Triennes
Grapes Cinsault, Grenache, Syrah, Merlot
Place Provence - France
Process Cinsault with Grenache, Syrah and Merlot; alcohol: 13%; vineyards in Var facing Massif de la Sainte Baume; clay and limestone soil; grapes harvested at night to ensure cool temperature at cellar; pressed after few hrs skin contact; fermented at low temperature in stainless steel tanks until dry.
Family Two of Burgundy’s greatest names – Jacques Seysses, founder of Domaine Dujac, and Aubert de Villaine, co-owner of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti – are the partners behind this pioneering property in Provence, northeast of Marseille and due east of Aix-en-Provence. Over the years, they have transformed this stunning 113.7 acre (46 hectare) site into one of the top wine estates in Southern France.
Bottle: $25 | Glass: $11
Day Wines “Lemonade”
Grapes 88% Pinot Noir, 12% Gamay
Place Willamette Valley - Oregon
Process Our latest version of this wine continues the bright, juicy tradition that Lemonade has become. Berries and citrus dominate with ripe raspberry, juicy grapefruit, pink apple, Meyer lemon, wet stones and lifted floral aromatics. High quality, organic vineyards were used, the fruit was picked at an optimal time for rosé, and the wine was steadily crafted into a bright and juicy, delicious rosé. Four organically grown vineyards across the Willamette Valley provided Pinot noir and one organic vineyard in the Applegate provided Gamay, the combination is juicy, bright, and full of fruit.
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 sustainable vineyard practices, to create distinct expressions of varietals found in Southern Oregon’s Applegate Valley AVA.
Bottle: $27 | Glass: $12
Podericellario
Vino Rosato “E”
Grapes Dolcetto and Nebbiolo
Place Langhe - Piedmont - Italy
Process Dolcetto (San Luigi Vineyard) & Nebbiolo (Galli Vineyard). Hand-harvested into small bins. Pneumatic direct press. Spontaneous fermentation. Aged in Stainless Steel for 6 to 8 months until bottling. Bottled with minimal sulphur (~10ppm) and without sterile filtering or fining.
Family Fausto and Cinzia Cellario are 3rd generation winemakers in the village of Carru` on the western outskirts of the Langhe. The family believes in only working with local, indigenous Piemontese grape varieties and fiercely defends local winemaking traditions both in the vineyard work and the cellar practices. The Cellario vineyard holdings cover some 30 ha between 5 different vineyard sites covering the southern Langhe. With holdings in Novello and Monforte, the Dogliani plot is arguably the family’s most prestigious land and I would consider them Dolcetto specialists. Vineyard work is organic (soon to be certified) and all the fermentation take place with indigenous yeasts. Sulfur is only added in tiny quantities at bottling if necessary (a practice not common with a winery in this mid-size range).
Bottle: $27 | Glass: $12
Iruai “Lounge Lizard“
Grapes 100% Teroldego
Place Shasta - California
Process Organic Winemaking Methods
Family Iruai Winery (“ear-oo-eye" … the artist formerly known as Methode Sauvage) was started in 2013 by Chad and Michelle Westbrook Hinds in Berkeley, CA as a nomadic natural wine project, before laying down roots in Michelle’s beautiful hometown of Etna, CA in the mythical Shasta-Cascade mountains of Siskiyou County in 2019.
Trading in the urban winery hustle for the vigneron life, we are exploring avant garde vineyard planting and rehabilitation techniques using the permaculture methods laid out by Masanobu Fukuoka, while formulating our own “chaos organics” method of re-enchanting the land. Truly unlike anywhere else in California, Scott Valley in Western Siskiyou County (not to be confused with Scotts Valley) feels like a cross between Switzerland and Montana, cut with a rain shadow from Mount Shasta that divides it starkly between high mountain prairie and dense alpine forests.
Finding ourselves in largely untested grape growing territory, with high elevations and a continental climate, we have turned Iruai into an exploration and celebration of esoteric varieties that flourish in the Alps of Europe. While we work to grow our Scott Valley estate vineyard projects, we purchase fruit and lease vineyards throughout the Shasta-Cascade, from the Trinity Alps of California to the Siskiyou Mountains of Southern Oregon.
We seek to make wine with a sense of place by employing no additives, and removing no character. Our goal in the vineyard is to let the vines thrive like they would in the wild, and in the cellar, to shepherd each ferment through its own natural development and evolution
Bottle: $33 | Glass: $14