warmth in the wild.
release 24. November 2023
warmth in the wild.
release 24, November 2023.
Today, we make a case for comfort. Sometimes it’s good to take an optimization break. This release is meant to evoke the feeling of a weighted blanket, or a warm cup of tea by a roaring fire. Contrary to our usual stance of challenging your palate and sending you into kooky discovery land, this release is like a pair of soft flannel pajamas.
Massimo Rivetti “Aurelia” Langhe Arneis 2022
Color: pale straw.
Grapes: 100% Arneis
ABV: 12.5%
Region: Langhe, Piedmont, Italy
Winemaker: Massimo Rivetti
Viniculture: organically farmed.
Winemaking: grapes are harvested early in the morning at cool temperature to preserve acidity and freshness. Fermentation is done with native yeasts in stainless steel tanks. After an initial 6 month aging period this wine is bottled and aged for a further couple months until release.
Wine Quote: “Massimo Rivetti’s Langhe Arneis is a crisp, food-friendly white wine with a lovely lifted white floral quality.”
Jackson’s Notes: This Arneis was a wine discovered by group consensus. There were three of us tasting in the shop, and in a lineup of dry, Italian white wines, this one stood out the most and made the grandest impression. It was specifically the concentration and length of finish that sealed the deal for us. It’s pretty atypical to have an Italian white wine give you a long finish on the palate.
The wine came before the story for us, but then we learned more about the Massimo Rivetti winery and the family behind it. The Rivettis have been in the Langhe/Piedmont area for over 150 years but the current iteration of the family winery wasn’t founded until 1977, when Massimo Rivetti’s father started the business. Now, his sons are taking over and helping at the winery. You can see them applying organic compost and cutting weeds by hand on the winery website!
Arneis is a grape that almost went extinct, but by the 1990s many producers in its native Piedmont were trying to rediscover wines that were outside the norm. A few of them noticed a fun little grape planted at the fringes of their white vineyards, and decided to continue propagating it–chief among them Luca Currado of the famous Vietti winery in Alba. After some years of replanting and experimenting, Arneis was fully “relaunched” and became something quite sought after. How do you describe it? It’s an interesting one. It’s certainly not plain, and not excessively complex either. Arneis is a great workhorse white wine–it has a lovely floral, aromatic quality without veering into Viognier territory. But it’s nice and refreshing on the palate, with a bit of lovely peachy stonefruit and mineral quality. I think a good analogue would be either Albariño or Aligote. Not sure if it’s a coincidence that these all start with “A” but there you have it.
Massimo Rivetti’s Langhe Arneis is a crisp, food-friendly white wine with a lovely lifted white floral quality–apple blossom and honeysuckle come first, followed by Bosc pear and tarragon. The palate comes on fresh and citrusy–orange peel and green apple and wet stone, finishing with a hint of wildflower honey, which ultimately ends dry and bracing.
Food Pairing: Fennel Salad with Lemon & Anchovy
Description: You’ll find anchovies and vegetables commonly mixed in dishes in Piedmont, whether it’s Bagna Cauda or Acciughe Verde, and this salad evokes that regional pairing nicely, balancing the tang of the wine with the lovely saltiness of the anchovy and fennel’s sweet vegetal quality.
Music: “Elizabeth Taylor'” by Peter Yorn
Music Pairing: Arneis, having been rediscovered in the 1990s, needed a song that reflected that 90s vibe. I’m a Pete Yorn fan and this one seemed to fit.
Edi Simčič Chardonnay Riserva 2015
Color: medium straw yellow.
Grapes: 100% Chardonnay
ABV: 13.5%
Region: Goriška Brda, Primorska, Slovenia
Winemaker: Aleks Simčič
Viniculture: Organically farmed old-vine Chardonnay on ponca soil, grapes are hand-harvested.
Winemaking: Fermented in a mix of neutral oak barrels and stainless steel.
Wine Quote: “Long finish, silky texture–an awesome white wine.
