Carte Blanche Wine Journal

Bodegas Fulcro, Albarino and other stories

website@sitemodify.com (Website Editor) — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 08:35:17 GMT

Bodegas Fulcro, Albarino & other stories

This time last year I was visiting Navarra, St Martin de Unx in fact, on what I now know was my last trip abroad for quite some time.

Whilst Aseginolaza y Leunda (for it was them I was visiting) are one of the newest and most exciting finds from Spain for us, it made me reflect on the many times I have felt the same way about discovering new growers from my explorations deep into the peninsulas wine regions, from the first tentative steps we made 11 years ago and shipping unheard of (then, anyway) names from Riberia Sacra and Rias Baixas, a strange hilltop wine from Toro, to the new project from Laura Lorenzo, the epic wines of Lagravera, the gorgeous, expressive wines of Loxarel, the ever surprising, grown up wines of Jose Antonio Garcia, and, well you get the picture…

One name sits right up there on that list is Bodegas Fulcro, owned by Manuel Moldes Murano, an unassuming local to Sanxenxo in the Val de Salnes, who works out of his family’s garage using fruit from vines meticulously grown on old plots around the town in which he lives. One day spent with him back in 2016 was enough to convince me we had found a true star in the making and, without being too hyperbolic, I felt we had found the perfect grower a region I love dearly and spend a great deal of time exploring but which was becoming more and more over run with ‘new’ stars.

Chicho illustrated how Albarino can effortlessly absorb its micro-origin, expressing it clearly and precisely without ever being too loud or showy. His restraint in his winery was obvious too, everything was just allowed to happen slowly and without his ego (he doesn’t really have one) getting in the way. At the time they optimised my mantra of ‘tension seekeing’ and still do to this day.

So it was with relish that I read Ferran Centelles excellent review of Rias Baixas in JancisRobinson.com and found Bodegas Fulcro being spotlighted, and I quote:

“…some of the very best wines, showing well-defined mineral character and magnificent bottle evolution. Fulcro is, for me, the most promising of the small producers, making extremely authentic and tasty wines.” The full article is available now to subscribers.

Included in the article, where wines were tasted blind, were the 2017 Nun Dunas Albarino as the highest scoring wine, with 18 Equilibrio receiving 18/20 and 15 Pedreira 17.5.

We will be shipping the new wines from Chicho in early Spring, so let us know if you would like to receive prices of the new cuvees, and make a reservation.

How we buy wine

Mon, 01 Feb 2021 09:28:09 GMT

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Our search for wine.

Geology

The maps of geology one can purchase now are frankly, in my humble opinion, worthy of framing and taking a place on the family home’s wall. They are in an abstract way as good a piece of art as any mustered by an artist, and have a depth that for most will be impenetrable, but that fascinate at some level no matter how superficial. These maps helped shape my understanding of the regions we work with on a macro (how the Brittany range meets the Parisian Basin and its influence on the Loire for example) and micro scale (One row on schist and one on slate, and how ripen a week apart).

I have long been a keen and very amateur geologist, It is a constant source of fascination to me that time past has created so much intrigue beneath our feet, and it is no less fascinating that it has such an influence on how wine tastes. I must confess here that I am no chemist and science was where I struggled most at school, but the main themes of Geology are not beyond anyone’s grasp, and with the vineyard as the school room it becomes so much easier to learn and remember. It impact on viticulture is incredible and understanding primary and secondary influences goes a long way to helping to unpick some of the mysteries of a vineyard.

Vine and Vineyard

A defining feature of any of the wines we import is its identity, its regional accent if you like. The location of the vineyard, the aspect and micro climate, the underlying geology and the soil above, the way the vines are trained, the clones and varieties, all these add to this sense of place. I feel in order to understand the sense of place one first has to get to know it, hear the accents in all its forms and try to comprehend when it is authentic and when it

false. Tasting one grower is not enough, one has to visit a region and get under its skin, see the view from all angles and try to pick out what are the unique elements to this region or place, and what are influences that detract from the originality.

