Toscana: Feminine

What does it mean to call a wine feminine--beautifully perfumed, supple texture, delicate even?  We were discussing this way of describing wine the other day in the shop and found ourselves gravitating towards the Tuscan section of our store. 

And of the Tuscan winemakers in the shop whose wines we feel embody what's great about their terroir almost all are women: Giovanni Morganti (Chianti Classico); Dora Forsoni (Vino Nobile di Montepulciano); Elisabetta Fagiuli (San Gimignano); and the Padovani twins (Montalcino). We are thrilled to declare that these brilliant women are leading the current revolution in natural winemaking in the center of Italy, making expressive, elegant wines that are as addictive as they are powerful. A brief word on each: 

In the Southern limit of the Chianti Classico zone, Giovanna Morganti worked at the research laboratory and vineyards of San Felice in Castelnuovo Berardenga. She has a mere three hectares of vineyards and works according to the traditional rhythms of her territory such that the wine takes a thirty month journey before becoming available to the public. She describes her wines as "ferociously elegant." We can't agree more. 

  

Dora Forsoni cultivates the Prugnolo Gentile clone of Sangiovese in Montepulciano with her partner Patricia Castiglioni, a unique strain surviving from the 16th century that she describes as difficult to stop drinking (she calls it a "drug"). She also makes a delicious white wine out of the grapes that USED to be blended with Sangiovese in the past when that was the way to make a more thirst-quenching wine, so imagine: Malvasia Verde, Malvasia Bianco. Biancame, Trebbiano, and Grechetto brought up in concrete. After a day of pounding the pavement, this is an ideal aperitif to precede her red Vino Nobile (Dora calls this white her Vino Nobile as well). 

Elisabetta Fagiuoli, born in Valpolicella, has high altitude vineyards in San Gimignano overlooking the rest of Tuscany. Because of this elevation, she's most famous for her white Vernaccias, of which she makes four different kinds(!), all of which are of the stature of her compadre in world class white wines, Mme. Bize-Leroy in Burgundy. We're selling her Tradizionale bottling, which is vinified one year "sur lie" (the raw good stuff) before bottling.  And her reds are divine too!

  

Twin-sisters from Milan, Margarita and Francesca Padovani took over their mother's small farm in Montalcino in the late nineties, with the goal of making drinkable, honest wines in a region plagued by Parkerization (over-extracted, magazine score-fetching wines that say look at me but are impossible to drink). Whatever your experience of the Brunello clone of Sangiovese, the Fonterenza sisters make a variety of wines in levels of intensity from the most accessible to the most potent, all of which harmonize with food instead of making loud speeches from the glass. 

Le Boncie Chianti Classico 2008, $41 

Poderi Sanguineto Bianco Toscana 2010, $19 

Poderi Sanguineto Vino Nobile di Montepulciano 2008, $42 

Sono Montenidoli Vernaccia di San Gimignano Tradizionale 2010, $21 

Sono Montenidoli Colorino Rosso Toscano 2010, $22 

Sono Montenidoli Chianti Colli Senesi Il Garullo 2009, $23 

Fonterenza Pettirosso Rosso Toscano 2010, $24 

Fonterenza Rosso di Montalcino 2009, $34 

Build your own Toscana six-pack from these wines and save ten percent!  Click here to order.

Spain by Other Means

Spain is a great example of how some traditions must survive, at all costs (Sherry), while others (new oak) simply must go.  Neither sustainable nor terroir revealing, the Tempranillo-based appellations were not thinkable without the use of wood until now.  Thanks to our intrepid friend Jose Pastor (aka "the Joe Dressner of Spain") small wineries that are getting back to basics are coming to light.

Write Ribera del Duero in your head and then cross it out; Alfredo Maestro's there but would rather not have his wines associated with the oak-bombs the region was famous for. His wines are super-natural in both senses--no additives and incredibly powerful, raw, think Paolo Bea but Tinto Fino and Grenache. This is the difference.

