ALL RED WINE CLUB
AUGUST 2021
ICONIC BLENDS SHOW THEIR COLORS
Cotes du Rhone + Valpolicella are hands down two of the most recognized red wine blends in the world. Anchored by Grenache and Corvina, respectively, they are both wines that will always seem best made with their most common partner grapes despite the potential they may have on their own. But there is no pinning down what that particular amalgamate expression needs to be, which is the magic of blends in the first place – anything goes.
In this month’s All Red Club we present the light and the dark side of delicious Cotes du Rhone, as well as the beautifully bright and rich side of Valpolicella. Best thing is, you don’t have to choose which you like best, it’s all simply there to be pondered and enjoyed.
– Kevin Wardell, August 2021
ERIC TEXIER ‘CHAT FOU’
+ 25% CLAIRETTE + VIOGNIER + CHASSELAS
Côtes du Rhône, Rhône, France 2019
Texier’s Chat Fou is meant to be a light, fresh bistro wine that tastes great when lightly chilled. The fruit for this wine comes from an organically farmed vineyard on granite and gneiss soils in the neglected St-Julien en St-Alban zone at the southern edge of the Northern Rhone valley. This is a warmer site than Brézème and grapes are harvested all together in true field-blend fashion, then partially de-stemmed and put into concrete tank to ferment with no sulfur or extractive punch down techniques used. After a brief five days on skins, the wine is pressed off and left to age in tank on its lees for 18 months before being bottled without fining or filtration.
Winemaking is a second career for Eric Texier, a native of Bordeaux, who was living in Lyon and working as a nuclear physicist when he caught the wine bug. He decided to leave it all behind to start making wine in 1995. Eric quickly became a trailblazer after delving into the history of the Rhone. He discovered that in the mid-19th century the wines of the nearly forgotten N. Rhone region of Brézème rivaled those from Hermitage, and by 1961 only a couple of acres remained in the area. Eric purchased his first vineyard in Brézème, which he farms biodynamically. He also bottles wines as a négociant, sourcing from unique vineyards that are farmed conscientiously.
Nuclear fusion funk on the nose, explosive and electric and deep, give this wine some O2 to help it evolve. Like a chat on a hot tin roof, diving into a heap of fresh picked berries and plums, this is plenty ripe with Cote du Rhone fruitiness, mature tannins, and just enough feral alley cat charm to capture even the fou-est fou.
In the cellar, Texier’s winemaking is very old school and minimalist and his main concern as a vigneron is the soil. His methodology was born through reading Jules Chauvet and visits to traditional winemakers and sustainable farms around the world. Chauvet, who died in 1989, is considered the father of the natural wine movement in France and advocated naturalness in wine through scientific expertise and practical experience.
ERIC TEXIER ‘VAISON LA ROMAINE’
Côtes du Rhône, Rhône, France 2018
Texier’s Vaison La Romaine is from 40 year old Grenche and Carignan vines grown on clay and limestone in and around the ancient Roman town of Vaison la Romaine in the southern Cotes du Rhone. This 2018 vintage is Texier’s last hurrah for this bottling and it is going out with a bang. The warm vintage resulted in a full-fruited, Grenache-dominant blend that has beams of red berry fruit alongside spicy notes from whole cluster fermentation.
Winemaking is a second career for Eric Texier, a native of Bordeaux, who was living in Lyon and working as a nuclear physicist when he caught the wine bug. He decided to leave it all behind to start making wine in 1995. Eric quickly became a trailblazer after delving into the history of the Rhone. He discovered that in the mid-19th century the wines of the nearly forgotten N. Rhone region of Brézème rivaled those from Hermitage, and by 1961 only a couple of acres remained in the area. Eric purchased his first vineyard in Brézème, which he farms biodynamically. He also bottles wines as a négociant, sourcing from unique vineyards that are farmed conscientiously.
Grenache you gorgeous garnet, you garriguey gregarious gourmand, you globetrotting glugglable glass of goodness you… you stand out in the crowd but you sure don’t mind a little help from your friends, either. Sweet brilliant lush fruit like red currants, brilliant boysenberry and dried strawberries, all that Grenache full fruitiness is met with so much perfume: crushed lavender, dried sage, violets, and then just enough tannin and granite crunch to smack your lips to, just like the Romans used to.
