ALL WHITE WINE CLUB
JUNE 2021
Two wines from our Italian Wine Club: VOLCANO JUICE
One wine allocated from our reserve retail collection: Institut Agricole Regional Pinot Gris
One wine from our June Rebel Grape Society: DEFINING LIEU DIT
DOWNLOAD A PDF OF THE TASTING NOTES HERE.
TORNATORE ‘PIETRARIZZO’
ETNA BIANCO
Castiglione di Sicilia
Sicily, Italy, 2019
CARRICANTE [kerr-ah-KAHN-tay]
Racy and mineral, Carricante is among Italy’s very best white grapes. Grown almost exclusively on Mt. Etna, it can make dazzlingly complex and ageable wines, combining brilliant lightness with robust weight and texture. Etna locals even have a word to describe its signature lemony/salty/mineral tang: muntagnuolo, that mountain je-ne-sais-che-cosa… Carricante prefers Etna’s cool upper reaches where Nerello typically won’t ripen. Unfortunately, far less Carricante is grown today than a century ago – just a scant 123 acres are planted at present, compared to 9,800 acres in 1915, but acreage is increasing with Carricante’s rapid ascension-to-star status.
The Tornatore winery began when Francesco Tornatore decided to leave his real job in telecommunication to make wine from the vineyards his great-grandfather planted in 1865. This incredible historic vineyard was established in Castiglione di Sicilia on the volcanic northern slopes of Mount Etna. Francesco humbly took on his family’s 150 years of farming experience, learning from the generations of farmers who have refined viticulture at the extreme.
The family grows the native varieties Nerello Mascalese, Carricante, and a little Catarratto, at extremely high elevation, between 2,300 and 3,300 feet, on soils created by ancient lava flows. Etna has erupted over many millennia, contributing to diverse terrain and complex mineral soils. The vines benefit from heat given off of the dark volcanic soils- essential to properly ripen the grapes- and also from the windy climes and strong diurnal swings which retain acid and focus in the wines. The Tornatore fruit is picked by hand, and the white grapes are de-stemmed, crushed and lightly pressed for fermentation, with aging in very large 1,000 gallon oak casks.
Etna biancos at their finest are dizzyingly delicious – like being at high altitude. They are crisply saline Ionian sea breezes, and they just barely hint at the volcanic soil that courses in their vine’s veins. The Pietrarizzo is such a classic Etna beauty, serving up plenty of Kaffir lime and juicy green summer melons, sprinkled with salt and clover honey. All that green and saline finishes up with a refreshing Moroccan mint sun tea, a heady herbal quencher that will find you inexplicably muttering “muntagnuolo” under your breath.
This volcano juice is as rich and savory as a lemon infused olive oil, or better yet, as an “agrumato”- a rare Italian olive oil made by crushing fresh lemons with the olives in the press.
GRACI ETNA ROSATO
Sicily, Italy 2019
NERELLO MASCALESE [neh-REHL-loh MAHS-kah-LEH-zeh ]
Nothing has matched the meteoric rise of native grapes more than Nerello Mascalese. In a short time, from the slopes of Mt. Etna, Nerello has gone from being sold off in bulk and drowned out in innocuous red blends, to playing a defining role in the showcasing of Mt. Etna’s dramatic terroir. The discovery of old, pre-phylloxera Nerello vines planted in volcanic soils at high elevation has set off a vinous gold rush on this Big Rock Candy Mountain. Etna is truly where Nerello Mascalese thrives, from the flatlands of Faro on the eastern side, all the way up to 3,300 feet on the northern, eastern and southern sides of the mountain.
Alberto Graci left his family’s holdings in Sicily to become a banker in Milan, but when his grandfather passed away, he moved back home to take up the family business, although he changed his focus to the slopes of Etna. Nowadays his vineyards and winery are located on the northern slope of the volcano, near the town of Passopisciaro at elevations between 2,000 to 3,300 feet. He organically farms 45 acres, with 37 acres planted to Nerello Mascalese, and just 3 acres of Carricante and only 2 acres of Catarratto.
For his rose, the Nerello is lightly pressed then fermented with native yeast and aged in cement tanks for five months prior to bottling, with no malolactic fermentation. Graci will be the first to say that Etna is a special place, for three main reasons. First, it has all that Sicilian sun, but with a climate moderated by altitude. Second, the dynamic volcanic soils. And third, the timeless, un-grafted vineyards clinging to its slopes.
This is a Still Life With Peaches. From the blush color to the orchard aromatics and all throughout the palate, this wine is bursting with peachiness: furry peach skin, canned yellow peaches, and white peach compote galore. All that stone fruit is hedged with a tinge of lemongrass, a whiff of dried potpourri flowers, and a zip of navel orange. A touch of white tea tannins adds a savory dryness for a graceful landing.