And instead of using the standard form of "Rioja" based on grape-assemblages, Abel and Maite Mendoza are making wines exclusively by soil type. This one's tempranillo collected only from limestone-laden ("limoso") vineyards in the Rioja Alta with no oak at all (only concrete!), one of the more fresh takes on Rioja we've had in a while!

Our Spanish re-assemblage would not be complete without Fabio Bartolomei's bonkers-good unfiltered wines from Madrid. Our wine club members get first dibs on our final re-stocking this vintage (our allocation is relatively large, but actually quite miniscule!).  His "Titulciano" is mostly old-vine tempranillo with some "Sirah" and Graciano, wonderfully spiced and complex, and the "Malvar" is from one hundred-year-old vines and made the way Lapierre and co. make their quaffable Beaujolais (Carbonic Maceration in shop talk), where the berries are fermented quasi-intact and then pressed afterwords.  The result is a new plateau of deliciousness: blood-orange wine.

Sherry, we mentioned, should not change at all, but is rarely organic.  We found you one that's both--a half-bottle of Manzanilla is heading your way--if you like it, come get some Fino or Oloroso in our shop!  Serve the sherry with green olives, salted nuts, and lighter fish tapas, and the reds with anything you can get your roast on.

(If you're curious to join the club, rsvp and we'll get you started.)

hearts,

the Thirst team

Real Wine All The Time

When we were living in the Bay Area and first discovered the wines of Kermit Lynch, one of the first mixed cases we compiled was made up entirely of wines from the Loire Valley.  If there’s a single region in France whose stylistic bent is geared towards wines of “thirst” (vin de soif), we decided early on this is it.  The whites can be highly nuanced, crisp without being bracing, and somehow deeply supple too, and the reds as chillable and refreshing as the whites but with an abundance of fruit and herbs that never tire the palate.

Since that idyllic time of drinking the Loire in San Francisco, a new generation of intrepid wine importers have made available to us a new cast of characters from the Loire coming not only from other wine regions but other walks of life.

THE REDS Part 1: Anjou

Nicholas Reau was a rugby-playing blues and jazz pianist who did a one-eighty after nearing the end of his business studies. He dropped his briefcase and scraped together the funds to buy a vineyard, Clos des Treilles, and immediately started getting his hands dirty.  Even though Nicolas had studied in Bordeaux, there was something about Anjou which drew him in—as with Benoit Courault, who also started in a more mainstream region (Burgundy) only to find a sense of in-authenticity that left him seeking truer mentors elsewhere (causing him to spend a couple years working with Eric Pfifferling of L’Anglore in Tavel, as well as learning how to make a horse his vineyard manager from the likes of Olivier Cousin).

If there’s a way to describe both the jazz musician’s and the equestrian’s approaches to vineyard tending and winemaking, it would be natural improvisation.  While Nicolas harvests from the older vines he found already in his Clos des Treilles vineyard, allowing the resulting grape juice to turn itself into wine auto-poetically through a path that starts in cement, then used oak, and finally settling into the bottle without any fining/filtering/sulfuring or other interferences, Benoit converted the old farm house on his six hectare property into a winery and decided to create his own living inhabitation directly in the vineyard itself with a trailer, not fussing with the soil (but allowing his horse Norway to take care of that) so that the itinerary from harvest to cuvaison is entirely ecosystemic.  He also uses an old apple press from Brittany that is then gravity fed so that only the earth’s native forces enable the wine to come into its own.

When you drink both Nicolas’ and Benoit’s wines, their versatility will allow you to improvise too, in the kitchen, as the structure of these wines are wound differently—Nicolas Reau’s Pompois Anjou Rouge 2010 at a looser coil, with boisterous vibrancy, and the Benoit Courault Les Rouliers Vin de France 2010 more densely woven in a way that your own letting it be will be rewarded with a good, long decantation.

