herb appeal.
release 26. march 2024.
herb appeal.
release 26, march 2024.
Every wine in this release is meant to show that herbal, green notes in wine are not only nothing to be ashamed of: they should be celebrated. Herbal notes are the seasoning in the stew. Herbal notes are carefully-crafted indie r&b songs. They represent wines with real character and quality. Wines like Laura Brennan Bissel’s tremendous Alaric Cabernet Sauvignon. An old-school style California red fueled by real music and real struggle. Or the Lyrarakis Dafni, a wine that smells like picking a fresh bay leaf and a fresh lemon together, and crushing them in your hand on a cliff above the Mediterranean. There’s an Austrian white infused with fresh wild thyme, and a classic Cabernet Franc that smells of sage and topsoil. Every one of us is getting a pouch of handmade herb salt from our partner Jess Buttermore of Cedar House Living.
Meinklang Thyme Blanc 2020
Color: pastel light yellow
Grapes: 100% Pinot Blanc
ABV: 12%
Region: Burgenland, Niederösterreich, Austria
Winemaker: Werner Michlitz
Viniculture: Meinklang is a biodynamic farm where grapes, animals and vegetables are all grown in harmony.
Winemaking: This wine is infused with fresh thyme sprigs that grow in and among the vines, and macerates along with the grapes. No oak here, just bright stainless steel which helps to preserve acidity and freshness.
“it greets the nose with a profound garden of delight”
Jackson’s Notes: Meinklang is an accomplished winery and farm run by the Michlitz family in Austria. We’ve now featured Meinklang’s wines in multiple releases over the history of Crunchy Red Fruit / Fruit Wine Co. Meinklang is somewhat of a gateway drug to natural wine. Their wines are made beautifully, farmed responsibly, and are a great gateway to natural wine for people just discovering it. There’s nothing too “out of place” or disjointed in these wines, as they’re made very cleanly and
Meinklang calls themselves a “wein-garten,” the classic German term for a vineyard. It represents a place that isn’t just a monoculture. They raise cows, sheep, goats, pigs and a host of grapes, grains, fruits and vegetables. A little bit of everything. The Michlitz family uses composts generated from the farm and its biproducts to give energy back to the soil. Vine are fed to animals. Manure gets mixed with last year’s composted vine cuttings and scraps. Local flora grows between rows of vines and fruit trees. Everything works in harmony here, and that resonance comes through in the wines themselves.
This wine was an obvious shoe-in when we first tasted it. For a club release based solely on herbs, this was a perfect pick, as the wine was profoundly interesting on its own, and is the only wine in this release with an actual infusion of fresh herbs. Thyme grows wild here alongside the vines in Burgenland, and they decided to infuse it into their Pinot Blanc for this experimental wine. Patagonia was the customer who initially collaborated to create this cuvée, but it’s taken on a life of its own, and become a secretly sought-after wine.
For us, this Thyme Blanc was a massive breath of fresh air. Here’s a wine (a vermouth?) aromatized with a singular fresh herb, bringing so much character and quality and love to the forefront. Leading with green lemony thyme notes, it greets the nose with a profound garden of delight. On the palate it’s refreshing and lemony, with a perfect savory twang next to the citrusy brightness.
Food Pairings: for a wine like this, simply focusing on fresh herbal flavors provides a great backdrop for pairing.
Music: “Thyme” by Sierra Sellers
Music Pairing: this was easy, I’m a sucker for chill vibes.
Lyrarakis Dafni 2022
Color: light pale greenish yellow
Grapes: 100% Dafni
ABV: 12.7%
Region: Crete, Greece
Winemaker: Lyrarakis family (led by Bart Lyrarakis)
Viniculture: Dry-farmed, low-impact sustainable viticulture. Lyrarakis works organically in their vineyards (Crete is a grape grower’s paradise) and is able to farm consistently without irrigation. They do yearly sustainability audits, taking into account worker treatment, ecosystem health, resource management and nuts-and-bolts viticulture.
Winemaking: Skin-contact for 8 hours. 8.5% of the juice comes from early vintage grapes in order to balance the acidity and enhance the herbal character. Fermentation took place in stainless steel tank between 17-19°C and then the final blend matured on lees for a period of 4 months, gaining depth of flavor.
“It is one of the most herbal, resinous wines I’ve ever tasted, yet it doesn’t ever taste heavy or too green”
Jackson’s Notes:
We’ve now featured wine from Lyrarakis in several releases. This medium-sized, artisanal family winery has a wealth of raw material at their disposal. They’re located on Crete, and have rehabilitated several native grape varieties that were in danger of going extinct.
One of their most unique projects is the Dafni grape. When we first tasted it a couple years ago, we were floored by how interesting and different it was, and I have been looking for a reason to put it into a release ever since. Dafni is actually the name given to the grape, because of its similarity in flavor to Bay Laurel. The Greek word for Bay Laurel, or Laurus Nobilis is actually Dafni. So this grape was named for the thing it bore an aromatic resemblance to!
