partida Creus is an important estate, both in terms of wine and history – we are talking here about the history of the vine in Catalonia. Massimo Marchiori and Antonella Gerosa, originally from Piedmont – and even coming from the Langhe region, where they know a lot about wines – first pursued a career as architects in Barcelona. But the wine bug tickles them, and soon they abandon the big city and its sophistication for the vineyards of southern Catalonia, in Bonastre in Baix-Penedés. There they find a quantity of abandoned vineyards planted with a dizzying diversity of traditional Catalan grape varieties, which they passionately revive to save these varieties – and their wines – from oblivion. For them, it's not just a matter of heritage rescue, no: it's a matter of taste and nature. Of natural wines, which they will never stop making from now on on these sandy, poor, clay-limestone or clay-gravel soils, poor and poorly irrigated, where the vines suffer to produce their best juice. Massimo and Antonella practice organic, biodynamic viticulture, entirely manual and natural to give new life to these wines. Vinyater, sumoll, garrut, monastrell, ull de perdiu, ull de llebre, sumoll, queixal de llop, cariñena, trepat, subirat parent, maccabeu, parellada, pansé, vinel·lo, bobal, cartoixà vermell or xarel·lo: Partida Creus is a veritable conservatory of native Catalan grape varieties. It also grows moscatel, grenache, merlot and cabernet (among others). Few wineries can boast growing so many different grape varieties. The wines reflect this diversity, with the winemakers striving to best convey the signature of the soil and the grape variety: single-variety wines are common among them, alongside extensive blends, all in the styles dear to Catalonia: still wine, "ancestral" sparkling wine, and even vermouth. The bottles themselves are works of art: bare glass, simply marked with two large stenciled initials that denote the vintage. The wines, fresh, vibrant, lush yet always straightforward and impeccably juicy and fruity, exude life. The arrival of a Partida Creus at the table always elicits cries of satisfaction.
I Vicini Moscato Blanc 2020
Jean-Yves Péron
I Vicini Moscato is a Muscat d'Asti vinified dry; it therefore offers the aromatic and musky nose specific to the grape variety, but without the syrupy side that is sometimes associated with it, as a very present tannic structure balances the whole. On the palate, it is rich and powerful; we find the charming aroma of Muscat in the retro-olfaction, but with the tension and freshness that the winemaker favors for his dry whites. It is a table wine, with power and presence: not really for an aperitif, but for gastronomy, no limits.
Jean-Yves Péron's "I Vicini" series is made from grapes harvested in Piedmont; for I Vicini Moscato, we are dealing with the famous muscats of the terroirs of Asti. They grow on very fine limestone soils, calcareous-magnesian, and the Asti site benefits from a cold air current that brings increased freshness compared to the rest of the region. The harvest, manual, is carried out on grapes at a fairly advanced phenolic maturity. Maceration is long, with three months of punching down, after which everything is racked in January, pressed and sent directly into 300-liter barrels (new barrels, one-wine barrels and two-wine barrels) for a year of aging. No filtration, no addition of sulfites. Straightness, tension, and freshness: a very fine mountain Muscat.
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Jean-Yves Péron embodies the natural renaissance of the beautiful Savoyard vineyard, which has long suffered from a somewhat flimsy image, not taken seriously enough. Yet, what treasures its varied soils and numerous ancient grape varieties produce!