Part Two: Touraine

Further inland along the river valley is Touraine, home to one of our favorite of the greatest small appellations in France, Cheverny.  Less people live in Cheverny than in Fort Greene but the wine scene there is beyond urbane.  Christian Venier, one of seven siblings, took over his family’s domaine as the only child who took up the winemaking call, and makes nearly a dozen single parcel wines.  With trouble just picking one (we cherish them all!) we’ve decided to give you one of his reds, “La Pierre aux Chiens,” a lovely filigreed and potpourri’d pinot noir.  This is natural winemaking at its most balanced, ripened to only 12% alcohol. Also on offer is Philippe Tessier’s Cheverny Blanc, which is by law a blend of Sauvignon Blanc with at least 20% and no more than 25% of another grape (candidates being either Chardonnay or Menu Pineau, Tessier opting for the former), a wine that many of you have been ordering second glasses of at THIRSTBARÀVIN.

To complete the bag is a dry bottle of classic Vouvray from Catherine and Pierre Breton, who were one of the earlier pioneers of biodynamics in the region after Nicolas Joly and Domaine Huet.  Enjoy!

Have an indoor picnic! Spread your best table cloth on the floor and pair these wines with rillettes, spicy tripe sausages, and an assortment of goat cheeses.

If these wines pique your interest, click here to sign up for our club at the $25, $50, or $100 level and we'll get you started.

On Doing Nothing

Thank God there's a new wave of California winemakers making wine where nothing is added and nothing is taken away. 

Hank and Caroline Beckmeyer of La Clarine Farm, which is located at 2600 feet in California's Sierra Nevada Foothills, have throughout the past decade been moving toward doing nothing. Well, not exactly nothing. Their inspiration comes from Masanobu Fukuoka, a Japanese farmer-philopher whose ideas were translated as "do nothing farming." Hank thinks either the phrase was badly translated or Fukuoka had a wicked sense of humor. What it means to him is not doing anything unnecessary; basically working with rather than against nature in the vineyard to produce grapes, and beyond that, simply crushing the grapes to make the wine.  

The Beckmeyers prefer to use their feet, as does Michael Christian in the San Diego area, who started Los Pilares with three co-conspirators a few years after Clarine Farm began to bring it on. Neither want to see much sulfur in their bottlings, which stylistically produces a wine so fresh and fruity you'd mistake it blind for other terroirs for sure. Keep your eyes open though because the colors are beautiful, vivid, and the quantities less than miniscule.

La Clarine Farm Mourvedre "suma kaw" 2011, $25

La Clarine Farm Syrah "suma kaw" 2011, $25

Los Pilares Grenache/Syrah 2011, $26

One bottle of each for $69 while they last!

Howling at the Moon: Bruno Duchene

Something profound is irrevocably lost when machines flatten hills and monoculture is introduced. Rows and rows and rows seemingly ad infinitum of the same GMO produce, and hormones and antibiotics used when raising animals in factory farms, are ultra efficient, but also devastating and polluting, and tend to produce ingredients that are neither flavorful nor good for you.

Case in point: tomatoes. Local, in-season heirloom tomatoes grown organically out-do their so-called conventionally-grown beefsteak super-market clones in taste yet we in Brooklyn have a short window to enjoy them. In addition, they tend to be more expensive, harder to find, more delicate to handle, and thus prohibitive to distribute widely.

Along the same lines, winemakers organically working dry-farmed vineyards on challenging slopes with low yields, produce healthy grapes and expressive wines full of character reflective of where they're grown; in contrast to those made, for instance, by Big Brand Wine Companies (three such companies control more than 50% of wine sales in the US) who largely make wine from irrigated flatlands that are easier to manage, have significantly higher yields, and whose wines, to be charitable, lack character.

Bruno Duchene

Our winemakers relish the challenge of meeting their vineyards on their own terms and making from them pure, hand-made wines. For us, such efforts can be a revelation in a bottle, can unearth, as it were, a taste of "terroir."

Without exaggeration (and we say this rarely), Bruno Duchene -- no stranger to the delicacies of wilder nature (for a time, he was a dealer in wild mushrooms in the Loire Valley) -- is performing feats on arduous, sun-baked, terraced hills in Banyuls and Couillure worthy of the admiration we more often give to winemakers who work, for instance, the steep slopes of Cornas, the Mosel, or Valtellina. 