The Lyrarakis family began to do ampelographic work in their vineyards years ago, applying both DNA and viticultural classification to the vines. This grape stuck out as an anomaly, as it tasted different than almost every other grape they had–Vidiano, Vilana, Assyrtiko and Sauvignon Blanc were all found in their vineyards, and some of them even had strong herbal notes. But Dafni stuck out like a sore thumb for its pure notes of fresh Bay Laurel, and they discovered that it had been ending up in field blends for a long time. Now they’ve propagated it and planted it in its own vineyards, and in the process saved this unique grape from going extinct.
It is one of the most herbal, resinous wines I’ve ever tasted, yet it doesn’t ever taste heavy or too green. That super fragrant, herbaceous nose greets you when you lift the glass, but on the palate it turns citrusy, clean and bright. It finishes dry and fresh.
Food Pairing: Fennel Beet Salad with Whipped Goat Cheese + Chive Vinegar
goat cheese is a classic Greek food, and wow this wine was meant to go with salads.
Music:”Wild Things” by LAUREL
Description: obviously there’s a name correlation, but my son liked this song and was dancing to it, so for me that was reason enough to stick with it.
Micro Wines Vine Vale Cinsault 2022
Color: pale, soft violet
Grape: 100% Cinsault
ABV: 12.5%
Region: Barossa Valley, South Australia
Winemaker: Jonathon Ross
Viniculture: Schliebs Family Farm is a small, biodynamically-farmed vineyard in the Vine Vale, with 50-75 year-old Cinsault vines.
Winemaking: From Winemaker Jon Ross: “Fully destemmed into open-top fermenters, where a wild ferment commenced. Daily punch-downs, one rack and return with aggressive foot-stomping, and racked after alcoholic fermentation into 5 year-old puncheons. Wines went through full malolactic fermentation, and received 60 ppm of sulfur at the end of it. Bottled unfined and unfiltered.”
“the general impression here is one of sun-ripened fruit and lovely fresh herbs”.
Jackson’s Notes:
Jon Ross and I passed our Master Sommelier exam on the same day in October 2017. Since then he’s moved continents twice, both of us quit our jobs at famous restaurants, and we started small businesses with our significant others. There’s also been a pandemic and a lot of change. It’s crazy to look back even five years and see how different the world was, and how different many of us were back then.
Micro Wines started as a small-cuvée project by Jon Ross while he and his wife Jane Lopes (also an accomplished sommelier and wine expert) were both living in Australia. This particular wine is the second Micro wine we’ve featured in a Crunchy Red Fruit release. The first was a remarkable Shiraz from South Australia, and now we’ve moved to a different grape that also does well in that climate.
Cinsault is not on a lot of people’s radar, but it’s a grape that can do a lot of interesting things in the right place. Typically it’s a pale color, but with quite robust fruit, tannin and acidity. Cinsault also has a strong herbal component. This wine had been a possibility for our January Australian release, but the more we thought about it, we wanted to put it in a position to be highlighted in this herb-focused box.
This is a tiny-production wine. Like, 1500 bottles tiny. Crunchy Red Fruit has about 400 members as of this writing, so we’re taking just shy of a third of this wine’s total production. Pretty cool to know you’re one of 1500 people in the world that will taste this particular wine in this particular vintage.
This Cinsault is a pale, cheerful fuschia color in the glass, and leaps forward with sweet herbal aromatics. Sweet basil, fresh tarragon, ripe strawberry and chocolate-eucalyptus come forth in a swirl. A first sip brings silky fruit and lovely chewy tannins, with a bright tartness on the finish. This “sweetness” is not actual sugar content on the palate, as this is a dry wine. But the general impression here is one of sun-ripened fruit and lovely fresh herbs. It’s a Mediterranean dream.
Food Pairing: Secret Ingredient Pasta Salad
Music: “Basilico” by Delicatoni
Description: we were looking for something basil-themed and silky, and boy did we find it.
Arnaud Lambert Clos Mazurique Saumur Rouge 2021
Color: scarlet
Grapes: 100% Cabernet Franc
ABV: 13.5%
Region: Brézé, Saumur, Loire
Winemaker: Arnaud Lambert
Viniculture: The Lambert family has farmed their entire domain Biodynamically since 2018, they are focused on producing excellent, healthy grapes from every one of their estate vineyards.
Winemaking: Clos Mazurique is picked by hand and fermented with wild yeast, using stainless steel and concrete tanks. No oak is employed here, giving the wine a profound freshness and tang.
“It’s classic Cabernet Franc, and it’s an unmistakable example of its raw material”.
Jackson’s Notes:
WELCOME TO THE THUNDERDOME is what we said to about a dozen and a half Cabernet Francs in the wine shop. We asked our distributors to bring their best, most classic, most representative Cabernet Francs into the shop, where we would taste them all and make a decision.
There were three or four that were yummy, and just about two that seemed to rise above the rest. But the one wine that rose above all was this Clos Mazurique from Arnaud Lambert. Here was a wine that not only delivered big, delicious flavors, but also felt completely honest and transparent. There was no makeup, veneer or tricks being employed here.