Near Conflans, in Albertville (Savoie), Jean-Yves Péron skillfully combines committed viticulture and merchant winemaking, both under the banner of nature and organic high-altitude vines. Initially destined for a career in biochemistry, he quickly became drawn to the vine and trained as an oenologist in Bordeaux. He learned his trade as a winemaker with Thierry Allemand in Cornas, then with Bruno Schueller in Alsace, before spending some time in New Zealand and the United States. Jean-Yves's current vineyard, one and a half hectares of which have been biodynamic since the beginning, is divided between Conflans, near Albertville, and Fréterive, a little further down in the Isère Valley. Composed of micro-plots of vines, it is staggered between 350 m and 550 m above sea level and is worked entirely by hand. His trading activity, which he began in 2011, allows him to buy the harvest from organic winegrowers close to him (such as Raphaël Marin and Adrien Dacquin). Also, the construction of a new winery in 2017 allows him to increase production and collaborate with winegrowers from Northern Italy: Paolo Angelino in Casale Monferrato (Turin), Giorgio Barbero in Asti. This is a new dimension given to his work as a winemaker, allowing him to diversify the terroirs and deepen his experiences in winemaking and aging. Jean-Yves Péron's winemaking follows the principles of minimal intervention. On narrow and steep surfaces, his mountain vines receive no synthetic products, Jean-Yves preferring horsetail and nettle manure. The surrounding vegetation is very rich: it protects the vines and helps to strengthen them. The soils are grassed, mown and reworked with a pickaxe and winch. The harvest is entirely manual. Once vatted in whole bunches, the grapes, both red and white, undergo a semi-carbonic maceration which allows the extraction of fresh fruit aromas. This maceration time varies between five days and nine weeks depending on the vintage. The day before or two days before pressing, Jean-Yves performs foot-treading directly in the vat. After this fermentation, the musts are sent to barrels for aging on lees for twelve months in five hundred liter barrels of two or three wines (to limit the oaky sensation), followed by blending and resting in vats. No sulfites are added, or as little as possible, and the wines are not fined or filtered.
Es d’aqui Trachéo Red 2016
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.
Puls'Art White 2022
Here's Puls'Art from Domaine Einhart, a natural, organic (Ecocert) macerated white wine classified as AOC Alsace. Don't confuse it with a Poulsard because of its name (the Poulsard grape variety is found in the Jura region, a little further south). This magical wine is called Puls’Art simply because it pulses, and skin-macerated Gewurztraminer is a great art—we affirm it.
Vinification
The Gewurztraminers used to produce Puls’Art, aged twenty-five years and sourced entirely on the estate, are harvested by hand and then destemmed. Maceration lasts one week, and fermentation is carried out using indigenous yeasts. Aging on fine lees is ten months in barrels, followed by unfiltered bottling. From the vine to the cellar, this wine was made without any additives.
Tasting
Puls’Art has a bright orange color. The first nose, very appealing, brings aromas of candied apricot and rose petals. The second nose, very fresh, evokes green cardamom. The attack on the palate is ample, balanced, with a velvety sensation. On the palate, we find the aromas of ripe apricot from the first nose. The finish is powerful and spicy, vibrant, "a limestone lollipop," according to the winemaker's expression. Decanting is recommended so that your Puls'Art spreads its wings and expresses its mineral and charming notes, both earthy and exotic. For pairings, it is all-terrain but also capable of the most delicate associations: do not hesitate to pair it with smoked fish, fine poultry, white meats, game birds, a wild mushroom risotto, and cheeses.
Learn more about the Einhart estate
In the northern part of the Alsatian vineyard, the Einhart estate is a ten-hectare family estate whose vines grow on the foothills of the Vosges mountains. The soil is clay-limestone and rich in fossils (muschelkalk, or shell limestone and oolite limestone, and lettenkohle or dolomitic limestone).
A family estate
Since 1990, Nicolas Einhart has been at the helm, now assisted by his son Théo. Faithful to his commitments to the TIFLO association, of which he is co-founder, Nicolas devotes his winemaking work to protecting the land and biodiversity, making wine without additives, refusing harmful phytosanitary products and maintaining ecological refuge areas. Its estate has been certified organic (Ecocert and AB) since 2011. The estate produces white wines from maceration or direct pressing and a Pinot Noir red.
The best of Alsatian terroirs
Entirely manual harvests, destemming of the bunches, light punching down and delicate pressing are characteristic of the estate, as well as the separate vinification of each terroir, aging on lees and the absence of filtration before bottling. The wines are pure grape, lively, powerful, invigorating, and transcribe the minerality of these very beautiful terroirs of the Vosges foothills.