In my life of wine, I have tried to taste from as many growers in each of the regions we work in as I can (and many from those we don’t). I tend not to warm to wine makers whose first instinct is to lead you to their tasting room and gallery of medals. I learned quickly that it is in the vineyard that one gets the first feel for what a wine may or may not be like, and a chance to get to know the person who is key in influencing its style and their empathy for their plot of this earth. To walk a vineyard with someone like Francois Mitjaville of Tertre Roteboeuf is an occasion not to be missed (but book a whole day off!); it is to start to understanding that a direct and intimate knowledge of the vines and the vineyard is absolutely key to the quality and authenticity of the wine that will come from it.

My first experience of this was in Pouilly Fuisse walking with Roger Saumaize-Michelin in 1996 through his steeply gauged vines under the Roche de Vergisson. We discussed why some vines we espalier, some cordon simple, why some vines were smaller, yet older, some were more vigourous, and always directing it back to how the wine tasted as a result of these physical attributes, and always with an explanation of cause, or likely cause (espalier helps to get even bud burst by the way, and can be seen throughout the Maconnais). I will never forget it and that visit set in train a fascination in the link to vineyards and wines that exists as fervently to this day.

Winery

The saying goes that wine is made in the vineyard, to which I might finesse by saying that the wines character is made in the vineyard, and it is in the winery where it is either allowed to shine or ruined forever. The best winemakers I know tend to know everything in order to confidently do nothing, or who have experimented and failed, and improved as a result. I am not afraid of shiny cellars with new tanks and polished floors, as I am also not afraid of a dusty old cellar with moldy casks and a weird wooden ornament in the corner, I have tasted great wines and terrible wines in both. What I look for is fairly simple. Actually more correctly I smell for it.

I have never been to a cellar where the overriding aroma is of acetic acid and tasted a good wine within it. I do not particularly like the aromas the spoilage yeast brettanomyces brings to a wine so if I smell it I am on the back foot already, vigilant for its presence in one or all of the wines we are about to taste. I don’t like the smell now commonly referred to as mousiness in wine, to my mind it is a product of lazy hygiene regimes and I wouldn’t want my tuna served on a dirty plate, so I don’t want my wine to touch dirty surfaces. I am told often it is part of the ‘natural wine process’ but I am confident in my explorations to say no it isn’t, it is just poor practice. We will have all tasted a natural wine which is not mousey (and by that a wine with no additional SO2, fining or filtration) and they are not mousey. So it is not part of the process, and it puts a scrim between the wines authenticity and the drinker. I also don’t like the smell of SO2 particularly, and I really don’t like the filter pad smell either, a winery which is over sanitised is as anathema to me is one where it is not thought of at all.

To walk into a winery and to just smell good things (gut reaction expression there, but I know you will know what I mean!), well after a good walk around a vineyard this is the where it starts to get exciting!

Taste and context

I love tasting from barrel and tank, and with a winemaker who can translate what they know into the organoleptic evidence in the glass it is sometimes a wonder. It is often hard to gain much more that what the wines form will take as many of its complex characters and finessing has yet to be completed, but it gives a summary, and this is useful. I know I share the childlike enthusiasm of other wine tasters when one taste the bottled version of a wine tasted in barrel the year before and can compare notes. It is geek Valhalla!

Tasting bottled wine in the cellar is the final key to the lock. Once again, to taste in the presence of the person who raised a wine will reveal their passion for their wines and one prays this translates into the wine in glass. Most of the time it does, and each wine has its own narrative to help build the full story. Occasionally it doesn’t, and this can often be illuminating, as a grower who is oblivious fault may well be hiding the truth elsewhere. Thankfully most of the time (and in more recent years) it is not an issue we face that often. I don’t discuss prices until we know we want to work with a grower, and I also don’t negotiate, their price is their price and we can either work with it or not, and we only comment on labels if we are asked (again if we don’t like them we don’t have to buy them, but I feel that is a little superficial!)

As I try to taste as much wine as I can, in the context of what work I am doing, I am conscious of trying to be objective. I am not always making buying decisions, but it is useful to try to form a picture of what style of wine I would want from that place. I do not believe that all the wines we have on our list are the best, but I do believe they are the best wine that represent us. By continually tasting around our own growers I can see how they are getting on and improving, but by tasting around a region I can see how the wines we import relate to those of other growers in the region, which helps give context to what we do.