Four hectares (about eight acres) is plenty for Bruno to deal with. The yields are naturally extremely low on his organically farmed plots of forty- to sixty-five-year-old vines of Grenache and Carignan. In fact, many of his neighbors have abandoned their legendary sites because the vineyards are so hard to work; those who haven't often vinify this meaty grape juice in a manner that tries to out-do other Languedoc monster trucks or Chateauneuf-du-Papes. Bruno takes the powerful potentiality of his terroir and does a complete one-eighty. He ferments the grapes (grown organically with few treatments in the vineyard, no copper, for example) whole cluster with very little fussing about (in tech talk, no remontage and barely any pigeage), with most of the wine done in large vats and just a little with old barrel treatment for balance. The delicacy of his approach is akin to Eric Texier's style of just-enough extraction, which allows the wine to retain some translucency that gives a window to the flavors of a place; allowing for a new standard of what it means to say a wine is balanced when it's from this region.

Bruno Duchene's "La Luna" really is an absolute gamechanger, a vin de soif from a "heady" region -- the village of Banyuls, famous for their fortified Grenache-based dessert wines of meditation -- is here repurposed with a greater solar influence, drawing the wine's terroir up and out. If schist could float, this is it. Unmistakable aromas draw you in to taste a sap-like quality that's as succulent as can be, the Grenache is not over-done or too "varietal." The 13.5% alcohol, vivid palette, a breezy succulence on the palate, and as enduring as it should be without any extra baggage -- just the right amount of time in the sun.

If we had to make hydra-headed comparisons, this wine reminds us of the clarity of Yannick Pelletier's Saint Chinians but with the generous and then snappy quality of some of the best sans soufre Anjou rogues out there. As his acreage and yields are so low, you can imagine how small his production is. We have less than four cases (which is a lot!) available, so first come, first served.*

The 2011 Vin de Pays de la Cote Vermeille "La Luna" from Bruno Duchene is $25 per bottle, $89 for four.

*Those who purchase the "La Luna" cuvee will get first chance at his even smaller-batch Coillure AOC wines when they become available, thanks.

To order: email us, call us at 718-596-7643, or stop by the shop! 

New Year, New You: Elodie Balme

We at Thirst Wine Merchants believe there's a way to make a New Year's Resolution that dissolves headaches rather than creates them. Now the jury's still out on why it is that natural wines are decidedly better for you; whether it's the lack of extraneous petro-chemicals, added artificial flavors, artificial yeasts, or the healthier soil (and thus grapes) and natural yeast, resulting in sips with more flavor -- or the lower-to-nil added sulfur -- or other natural compounds that are not eradicated by herbicides or pesticides in the vineyard. We're not scientists, but a confluence of factors and experiences have us resolved to drink -- and sell -- only wines made as naturally as possible.

The young and talented Elodie Balme is a great example of our type of independent winemaker. She makes the kind of wine that we decided we were going to represent in our store when we opened in 2006. 2006, in fact, was her first vintage! She was selling wines when she realized she was more interested in making wine; she decided to study viticulture and oenology and to work part-time for the influential Marcel Richaud, who makes phenomenal organic, naturally fermented wines based in Cairanne, a village in the Côtes du Rhône, for almost forty years now. Marcel is also active in the association of natural winemakers in France (Association des Vins Naturels) and believes, as do we, that "real wine is wine that sees no chemical treatment, no filtering, no commercial yeasts and no other technique that would specifically alter a wine." 

Marcel encouraged Elodie to become an independent vigneronne, telling her "there's always room for you when you're motivated to work well." Elodie returned home to make wine and began re-calibrating what were her father's vineyards by eliminating chemical pesticides and herbicides and converting to organic farming informed by biodynamic principles. Her approach is centered on attaining eminently drinkable wines rather than following a set of dogmas in the abstract. 

  

Elodie also cites influences from numerous other vignerons, young and old, whose work we also sell in our shop from the Loire, Languedoc, Champagne. (Please inquire if you want to know more.)