Kuku Yodel White 2018
A dry white wine, Kuku Yodel reveals great finesse, freshness, and fruit on the nose. On the palate, the attack reminds some of an unfiltered white beer, others of a tropical lemonade. This wine is pleasant, fruity, floral, refreshing, and very fragrant. It evokes fruits such as peach, apricot, mandarin, lemon, lychee, passion fruit, and rhubarb, with a milky, yeasty finish, with the rich aroma of a summer meadow. It is made from Muscat of Alexandria, either as a single varietal or with a small proportion of Terret Bourret and Grenache Gris depending on the vintage. Kuku Yodel is a macerated white wine made from Muscat of Alexandria vines growing on the schist and clay-limestone soils of the high slopes of Hérault. The destemmed grapes macerate for forty-five days in vats, then the wine is aged for one year. Before bottling, it is neither filtered nor clarified, and no sulfites are added during the vinification process. Kuku Yodel should be drunk very chilled and can be kept for around ten years.
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Anthony Tortul loves old vineyards: he devotes his life to finding and vinifying them. Just as there are landless shepherds, he can be defined as a landless winemaker, in other words a wine merchant whose area of activity extends throughout Languedoc and, eastward, as far as Châteauneuf-du-Pape, in search of the best terroirs. Born in Foix, with six years of experience as a wine technician and oenologist in various vineyards in the south of France, he created La Sorga in 2008. His enthusiasm leads him on a path filled with favorites, and each of these favorites is a vineyard. The result is a dizzying mosaic of natural, lively, and spirited wines, which reinvents itself each year with around thirty cuvées per vintage. Few winemakers can include such a variety of grape varieties: the entire south of France is represented, with muscats, grenaches, picpoul, mauzac, carignan, cinsault, marsanne, alicante, braucol, duras, viognier, len-de-l'el, and tutti quanti.
Volnay Qvevris Red 2020,
The nose reveals beautiful notes of red fruits (strawberry), spices, and candied fruits. On the palate, it reveals warmth and power, with floral aromas and a great minerality on the finish. This warm, straightforward wine from the Volnay appellation, with notes of red and black fruits, is balanced and lively on the palate, with lovely, gently spicy notes. It comes from old Pinot Noir vines growing at the bottom of the slopes, on dense, stony soils of ferruginous red clay and limestone. The plots are steep, facing west-southeast and located between 230 and 280 meters above sea level. The vines are worked on horseback, respecting the soil and the earth. The harvest is manual and is carried out when the grapes are fully ripe. The grapes macerate in whole bunches. Aging in qvevri (buried Georgian-style terracotta jars) further develops the wine's velvety texture and depth.
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Through his entirely natural work, Frédéric Cossard gives voice to the terroirs and Burgundy wines, undeformed by agricultural chemicals. Having observed, during his years of trading, the existence of harmful viticultural practices, the winemaker used this counter-example to practice unadulterated viticulture. Thus, he produces vintages of purity and elegance without artifice that are among the most sought-after in Burgundy. Frédéric worked for a while as a wine broker before creating the Domaine de Chassorney with his partner Laure in 1996: initially a few ares of vines in Saint-Romain, Auxey-Duresses and Savigny-lès-Beaune, and currently ten hectares spread across the Nuits-Saint-Georges, Pommard, Volnay, Bourgogne Hautes Côtes de Beaune and Bourgogne appellations. In 2006, he created his own trading house and buys organic grapes to vinify, according to his style and convictions, great vintages such as Meursault, Puligny-Montrachet, Chassagne-Montrachet, Pommard, Nuits-Saint-Georges, Chambolle-Musigny, Vosne-Romanée and several Beaujolais crus. The exercise is not limited to Burgundy, as vintages are made from grapes purchased in the Jura or Languedoc regions. At his place, the work of the soil and the vines is done as naturally as possible: regular ploughing by horse, no addition of chemical fertilizers or weedkillers. The vines are cared for according to the principles of biodynamics: homeopathic treatments based on essential oils, copper and sulfur in minimal doses. The harvest is entirely manual, carried out at full maturity, at the end of October. Reds or whites, classic Burgundies or more atypical or less "regional" bottles, Frédéric's vintages are rare and sought-after wines, which sometimes require waiting.
