Gimme Some Skin
From Orange Wine to Rosé, experimenting with skin contact has been a part of the winemaking process for centuries. Whether it is leaving the skin on white grapes longer to make the hue orange, or removing the skins of red grapes early, to make that beautiful pink wine, it is always fun to explore the wonderful iterations of skin-contact wine.
Gustavo Riffo
‘A Pelo’
Grapes: 100% Moscatel d’Alexandria
Place: Itata Valley, Chile
Process: The grapes come from a parcel of unirrigated and own-rooted 70-year-old vines. They were destemmed and fermented in old clay amphora with maceration on the skins for 8 months. Bottled unfined, unfiltered, and with only a small amount of SO2.
Family: Gustavo Riffo has been making Pipeño in the traditional style, aged in Raulí, from his family’s vines for over 10 years. After receiving a government grant to study winemaking and farming, Gustavo spent a harvest with Benziger Family Winery, one of Sonoma’s pioneers of biodynamic farming, where he was inspired to improve farming practices on his own family farm. He started by converting the property to organics and plans to incorporate biodynamic practices in the future.
Bottle: $29 | Glass: $13
Domaine de la Combe ‘Zeste’
Grapes: Melon de Bourgogne
Place: Loire Valley, France
Process: Whole clusters are harvested slightly over-ripe and placed in an open barrel for carbonic maceration of 2 weeks. When this maceration ends, the grapes are pressed and blended with the initial juice. This blend goes back in the same barrels with no additives or sulfites during the entire process. Aging is in used oak barrels with the with the goal of an exchange with oxygen without the addition of oak taste. The wine ages for 8 months on it’s skins without raking and without any battonages.
Family: Coming from two winegrowing families in Sancerre and Muscadet, Pierre-Henri Gadais quickly became passionate for the universe of wine and decided to study viticulture and oenology. In 2016, he had the opportunity to carry out his first vinification, and to implement what he had learned from experiences both in France and abroad. In 2017, Gadais began the process of converting the estate to organic agriculture culminating in certification in 2021.
Bottle: $33 | Glass: $14
Cantalapiedra Viticultores ‘Lirondo’
Grapes: 70% Verdejo, 30% Tempranillo
Place: Toro and Rueda, Spain
Process: The grapes come from two certified organic sites at about 760m elevation planted on pebbly sand. The red grapes from Toro are macerated for about 24 hours, while the Verdejo is directly pressed and added to the Tempranillo musts to ferment together with their native yeasts in stainless steel tanks. The wine rests 8 months on the lees before bottling without fining or filtration and with no added sulfur at all.
Family: While most producers in the region of Rueda, Spain, have embraced ultra-modern styles viticulture and winemaking, the father/son team of Isaac and Manuel Cantalapiedra is farming certified organic vineyards producing natural wines with ancestral methods such as fermenting with wild yeasts with little temperature control.
Bottle: $29 | Glass: $13
Malpasso
Vino Rosato
Grapes: 90% Sangiovese, 10% Grenache
Place: Umbria, Italy
Process: Organically grown grapes are all pneumatic direct pressed. Wild yeast fermentation. Aged in stainless steel. Minimal added sulfur and no filtering or fining.
Family: Margret Etten Cantarelli made her first vintage of wine in 1961, inspired by her passion for the land and a drive to create a fully-functioning, independent farm and winery. After 50 years of quality winemaking, she passed the torch along to their daughter Sabina who, along with her husband Pier, has instilled new energy into the family's work and has made Montemelino into both an amazing local winery with history and tradition0n while progressing the wines and farming methods to new levels of quality.
Bottle: $29 | Glass: $13
