2016 Granbazán “Etiqueta Verde” Albarino
Who: Manuel Otero Candeira
What: 100% Albarino
Where: Rias Baixas (Ree-ass Bye-shass), Spain
Tastes Like: Light and crisp, floral, tree fruit (apples and pears), with a dry finish.
Pairs With: Very versatile; white pizzas, light pastas.
Rias Baixas:
The Rias Baixas DO was founded in 1988. Though there are 12 permitted varietals, Albarino dominates, making up 90% of the region’s production. The climate is Atlantic, with wet winters and sea fog. In general rainfall is high and the temperatures mild: maximum temperatures in summer rarely usually exceed 30 °C and only drop to 0 °C in December and January.
The coldest areas are Ribera do Ulla and Val do Salnés due to their proximity to the coast. The warmest is Condado do Tea where temperatures in summer sometimes approach 40 °C, but the winters are cold with frequent frosts and rainfall of over 2,000 mm a year. Granbazan is located in the Val do Salnés, located on the lower reaches of the river Umia and centred on the town of Cambados. The landscape is of low undulating hills and the vineyards are planted both on the slopes and on the flat valley floors. The soil is generally rocky and alluvial.
The Winery:
The Granbazán story starts in the 1960s when Manuel Otero y Otero bought a land parcel planted with eucalyptus wood and feed for cattle. An entrepreneur, Otero dreamed of expanding the family's business of fine foods to fine wines. In the 1980s, his son, Manuel Otero Candeira, realized his dream with the construction of Granbazán, a chateau with a magnificent building surrounded by pergola trained vines. Granbazán’s attention to detail and high quality wine has been instrumental in the quality revolution in Galicia as well as in raising the reputation of Rias Baixas wines to their rightful place among the top white wines of the world.
The Granbazán winery is located in Vilanova de Arousa, very close to Cambados, the "World Albariño Capital." The soils here have a high granite content, grown 262.4 feet above sea level, with over 60 in. of annual rainfall. The maritime influence is very intense, providing a distinctive salty aftertaste, and a consistent ripening cycle. Harvest takes place the second half of September.The fruit is hand-picked, then gently de-stemmed and cooled for 8 hours at low temperatures in rotary macerators. Alcoholic fermentation takes place with native yeasts in stainless steel tanks.
Minimal invasive viticulture is a key practice to capture the elusive essence of the Albariño grape. The ranges of wines produced at Granbazán have a common soul with crisp citrus fruit, and in some wines peach and green apple flavors, bakery aromas and a light musk fragrance. The leading wines are Granbazán Ambar and the Granbazán Verde. Ambar is produced from the property's oldest vines with a gentle lees aging and 100% free-run juice, while the Granbazán Verde is very softly pressed, to produce a typical Salnes Valley Albariño style: dry, crisp and salty. It is aged on the lees for no less than four months before bottling.
2017 Catine LaSelva Vermentino
Who: Roland Krebser
What: 100% Vermentino
Where: Maremma Toscana, Tuscany, Italy
Tastes Like: Green apples and tropical fruits, with some salinity and savory notes in the finish.
Pairs With: Everything out of the ocean! Maremma pizza (yum with that feta!), lobster fra diavolo.
The Who:
Cantine LaSelva is situated in the heart of the rolling Maremma hills in southern Tuscany, near the Tyrrhenian Sea. Their 25 hectares of vineyards have been certified organic for more than 30 years. While primarily devoted to the production of Sangiovese, the Cantina also vinifies limited amounts of Vermentino, Ciliegiolo, Pugnitello, Malvasia Nera, Ansonica, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Alicante and Petit Verdot. The vineyards are predominantly on a slope, with good airflow from the nearby sea. Soils are made up a mixture of mineral, calcareous and clayey soils, galestro, alberese and erosion rocks, covered by reddish brown clay. The area feature hot summers mitigated by ocean breezes and wet, chilly winters.
The winery (the small square building with the green roof in the the picture above) is mostly underground to protect the aging wines from exposure to the heat of the Tuscan summer.
The Where:
Maremma, only a two-hour drive southwest of the city of Florence, covers an area that roughly corresponds to the coastal province of Grosseto. An extensive and largely undeveloped territory, it stands in stark contrast to the compact, ordered Chianti hillsides around Florence and Siena that have been the traditional draw for visiting wine lovers. The heart of the Maremma region, near the village of Magliano, is a terrain of softly rolling hills covered by olive groves and vineyards, oak and cypress woods and wide-open fields of poppies and cornflowers. To an American, it may look more like coastal California than traditional Italy, and indeed, it could one day become the Napa Valley of Italy.
The Maremmani--as the locals are called-have been making wine for centuries, mainly working with Tuscany’s staple red grape, Sangiovese. The local clone, known as Morellino, is used to produce the region’s mainstay red, Morellino di Scansano. Morellinos are mainly early-drinking reds that are a softer and moderately priced alternative to others from Tuscany. “Maremma has a particular microclimate,” explains Adolfo Parentini, manager of historic producer Moris Farms. “It’s similar to that of Sicily, but less severe. The sun gives soft tannins, and this is what the modern consumer is looking for. But the softness here is a product of the vineyard, not the winery.” The coastal climate also makes for excellent, ripe white wines that are natural pairings with the local seafood.