Our aim at CBW has always been, and remains to this day, to try and understand the regions in which we work, find a grower who represented what we loved in wine; Tension, freshness, a clear line to the soil, and drink-ability, and it remains that way to this day, and to do our best to represent them in the market to the best of our ability. We just hope you enjoy them too.

Ben Llewelyn

Antoine Sanzay, Saumur Champigny, Loire Valley

Wed, 02 Dec 2020 12:19:06 GMT

One of the Loire's most sought after producers

02.12.2020

It is difficult to express how hard we have tried to ship Antoine’s wines. He is in such high demand that they sell out before they even touch glass, and as such he can be quite picky about who he sells too. Its taken 10 years, when I first met him in a dingy tasting room in Angers and numerous visits and tasting with him since, but with my great friend and journalist Christelle Guibert (who also makes amazing Muscadet) we have coaxed him into letting us have an allocation of his latest releases and as such we are very pleased to be able to offer them here, albeit in very limited quantities.

When Antoine Sanzay joined the family domaine in 1999 he was the 6 ^th generation to do so. Antoine’s journey into the wine world was not a typical smooth succession. Antoine had just turned 10 when, just as his grandfather was verging on retirement, his father tragically passed away.

While Antoine’s father was a wine lover, his grandfather was the opposite. Grape growing was just one element of a polyculture, and by no means the most important to him. What mattered was to work the land for a living, with all the grapes sold to the local co-operative.

With no one to learn from, Antoine started everything from scratch with no mentor nor existing clients. “I didn’t have any inherited legacy or familial pressure.” While having to rely on his wits, this gave great freedom to experiment. “I think it can be easier for the children to start with a new name than following their father’s legacy with all the baggage that can come with it” admitted Antoine. While he may have learned on his own, he got inspiration and support from many great Loire personalities, including Les Freres Foucault, Thierry Germain, Guy Bossard, Bernard Baudry, Jo Pithon& Jo Landron. In 2002 Antoine made his first vintage.

Antoine slowly started switching to organic practices, away from the chemicals previously used by his grandfather. In 2007, Antoine started experimented in organic viticulture and he converted the vineyards in 2011 and became certified bio and Ecocert in 2014. 2014 was also his first vintage where he bottled his entire production and stopped selling to the local cooperative, Antoine admitted “I started with almost nothing and I needed the local cooperative to help me financially”.

Throughout the range there is stylistic continuity, with great tension, vibrant fruit harnessed to linear precision. The reds show a brilliantly judged balance between intense fruits, brooding matiere, croquant tannic grip, and a lingering floral element mixed with lovely bite.

The Wines

Whites

Les Essarts 2018

Only 6000 bottles produced from a 1.16ha vineyard planted with 45 years old vines. The wine has spent 11 months in oak of 600l and shows floral, yellow and citrus fruit with tension and salinity. Great mouthfeel and roundness on the palate.

Les Salles Martin 2018

Only 1000 bottle produced from this single vineyard from relatively young vines of 7 years old. The wine is aged for 11 months in foudre and barrique. The result is an ample style but with tension, precision and purity of fruit. The nose is almost Sauvignon with a lovely subtle oak nuance.

Reds

Saumur Champigny 2018

This is a blend of young and old vines from 5 villages representing a total of 5 hectares. Vinified and aged in concrete tank, this superb entry level cuvee is perfumed and vibrant with vivid crunchy red fruits, combined with a great energy and sappiness.

Les Salles Martin 2018

This is a new addition to the range. 30 years old vines from a 1.9ha vineyard, with only 1000 bottles produced. After approximately 3 weeks of maceration the wine is aged in ceramic jars of 10hl. The result is a fine example showing tension, minerality and finesse. Notes of violets and red fruit come through, and are balanced with very fine and silky tannins and a beautiful salinity on the finish. Ageing potential of 10 years at least.