Crucella Red 2020,
La Vinicola di Antonio Gismondi
Crucella is known for its undergrowth, mineral, and earthy nose, a lively and acidic attack on the palate, red fruits, cherry on the retro-olfaction, and tannins less present than the deep color would suggest. Certainly a good wine for laying down that will blossom with time. The only red from the estate, it is a beautiful blend of Merlot (33%), Sangiovese (34%), and the ancient local grape variety Freisa (33%), which imparts a slight hint of musky red fruit, but the overall wine is well balanced. The harvest macerates for five or six days in stainless steel vats, then the wine is aged for seven to ten months in the same type of vat.
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Antonio Gismondi's azienda is located in Cerreto Sanita, in the Benevento region of Campania. A microclimate gives this area an almost continental feel: humid winds from the Tyrrhenian Sea collide with the first ramparts of the Apennine mountain range, causing condensation in the air and lowering temperatures, which are significantly cooler and more humid than on the coast. If we add a temperature inversion phenomenon between day and night, which is common in the Apennine climate, the freshness of the wines from the Antonio Gismondi estate is nothing mysterious in this southern Italy, which is nevertheless known for its very hot climate. The estate is family-run: for generations, the Gismondi family has cultivated vines and made wine using the most traditional and natural methods, to which biodynamic techniques are added. For a long time, of the fifteen tons of grapes produced each year, one ton was reserved for on-site winemaking for family consumption, with the rest going to the local wine cooperative. It was their meeting with Massimo Marchiori and Antonella of Partida Creus that led Antonio and his wife Anabel to start producing natural wines at home from the entire harvest. The two-hectare vineyard is located between 350 and 380 meters above sea level, on clay and stony soils, with two-thirds facing south. The grape varieties are Merlot, Freisa and Sangiovese for the reds, and Falanghina and Malvasia di Candia for the whites.x
Kikiriki Black Red 2018
Elegance, purity, and a crisp minerality due to the limestone characterize the productions of Clos Lentiscus. The note of controlled oxidation, when present, does not dominate the tasting, and the wines are never deviant. The cavas are renowned for their exuberance, but those from Clos Lentiscus never have more than two grams of residual sugar per liter. The estate also produces still wines, red, white, and rosé.
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This Cocorico (in Catalan) is a red made from a blend of Tempranillo and Cariñena (Carignan). Aromatic and light, it comes in a one-liter bottle and is not a luxury: this distinguished gurgle, at the table and as an aperitif, will go well with everything. A very good wine for tapas and al fresco dining.
It is in Sitges, Catalonia, in the heart of the Garraf Natural Park, that Manel Avinyo and his brother Joan took over the family estate, renamed Clos Lentiscus by Manel. Even though Barcelona is only a half-hour drive away, the beauty of the landscape is striking and the immersion in nature is total: Mediterranean forests rub shoulders with Catalan scrubland (thyme, rosemary, rockrose, mastic tree which gave its name to the estate, etc.). The Penedès region also has a long winemaking history. Nestled in its gentle hills is Clos Lentiscus, in the Penedés appellation, on twenty hectares of sandy and clay-limestone soils facing due south at an altitude of 225 meters. According to historical documents, the family of Manel and Joan Avinyo has been established there since at least the 14th century. For a long time, the grapes were sold to local cooperatives, but since the two brothers took over the estate, organic and biodynamic farming has replaced conventional practices, the entire harvest goes into the house vintages, and organic and biodynamic practices have allowed this beautiful property to reconnect with its former prestige: in the 19th century, its wines were sold in France and as far away as the Americas. Manel quickly earned a nickname: The Bubbleman, a tribute to his talent for making cavas, the sparkling white wines characteristic of the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula, from native varieties that only Catalonia has the secret to: sumoll, ull de llebre, xarel·lo, malvasia from Sitges, cartoixà vermell, cariñena (carignan), accompanied by tempranillo and muscat from Alexandria. The vines are old, sometimes centuries old. No synthetic additives are used in the vineyard, and operations such as planting, pruning, de-budding, and harvesting are dictated by the lunar phases. Pollination is facilitated by the presence of beehives; sheep contribute to fertilization and control of the plant cover. Ringo, the white horse, is responsible for working the soil.