The Wine:
The wine is 100% Vermentino, a grape native to the Maremma Toscana DOC. It is fermented in steel and then aged in steel tanks for 6 months and 1 month in bottle prior to release. Vermentino releases skip vintages, with only a handful made since 2010.
2017 Dama del Rovere “Tremenalto” Soave Classico
Who: Massimo & Davide Pra
What: 100% Garganega
Where: Monteforte d’Alpone, Soave Classico DOC, Veneto, Italy
Tastes Like: Florals, bitter almond, tree fruits. Medium bodied, but clean finishing.
Pairs With: Lighter pastas, seafood, veggie pizzas. Etruscan & Lecco sound lovely with this.
The Who:
From its perch at the top the Tremenalto hills, Dama del Rovere sets itself apart from the rest of the Soave zone with high-altitude vineyards, strict attention to yields and vibrant character-rich white wines that are the benchmarks of quality for the Soave Classico appellation. The Pra family owns and works in one of the highest-altitude cellars in the entire Veneto, some 1500 feet above sea level. Family-owned vineyards, dedicated to local grape varietals Garganega and Durella, also share this wind-swept, refined perch. Winemaker MAssimo Pra and his brother, Davide, represent the fourth generation of vine growers from their family. The winery’s name reflects both the family’s dedication to their craft and to local culture. “Dama” is a shortening of Davide and Massimo; yet it also means “lady,” in reference to a votive Madonna carved into an oak tree (“rovere”) located in the Tremenalto vineyard.
The Wine:
All grapes come from the Tremenalto vineyard planted on the slopes of Monte Calvarina, an inactive volcano, near the city of Verona within the classico zone. The vineyard features and east-north east exposure, and the volcanic soils are rich in minerals and ideal for the cultivation of native grapes garganega and durella. The vines range in age from 1945 to 2008. They are tended by hand throughout the growing season, and the family practices sustainable farming, avoiding pesticides and herbicides whenever possible. Harvest is exclusively done by hand, and starts much later than with lower-land vineyards. Massimo says once “regular” Soave vineyards are finished with the harvest, it’s time for him to start. Grapes are pressed gently and fermented on indigenous yeasts in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks. The wine is aged on fine lees.
The Where:
The Soave DOC was created in 1968 with boundaries revised and expanded periodically over the next few decades. The region is situated in the eastern part of the hills near Verona in the Veneto. The climate of the area is influenced by the mists that flow from the Po Valley in the autumn and can bring viticultural hazards of mold and other diseases. The Garganega grape, the primary component of Soave, is a late-ripening variety with a thick skin that can withstand the mist better than some of the other thinner skinned varieties of the region, such as Trebbiano. Within the Soave zone is a smaller region referred to as “Soave Classico,” which is reserved for the product made from grapes harvested from the hillside vineyards around the municipalities of Soave and Monteforte d’Alpone in the original and oldest classic “zone” of Verona. The vineyard soils of this region are considerably less fertile than the alluvial soils in the plains. In the western part of the classico zone near the commune of Soave the soils contain a high percentage of limestone which retains the warmth of the afternoon sun and helps produce fuller, more fruit-forward wines. In the eastern vineyards near Monteforte d'Alpone, the soils are made of decomposed volcanic rock that tends to produce what wine expert Jancis Robinson calls "steelier" wines.
Soave saw a peak of popularity in the US during the mid-20th century Italian wine boom that followed the end of WWII. Driven by the marketing efforts of large bulk producers, Soave even surpassed Chianti in the 1970s as the largest-selling Italian DOC wine in the US. Popularity waned toward the end of the century due to the combination of a glut of poorly-made wine, a new-found popularity of Italian Pinot Grigio beginning in the late 80’s, and the entrance of relatively inexpensive southern-Italian DOC’s to the market.
2016 Leitz “Dragonstone” Riesling
Who: Josi Leitz
What: 100% Riesling
Where: Johannisburg, Rheingau, Germany
Tastes Like: Floral, tropical, hint of slate and petrol on the nose. Lush, honeyed and tasting of nectarines in the front, with balancing acids and tannins in the finish. Medium plus bodied.
Pairs With: Cheeses, spicy foods.
The Who:
Josi Leitz took over his father’s winery, Weingut Joseph Leitz in 1985. Since taking the helm, he has expanded the family’s holdings from 2.6 hectares (a hectare is roughly the size of a football field) to over 40, including many of the Grand Cru vineyards in the area.