La Haye Dampierre 2018

From a single vineyard of 1.1 ha from 40 years old vines exposed North and North East. This is the first vineyard to be both pruned and to harvested, as Antoine looks for freshness and crunchiness in the fruit. After 3 weeks of maceration, the wine is aged in concrete eggs. Very pure and floral, with grainy tannins and bite. Showing some austerity and tight right now, this serious cuvee has plenty of depth and will open up in the years to come.

Les Poyeux 2017

Les Poyeux in Saumur represents 30ha in total, with the local Co-op being the biggest single owner with 10ha. This comes from 4.1 ha, spread over 8 plots with south east and south west exposure. Each plot is vinified separately and then blended before being aged in oak ranging from 225l to 600l, before being bottled 2 years after harvest. Lovely depth of fruit with great intensity. The tannins are soft and elegant, and underneath them a deep lingering power.

Orange Wine & Other Stories

Tue, 24 Nov 2020 12:05:36 GMT

Orange Wine & Other Stories

24.10.2020

I am not sure how confident anyone feels at the moment, I can’t help recall the sensation of being on a roller coaster (or log flume as I am petrified of roller coasters, even the one that is in fact just a series of ladybirds doing the rounds) able to see the end, but also spying the inevitable last ‘hoorah’ in the form of a stomach churning, physics defying rise and the fall out of the corner of my eye, knowing that it lies between me and the exit gates… Fingers crossed though that the good public will rush out to support the industry and spend all their pent up energy and cash on food, wine and dancing, and take the sting out of it all.

In a sort of ‘sofa surfing’ wine buying exercise that I have rather taken too (I also hate flying!) we have sourced some interesting new wines, albeit from growers we already know. One of which is the really quite delicious and intriguing new Vi Ambre (orange wine for those who don’t speak Catalan) from Cellar de les Aus . Josep wanted to make a wine such as this for a while, but couldn’t find the amphora to age it in so turned to Carles Llach who formed a handful of them for him using the ‘Saulo’ soil found at the bottom of the slope behind the main cellar. With these in place in the buried shipping containers, he felt he had found the right vessel to raise a skin contact Pansa Blanca. The fruit is partially pressed ,partially whole berry, and fermented with all the skins for 2 months. As with all these wines, it is basket pressed and then finished in the amphora before bottling with no additional sulphites. The end result is a gently infused, herbal nosed wine with a touch of mandarin, cherry and wild hop, and a textured, energised palate which craves a little slither of pork based product. The wine is here and ready for sale.

2018 Asarvos Vi Ambre, Cellar de les Aus, Alta Alella, Catalunya.

(for images check out our Instagram feed)

As always with this time of year, the store cupboards are brimming with goodies. I am still on the hunt for the CBW Champagne of choice, but until then (and maybe it will never happen…) we are still enthralled by the quality and style of our three main sparkling wines. I know I sound like Viktor Kiam here (I know, I am showing my age) but I really do enjoy drinking these, and do so regularly at home, so please consider them, and don’t be shy to request a sample, if you have space:

2016 Alta Alella Brut Reserva, Cava

A blend of Pansa Blanca and MAcabeau aged for 30 months on sur latte. The enticing thing about this wine is that as it gets flatter (gently of course) the quality of fruit becomes more abundantly clear. I am consistently writing in my tasting notes when tasting wines to be blended for fizz that this would be far better bottled as a still wine (I once said that to a grower in Champagne who gave me a withering look). Bu the fizz brings the upfront joy and the wine gives the palate something to get excited about. As all these wines, it is organic, and produced with as little SO2 as possible.

NV X-Bulles Vincent Caille, Monnieres Saint Fiacre, Loire

Vincent as many of you will know is the reluctant (other) saint of Monnieres, and producer of to my palate the singularly finest cru wine of this village (for arguments I refer you to his 2012!). Like all great growers, Vincent has his serious side, and his fun side, and this blend of Chardonnay and Grolleau (giving it a slightly rose petal hue) makes for delicious drinking. A touch of rhubarb and custard, layers of citrus fruit and a long and ever so slightly brioche tinged finish slightly take one by surprise. New livery makes it look super smart too, always good when one is trying to impress the neighbors.

