Friday, June 21, 2013

About As Natural As It Gets

We've long been drawn to the rustic elegance of the wines of the Northern Rhone. Hirotake Ooka is a Japanese winemaker working in the Northern Rhone who understands tradition but is making wines that transcend it. It seems as if he was born to make the wine he does. Wines that are pure, raw, and alive. He was quickly identified as a rising star in the natural wine world and was recently profiled in The New York Times. The wines he makes are about as natural as it gets.

Hirotake has taken a remarkable journey from Tokyo to St. Péray. He left Japan to study enology in Bordeaux because initially he was intrigued by Bordeaux wines. However while there his world was turned upside down when he tasted the brilliant wines of Thierry Allemand of Cornas and realized that he had to go to the Northern Rhone and work with him, which he did as soon as he could.  Now he has chosen to work the steepest, hardest-to-work slopes. Ooka, which ironically means big hill in Japanese, then named his winery Le Grand Colline (big hill in French). 


He makes very limited amounts of a few wines, most of which he exports to Japan or delivers to a few Parisian natural wine bars. We, however, have secured a small quantity of his two most approachable wines, Le Canon rosé and red, which have just arrived. These in fact are the ones that are the best way to get introduced to what he does. Enjoy them on a Brooklyn summer's day or night.


Get them while you can! The 2012 Le Canon rosé is made from a nearly forgotten red version of Muscat called Muscat de Hambourg. It's delightfully tart with pink grapefruit flavors. His 2012 Le Canon red is a seriously gluggable Syrah with dark plum and sour cherry notes. 

Order a sixpack for $97.20 plus tax (10% off!).

Chill your reds.

WE DELIVER.

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Emilia's sparkling reds and an orange wine...

The following is our current wine club offering for May/June. If you're interested in getting these kinds of wines on a regular basis, join the club.

We first discovered delicious sparkling reds served chilled while backpacking through Italy. We didn’t have a lot of money then (some things never change) so we mostly picnicked along the way. Sparkling reds are a natural fit with cured meats & Parmigiano but are also at home around the barbecue. So here are three sparkling reds, two from Colli Piacentini ("Hills of Piacenza"), which is the western edge of Emilia-Romagna, a Lambrusco from the province of Parma--and for good measure a stunning orange wine from Colli Piacentini! 

Croci Gutturnio Vino Frizzante 2010 
This traditional naturally sparkling red wine from Colli Piacentini is typical of the area and is composed of 60% Barbera and 40% Bonarda. The soil here is clayey and sandy. This vino frizzante has good structure, is lightly bubbly, with that trademark good acidity that refreshes and goes hand in hand with the local food. This pairs particularly well with a fritto misto. 

Cantine Ceci Lambrusco “La Luna” NV 
Deeply purple in color, Ceci “La Luna” is a fresh, earthy Lambrusco, with notes of dark berries from the province of Parma. Enjoy it with a big bowl of pasta Bolognese. 

Elena Panteleoni runs La Stoppa with Guilio Armani. They’ve worked their heavy silty clay soils organically since the early 90s and have been certified organic since 2008. A minimal intervention approach is taken in the cellar. The wines ferment naturally with their native yeasts. Nothing is added or subtracted from the juice. Sulfur is never added during vinification and only in small doses at bottling. 

La Stoppa Trebbiolo 2010 
A young sparkling red wine, made up of 60% Barbera and 40% Bonarda. It’s La Stoppa’s take on the typical style of the red sparkling wines of the Colli Piacentini. It’s well balanced with a pleasant, bracing acidity. 



La Stoppa Ageno 2008 
The name is a tribute to the founder of La Stoppa, Gian-Marco Ageno, who first believed in the great potential of the area. This may be our favorite orange wine yet. What is an orange wine? It’s a white wine left to sit and ferment on its skins like a red wine, which gives it a depth and color different from any other white wine. The grapes are: Malvasia di Candia Aromatic 60%, Trebbiano 40% and a splash of Ortrugo. The thick-skinned Malvasia brings intense floral aromas and tannins and a suppleness; the Trebbiano and Ortrugo acidity and nerve. It was first made in 2002 with maceration on the skins for 30 days using only indigenous yeasts and without the addition of sulfur. It’s aged for one year in stainless steel and used barrique and then for an additional two years in the bottle. It is not filtered. 