Although Elodie's father has not been completely convinced of her natural methods (parents take time, no?) such as minimal sulfur usage at only the most robust stages of fermentation and bottling, we are inspired by her quick ascension to making thirst-quenching wines and are stoked to have locked down a nice allocation of her 2011 wines that just arrived and to share them with you. Elodie wants you to actually drink and enjoy some of these wines in their youth, and their ethical pricing reflects a commitment that allows you to relax about opening them now.

2011 Elodie Balme Vin de France Rouge

We'll start with her Vin de France from Vaucluse, which is made from Grenache, Carignan and Merlot. The Grenache comes from a single hectare (about two acres) of forty-year old vines in the sandy village of Roaix, river-side Carignan of equal age, and young vines Merlot (hence the Vin de France designation -- this Bordeaux varietal is not allowed under the strict Rhône regulations for Appellation status) to complete the blend. Elodie's Vin de France potentially takes the cake for the most versatile, drinkable, party-friendly Rhône red we've tasted in a while.  The balance is impeccable, albeit with ripe black fruit that's not intensely dry so you can enjoy it even on its own.

  

2011 Elodie Balme Côtes du Rhône Villages Roaix "Champs Libres" Rouge

Drink her Vin de France casually, but for more serious cooking, Elodie's single-village Roaix has a more roasted meat quality, with Mourvedre entering the blend to give the wine grip, texture, and tension, as well as serious depth on the nose and an energetic, vigorous finish.  Both wines are showing phenomenally well, proving that the Mediterranean sun of this region will warm your winter cooking appropriately.

  

Elodie's Vaucluse is $15 per bottle, the Roaix $18 -- buy a combo six-pack of four Vaucluse and two Roaix for only $89.

To order any of these wines, email us! 

Didier & Sylvain

Didier Barral

Long-time members of the club may remember us including Didier Barral in a previous offering. Didier’s wines are fabulous, authentic, and unique. One of the two wines in this month’s selection, the “Jadis,” was the No. 1 panel pick in a recent NY Times Eric Asimov piece on the wines of the Languedoc.

Didier founded Domaine Leon Barral in 1993, naming it after his grandfather.  Quickly he decided that biodynamic practices were the best choice for farming his vineyards, which are located deep in the heart of the Languedoc, in the Faugères appellation just outside the hamlet of Lenthéric.

Farming thirty hectares of vineyards is no small feat. Luckily Didier has a little help from his friends: a team of twenty cows, horses, and pigs, that graze the cover crops in and around the vineyards. The grazing of his animals naturally cultivates healthy microbiotic activity in the soil, bringing mushrooms, ants, ladybugs, earthworms, and other essential life forms, and adding important nutrients while aerating the soil. This is sustainability at its finest, an ecosystem of interdependence.

The grapes benefit from this environment, which ultimately translates into tremendously powerful, complex, and age-worthy wines. Most of Didier’s vines get full southern exposure.  In this Mediterranean climate where summer heat waves and drought happen regularly during the growing season, Didier prunes them in the gobelet style to shelter the grapes from the blistering sun. Most of his vines are very old, keeping yields naturally low.

In the cellar, Didier works with the same zeal, although he would consider the wine all but finished once it leaves the vineyard. Didier’s type of artisanry, once nearly extinct, has had a profound influence on other winemakers of a similar bent, who see how his insane work ethic and ideology translates into profound results.

All grapes are harvested by hand and then sorted. In general, the youngest vines are de-stemmed; otherwise whole clusters are used. No SO2 is added. His wine is vinified in gravity-fed, cement cuves and fermented with their natural yeasts. Maceration takes place for 3 to 4 weeks with regular, manual punch-downs in an old wooden vat. After maceration, the grapes are lightly pressed with an old, wooden, vertical basket press. The Faugères Rouge is aged for 2 years in cement and stainless steel cuves. The “Jadis,” however, is aged for 24 to 26 months in barrel, 10% of which is new oak. Didier’s wines are never racked, fined or filtered.