NV Cremant de Bourgogne, Domaine Deliance

When I think back to we first shipped this wine in 2010, it really was an icon of the 50s (label wise that is) with a silvery label and mauve (yep, look that one up too) band across it. But of course we don’t judge books here, and the wine inside was and still is stunning. Lionel takes extra care to age the wines for longer on the lees and is upto 24 months sur latte. He is located in the village of Dracy le Fort up an undefinable lane, where he crafts the most amazing fizzy wines in his ancient Grenier. Thankfully (sorry if I sound lookist) the label is updated, and a touch of Aligote has been added to give a pep to the mid palate freshness, and this is quite possibly all the Champagne-a-like fizz one would need.

Finally if you are in need f something to intrigue the palate further, I drank a bottle of Tresaille (Tresallier) from Domaine des Berioles in Saint Pourcain, and their delicious Pinot Noir, the other day and frankly both have come round to be generous, serious, volcanic influenced wines of real character. This is a strange nether region just north of Vichy on the Haut Loire, but the wines can be serious, with a strong identity. If you haven’t tried either of these, and have a need for them in your life, please do get in touch.

Hope to see many of you during advent, and fingers crossed that last hurrah on the Flume is in fact a champagne (or fizzy-wine) fountain!

Ben, on behalf of us all at CB towers.

2020 Harvest Report. Spain

Mon, 05 Oct 2020 10:57:15 GMT

Updates from the ground

05.10.2020

Part Two……of the reports in from the growers.

Until we can actually get down to the vineyards this is all we will have for now, but it seems to be a happy place at the moment, despite the overlying issues of the global market.

Germany

Weingut Thorle, Saulheim Rheinhessen (in brief as harvest has not yet finished)

Christoph has been inundated with great vintages recently, which makes one forget some of the more dreadful events of recent history. 18 was fabulous for the reds, 19 for the whites and this vintage, well, in his view although the quantity is not the highest, the quality for both red and whole fruit is exceptional. The warm start to the year brought on the flowering and bud set in calm conditions. The heat in August brought on the fruit incredibly quickly and there was a bit of a rush to bring the Spatburgunder and Silvaner in before the weather changed. The fruit has all been picked now and is in impeccable condition. The cooler weather brought on by a low pressure towards the end of the month of September will help to finesses the Riesling from the warmer sites, and won’t do harm to the cooler sites either, but this vintage will leave a real impact on the flavour of the vineyards, which is exciting.

Spain:

As yet no news from Laura Lorenzo or Bodegas Fulcro, and Jose at Entre os Rios said he would report next month as e is super busy, but was brimming with enthusiasm for the fruit he has brought in to date.

Jose Anotonio Garcia, Bierzo

Intense, hot, brief and exhausted, this is how Jose summarized his vintage this year. They started the harvest on August 26 after an incredibly hot period, so was quite early, something which is becoming the norm, and bringing on the harvest earlier and earlier each year. The lack of rain is also becoming worrying as it is stressing the older vines as much as the younger ones too. Across the 125 parcels they own in Valtuille de Abajo (amounting to around 30 hectares) the importance of understanding which sites ripen first is becoming more and more important to bring in a healthy and balanced crop. IN contrast Corullon is providing ever more balanced and nuanced wines from the steep sheltered slopes. IN Jose words, this vintage has produced “Fluid elegance resting on the cellar”.

Adegas Carballal, Valdeorras

Jose Oveido Pato has reported an impeccable harvest of Godello and the pictures he has sent through are of healthy and golden fruit from the Erebo vineyards. His comments on the vintage were lean, but he is happy and as usual modest, but he did say at least it wasn’t as hot as last year! Expect floral smokey wines from him this year.