Jackson’s Notes:
I was SO stoked to be able to put this wine in the box. About a year ago, I tasted this excellent Slovenian Chardonnay from Edi Simčič and thought the world of it, but the timing wasn’t quite right to bring it on for a full wine club release. Turns out the wine is still available and still makes for quite a club inclusion.
Chardonnay is a grape that can be all things to all people, including people who “don’t like Chardonnay.” That’s like saying you don’t like fruit–certainly there’s a kind out there for you. You may not prefer peaches, but whether it’s hazelnuts, eggplants or tomatoes, there’s probably something out there that isn’t considered typical that delivers the goods. Just because there’s some oaky, sweet, gross cheap Chardonnay in this world, don’t let that fact turn you off to the balanced, mineral, intriguing examples out there.
Enter Slovenian wine–there’s so many exciting surprises waiting for you in this country when you give it a chance. From orange, skin-contact whites to bubbly pèt-nats to earthy, nuanced reds, it’s one of my favorite countries to go on a discovery tour in. Many of these grapes are grown in view of the Italian-Slovenian border, which used to be the fringe of the Iron Curtain when it was part of Yugoslavia. On the back of the bottle you’ll see a statement from winemaker Edi Simčič: “when you taste our wines, you are tasting a bit of freedom.”
Like another very famous Chardonnay-growing region, this part of Slovenia used to be an ocean floor. You’ll find limestone and marine sedimentary soils underneath the vineyards, which give a profound saltiness and brightness to the wines that are grown here. Just like it does in Chablis. It helps that the Simčič family works organically in the vineyard, which helps these sites fully express themselves in the finished wine.
Edi Simčič’s 2015 Riserva Chardonnay leads with lovely golden apple and pear skin, and a fantastic aromatic of marzipan and thyme. It’s stony and fruity and floral in equal parts, and with five years of age gives excellent breadth and complexity on the palate. Long finish, silky texture–an awesome white wine. Pair this with chicken, pork or roasted fall vegetables.
Food Pairing: White Bean Parmesan Soup
Description: texture, richness, silkiness–all things we hope to highlight with this pairing.
Music: “Zaman Zaman” by Santi + Tuğçe
Description: a bit mysterious, a bit haunting, but very lush.
David Hill Whole Cluster Pinot Noir 2021
Color: pale ruby red.
Grape 100% Pinot Noir
ABV: 13.4%
Region: Tualatin Hills, Willamette Valley, OR
Winemaker: Chad Stock
Viniculture: Organically farmed estate vineyards in northern Willamette Valley.
Winemaking: Fermented with wild yeast.
Jackson’s Notes:
In my eyes, Chad Stock can do no wrong. This is now the fourth time we’ve used wines from Chad in a box. Whether with his wife Bree for their personal project Limited Addition, or at David Hill where Chad is the winemaker, he’s got a profound Midas touch in the vineyard and winery. When you’re able to farm great sites organically, a lot of the work is done before the grapes even arrive at the sorting table.
David Hill is located in the northern part of the Willamette Valley, set into the Tualatin Hills. Oftentimes this northerly specificity means that flowering and ripening happen slower, which can benefit the grapes and overall structure of the wines they make. It helps that they partner with people like Jarad Hadi at Grape Ink (another CRF wine contributor) to do top-notch farming and regenerative agriculture.
This wine is from David Hill’s Discovery series, where Chad’s creativity is given fewer restraints. The Whole Cluster Pinot Noir is just that, an exploration of how incorporating all the material in the grape bunch can endow the final product with more complexity and nuance. This requires being able to ripen the grapes long enough to where the stems are lignified, or fully wooden–too early of a pick and the green grape stems would make the final product taste fibrous and vegetal.
This Whole Cluster Pinot Noir leads with charming ripe red fruit–cherries and crusted raspberry tarts combine with fresh rose petal, vanilla bean custard and damp pine forest floor. It’s at once tangy and ripe on the palate, cutting and soft. That tension is what makes this wine drink so well, it keeps entertaining your tastebuds with a balance between acid, texture and fruit. Pair this with chicken, salmon or any kind of roasted vegetables.