2009 Domaine Leon Barral Faugères Rouge

A blend of 50% Carignan, 40% Grenache and 10% Cinsault from vines that range in age from 40 to 70 years, planted in rugged schist. This is a vibrant wine of power, rusticity and yet it also has incredibly fresh, pure fruit. On the nose, notes of violets, black olives, leather, barnyard; in the mouth, a generous, delicious earthiness… kirsch, black currant, coffee and tobacco.

2009 Domaine Leon Barral Faugères “Jadis” Rouge

Made of 50% Carignan, 30% Syrah, 20% Grenache from 30 to 60 year old vines planted in schist. Asimov characterizes this wine as “juicy, earthy and tense with complex aromas of flowers and purple fruit, and a touch of oak.”  Like the straight Faugères, it is indeed of the earth, but in a deeper register, singing of robust fruit and spicy garrigue.

Sylvain Fadat

We had the pleasure of hosting a Sylvain Fadat wine dinner at Thirstbar in March. Three generations of Fadats have farmed the large, eighteen-hectare lieu-dit known as Aupilhac, in the village of Montpeyroux, across the river Hérault from Daumas Gassac and Grange des Pères. Aupilhac is a special parcel for many reasons. It sits at a high altitude, nestled below the ruins of the village’s château, at almost 1200 feet above sea level on terraced land with southwest sun exposure. The soils are rich in prehistoric oyster fossils, which lend an incredible length and minerality to the wines. Sylvain is not one to shy away from hard work. In a volcanic amphitheatre comprised of marine fossils and raw limestone, called Cocalières, he has done what few vignerons dare to do nowadays: he’s planted a vineyard on steep, extremely rocky terrain, and terraced the land himself. This is not only an enormous financial investment, but back-breaking work. This was the work done many centuries ago by the founders of France’s great terroirs such as Savennières and Cornas, planting the best and most promising parcels irrespective of time and money.

Sylvain has also elected to have his fruit certified as organic in Europe, a mandatory three-year conversion process. For him, this is a choice both of conscience and pragmatism. He works the soil vigorously by plowing regularly. This forces the roots to dig deeper and deeper in the soil in search of cooler, humid subsoil, which protects the vines from drought and sun. Ultimately, his rationale centers on helping achieve a natural balance. In his words, “We believe that work in the vineyards has far more influence on a wine's quality than what we do in the cellar.”

2011 Domaine d’Aupilhac Vin de Pays de l’Hérault “Les Servières” Rouge

Made from 100% Cinsault planted over a century ago in 1900 co-produced by Sylvain Fadat of Domaine d’Aupilac and his neighbor and childhood friend Alain Robert. The vines are located behind Robert’s house, 10 kms outside of Montpeyroux. When Robert told Sylvain that he was finally going to tear out his century-old Cinsault vines in order to plant olive groves, he was aghast. However he was easily able to convince his buddy not to pull out the vines and to plant his olive groves elsewhere, and to allow him to care for them (hence the olive tree on the front of the label).

“Les Servières” comes from the name of the wild lynx that is now extinct in the area but used to roam in the local forests. It is produced from organic grapes and only indigenous yeasts are used. The vines enjoy southeast exposure on hillside terraces and are planted in marl and clay-limestone. The grapes are hand-harvested; they macerate for 20 days on the lees. The wine is aged for 9 months in barrel and is bottled unfiltered.

This wine is such a treat! We are lucky to have gotten a tiny amount to share with you. Although it’s made from grapes that matured on very old vines, it is fresh and aromatic, and reminds us a little bit of a red Burgundy, with notes of sharp red fruits. 

All of these wines are worthy of cellaring, especially the “Jadis.” If you haven’t patience, or a cellar, however, we recommend decanting them for an hour or two before serving and serving them at cellar temperature.  For Sylvain’s wine, a nice pairing would be chicken roasted with herbs. For the Barral wines, pair them with something equally flavorful, earthy, and honest, like a lamb stew or rib-eye steak.

If these wines pique your interest, click here to sign up for our club at the $25, $50, or $100 level and we'll get you started.