All In Wine 2018
Es d'aqui Jean Louis Pinto
A blend of two vintages and five grape varieties, four reds and one white – Carignan, Mourvèdre, Grenache, Cabernet Franc, and Muscat. Each grape variety is vinified separately, aged in old barrels, and blended before bottling. A beautiful, elegant, and spirited red, with a lovely bouquet of light flowers and red and black berries.
A natural wine with no added sulfites.
La Bueilloise White 2013
A blend of young Chenin Blanc and Pinot d'Aunis vines growing on a flint-clay terroir. Harvested by hand at full maturity. Aged for twelve months on slats, without additives. Bottling is done by gravity without filtration, and disgorgement is done on the fly without the addition of preservatives. The Pineau d'Aunis brings a slight bitterness to the Chenin. Lively and intense bubbles, very well balanced.
A natural wine with no added sulfites.
Colline des anciens White 2021
The aptly named Colline des Anciens is minerality personified: full of freshness and salinity, it is a dry white from Alsace with an alcohol content of 13.6% and a great aromatic depth. This minerality and aromatic depth reflect the great limestone terroir of the Rosheim hillsides: a clay-rich soil on a substrate of muschelkalk and pink limestone. The plots face south on a 20% slope, and the vines have an average age of thirty years. The blend of three Alsatian grape varieties is carried out as follows: the Riesling (40%) is directly pressed, while the Gewurztraminer (20%) and Pinot Gris (40%) are macerated for forty-eight hours. All the grapes come from the estate and are harvested by hand; both the viticulture and the work in the cellar are 100% free of additives and sulfites, and the wine is not filtered. Colline des Anciens is aged exclusively in Alsatian foudres (wooden vats of around a thousand liters).
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Located in the northern part of the Alsatian vineyard, horizontally above Strasbourg, the Einhart estate is a ten-hectare family estate whose vines are located on the hillsides that rise between the Alsace plain and the Vosges mountains. The soil is clay-limestone and rich in fossils (muschelkalk, i.e. shell limestone and oolite limestone, and lettenkohle or dolomitic limestone). Since 1990, Nicolas Einhart has been at the helm, now assisted by his son Théo. True to his commitments to the TIFLO association, of which he is co-founder, Nicolas devotes his winemaking work to the protection of the land and biodiversity, winemaking without inputs, the refusal of harmful phytosanitary products and the maintenance of ecological refuge zones. His estate has been certified organic since 2011. Like Jean-Marc Dreyer [link], he is resolutely moving towards skin maceration and produces white maceration wines (orange wines) in addition to a red Pinot Noir. Entirely manual harvesting, destemming of the bunches, light punching down and delicate pressing are characteristic of the estate, as well as the separate vinification of each terroir, aging on lees and the absence of filtration before bottling. The wines are pure grape, lively, powerful, invigorating, and transcribe the minerality of the very beautiful terroirs of the Vosges foothills.
Auguste Red 2019,
Sous le Végétal
Auguste is the only dry red wine from the Sous le Végétal project. It takes its name from the indigenous Greek avgoustiatis grape variety, from which it is made entirely. It is a light wine that, through its Mediterranean nature, recalls something of the reds of the Jura: a characteristic earthy and mineral note, plenty of character—prune, clove, anise, vanilla, cherry jam, rich tannins, and, on the finish, a salinity due to the mineral-rich soils (particularly schist and limestone) of the island of Samos. The fruity notes remain taut and elegant. Decanting is recommended. The vines grow on the foothills of Mount Karvounis, not far from the village of Pagondas. The wine is a blend of four types of rock on two plots. The Avgoustiatis ('the august') grape variety is a rare variety, the first red grape variety harvested in Greece. It is cultivated organically in conversion to permaculture. The vines, pruned in the 'goblet' style, are harvested by hand on the morning of August 15th. The wine is first obtained by a forty-day maceration of whole bunches in stainless steel vats. Half of the vinification is done in 500-liter Stockinger barrels and the other half in ovoid concrete vats. The wine is completely additive-free, unfiltered, and bottled by gravity. The black bottle ensures the wine ages and the closure is made with a cork sealed with a mixture of paraffin and black beeswax.