Jose Gil, Rioja Alavesa

Jose emailed last week me after a visit from Luis Guiterrez sounding on top of the world, not only had the harvest started and the fruit was looking amazing for his own wines, and just as excellent for Olmaza, the family Bodegas, but Luis, who is a big name in Spain for the younger growers, was waxing lyrical about his wines too. So a good place to be. The fruit is all in now and in his words he has never had such a late harvest for his wines and never had such quality, he could not be happier. When I was there in February, there was concern over the early blossoms on the cherry and almonds, and frost would take them out in most years, but this year it didn’t happen and spring moved into summer seamlessly. The summer was hot, of course, but cool nights throughout June and July and a relatively cool august has eased the fruit to ripeness in a long and elegant fashion. The abvs are around 12.5, pH low at around 3.3-3.4 and ferment have started seamlessly. In Jose words, this will be an Atlantic vintage…

Lagravera, Costers del Segre

La Pell red and white vines were picked last week. The old vines (of which some are over 125 years) are in good shape, with fruit bearing at around the average quantity. The fruit coming in already is around 13.5% and pH at 3.25, but it is hard to tell with so much variety in the vineyard what is giving what. The vintage was a little touch a go as a late frost almost destroyed the bud set, only being avoided by a quick movement of a front across the Pyrenees. Otherwise it has been a well formed year, with only some excessive heat in August making a mark, but the late picking date is testament to the effect of the cooler September setting in, and snow was reported up in the valley at the beginning of the last week of September.

Aseginloza y Leunda, Navarra

Pedro emailed me after the first pressing of Kauten, which he is super happy with this year (this is the younger vineyard in the village of Unx). He was very happy with the fruit this year, and he is excited to see how the 2020 will leave it mark on his wines, and how these will compare to the 19, 18 and 17 vintages. (As are we). The fruit is coming in slightly cooler than 18 at 13.8 abv but the pH is roughly the same as 18 and 19, according to the vineyards. He will be pressing this week and then after that we will have a chat about how he feels things are going.

HARVEST REPORT 2020

Mon, 21 Sep 2020 10:25:27 GMT

The vintage so far… (based on information from our growers to date)

21.09.2020

Normally this is a time to be out in the vines with growers and either taking a pre-harvest view or post-harvest review (always avoiding the hard work of actually harvesting somehow!) but obviously this year the information has come in via phone and email, and here is what we have to date

WALES:

I was up at David Morris’s vineyard in Tintern (Wye Valley) last week and it is rewarding to see that the work David has put into this 35 year old site has paid off, albeit with slightly lower yields. He pruned the vines using a ‘cordon simple’ method to try and change the way the sap flows to the fruit and although the vines were healthy enough to start with, it is always a tentative time as they can sometimes react badly. The year has been a little odd (climatically) with the south facing slope over-looking the river being exposed to wall to wall sunshine for the whole of bud break to flowering. Rains and cooler winds set in over July and August which have meant that mildew protection was a full time job (with a sprayer that didn’t like slopes), and has given many vineyards in the region a real headache, with a sprayer that didn’t like slopes. The recent sunny weather will bring the Pinot on nicely and the Bacchus Pinot Blanc and Schuerebe are all looking in good condition. Harvest is estimated for mid/end of October with 2000 liters in total for the hectare, which rather neatly ties in with the new tanks arriving at the winery up the hill this week. More on this to follow

FRANCE

Loire Valley

Roussely, Chenonceaux

Started the year with a mild winter leading to a warm, blue sky spring, which in turn had the potential for frosts which were not forthcoming this year as they have been recently. The summer although dry favoured their older vines which were able to resist drought through developed root systems. Bud burst and flowering were all finebut the intensity of the heat in August meant that grape development was slow, and they are concentrated as a result. Rain at the end of August helped to push the development on but it was an early harvest for the whites, starting on the last day of August, and rain helping a little to reduce sugars for a more balanced must. The reds are being harvested now, so more on these later.

Vincent Caille Muscadet

Vincent has taken the decision to delay harvest for two weeks to benefit from the warmer weather in the tail of august and early September to improve fruit ripeness. Most started in August 29 ^th and he was Sept 14 ^th . The fruit is looking healthy and all being well he will be finished by this week. Interestingly his main issue this year was lack of pickers due to covid, something I am sure we will see all over Europe.

Alsace

Camille Braun, Orschwihr

News is a bit scant here, other than to say the year has been exceptional with harvest starting end of August and finishing this week. Early but with good balance of fruit and excellent yeileds. More to follow

Roanaisse

Domaine Serol

To sum up, this is a small but beautiful year. Very dry with no odium which was prevalent in the region. Acidities are average with abvs at between 12.3 and 13.2 which may be as a result of an early start to harvest and picking early in the morning. Very good quality but with the dry weather, we have low quantity. We 've avoided Odium, which was the major issue this year. It is also worth noting that the Gamay was picked in early September with Chenin and Viognier picked two weeks later to make use of the rain.

