White

2Naturkinder ‘Bacchus’ . . .  $48
tropical fruit meets dry German wit
Grapes: Bacchus
Region: Bavaria, Germany
Method: Pet-Nat
Body Profile: Light
Sweetness Profile: Off Dry

In the already complex and insider-y world of German wine, Franconia is a truly insider region. 2Naturkinder is the natural wine project of Micheal Voelker and Melanie Drese, who traveled the world, working in various vineyards before returning home to focus on their small corner of Bavaria. Voelker’s father owns a winery, and even sits on the quality control board of the appellation, but supports his son’s work that falls outside of the local requirements.

Bacchus is one of the many German crossbred varieties produced between the world wars, this one by the noted viticulturist Peter Morio. Morio crossed an already existing experimental cross of Silvaner x Riesling with Muller-Thurgau. The result was a relatively low-acid white grape that was somewhat unique amongst the typically high acid Germanic varieties. It is primarily used in Franconia, and 2Naturkinder transforms their harvest into a natural, undisgorged Pet-Nat.
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Chateau Barouillet ‘Splash’  . . . $48
citrus, wet stones, party at the lake
Grapes: Semillon
Region: Bergerac, FR
Method: Pet-Nat/Ancestrale
Body Profile: Light/Medium
Sweetness Profile: Dry/Off Dry

Chateau Barouillet has been a family business going back at least 8 generations. Vincent Alexis works alongside his father and grandfather to cultivate the land and has pushed the winery into Organic viticulture, starting to convert the soil in 2010 and fully converting all the vineyards by 2014. The domaine controls 45 hectares of vines throughout Monbazzillac, Bergerac Pécharmant, and Cotes de Bergerac.

Semillon is a relatively rare white grape found most often in Bordeaux and Bergerac. Alexis makes his Pet-Nat with no sulfur and leaves it undisgorged. The wine is funky, with waxy tropical fruit notes.
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Croci ‘Campedello’ Frizzante Bianco  . . . $52
balance of petal and earth, slice of mandarin
Grapes:  Malvasia, Trebbiano, Ortrugo, Sauvignon, Marsanne
Region: Emilia-Romagne, IT
Method: Pet-Nat/Ancestrale
Body Profile: Light/Medium
Sweetness Profile: Dry/Off Dry

Croci is a small estate in the westernmost winegrowing sub-zone of Emilia-Romagna, the Colli Piacentini. Massimiliano Croci is the current generation of vignaiolo running what started as his grandfather’s property in 1935. His focus is the traditional wine of the area: white and red sparkling wines re-fermented in the bottle. Currently 8.5 of the total of 16 hectares are planted to vine, and the rest of the acreage support Croci’s dairy cows and the feed grain, hay and pasture for the animals. In fact, milk was the main production of the farm until 1970.

Campedello is the name of the hillside site whose grapes go into this wine. The co-planted vines are planted on sandy limestone soils rich in fossilized seashell material and are farmed organically; everything is done by hand, including weeding and harvest. The fruit is destemmed and left to ferment spontaneously in vat, with about 2 weeks of maceration with the skins before pressing. The wine rests in concrete vat through the winter, undergoing partial malolactic fermentation, and is bottled generally in March with about 15 grams/liter of sugar and a tiny dose of sulfur. Re-fermentation begins as the spring air warms the cellar; the wine is held in bottle for a minimum of 10 months, ending almost completely dry. It is not disgorged or filtered.
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Il Mostro ‘Ragana’ Bianco Frizzante . . . $44
ripe pear and pineapple, a gentle tickle of bubbles
Grapes: Chardonnay
Region: Cote de Blancs (Avize)
Method: Traditional
Body Profile: Full
Sweetness Profile: Dry

‘Il Mostro’was conceived as a new experimental project from Poggio Anima. The grapes come from the Monteodorisio Vineyard in Chieti, Abruzzo. The Marchesani family has been farming this since the mid-1960s and following the marriage of Sebastiano Jasci to Lucia Marchesani, the newly married couple embarked on a new frontier of higher quality farming. Sebastiano pushed for organic farming and became one of the first certified organic vineyards in Italy in 1978and today their son Nicola has taken over the winemaking. ‘Ragana' is an ancient pre-Indo-European spirit and a powerful prophetess who reveals the future. She is best known in the Baltic states and is thought to rule over fertility and regeneration and is the guardian of nature's cycles: creation, growth, decline and destruction.