Arnaud Lambert’s wines have been featured in our boxes before (you may remember the “stupid f*cking master somm” troll job from a few years back). We’ve bled to bring these wines to you. Because we care, despite what other wine buyers may tell you about us.
Clos Mazurique is fresh, red fruited and bright. It’s classic Cabernet Franc, and it’s an unmistakable example of its raw material. Aromas of raspberry, red currant, tomato leaf and topsoil lead, and a first sip reveals black cherry, violet, allspice and sage. It’s an expressive and delightfully verdant wine, reminding you of a walk in the forest or a beautifully cultivated garden.
Food Pairing: Steak au Poivre
Steak au Poivre is the perfect pairing for Cabernet Franc. Look no further.
Music: “Dracme” by Marco Castello
Description: groovy, playful and a very herbal album cover.
Wine 5: Kermit Lynch Côtes-du-Rhône Villages Rouge 2022
Color: purplish, rich red
Grapes: 56% Grenache, 25% Syrah, 10% Mourvèdre, 7% Carignan, 2% Cinsault
ABV: 14.5%
Region: Côtes-du-Rhône Villages, Rhône Valley, France
Winemaker: Denis Deschamps
Viniculture: organically farmed grapes sourced from a selection of small growers in Estazargues and nearby.
Winemaking: this is fermented with wild yeasts and aged in concrete tanks for 10-12 months to settle.
“ Big fruit, smoky fruit, herbal fruit, floral fruit.”
Jackson’s Notes:
This is about as simple as it gets for a wine pick. I really wanted us to highlight a wine that had strong rosemary notes, with hints of lavender. A southern Rhône Grenache-based blend was the key to this happening.
Kermit Lynch is one of the most famous wine suppliers in the US. Not only do they have some of the world’s most famous wineries in their stable (Raveneau, Clape, Dauvissat, Allemand, Gonon) but they also contract with small growers to make special wines for them. This wine is such a cuvée.
Vignerons d’Estezargues is a small but high-quality co-op producer that has been around since the 1960s, and is currently focused on farming organically and making wines in a low-intervention manner. This Côtes-du-Rhône Villages proves that you don’t have to be a tiny, single-vineyard estate to make great wine. Because dang this wine delivers on almost all counts. Ripe red and black fruit? Check. Herbal, spicy complexity? Check. Length of finish? Check.
This leads with the strawberry notes of ripe Grenache, and is supported by smoky, peppery Syrah and a bit of savory Mourvèdre and Carignan. Fresh rosemary, lavender, thyme and marjoram round out the flavor profile. Big fruit, smoky fruit, herbal fruit, floral fruit.
Food Pairing: Pan Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Rosemary Honey
Rosemary is the name of the game here. This is a food-flexible wine.
Music: “Rosemary” by Donovan Woods
Description: this beat out some pretty good competition–songs with good raps and beats and lyrics…but this was the most complete offering.
Alaric Cabernet Sauvignon 2018
Color: dark, deep red.
Grapes: 95% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Cabernet Franc
ABV: 13.5%
Region: Russian River Valley, Sonoma, CA
Winemaker: Laura Brennan-Bissell
Viniculture: organically farmed
Winemaking: Wild-yeast ferment, no additives save for a small hit of sulfur at bottling, and a very low profile of oak.
Jackson’s Notes: Laura Brennan-Bissell is a winemaker we deeply admire and appreciate. She’s doing work in two regions, making gorgeous California reds along with an exciting new project in the Columbia Gorge. But our first introduction to her body of work was her “No Gods No Masters” Cabernet Sauvignon, an awesome and classic California Cab that bucked the trend of heavy, overwrought wines from the state.
Alaric is Laura’s pursuit of a vineyard that she fell in love with–Cabernet in Russian River Valley has been harder and harder to find, and typically ripens slower due to the greater fog and colder weather in the southern reaches of Sonoma. Not only that, but this vineyard no longer exists. It was wiped out in the wildfires of 2020.
So the two vintages Laura made of this wine ought to be collectors items. And you’re holding one of them.
This is California Cabernet as it ought to be: not crazy ripe, but still packing intense fruit. Not goopy and raisiny and packed full of fake winemaking chemicals. Honest and transparent and sharp. Green yet ripe-fruited. Earthy yet silky. Soft yet muscular. Laura’s wines earn her a lot of respect from other winemakers, and this one will do the same.
I’ll let Laura give you the heat on this particular wine:
I made the wine in 18 and 19, and it expressed all of the things I could have ever wished to say about California, and its subtlety – its subtlety that has been replaced with a uniformity to gaudiness. The wine was bright and brambly, with a bloody depth, and had floral, almost pomegranate quality, all encapsulated in the dusty earthy smell of cooler-climate, well placed Cabernet. - Laura Brennan-Bissell
Food Pairing: Herbes de Provence Prime Rib (herb salt included in box)
Music: “Ugly Crowds” by Alaric