To find out more
Under the plant lies the mineral: this is the meaning of this concept of natural vintages created in Greece, on the island of Samos, by a team of friends gathered around the winemakers Jason Ligas and Patrick Bouju. The successful enterprise marks a renaissance of the thousand-year-old vineyard of this island in the North Aegean Sea, which owes its dense and woody vegetation to various nicknames received in Antiquity, from Dryoussa (“covered with oaks”) to Kyparissia (“covered with cypresses”) and Melamphyllos (“With dark foliage”). This natural wealth covers a unique and varied subsoil: volcanic rocks and notably basalts, limestone, quartz, pink granites, schists, iron cast irons… The idea was born from Jason’s meeting with the Samos Wine Cooperative. Patrick Bouju soon joined the project. The five vintages of Sous le Végétal—Livia, Hüpnos, Octave, Palli & Genesia and Auguste—are produced on around sixty plots of Samos Muscat à petits grains (and Avgoustiatis for the red vintage), between 400 and 910 meters above sea level. Each plot is vinified separately. For vinification, four types of containers are used: amphorae, concrete eggs, stainless steel vats and 500-liter barrels. Each locality is vinified in at least two of the four containers and the aging takes place in black bottles sealed with wax. No added sulfur, no filtration: Samos' winemakers are rediscovering wine as it was made in their childhood. This is one of the wonders of natural wine: it allows, through the most innovative projects, to reconnect with forgotten traditions. Sous le Végétal also takes under its wing the A la Natural vintages by Patrick Bouju.
Falgueyras Red 2018,
Vigne Vieille du Falgueyras is a fruity and indulgent red wine, rich in notes of red fruits (blackcurrant, blackberry, morello cherry) and beautifully peppery. Its profile is enhanced by sweet spices, prune on the nose, black olive, as well as more mineral accents (smoke, natural incense). It has character, oak without exaggeration, and a very beautiful body. Typical of the Gaillac terroirs, this is a red wine made 100% from old Syrah vines aged thirty and forty years, planted on boulbènes (gravelly, loamy sand) on the second terrace of the Tarn. The destemmed harvest macerates in cement vats with two punching down of the marc. The fermentation temperature did not exceed 21°C. Aging continues for nine months before bottling without filtration and, of course, without the addition of sulfites.
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The name Gaillac, the region where the Bois-Moisset estate is located, owned by Sylvie Ledran and Philippe Maffre, has been associated with wines since Antiquity; it is the oldest vineyard in France, with two thousand years of history and an impressive collection of ancient indigenous grape varieties. It is also a region of dazzling beauty, nicknamed "French Tuscany" because of its gentle hills planted with groves and its almost Florentine luminosity. Many estates, including that of Bois-Moisset, showcase this uniquely rich winemaking heritage. Along with an estate planted with vines, it is an organic mixed farm that directly sells its production of lentils, sunflower oil, cereal flours, and grape juice. A herd of old local breed cows also thrives there, and guest rooms are available in the summer. It is in this small rural paradise that natural wines typical of their origin and terroir are born, on fifteen hectares of boulbènes, gravelly and sandy-loam soils carried by the Tarn for thousands of years. The grape varieties are dominated by Syrah and Duras, but the ampelographic richness of Gaillacois (braucol, prunelart, loin-de-l'œil, etc.) is also evident in the vintages of the Bois-Moisset estate, which consist particularly of red wines with crisp fruitiness, concentrated but with smooth and delicate tannins.