Food Pairing: Alison Roman Anchovy Butter Chicken with Chicken Fat Croutons
Description: chicken and pinot noir are a match made in heaven, and that’s about all the explanation this pairing really needs.
Music: “Open Up” by PREP
Description: smooth, chill, fruity, fun.
Stolpman “Crunchy Rôastie” Syrah 2022
Color: bright ruby + purple
Grapes: 95% Syrah, 5% Viognier
ABV: 13.5%
Region: Ballard Canyon, Santa Barbra County, CA
Winemaker: Peter Stolpman
Viniculture: organically-farmed, hand harvested.
Winemaking: Fermented with whole clusters + carbonically. Aged briefly in neutral oak barrels.
Wine Quote: “this vintage of Crunchy Roastie brings the thunder.”
Jackson’s Notes:
Here we have our FIRST second appearance of a wine! If you remember way back in 2020 during our first year of business, we used the Stolpman Crunchy Roastie Syrah in our box picked by sommelier Nelson Daquip for our Filipinx-led release, called “Malutang Na Pulang Prutas.”
Here’s what I wrote back then: Take one of America’s most exciting winemakers, some of California’s best Syrah fruit, and take out as many winemaking crutches and shortcuts you can, and this is the wine you’ll get. The Stolpman Crunchy Roasty Syrah showcases the purity of the fruit and the talent of the winemaker. That’s the kind of wine we get excited about.
Fast forward to 2023 and we’re a new company, but one that is still deeply invested in the type of wine that first inspired us to start a wine club. The Stolpman family, with Peter at the helm of winemaking operations, is still doing the right things: taking great care of their workers, paying attention to the health and sustainability of their vineyards, and making wines that are compelling and delicious. They’ve farmed organically for almost two decades now, and led the conversation in sustainable viticulture, employment and winemaking operations in Santa Barbara County’s wine industry. So yeah, you could say we’re big fans.
This vintage of Crunchy Roastie brings the thunder. Cracked black pepper and smoky black plum notes pour out of the glass, with bunches of fire-dried herbs like thyme, marjoram and rosemary. A hint of dried lavender and dusty earth round out the bouquet. This wine is at first abrasive and tangy on the palate, but that core of California fruit remains strong on the finish. Pair with smoky foods like BBQ or anything cooked over live fire.
Food Pairing: Wood Smoked Turkey
Description: this wine has an undeniably smoky/fruity character, and smoked turkey hits the sweet spot of a robust white meat flavor without the heaviness and body of, say, a steak. That herbal edge inherent in this wine helps round out the flavor profile and keep things refreshing as well.
Music: “B What U R” by Stone Foundation + Shirley Jones
Description: this wine is a funky party in a glass, no chance we wouldn’t go with something funky on this pairing.
Corte Sant’Alda “Ca Fiui” Valpolicella Rosso 2020
Color: brick red with purple.
Grapes: Corvina Grossa 50% Corvina 30% Rondinella 15% Molinara 5%
ABV: 12.5%
Region: Valpolicella, Veneto, Italy
Winemaker: Marinella Camerani
Viniculture: Vineyards are biodynamically-certified and hand-picked. These vineyards are owned by Corte Sant’Alda.
Winemaking: Fermented using indigenous yeasts with 15 days maceration, 10 months aging in neutral 40hl oak barrels
Jackson’s Notes:
If you’re a devotee of the wines of the Veneto or the Valpolicella region, you’ve probably heard of the name of Giuseppe Quintarelli. You could call him the Yoda of the Valpolicella, for he was a great old master who was at the top of his craft for a long time. He passed in 2012, leaving behind a great sixty-year legacy of amazing winemaking. Most importantly, his Jedi disciples have gone off to do their own projects, some of them now for quite a long time.
