January 2025 Wine Club
Valdibella ‘Ninfa’ 2021
The vibe: Happy New Year, y’all! It’s a new year and as always, we are debuting brand new bottles in the club that have never hit the shop shelves! This first bottle is from a wine cooperative that we know and love, Validbella. We’ve stocked a couple other cuveés from these guys but this one is new to us and we couldn’t wait to share it. The Ninfa is an orange wine made from a rare variation of Catarratto called Extra Lucido, which has soft skins and a more delicate profile. It has plenty of color and tea-like tannin structure, and an incredibly aromatic profile of dried apricots and ginger underscored by a slightly savory marine influence. It’s the perfect winter white to start off this month’s lineup. Drink it like a chilled red - it doesn’t need to be cold cold.
The winemaker: Valdibella is a cooperative farmed by ten organic farms operating in Camporeale, a Sicilian village in the province of Palermo. Valdibella’s members work with native grape varietals and other crops typical of Sicily, cultivated with respect to nature and the biodiversity of the land.
The geeky details: 100% Catarratto from one of Valdibella’s oldest vineyards. Slow and gradual ripening followed by hand harvesting and de-stemming. Fermented on the skins for 12 days followed by aging on the lees until spring. Bottled without added sulphites.
Serve: With a light chill.
Food pairing: A warm winter salad with roasted chicken and/or veggies with subtle spices and top it with balsamic vinegar. Chef’s kiss. Seafood and light chicken or root veggie-based dishes are also a safe bet.
Album pairing: HATAMITSUNAMI - All That Glisters…
Terra Vita Vinum ‘Large Soif!’ Rouge 2020
The vibe: For anyone who made it out to our ‘CAB-ALT-DELETE’ four-part tasting series in November, you experienced firsthand how geeky we like to get with single varietal and single region tastings. Our Cab Franc exploration in particular was a study in Loire Valley terroir - we opened 5 bottles from across the Loire, all Cab Franc expressions, with the only variable being the vineyard site and the winemaker’s decisions in the cellar. This bottle is a spiritual extension of that tasting, seeing as it is from the Anjou region in central Loire. This is a volcanic region, known for its soils comprised of black schist (the village rooftops are all black here, as opposed to limestone further east). Here we have an explosion of crunchy, juicy fruit, with high-toned perfume on the nose and raspberry, blackcurrant, and grape crush soda underscoring a medium-bodied palate and refreshing acidity. With a name like ‘Large Soif’ or ‘Be Thirsty’, inspired by the phrase coined by Michelin chef Paul Bocuse, an influential figure in the winemakers’ early careers, the assignment is clear here. This is a refreshing thirst-quencher. Wine can be as serious as you want it to be, but at the end of the day it should be drinkable, and this is our current desert island bottle. There we said it. We’re drinking this for dayssss.
The winemaker: Terra Vita Vinum is Bénédicte and Luc’s project, dedicated to biodynamic farming with everything done by hand. Out of 40ha of land at the domaine, 30 of which are planted to vines. The remaining 10ha grow wildflowers and other native plants to boost the domaine’s biodiversity, following the methodology of Jules Guyot, who in 1860 wrote that “the genius of wine was in the vine.” Vine care comes first, followed by careful and clean practices in the winery, allowing them to abstain from sulphur use and express greater purity of fruit.
The geeky details: 40% Cabernet Franc, 35% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Gamay. The grapes are naturally cultivated without chemical weeding. Short macerations and partial whole-bunch fermentation preserve the fruit’s vibrancy. Aged for 6 months in stainless steel, the wine is unfiltered and minimally sulfured, ensuring its authenticity and freshness.
Serve: With a light chill.
Food pairing: Glug it with savory, salty, greasy, or spicy foods!
Album pairing: James Brown - Grits & Soul (Instrumentals)
Human Cellars ‘l’influence du Bouys’ 2023
The vibe: Guided by the philosophy that human, vineyard and nature have equal influence on each other and cannot be separated into traditional singular roles, the wines of Human Cellars are pure, honest expressions and, ultimately extensions of the people and places that form them. We’re excited to debut their wines in the club, starting with this incredible, incredible Willamette Valley Gamay. Shout it from the rooftops, Gamay Noir is the new Pinot! No shade to Pinot, but its cousin from Beaujolais is still a relative underdog in these parts and we love an underdog. Here we get tons of dark fruit like blackberry and blueberry, accompanied by black tea and dried, crunchy forest floor. An energetic through line of acidity buttons it all up and leaves your lips smacking for more. A touch of Viognier adds finesse and levity to this structured and deeply complex (yet quaffable) red.