In the cellar, Texier’s winemaking is very old school and minimalist and his main concern as a vigneron is the soil. His methodology was born through reading Jules Chauvet and visits to traditional winemakers and sustainable farms around the world. Chauvet, who died in 1989, is considered the father of the natural wine movement in France and advocated naturalness in wine through scientific expertise and practical experience.
LE FRAGHE
Bardolino, Veneto, Italy 2020
CORVINA + RONDINELLA
Corvina, or ‘little raven’, is one of many grapes in Italy named after a bird. Although it certainly is a sweet target for the winged locals, it may also be attributed to the naturally dark color of the berries. Oddly enough, although the Corvina berries appear dark, there is not a high level of pigment in the skins and there they don’t make inky wines as one would expect. These two grapes used in Bardolino are the same found in the better known Valpolicella appellation to the southeast. This is obviously a more playful take on these grapes than the chewy Ripasso wines of Amarone.
Mathilde Poggi is an undisputed champion of Bardolino, and there are few winemakers that rival her love for the area. Native to the region, Mathilde grew up obsessed with grapes, and even as a young girl she’d finish the school day and go harvest fruit out in the vineyards of the morainic hillsides around Lake Garda. She dreamed since childhood of farming her own vines and making her own wines. She took on the family’s heritage of growing in the area since 1881, and a century later, In 1984 she made her own wines with the founding of Le Fraghe. She now works alongside her three daughters Marta, Irene, and Olga to manage the winery’s four vineyards and winery. The vineyards are farmed organically around 620 feet elevation in the heart of Bardolino, outside of the town of Affi.
There are picnic wines, and then there are The Perfect Picnic Wines – wines like Le Fraghe that are so vibrantly fresh and jubilantly joyful that they pair just perfectly with a sunny lakeside blanket banquet. Loaded with fresh cranberry, raspberry and crunchy red fruits, and yet snappy with a peppery spice, this wine isn’t all just decadent juice, it has some edge and some intriguing angles. Zesty orange peel and fresh strawberry puree is all tempered by that touch of cinnamon and even a hint of iodine and graphite that will tickle the Pino-Noir lover in us all. In short, it’s Fraghe-in’ delicious.
Bardolino as an appellation in the shadows of the iconic Valpolicella and is still finding its way. The trend away from the inclusion of and reliance on Cabernet has thankfully been embraced by younger growers and winemakers.
MONTE DALL'ORA 'SAUSTÒ'
+ 20% RONDINELLA + 10% MOLINARA
Valpolicella, Veneto, Italy 2017
CORVINA + CORVINONE
Corvina and Corvinone we’re for a long time considered the same grape variety, just differing clones. Now it is understood that they are genetically different, but still easily confused with one another. They are most often interplanted, they share similar growing patterns and challenges, but most importantly they both have hearty skins that can remain intact during the traditional drying and sweetening process for ‘Ripasso’ wines. There are a few single varietal wines that are made from Corvina, but now it may turn out that those are indeed field blends as well.
Monte Dall’Ora is the handiwork of Carlo Venturini and wife Alessandra Zantedeschi. Their winery is located in the center of Valpolicella, on one of five ridges across the valley (which resemble a hand and fingers.) The duo both come from winemaking families but began their own independent project together in 1995 with the purchase of some neglected terraces in unique porous limestone soils. They planted the traditional varieties Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella, and Oseleta, farming organically and embracing biodynamics in 2006.
The vineyards are trained in pergola-style, which Carlo and Alessandra feel is necessary for many reasons: to protect the fruit from the sun, claiming that both Corvina and Corvinone are susceptible to sunlight, and to reduce vigor, since both are vigorous and prone to rot, they feel that Pergola creates space between clusters and smaller and more concentrated bunches. They follow the motto that “finding the equilibrium in the vineyard brings balance in the cellar.”
This is such an elegant and restrained version of the classic style, and yet it so beautifully typifies Valpo’s best qualities. With some dark sweet fruits like black plum, medjool date, cherry bark, and a splash of sarsaparilla, the wine is so much about that texture – like brushed corduroy. The aromatics are nostalgic – suede leather that smells just like Volkswagen beetle upholstery, a touch of wet clay, old books, and a hint of oxidative character like an old wine aged to perfection. The finish lingers with the bitterness of baking chocolate and an acidic brilliance rarely achieved in the style.
Not many places in the world you can consider Marble as part of the vineyard soil makeup. Valpolicella was historically more famous for its Marble than it’s wine and evidence of this iconic stone can sometimes be found amongst the vines.