Los Chuchaquis 'Champelli' Albariño Pét-Nat Santa Ynez Valley 2022

Winemaker Notes:  Organic. 100% Albariño. (2/3 from the Rorick Heritage vineyard in the Sierra Nevada, 1/3 from the C5 vineyard in Santa Ynez.) After nighttime harvest, the grapes were direct pressed, then fermented warm to dryness. A portion of the juice was reserved, frozen, and later added to the finished wine, and bottled the next day to get the ferment going again. It was then given three months’ of bottle aging to finish the secondary fermentation — very much like the col fondo method of making sparkling in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. Unfined, unfiltered, no sulfur added, and undisgorged. Jehan and Ryan describe this wine as being made “via simple methods,” resulting in a foamy, fritzy wine that shouldn’t be mistaken for intense bubbly like Prosecco—it’s joyful, tropical, surprisingly light stuff that’s an ideal first or last bottle out of a suite of several.

Chuchaqui (choo-CHA-key) is a Quechua word for, “without legs” (as in extra drunk), and Los Chuchaquis is a joint venture between Ryan Stirm and Jehan Hakimian, and they bring us sparkling Albariño, sparkling Sangiovese, and some exciting etc. All with minimal intervention and maximum awesome. Ryan Stirm’s other and original label Stirm Wines is also well worth exploring, has a focus on Riesling, made naturally, and from exceptional vineyards on the central coast. His career started at Tyler and Lieu Dit, and then eventually he worked at Thomas Fogarty before he started Stirm Wines. Jehan Hakimian worked his first harvest in Calchaqui valley near Salta at 15. Since then he has managed to worm his way into almost every side of the wine business; retail, national wholesale, etc. He and Ryan make the wines together, and then Jehan gets to take them into the world.