The Pecorino and Riesling were hand-harvested from two blocks that sit in an amphitheater that wraps around from southeast to northeast and ascending from 750 to 850 feet in elevation. The majority of the grapes were cooled down at the winery and fermented at a cool 60ºF with the remaining grapes being whole-bunch pressed to tank and chilled very cold to prevent fermentation and held in tank. Primary fermentation occurred naturally in a sealed stainless-steel tank and when the wine reached 15 g/L residual sugar the tank was cooled down in order to hold the ferment at 10 g/L. The wine was bottled, secondary fermentation occurred over the next 2-3 months and the wine was released without disgorgement.
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ROSÉ

Il Mostro ‘Longana’ Rosato Frizzante  . . . 44
cherry seltzer, sea salt, hillsides of Abruzzo
Grapes: Montepulciano
Region: Abruzzo, IT
Method: Pet-Nat/Ancestrale
Body Profile: Medium/Full
Sweetness Profile: Dry

Conceived from child bedtime warnings in the Old World, Il Mostro draws on the inspiration of single vineyard, responsibly farmed grapes and a deft touch in the cellar of Poggio Anima and takes it a step further. The inaugural releases hail from certified organically farmed fruit from fruit hillside plantings in Abruzzo. The Twines are ancestral method sparkling wines with fermentation finishing in bottle and the offerings highlighting the bright fruit flavors and salinity this estate in Chieti demonstrates.  No manipulation, no water, sugar, etc. Just the pure expression of the fruit and site. The

Montepulciano was hand-harvested in mid-September from three blocks on a northwest facing ridge at 700 feet in elevation. The majority of the grapes were cooled down at the winery and fermented at a cool 60ºF with the remaining grapes being whole-bunch pressed to tank with a bit of skin contact and chilled very cold to prevent fermentation and held in tank.  The wine was bottled and topped with more of the unfermented juice from tank and the bottles were crown sealed. Secondary fermentation occurred over the next 2-3 months and the wine was released without disgorgement.
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La Grange Tiphaine ‘Rosa Rosé Rosam’ Pet-Nat . . . $42
strawberry, cherry, tang
Grapes: Gamay, Cabernet Franc, Cot (Malbec) and Grolleau
Region: Loire Valley, FR
Method: Pet-Nat/Ancestrale
Body Profile: Light/Medium
Sweetness Profile: Dry/Off Dry

This winery works with organic fruit, and the grapes for this wine come from vineyards where the vines are somewhere around 80 years old. It relies on the four traditional red grapes of the Loire, the best known of which is Cabernet Franc, with Gamay a distant second. Malbec, known locally as Cot, has a long if quiet history in the region, and Grolleau is a locally specialty reserved almost exclusively for rosé.

This is a thirst-quenching vin de soif, with off-dry cherry and strawberry fruits and just a little hint of dusty unfiltered yeasty-ness.
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Stella Crinita ‘Omaggio’ Rosé . . . 13 - btl 46
raspberry jam and a hint of freshly-baked bread
Grapes: Cabernet Franc
Region: Uco Valley // Mendoza, AR
Method: Pet-Nat/Ancestrale
Body Profile: Medium
Sweetness Profile: Dry

Joanna Foster and her husband Ernesto Catena started to farm biodynamically in 2002 when they planted their vineyard in the Vista Flores subregion of Tunuyan in Argentina’s Uco Valley. Fifteen years later, Stella Crinita was born. Joanna’s family is from Malaysia, India and the UK. Ernesto Catena's family is a multigenerational winemaking family that is well entrenched in Argentina. The couple met in 1995 when Joanna's Social and Environmental work brought her to Argentina. They married in 2004 and now have three children. Together they became interested in Natural winemaking in the early 2010’s which ultimately became a driving passion for the couple. All fermentation is spontaneous, using nothing more than the native yeasts that are present in harvest. No additives or invasive procedures are used in vinification and no SO2 is added at any stage. The winery is all estate and they do not fine or filter any of the wines. The vineyard has been Demeter certified Biodynamic since 2012 and production remains extremely small.  The young Alejandro Kuschnaroff is the head winemaker at Stella Crinita and he lives close by the estate. Joanna and Ernesto split their time between Argentina, Tuscany and San Francisco.

This PetNat is all hand harvested Cabernet Franc from the Demeter certified biodynamic estate vineyard in the Vista Flores region of the Uco Valley. The wine is made in the ancestral method finishing fermentation in the bottle with 9 months on the lees. The fruit driven nose has notes of raspberry jam and delicious red apple with a touch of pink bubblegum on the edges. Bright, fresh, and crisp on the palate with juicy red fruit and a hint of freshly baked bread.
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