Ull de Llebre Sumoll Red 2019,
Cyclic Beer Farm is a duo of friends from Barcelona, Alberto and Joshua. Based in the Catalan capital, they have two sides to their business: beer (Cyclic Beer) and wine (Cyclic Wine). The beers, inspired by the Belgian model, are available in surprising and colorful ranges where expertly measured yeast cocktails and house brews combine with varied macerations of fruits, vegetables, herbs and grape marc from traditional Catalan varieties, the latter taken after the fermentation of their wines - because the second part is the wine, made exclusively from native Catalan grape varieties. As merchant winemakers, Alberto and Joshua themselves harvest by hand from organic wineries throughout Catalonia and bring the harvest to their winery-brewery workshop in La Sagrera (Barcelona). There they sort the grapes, tread them under foot and vat the must using exclusively indigenous yeasts. Depending on the type of wine, skin maceration takes place on the skins and stems for between one and three days for the whites and between six and fifteen days for the reds. The free-run juice is then transferred without pressing into stainless steel tanks where fermentation continues before bottling. The skins and stems, and sometimes part of the juice, are then used for the maceration of saison beers: an interesting synergy between beer and wine. No sulfites are added during vinification; nothing is added or removed from the wine, which is never filtered. The harvest and other viticultural operations are decided according to the lunar calendar.
At the time we tasted this red wine, it was still searching a little, but at the time of writing, it must have found its place and be resting comfortably on its balanced tannins and fruity complexity. It is a well-balanced wine between body presence and lightness, round and aromatic. It is a blend of Catalan grape varieties Ull de Llebre (70%) and Sumoll (30%) harvested by hand in Torrelavit (Upper Penedès) and Mas Llorenç (Lower Penedès) on limestone and clay soils. The Ull de Llebre vines are young (fifteen years old) and the Sumoll vines are very old (up to one hundred years old). The altitude of the plots is between 230 and 260 meters. The harvest, entirely manual, is sorted, and then ten percent is trodden by foot. A semi-carbonic maceration follows for twenty-seven days, after which the wine completes its fermentation in stainless steel vats.
Régnié la haute ronze Red 2017
La Haute Ronze is one of two plots cultivated by Nicolas in the Régnié appellation; it is considered of very high quality, with deep clay soils that produce full-bodied wines. This 100% Gamay is obtained through semi-carbonic maceration and aged for approximately twenty months (half in barrels, half in stainless steel vats). It offers notes of leather, earth, and Mediterranean herbs (oregano, rosemary), through its red fruits.
A natural wine with no added sulfites.
Le Zudefruit Red 2021
Delicious, delectable, a real pleasure, this Zudefruit from Jérôme Lambert, an organic and natural winemaker based in the Loire Valley, in the Layon region. A beautiful dark red color, with aromas of red fruits on the nose; on the palate, it is very supple, lively, and deep, with herbaceous notes and a real delicacy with hints of cherry and undergrowth. With a beautiful balance between fruity notes and earthy, spicy, peppery notes, Zudefruit is a natural wine from the Loire Valley, produced from a plot of Grolleau cultivated by Jérôme Lambert on the light, sandy, schistose soils found in southern Anjou. The harvest, carried out by hand, ferments in whole bunches for two weeks before pressing, then rests for nine months in fiberglass vats. To further explore the red wines of the Loire Valley, you can also look at the domaines La Grapperie or the Domaine Pic-Épeiche.
Learn more about Jérôme Lambert
On his four-hectare estate, entirely organic and planted with Chenin, Grolleau, Gamay and Cabernet Franc, Jérôme Lambert is as much a winemaker as he is a farmer: he raises chickens, pigs, sheep and takes this mixed crop-livestock activity very seriously, along with the production of typical Anjou charcuterie. His Loire Eden, in fact, is located in the south of Anjou, in Rablay-sur-Layon. The son of a winemaker, as a child, he already enjoyed picking grapes, crushing them, and letting them ferment. In 2003, he got his hands dirty, helping with the pruning of the vines at Philippe Cesbron's and practicing with a few grapes donated by local winemakers. The following year, his adventure truly began with twenty ares of vines, but while his estate grew year by year, it would only reach one hectare after fifteen years.
A journey towards nature
In 2003, Jérôme discovered that adding sulfites was detrimental to wines: he never added more and was satisfied with the result, without making too much of a fuss about it. It was only a little later that he learned about the existence of natural wines and understood that he was not alone. All his vintages since then have been natural, without added sulfites, and are nonetheless straightforward, drinkable and flawless. For him, even the wood of the barrels is an additive; this shows the attention he pays to the naturalness and truth of the vine.
