Domaine Salel & Renaud | “Testaire” Raisanne | Ardèche, France | 2021
Since 2007 Elise Renaud and Benoit Salel have been doing double-duty as viticulturists and archivists, working diligently to find, propagate, and replant old varieties which were once grown in the southern Ardèche.
🍇 Grape Variety: 100% Raisanne, the ancient white variety indigenous to the Ardèche
🌡 Serve: Cold
Azimut | Skin-Contact White Field Blend | Penedes, Spain | 2023
More spring, more sunny wines...
I like to imagine myself drinking this (probably too early in the day) with friends in sunshine. Picnic lunch. LAUGHS! Olives, tinned fish, gabagool, fresh young cheese. Fancy baguette from some mythical baker. Maybe a farmers' market peach.
Don't let my frivolous imagination detract from these amazing farmers.
The Suriol family has been farming this Mediterranean estate since the 1600's on a property that used to be home to a medieval farmhouse. Phylloxera wiped out their entire vineyard, which they replanted to American Rootstock and eventually started selling Cava to local tavernas.
Azimut comes from the Arabic word for direction, which is a reference to their farming ethos... they follow the moon.
In the 1990's the Suriols converted to Biodynamics, so they make agricultural decisions based on the lunar cycle, embrace polycultural farming, and treat their estate as a micro-ecosystem with crops and animals taking care of each other.
🧑🤝🧑 Pair with: Mediterranean food, picnics, pasta, hanging out
🍇 Grape Variety: local whites- Parellada, Sumoll Blanc, Garnatxa Blanca, Moscatell
🌱 Farming: Biodynamic
🍾 Winemaking: Natural fermentation with the grapes’ own yeasts, 5 days on skins and then 3 months in underground concrete tanks. No filtration, fining or additives, kiss of sulfur at bottling
🌡 Serve: Cold
Swick Wines | "Chillable" Mourvedre Blend | Williamette Valley, Oregon | 2022
🧑🤝🧑 Pair with: pizza, pasta, chicken kebabs, mediterranean meat dishes
🍇 Grape Varieties: Mourvedre, Malbec, Verdelho, Pinot Noir
🌱 Farming: Biodynamic & Organic
🍾 Winemaking: manual harvest, spontaneous cofermentation of all grapes in one neutral vessel, no conventional additives, no fining
🌡 Serve: Read the label
Castella Abate | Sangiovese | Tuscany, Italy | 2022
If you're grilling a piece of red meat because it's nice outside, this is your wine. This Toscana Rosso is a fresher and brighter example of Sangiovese, which I feel falls right in the warm night red sweet spot...
Vibrant enough (thanks to 100% stainless steel) for a warm night but bold enough for a meaty dinner.
Carla Visconti farms a small, certified organic vineyard 7-8 minutes southeast of Montalcino proper. In addition to her impressive skills as a vigneronne, Carla is an accomplished artist. Her boldly colored, modernistic front label is La Rinascita ("the rebirth"), painted in swinging, psychedelic, 1970's Florence.
Carla says La Rinascita represents "the defeat of evil and the birth of good that never dies and is always reborn." Talk that talk, Carla! We love it. The vineyard is limestone-rich clay, vines are 34-41 years old.
🧑🤝🧑 Pair with: grilled red meat
🍇 Grape Varieties: 100% Sangiovese
🌱 Farming: Organic
🍾 Winemaking: 100% stainless steel
🧑🏼🌾 Winemaker: Carla Visconti
🌎 Region: Montalcino, Tuscany, Italy
🌡 Serve: Decanted