Elena gave a lot of thought about what would be the best way to make wine in her region. “We were just thinking and trying to understand the potential of our area,” she said. “The farmers who make wines for themselves? They make no difference between red and white grapes. They macerate for maybe 10 days. But this is traditional, typical. It’s not modern winemaking.” Serve it with a grand bollito misto.

Click here to order some.

Thursday, June 6, 2013

I think that was the day we discovered rosé

Some time ago we were in Berkeley, California at an outdoor event celebrating a Chez Panisse anniversary. It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon, and the street in front of the restaurant was closed to traffic. The vibe was festive and there was a bounty of good food. Each table featured a specific purveyor. 

The staff was grilling meats and shucking oysters; the farmers that had come down for the day were selling their wares. Two dry rosés from Provence were on offer by the glass: a rather dark cassis-colored Tavel from Château de Trinquevedel and a salmon-colored Bandol from Domaine Tempier. 
  

Some time ago we were in Berkeley, California at an outdoor event celebrating a Chez Panisse anniversary. It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon, and the street in front of the restaurant was closed to traffic. The vibe was festive and there was a bounty of good food. Each table featured a specific purveyor. 

The staff was grilling meats and shucking oysters; the farmers that had come down for the day were selling their wares. Two dry rosés from Provence were on offer by the glass: a rather dark cassis-colored Tavel from Château de Trinquevedel and a salmon-colored Bandol from Domaine Tempier. 
 
  
I think that was the day we really discovered rosé. We drink it year-round. 
  
These are some of the many we stock. 
  
Bernard Baudry Chinon 2012, $20
Domaine de Fontsainte Corbières 2012, $14
Domaine de l'Ausseil "P'tit Piaf" 2012, $14 
Château de Trinquevedel Tavel 2012, $18
Domaine du Gros' Noré Bandol 2012, $33
Henri Milan "Ma Terre" 2012, $22
Montenidoli Canaiuolo 2012, $22
Donkey & Goat "Isabel's Cuvée" 2012, $23


For a limited time we're offering 15% off a mixed case of twelve rosés when you mention this email offer. 

To order click here or call 718-596-7643. To view our full selection come see us at the store.

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

#WHATWEDO


DID YOU KNOW?

From its founding in 2006 Thirst’s primary mission has been to sell terroirific wines made by small artisan producers who grow their grapes organically or biodynamically and ferment their wines naturally without additives.

Monday, June 3, 2013

Real flavors beat fake flavors every time.

Long before we opened our wine store in 2006 we were constantly on the lookout for interesting, delicious wines that we could drink that tasted like they came from somewhere specific. We soon learned that finding simple, honest wine is not so simple. It was this persistent thirst for a taste of place that finally drove us to open our shop.

The desire to find these kinds of wines went hand-in-hand with the food we wanted to eat. We don’t eat industrially produced overly processed foods so why would we want to drink wines made that way, which most people don’t realize is the norm -- that most wine, like most food, is made with tons of chemicals primarily to satisfy the bottom line.

Like many of you we choose to eat minimally processed food not just because it tastes better and gives us more pleasure, but also because it makes us feel good once having eaten it. It’s the same with wine and the proof is found in the bottles. A real wine has real flavors that occasionally surprise and challenge us to come to terms with it, to struggle to describe it, because it’s not made with fake flavors. Real flavors beat fake flavors every time.


Of course it would take a lot less effort to sell easily recognized brands but that’s not what we want to do. We don’t want to sell brands. We want to work with people we like that we feel make wines that say something unique in small batches without additives or chemicals that consistently delight and sometimes amaze. Wines that go with food, have a sense of place, and are meant for thirst.

Which is why last month we attended RAW – The Artisan Wine Fair in London. RAW was filled with talented artisanal winemakers from around the world who make, in the words of the organizers, “wines that are pure, kind to the planet, very possibly better for your health, and best of all they’re absolutely delicious.” There we saw a lot of familiar faces and many, many new ones. It was a really exciting two-day event and you’ll be seeing many new things in the store reflecting what struck our fancy. The London food and wine scene at the moment is really exciting.