Cahors

Mas del Perie

The vintage has been exceptional for the estate, with excellent fruit quality and quantity too. The spring was warm and benevolent with a strong lead into fruit set in june, and harvest starting in early August and finishing mid-September. This will be the first harvest to done in the new cellar so it couldn’t have come at t better time. I’ll know more when I speak to Fabien at the end of the month.

Burgundy, Pouilly Fuisse

Domaine Cheveau

The year started as with everyone with a great spring and early summer. Last year a few of the vineyards were hampered by mildew and no cuvees were made, so this year it was heartening to see the Davaye vineyards in better shape. Mid-summer proved difficult to manage with cooler and windy conditions, although the sheltered cru sites were not affected as much as the Solutre Pouilly vines. Gamay thrived and was picked in conection with the whites, which have uniformly come in with average (for the estate) acidity and abvs of 12.8 to 13.09, low for the region. The gamays are healthy and ferments went without a hitch with more whole-bunch macerations being used this year. These are the first cru Pouilly-Fuisse wines to be labelled as 1er cru, so a great harvest for this to happen.

Rhone:

Chateauneuf, Domaine de la Graveirette

A fulsome year, good crop of healthy and generous fruit, would sum this harvest up. Heat in late June stifled growth in some of the younger vineyards, but did not affect the old vines on the Crau. A cooler August and rain held harvest for a week, but the fruit was all in by end of August and despite the intensity of the earlier part of the season, the musts are all fermenting well and acid levels in the wines are surprisingly healthy too.

Domaine Mucyn, Crozes

There has been a huge lack of water this year, being the driest for over 15 years, causing serious hydric stress and high southerly winds hampering any photosynthesis. Fortunately two rain events occurred after August 15 ^th which has unlocked some of the maturity and have helped Crozes Hermitage to a satisfactory ripeness. IN St Jospeh the rain was lighter and as a result the harvest was in 28 ^th August, the earliest many domains have ever seen. Yields were good for Crozes-Hermitage with beautiful balance at 13% Vol, good acidity , very dark colour, well ripe. Macerations were very light and the resulting wine has freshness and remarkably ripe and well-formed tannins. The St Jo vineyards will be 30% down on last year, but balance is ok and abv 13% and Cornas will be much the same.

In essence, a warm, water free start to the year, but cooler conditions and rain have helped to save the day….

Cant wait to taste!

Ben

Domaine Serol: A very special shipment...

Fri, 04 Sep 2020 10:59:19 GMT

A wine produced by Domaine Serol in partnership with Michel Troisgros.

04.09.2020

We have landed our first (and only for this vintage) allocation of the wine produced by Domaine Serol in partnership with Michel Troisgros, the chef whose father put Salmon and Sorrel on the map, and who’s eponymous restaurant has the distinction of holding the hallowed 3 stars for the longest period in France.

Serol are located on the granitic soil of the Roannaise , between Lyon and Vichy and produce bio wines from densely planted Gamay-Saint-Romain, Chenin Blanc and Viognier from their long-held, family owned vineyards. (for more info please get in touch, or refer to the website)

Our first shipment of 2018 Les Blondins sold out in a matter of days (a huge surprise to us too, given that we were in peak lock down), so we have shipped the 2019 Les Blondins, single parcel of old vine, biodynamic Gamay, and the rare as hens teeth 2019 Chez Blondins , which is a whole bunch ferment of old vine Gamay sourced from the heart of the lieu dit ‘les Blondins’ raised in Amphora, with 60 days maceration (with no added so2 at any stage). We have just 90 bottles which we have shipped in one go.

Alongside this we have also shipped the mesmerizing 2019 Oudan - Boutte en Blanc (IGP Urfe Blanc), Viognier from 20 year old vines planted on granitic soil. The wine undergoes no MLF, so retains a tautness and freshness which naturally compliments the style of the variety perfectly. This is viognier for drinkers, not tasters!

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