NOVEMBER 2022 FEATURED WINES
WINE ONE: PIERRE & CATHERINE BRETON TRINCH!
About: This cuvée is made entirely from Cabernet Franc. These twenty-year-old vines are located in the commune Bourgueil on gravelly clay and limestone. The grapes are destemmed and fermented on skins for 18 days in large wooden tanks. After élevage in the same tanks, the wine is bottled with minimal SO2.
Taste: This wine is medium ruby in the glass with purple inflections. The nose is immediately familiar, the absolute archetype of both the region and variety. You’ll find aromas of black raspberry, currant leaf, gunpowder, violets, graphite, fir, black cherry, and anaheim peppers. The palate is perfectly balanced with saturated fruit flavours, a deceivingly silky texture, fine-grained tannins, and a long finish; You’ll find further flavours of blackberry, oolong tea, tarragon, cola nut, and dried roses.
Pairing: This is a bistro wine. It deserves to be on the table, especially at lunchtime. The ideal pairings include steak frites with some herby compound butter or boeuf bourguignon with those delicious little egg noodles. Sure, you can deviate from tradition, but why bother when these classics work so well?
WINE TWO: THIBAUD CAPELLARO ZE-RO
About: This wine is made from Syrah (70%) and Viognier (30%), grown in the Northern Rhone near Chavanay, just south of Condrieu. Soils here are a combination of granite and clay-limestone. Most of the grapes were whole-cluster co-fermented for a week, but a small amount of Viognier was direct pressed. Élevage took place in large format neutral oak and sandstone amphora. No SO2 was added at bottling.
Taste: This wine is an electric ruby in the glass. The nose is immediately joyous and spunky, full of youthful energy and anarchy. You’ll find aromas of strawberry, sage, flint, damson, dried rose, pink peppercorns, and nutmeg. The palate is fresh with tangy acidity, delicate tannins, light but well-rounded body, and a sustained finish. It makes me want to get up and dance! You’ll find further flavours of schizandra, lavender, candied cranberry, tonka bean, aleppo peppers, angelica, red plum, and rosemary.
Pairing: Crique Ardéchoise is a local dish you’ll definitely want to indulge in. It’s essentially two eggy, garlicky fried potato pancakes stuffed and topped with Picodon cheese. It is diabolically rich and hearty, so a crunchy light red wine like this is the ideal pairing.
WINE THREE: LOUIS-ANTOINE LUYT PIPEÑO
About: The País for this project comes from 200+-year-old vines planted in Maule. The iron-rich clays are punctuated by quartz and granite. The grapes are hand destemmed using the traditional zaranda method. The wine ferments in open-top lagares for two weeks before being pressed into traditional pipas for a brief élevage. The wine is then settled in tank before bottling - sometimes with minor filtration and a pinch of SO2.
Taste: This wine is light ruby in the glass with orange inflections. The nose is precocious and wild with aromas of prickly pear, rooibos, blood orange, honeybush, geranium, gochugaru, watermelon, and volcanic rocks. The palate is zingy and chaotic with prickly acidity and modest rocky tannins. It carries its alcohol fiendishly well, achieving near weightlessness. You’ll find further flavours of sour cherry, balsam, caraway, red apple, anko, tamarind, and nori. My head is spinning!
Pairing: I admit to liking pineapple on pizza. I don’t know why it works for me, but it does. Get yourself a Hawaiian pizza and a bunch of friends and crush this 1L bottle of wacky wine while arguing the merits of non-tomato fruits in savoury dishes.