LAYERS OF SKIN $19
Different shades of skin contact white grapes. a.k.a Orange Wine, Amber Wine & Copper Wine. These are four beautiful examples from Oregon, Portugal, Spain and Slovenia. Discover the layers that skin contact brings and how uniquely different and delicious these wines are.
Day Wines ‘Vine de Days’
Grapes : 37% Müller-Thurgau, 33% Gewürztraminer, 24% Riesling, & 7% Pinot Gris
Place : Willamette Valley - Oregon
Process : 21 days of skin contact for all the grapes. Stainless steel fermentation and ageing. Native yeast fermentation. Sustainable farming.
Family : Founded by winemaker and owner Brianne Day in the 2012 vintage, Day Wines is a producer of boutique, artisanal bottlings made from fruit sourced exclusively from a small group of Oregon growers who utilize Biodynamic, Organic and/or Sustainable vineyard practices
Bottle: $31 | Glass: $13
Casal de Ventozela ‘Contatto’
Grapes: Avesso
Place: Vinho Verde - Portugal
Process: For this cuvée, the fruit is hand picked, de-stemmed, and fermented in 5,000-liter tanks on skins for two weeks, then settled for an additional two weeks before pressing into tanks. The wine spends three months on lees, with some bâtonnage, before bottling with a modest sulfite addition. About 450 cases were made.
Family: The estate is a family run business, with a strong focus on the environment and a genuine passion for wine and nature. Ventozela has a noble history dating back to 1874. A century later, it was acquired by the current director of the company, Jose Ferrera Cortinhas, who was responsible for resurrecting the estate following the April 25 revolution in 1974. The winery first started selling its grapes and in 2008, its first wines were bottled.
Bottle: $23 | Glass: $9
Gulp Hablo
Grapes: Verdejo & Sauvignon Blanc
Place: Castilla-La Mancha - Spain
Process: Demeter and vegan certified, no sulfites added. Fermentation and maturation are both done in stainless steel. This wine made of the indigenous white-berried grape called Verdejo, and while common and popular in Spain is still underrepresented in American markets. It is known for making thirst-quenching dry whites.
Family: Gulp Hablo is the dream of three brothers, Francisco, Javier, and Luis Parra. The hope was to celebrate their home of La Mancha by raising organically and biodynamically grown grapes. When it comes to the winemaking behind Friend and Farmer, they partnered with the exceptional Juan Antonio Ponce of Bodegas Ponce. The name Gulp Hablo (ah-blow) is play on the word ‘gulpable’ and that’s exactly what it is.
Bottle: $25 | Glass: $10
Gonc ‘Grape Abduction’
Grapes : Pinot Blanc, Pinot Grigio, Riesling
Place : Stajerska - Slovenia.
Process : Sustainably farmed and Native Yeast Fermentation. Stainless Steel
Family : The Grape Abduction wines are a collaboration with Gônc Winery in Slovenia and they are the newest find of ridiculously awesome wine that outperforms its price. They realized that there was one special place on this planet with the perfect conditions to grow wine fit for the tastes of space: Stajerska, Slovenia. Grapes as diverse as Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir, Pinot Grigio, Riesling and even the hard-to-pronounce ones (we're looking at you, Žametna Črnina) thrive in the harsh environment of these rocky hills. Made entirely by ... erm, hand... and treated with the highest degrees of technology and care, they have created three wines that truly give you the taste of the cosmos. Space juice, if you will. And if you ever found yourself gazing up the sky and asking: do aliens make wine? Now, you have your answer.
Bottle: $25 | Glass: $10