shemmy
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2018 Famille Moussé Champagne Les Fortes Terres
4/26/2024 - shemmy wrote:
If there is one thing that inspires our adulation, it’s a
winemaker who proves that an underrated grape, region, or approach can give rise to undeniably beautiful wine. Famille Moussé has proven, time and time again, that pinot meunier is capable of becoming Capital-F Fine champagne that can go head to head with any other chardonnay or pinot noir bottling. Despite the grape’s reputation for being second-tier, Moussé has 80% of their vines planted to meunier, and are the first to produce a Special Club of 100% meunier (which is the bottle you have in your collection). The success starts in the vineyard, where they farm organically and follows a ‘lutte raisonée’ approach. The ethos extends to the operations, where the cellar is solar powered, and an underground spring provides water for irrigation.
Les Fortes Terres is a 100% pinot meunier offering, and in fact the first of it’s kind for Moussé. Rich with red and dark fruits, this expressive champagne is balanced by structure and salinity. The result is a mouthwatering offering, an exceptional wine that is both amplified and refined.
FOOD PAIRING
A fried chicken sandwich: fresh slaw (the vinegar kind, not mayo), toasted bun, spiced honey
SERVICE NOTES
Serve 15 minutes out of the fridge and keep on the counter to enjoy its lovely evolution from first to last glass.
VARIETY
meunier
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2022 Marcel Lapierre Morgon
4/26/2024 - shemmy wrote:
Marcel Lapierre is one of the famed Gang of Four in Beaujolais who’s embrace of the old wine ways: organic viticulture, low SO2 additions, natural yeast vinifications, and no chaptalization would go on to define the natural wine movement as it exists today. Marcel took over his domaine from his father in 1973 fresh out of wine school. He ran the domaine with the in-vogue methods gleaned from industrialization for 8 years. Increasingly over that time, Lapierre realized
he didn’t like drinking the wine he was producing. He was reaching more and more often for bottles produced during his grandfather’s era. He met Jules
Chauvet, a winemaker, researcher, chemist, and visionary in 1981. Through conversations with Chauvet and the other local vignerons who would make up the
gang of four—Guy Breton, Jean-Paul Thévenet, and Jean Foillard—the four decided to return to the practices of their grandfathers and the rest is
history. These four winemakers have provided a great deal of the momentum that powers the natural wine movement today and the wines from their domaines are still extraordinary.
“Natural wines, they're wines by vignerons who work like their grandparents, not in a manner of the past, but in a manner of understanding and intelligence. Natural wine, it's not a doctrine, it's an ideal: the ideal, it's to vinify without additives, respecting the terroir—the place where the grapes come from—and the vintage.” Marcelle Lapierre
This wine comes from 60-year-old gamay vines on the famed granite soils of Morgon. The wine is picked by hand and ferments semi-carbonically before aging on its lees in old Burgundy barrels. There is no fining or filtering before bottling. Cuvee N sees no SO2 added
during the winemaking process. Domaine Marcelle Lapierre wines fruit always seems to be stuffed with energy. All raspberries and Rainier cherries, red
plums and black, and anywhere where the meat of the fruit breaks it bursts with light. There are herbs and spices and savory graniteness to the finish. This wine is remarkable for being both serious and imminently enjoyable at once.
FOOD PAIRING
fried octopus, cardoons, olive salsa & pimenton aoili
SERVICE NOTES
Gamay of this quality can be served just as you would a nice pinot; a touch cool to start, and then watch as it disappears.
VARIETY
gamay
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2015 Stefano Chioccioli Altore Toscana IGT
4/26/2024 - shemmy wrote:
Chioccioli is run by brothers Niccolò and Enrico and their sister Ginevra. Their father is a respected oenologist and agronomist who consults for the siblings. They grew up in Greve in Chianti and have long held a passion for creating terroir specific examples of the sangiovese grape. The siblings think of their vines as members of the family.
The vineyards are surrounded by woods of great biodiversity that help keep the vineyards cool and sheltered and contribute to the vitality of the soils. The vines are cared for using only organic processes. A green harvest is carried out each season to concentrate the remaining bunches’ flavors. When the grapes reach the perfect balance, they are harvested parcel by parcel. The grapes are brought in in small boxes to the cellar where they are carefully sorted and then cooled overnight to preserve freshness before being crushed the next morning to begin the honing of their bespoke Chiantis.
This wine is the perfect complement of cabernet sauvignon with sangiovese. After the green harvest, the fully ripened bunches are harvested into small boxes, then cooled overnight. They are meticulously sorted and then fermented in barriques with vinification integrale. The wine ages for two years in oak barrels before another year in bottle. The deep plummy darkness of the cabernet is balanced with waves of bright cacao dusted red cherries. Mint and thyme and leather color the edges of all of the flavors. This wine is a perfect meeting of classicism and modernity.
This wine is available in the US only through the Yes Society.
FOOD PAIRING
In late summer, a whole grilled chicken with ratatouille.
In winter, slow-braised brisket and sauerkraut.
SERVICE NOTES
This wine is coming to your door with some modest age already. It is ready to drink for those that prefer more fruit and freshness in their Chianti. It’s also an
appropriate candidate for longer aging, should you enjoy the depth and nuance
of older sangiovese.
VARIETY
sangiovese, cabernet sauvignon
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