Marinella Camerani is one such disciple. After studying and learning at the Quintarelli family winery in the 1980s, she set out on her own to begin putting her own stamp on the vineyards of her native Veneto region. The emphasis from the beginning was on honest, low-intervention work in both the vineyard and winery, to emphasize purity and balance in the final product. Marinella has pursued biodynamic certification for all vineyards owned by her family–this ensures that someone is physically there in the vineyard to work and make sure vineyards are thriving and healthy, and to supervise the addition of natural composts and preparations in the soil.
This bottling is a “Valpolicella Rosso,” which means that unlike the local Amarone style, this is not made with dried grapes, but instead is a blended expression of the Corvina grape focused more on freshness and balance.
This Ca’Fiui Valpolicella leads with spicy red and black fruit: clove-studded plums, dried cranberries and baked black cherries. It’s vermouth-like on the nose and palate, giving off toasted allspice, vanilla and quinine bark notes. A bitter vegetal note creeps in–radicchio and a hint of sweet aged Aceto Balsamico. This is a spicy, lush fall wine, and wants to be decanted and served alongside roasted game and vegetables. Duck would be a good choice.
Food Pairing: Pan-Roasted Duck with Wild Mushrooms
Description: one of the best things about Italian reds is their gaminess. Duck is mild and meaty with a hint of gamy quality and spiciness, which is a perfect match for the double whammy of fruit and earth in this Valpolicella rosso.
Music: “Stardust” by Alex Lustig
Description: this wine is smooth, groovy and cozy, and fits the song’s mood nicely.
Domaine les Carmels “Les Caprices” Bordeaux Cadillac 2021
Color: dark ruby with standard red.
Grapes: 100% Merlot
ABV: 13.5%
Region: Cadillac, Côtes-de-Bordeaux, France
Winemaker: York Lavaud
Viniculture: Organically-certified vineyards in the Bordeaux-Cadillac appellation.
Winemaking: 100% destemmed, uncrushed. Ambient yeast fermentation. Moderated extraction to limit the tannin structure. Short aging, 4-6 months, in stainless steel tank. No added SO2.
Jackson’s Notes: It’s about time we got back to drinking Merlot. There’s few grapes that have been as maligned and understood as Merlot. In the 90s it tended to get made in an overly-ripe, jammy style in places like Napa Valley, and this turned some consumers off to it. Most famously it was harped on by Paul Giamatti’s character Miles in the 2004 film Sideways. “We’re not drinking any f*cking Merlot!” he says to his friend on a night out, referring to the overly-oaked, raisin-ripe version of the grape popular with consumers at the time. This actually had a negative impact on Merlot sales for years, believe it or not.
Things have changed in both France and the United States for the Merlot grape. It’s the most planted grape in the Bordeaux region, and the US has had a big reevaluation of it. Merlot is awesome because it complements Cabernet Sauvignon in blends, but it’s also great on its own. It has a cool red-fruited character that sets it apart from the blackcurrant flavor of most Cabernet, and it has mid-palate softness and texture that is wholly different from what other grapes offer.
We’ve discovered a really cool Merlot from a small family estate in Bordeaux. It’s interesting to find an example that is bottled varietally, rather than being incorporated into a blend, which is typically the way Merlot is used in Bordeaux.
Domaine les Carmels was founded in 2009 by Yorick and Sophie Lavaud. They discovered a unique property in the backwater Cadillac region, which is a short drive southeast of the Médoc, where the biggest and most expensive châteaux lie. They started with a commitment to farming organically, and the results have been quite impressive.
What’s on display here is not a “powerhouse” Bordeaux, but this wine is striking in its own way. You get such purity of fruit from the first sip that you can understand why they’re not trying to mask its impact with excessive oak or ripeness. This is closer than any wine I’ve found to the experience of picking fresh Merlot grapes off a vine in the middle of harvest season. Red plum, fresh tobacco, bay leaf and sage jump out of the glass. The palate stays lively and fresh, with balanced acidity and a juicy, ripe cranberry skin finish.
Food Pairing: Slow-Roasted Prime Rib Sliders with Horseradish Crème
Watch our tasting video here…