La Gramiere! Why La Gramiere.

Amy Lillard and Matt Kling

When we visited London in May to attend the Raw Wine Fair we met up again with Amy from La Gramiere who was showing her wines. We have always admired what she and her husband Matt did. 

Matt and Amy met at the Kermit Lynch retail shop in Berkeley. Amy worked at the store and Matt was a customer. In 2005 they left the Bay Area and moved to a small town in the Southern Rhone 20 minutes outside of Avignon, where they bought 3.75 hectares of vineyards in the Cotes du Rhone, and a small house, and started making wine. 

Well not exactly. Long story short they did make the wine, but not without a lot of sacrifice and a lot of determination. They do almost all of the work themselves, with occasional help from their friends and family at harvest. The grapes are hand-picked, without anything added or taken away. They cultivate without herbicides or pesticides and vinify in concrete vats with naturally occurring yeasts. The result: a true wine of place made mostly of Grenache with a little Syrah and Mourvedre. 

It's lively and fresh, peppery, with supple tannins. Originally imported by Kermit Lynch, Amy told us her wines were currently unavailable in New York. So we wondered how we could do the situation justice and decided to bring them in ourselves! Hence our first Thirst Merchants Selection is born. The La Gramiere Green Label 2011 is just $15/bottle and $13.50/bottle when you buy a case (in store only). 

Going forward we will share some of our other finds with you. We will soon have an e-commerce site up and running. As you may know by dropping by our little store in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, we love those wines that are made in such tiny quantities that essentially if you're not aware that they're currently available you might miss out!

THIRST TOTE BAGS ARE BACK!

For a limited time, get one of our classic totes FREE when you purchase 6 or more bottles.

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It's Not Too Late

Our wine club offers two exceptional and unusual wines from the Arbois region of the Jura from two of our favorite producers. Arbois was the first place the French gave appellation status in 1936. Each wine, one white and one red, is made from the local red grape Poulsard – in the town of Pupillin they confusingly call it Ploussard. Poulsard is found almost exclusively in the Jura where it’s been grown since at least the 15th century.

The Jura is located between Burgundy and Switzerland. It has a cool climate and is known for producing distinctive wines. The weather here is similar to Burgundy but colder and therefore the harvest happens later.

Domaine de l’Octavin “Cul Rond a la cuisse rose” 2011

This domaine is a collaboration between Alice Bouvot and Charles Dagand. They began with two hectares in 2005 but now have about five hectares of vineyards. They are certified biodynamic and have since 2009 been making all of their wines completely without sulfur, fining or filtration. Their wines have great purity and liveliness. This Poulsard is vinified as a white wine and is from one of their vineyards called “en curon.” It may blow your mind. Proceed with caution.

Philippe Bornard

Philippe Bornard Arbois Pupillin Ploussard "point barre" 2011

Philippe lives close to Arbois in the village of Pupillin near the Swiss border. He inherited his vineyard from his father but began to make wine himself rather than sell the grapes to others. His winery is located underneath his house, which overlooks the village.

This is not for someone who likes to drink BIG wines. It’s light, delicate, almost translucent, giving off aromas of red currants, citrus, saddle leather, and a touch of cinnamon. It pairs well with just about any food you care to drink with it. Serve it cool.

Join.

NORMALLY $56 -- FOR MEMBERS $50.

You Can Change Your Life

Laurent Saillard co-founded ICI, which was one of the first Brooklyn restaurants to focus on natural wines and was part of the wave of restaurants that opened about a decade ago that were referred to as New Brooklyn Cuisine. We used to love going there and spending time with him. He was always eager to share new and interesting wines. He left Brooklyn a few years ago and moved to the Loire to learn how to make the natural wines he'd enjoyed drinking and selling. He began by focusing on working in the vineyard. 

Now Laurent has made his first wine, a very small amount of fresh unsulphured Gamay made using carbonic maceration. Because of our relationship, and because we are one of the few shops that support independent winemakers who make wine fermented naturally without the use of additives, Laurent wanted us to be among the first to taste it. When we did, we were really impressed by its pureness and clarity.

The grapes for La Pause 2012 come from a plot of Gamay planted in 1978 that Laurent rents from Catherine Roussel (Clos Roche Blanche). Noëlla Morantin rented it from 2008 to 2011 but Laurent took it over in November 2011. It's organic since 1991 and they have been doing some biodynamic preparations since 2008. 

Gamay gets a bad rap but it arguably yields the most generous, pleasure-giving wines. Many of you, we know, are fans of Beaujolais from the likes of Lapierre, Foillard, Breton, Thevenet, etc., as well as Gamays from the Loire and California. There may be no other grape that gives more and gets less love. Wines made from Gamay grown right, in the right soils and naturally fermented, yield wines that you can enjoy by themselves but that also belong on the table.

Take a break and enjoy Laurent's La Pause! Put it in your ice chest and bring it along for a picnic, to your barbecue or the beach, or just chill it and enjoy it on your stoop.

Laurent Saillard La Pause 2012 is $20/bottle. For a limited time, order a sixpack and get 10% off ($18/bottle).

Don't get fooled by bigger is better! It's all about the texture and the finish.

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

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.

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London Street Art

London Signs

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.