The Where:
The Rheingau is a small region, stretching only 20 miles from east to west. It is marked by a course change in the Rhein River’s flow to the North Sea from its origins in the Swiss Alps. As the Rhein flows north along the eastern edge of the Pfalz and Rheinhessen, it runs directly into the Taunus Mountain range which has a subsoil comprised of pure crystalline quartzite. Rivers, no matter how mighty, are lazy and the Rhine has yet to break through the quartz infrastructure surrounding the town of Mainz. At Mainz, the Rhein turns west and the 30 km stretch between Mainz and Rüdesheim makes up the majority of the Rheingau. Even though the region is further north than the middle Mosel, its south facing slopes get hotter than the narrow Mosel Valley which therefore provides important diurnal temperature variation.
Leitz’s estate vineyards lie entirely on the westernmost part of the Rheingau on the Rüdesheimer Berg—a steep, south-facing hillside of extremely old slate and quartzite—planted entirely to riesling, encompassing the Grand Crus of Schlossberg, Rottland, and Roseneck. Leitz trains his vines in a single-cane, cordon system to improve the quality and character of the fruit, differing from the majority of Rheingau growers where the practice has long been to prioritize yield via a double-cane system. Johannes is a firm believer that the crucial work of the vigneron takes place in the vineyards. Focused on farming as sustainably as possible and working by hand, the grueling hours of labor on the ultra-steep slopes allow these ancient vineyards to reach their maximum potential.
The Wine:
The grapes are sustainably grown and hand harvested. Fermentation occurs in stainless steel. Coming from the Rüdesheimer Drachenstein, the pure quartzite soil, being a silicate, lends a saltiness to the orange citrus-flavored wine which buffers the acidity and counterbalances the palpable sugar. After harvest, Josi is equally focused on working gently in the press house and ageing the wines on their gross lees. Johannes selects bottle closures to reflect, and more crucially serve, the individual cellar practices employed for each wine; Stelvin closures are used for wines raised in stainless steel to preserve freshness while wines raised in cask are bottled under cork to allow for a long development in the cellar.
2016 Domaine Sylvaine et Alain Normand Macon La Roche-Vineuse
The Who: Sylvaine and Alain Normand
The What: 100% Chardonnay
The Where: La Roche-Vineuse, Macon, Burgundy, France
Tastes Like: Brioche and warming spices give way to cooked pears and tropical fruits. Full bodied with nice minerality in the finish, making a very food-friendly full bodied white.
Pairs With: Panzotti; Conchiglie with Pork Sugo; Lecco Pizza
Who
Sylvaine and Alain NORMAND lend all their enthusiasm to creating the best white and red wines of the Mâconnais at La Roche Vineuse: Pouilly-Fuissé, Saint Véran, Mâcon La Roche Vineuse and Bourgogne. The estate is situated at La Roche Vineuse, a Mâconnais village nestled between the rocks of Solutré and Vergisson, the home of exceptional Terroirs which have, for generations, given rise to the most prestigious wines of southern Bourgogne. In 2010, the estate grew considerably, from 13 to 32 hectares of vines, distributed across the villages of Solutré, Chaintré, Prissé and La Roche Vineuse.
Sylvaine and Alain Normand grow their vines with respect for their natural environment. The winegrowers control the production of grapes, respect the Terroir and produce the wine as naturally as possible on its lees. The vintages are matured in vats for balanced or fruity wines, or in barrels for complex wines for laying down. They are fairly unique in Burgundy, in that they use no artificial fertilizers, herbicides, or pesticides. They say that they “don't want to dominate nature, we accompany it to make it grow and to bring out the best from it!”
The Wine:
This comes from roughly 13.5 acres and is made in a distinctly artisan style with native yeast in vat and an extensive upbringing on its fine lees (that spicy zesty quality in the finish of the wine comes from this lees contact). The bottling is usually in the summer following the harvest, but can easily wait until the autumn if the wine isn’t ready. Production averages 2,500-3,000 cases in normal years.
Where:
The Mâconnais is the soul of southern Bourgogne, celebrated by its native son, the poet Lamartine. It extends over some 40 km of the Côte Chalonnaise as far as the Rock of Solutré. Lying between the rivers Saône and Grosne, its valleys and hillsides seem to make the vines welcome. Indeed, vines have been grown here since Gallo-Roman times. The town of Mâcon has strong links with the wine industry. The surrounding villages have a smiling and good-natured appearance, reminiscent of water-colour paintings, with their galleried houses and Romanesque church towers. The wines of the M CON appellation (which dates from 1937), whether red, white, or rosé may also label themselves with the name Mâcon plus the name of their commune of origin.
Separated by a serie of parallel faults, the hills of the Mâconnais are linked along axes which give them either a North/North-westerly or a South/South-easterly exposure. The vines readily take to these hillsides. Limey or calcic brown rendzinas suit the Pinot Noir grape and long-keeping Chardonnays. Elsewhere, flinty sands and clays, often mixed with “chailles” or sandstone pebbles favour the earlier-drunk Chardonnay or (in reds) the Gamay, which is equally at home on granitic soils which point up the nearby presence of the Beaujolais