Sicilian is considered by UNESCO to be its own language, with a hodgepodge of roots from Arabic, Hebrew, Byzantine, and Norman. Even within Sicily there are distinct dialects… we never said Italy would be easy.
Na buttigghia di vinu, pi favuri.
‘Nother glass of wine please!
INSTITUT AGRICOLE REGIONAL
Aosta, Valle d’Aosta, Italy 2018
PINOT GRIS [pee-no GREE]
While this Pinot is called gray/gris/grigio, it should actually be called Pinot pink; the skins of the grape are actually more like the color you see in the traditional ‘Ramato’ wines of Friuli, a faintly fuchsia blush. Let that sink in for a minute, let it soak on the skins if you will, and that will help us get past the vast, vapid ocean of innocuous Pinot Grigio (you know the stuff) that has become one of the most popular white wines in America. Even when it’s pressed sans pigment, this grape has so much more to say and to show than the aforementioned examples.
This is not an estate or a co-op, but a well-regarded local Agriculture school and focal point for young winemakers from all over Northern Italy. The Institut Agricole Régional was founded in 1952 specifically as an agriculture school focused mostly on regional agriculture challenges. In 1982 it broadened its curriculum to include winemaking, under the very Italian motto “practice science without losing your soul, and do everything with great passion.’ We kinda wish that was carved into a building at UC Davis. For this tiny region the school also acts as a cultural center of sorts, a place to experience the valley’s unique wine, food, and personality. Using selection massale and striving to preserve the best of the local varieties, they expose the potential for the legacy that this small but mighty valley can make on the modern viticulture world.
Dry white peach and jasmine sauce generously poured over a slate plate with a spritz of petrichor. Meyer Lemons with a sprinkle of crystallized honey, ginger and cardamom. Pinot Grigio has oh-so-much depth and flavor texture beyond its common Italian reputation – which is why, in this case, it’s more suitably called Pinot Gris as it is far more akin to the phenomenal (slightly phenolic) examples from Alsace.
LIEU DIT
Santa Maria Valley, California 2019
DEFINING LIEU DIT
Lieu Dits are all over France. It means “said place,” or “named place” and is a way to name a single, unblended site that has distinct attributes without being an official cru or AOC. It stems from France’s land register and is much more agile and flexible than something like a climat in Burgundy, which is a historical vineyard name born out of 2,000 years of debate and scrutiny.
Here in the US, Lieu Dit Winery is something altogether different! Sommelier and wine retailer Eric Railsback (RN74, Michael Mina, Osteria Mozza, Les Marchands, Verve) joined forces with winemaker Justin Willet (Tyler Winery, Arcadian, Wenzlau) to launch the project in 2011. Together they aim to highlight Loire varieties grown in the cool microclimates and marine-based soils of Santa Barbara County. These grapes are native to a cooler part of France, and naturally achieve ripeness at lower sugars, resulting in a style of wine that is right in our wheelhouse:
• Lieu Dit’s Melon is a textbook example of their style. While many California white wines will have you rattling off tropical fruit flavors and leave you searching for more savory nuance, this Melon harkens to sur-lie-aged Muscadet showing upfront minerality, acid and texture.
MELON DE BOURGOGNE [MUH-lohn duh bugh-GOHN-nya]
Melon is the grape that makes the crisp and marine-mineral Muscadet in France’s Loire Valley. Muscadet may be the king of simple wines, but they are often the epitome of quenchable perfection: light, briney and acidic, yet with a rich viscosity similar to oysters. And as is the story with our other hero Gamay, Melon is native to Burgundy ( hence the de Bourgogne ) but was banned from its native land in the 1500s, and banished to the cold Atlantic climes of the Loire Valley. In California, Melon is barely even a blip, with only 37 tons crushed last year, equivalent to maybe 7 acres of fruit in the whole state. But we can dream of a fine summer day when we all sip upon a fine Melon de Californ.
This wine was definitely voted freshest kid in its class, stay cool BFF, see you all summer! It’s got electric acidity and mineral pumps on a waterslide, it hints at a metallic verve almost like sucking on a penny. There’s some whiffs of Anaheim green pepper and citrus rinds, and a slightly reductive charm that gives it a nice grounded depth. Melon (quite the misnomer, actually!) doesn’t offer up much in the way of fruit, but is instead a study in marine minerality and saline oily texture. It is certainly found here in an abundance of seashells and lemon oil, and as the label suggests, this wine truly wants to be oystered.