The winemaker: Bryan and Emily created Human Cellars after more than 20 years of wandering the earth. Firstly working with underprivileged farmers in Africa, Asia and Latin American and later in wineries in France and Germany, they crossed paths with exceptional people who overcame adversity through uncompromising perseverance and passion.
The geeky details: 96% Gamay and 4% Viognier. Low-input organic farming, bare minimum winemaking practices and micro-doses of sulfur allow the grapes to express the Eola Amity Hills terroir with no background-noise. Fermented in small lots and aged 50% in stainless steel tanks and 50% in neutral French oak barrels. A splash of Viognier was added to bring a touch of eloquence to this bold wine.
Serve: Cellar temp or with a slight chill.
Food pairing: Whip out the charcuterie board y’all. Baked Camembert would be crazyyy. Salami and prosciutto too. For mains, this earthy, terroir-driven profile would make a great pairing for lentil stew or a hearty truffle pasta with spicy chorizo sausage.
Album pairing: SuperParka - quatro (expanded)
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WHAT THE FUNK?!
Domaine les Terres Promises 'Anachronie' 2023
The vibe: Where to start here. This is such a unique red for so many reasons but the most obvious is evident once poured. That’s not a red, that’s a….is it a red? It’s not a rosé. Maybe it’s somewhere in-between, but it doesn’t matter. It’s delicious. This Cinsault hails from Jean-Christophe Comor’s Domaine in Provence, southern France. In a land of lighter-than-water rosés and Bandol cut-with-a-knife reds, this raucous and racy rosé-not-rosé is a truly refreshing take on one of our favorite varietals of southern France. When in fact previous vintages have been true rosés and labeled as such, we prefer this darker, more textural expression, especially this time of year. It’s bursting with fruit and acidity, yet possesses plenty of grip. And with no sulfur additions, this wine is honest and pure in its delivery of fruit and terroir. We love to see it.
The winemaker: Jean-Christophe Comor’s Domaine is so perfectly situated, he named it Terres Promises, or The Promised Lands. In fact, the land, though situated in the Coteaux Varois of Provence, is entirely unique for the region, residing both at high elevation at 400m and inland 30km from the Mediterranean coastline. This permits the coveted lengthy ripening season, allowing for retention of racy acidity in his wines, a relatively uncommon attribute in Provençal reds. This acidity meshes elegantly with undertones of garrigue, the leafy scrubland underbrush typical to this neck of the woods, and results in a unique expression that we can’t get enough of.
The geeky details: 100% high altitude Cinsault vines at 400m on Jurassic Dolomitic limestone terroir. Organically farmed and hand harvested. Whole cluster carbonic maceration. Pressed after 12 days. Fermentation finishes in demi-muid in an underground stone cellar for at least 6 months.
Serve: With a light chill.
Food pairing: Aside from the classic Cinsault pairing of escargot (which, let’s be honest where are you finding that) this would go great with braised and roasted chicken or pork, smoked seafoods like mussels or salmon, a hearty stew, or anything ~herb-crusted~.
Album pairing: The New Mastersounds - This Is What We Do
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EASYYYY
Cros des Calades 'Dolmen' 2022
The vibe: We’re big fans of Cros des Calades, as evidenced by our tasting this week. There’s something about all of their cuveés that makes them all so easy and effortless, yet they abstain from becoming one dimensional. Who knows how they do it. Guess that’s why they’re winemakers and we’re wine drinkers! ‘Dolmen’ is a skin contact white with a fairly long duration maceration. Despite the time on its skins though, it still drinks fairly light, with a dry and spicy finish and subtle aromatics. This is the perfect food pairing wine if you’re grabbing takeout with spicy or umami components, or whipping up a ramen or even more strongly flavored dishes. Mushroom-based dishes would go great with this as well. More on that down below!
The winemaker: Cros des Calades is a new project from Benoit and Florence of Château de la Selve in Ardèche, France. The vines of this wild Ardechois terroir, arguably one of the least-tamed in France, are planted to rocky, rolling hillsides and peppered between national parks featuring steep, swimmable river gorges where French adventure-seekers come for their summer holidays. In terms of wine, the Ardèche is akin to the Cotes du Rhone, but more fun. There’s far less pressure here to hit certain marks of ‘typicity’, so the region has fostered winemakers like Benoit and Florence who make something fundamentally new out of local varietals.
The geeky details: 30% Viognier, 70% Sauvignon blanc. Clay-Limestone Soils between the Rhône and les Cévennes/ 30 year old vines on average. Fermented with native yeasts during a 20-day maceration, followed by 6 months in stainless steel.
Serve: With a chill.
Food pairing: Mushroom risotto, miso ramen, 3-star pad see ew, any umami or spicy dishes. You can really ramp up the flavors with this one so don’t be afraid to throw it at more powerful dishes!
Album pairing: Houis - Outgrown