Hello and welcome to this week’s dig through the pile of wine samples that show up asking to be tasted. I’m pleased to bring you the latest installment of Vinography Unboxed, where I highlight some of the better bottles that have crossed my doorstep recently.
This past week included a bunch of really delicious wines, starting with the very long lees-aged sparkling wine from Nicole Bertotti at Haliotide Wines, which after 68 (!) months on the lees offers this incredible silky, sensuous texture on which it delivers its apple and brioche flavors with wonderful grace.
I’m recommending a pair of Chenin Blancs from South Africa this week, from one of my favorite producers there, the Stellenbosch-based Stark-Condé, as well as from the well-known Brookdale Estate in Paarl. Both wines demonstrate what makes South African Chenin Blanc so fantastic these days, both in terms of its flavors, and its relative value. Brookdale also makes a tasty Syrah that I’m happy to recommend this week as well.
Sticking with South Africa for a moment but stepping a bit outside the usual box there, I’d like to point your attention to the rare-as-hens-teeth bottling of the Portuguese grape Fernão Pires by Processus Winery, a tiny woman-owned label that is one of only two producers of this obscure grape in the country. Its salty, savory character is quite appealing.
Likewise, the qvevri-fermented and aged white blend by Klein Amoskuil steps up to deliver some serious orange-wine cred in South Africa. A blend of a wide variety of dry-farmed, old-vine varieties, it has a wonderful combination of aromatic sweetness and dry grippy minerality.
Speaking of orange wines, I can also recommend the “Ramat” bottling of Pinot Grigio by Jermann Winery in Italy’s Friuli region. Jermann is one of the pioneering producers of skin-contact wines and that shows in the deftness of this wine which has just a kiss of the color and grip you’d expect from a skin-contact Pinot Grigio.
And before we move on to a couple of reds, if you’re a fan of the Viognier grape, you might consider taking a look at what Bartholemew Estate Winery in Sonoma is doing. Their interpretation is rich, but not heavy thanks to excellent acidity.
Let’s wrap up this week with some alpine Nebbiolo, shall we? Tenuta Scersé began almost as a whim, as lawyer Cristina Scarpellini decided to lease an acre of grapes in Valtellina to play around with. She quickly went down the rabbit hole and now produces a portfolio of wines from this spectacular valley separating Italy from Switzerland. Her Rosso di Valtellina is bright and lean and crunchy, and her Sfursat version, in which the grapes are dried slightly before fermentation, has an impressive intensity and grace.
That’s it for this week. Notes on all these wines follow below.
Tasting Notes
2017 Haliotide “Late Disgorged Blanc de Blancs – Stolo Vineyards” Chardonnay, SLO Coast, Central Coast, California Pale gold in the glass with aggressive, moderately fine bubbles, this wine smells of sea air, lemon pith, a hint of brioche, and touch of cidery apples. In the mouth, faintly salty notes of lemon pith, pastry cream, brioche, and dried orange peel are delivered on a particularly silky, velvety mousse. Notes of lemon oil and wet pavement linger in the finish. Dry-farmed fruit was whole-cluster pressed into neutral oak for fermentation, and then aged sur-lie for 9 months. Disgorged in January of 2024 after 68 months on the lees in bottle. Zero dosage – Brut Nature. 12.5% alcohol. 480 bottles made. Score: between 8.5 and 9. Cost: $97. click to buy.
2021 Stark-Condé “Monk Stone” Chenin Blanc, Jonkershoek Valley, Stellenbosch, Western Cape, South Africa Pale gold with a hint of green in the glass, this wine smells of grapefruit pith and white flowers. In the mouth, silky flavors of grapefruit, white flowers, Asian pears, and white tea have a light chalky texture and fantastic acidity. Floral notes linger through the finish along with grapefruit pith. Extremely delicious and mouthwatering. 13% alcohol. Score: between 9 and 9.5. Cost: $30. click to buy.
2022 Brookdale Estate “Mason Road” Chenin Blanc, Paarl, South Africa Pale yellow gold in the glass, this wine smells of lemon blossom and pears. In the mouth, bright lemon curd and poached pear flavors mix with vanilla pastry cream. There’s an overall creamy texture to the wine with the counterpoint of bright acidity. Organically dry-farmed fruit is fermented with ambient yeasts in stainless steel and then aged in neutral oak barrels. 13% alcohol. 5125 cases made. Screwcapped. Score: between 8.5 and 9. Cost: $22. click to buy.
2023 Processus “Maria Gomes” Fernão Pires, Worcester, South Africa Pale, cloudy yellow-gold in the glass, this wine smells of struck match or struck rocks, with hints of wet wool. In the mouth, lemon, herbs, wet wool, and a hint of vegetal flavors are salty and savory with a nice underlying minerality and umami character. Excellent acidity. A 38-year-old, organic vineyard, one of only two vineyards in South Africa containing this variety. Grapes are destemmed and crushed into an open-top fermenter where they are cold soaked for 48 hours, then brought outside to warm under the sun and initiate spontaneous fermentation, which is then moved to barrels to finish. 11.75% alcohol. 250 cases made. Score: between 8.5 and 9. Cost: $20. click to buy.
2021 Klein Amoskuil “Qvevri” White Blend, Coastal Region, South Africa Dark gold in the glass with a hint of amber, this wine smells of spiced baked apricots, brown sugar, and candied orange peel. In the mouth, honey, apricot, and a hint of sarsaparilla have a bright chalky mineral texture and quality. Light grippy tannins, and a lovely aromatic sweetness. A blend of 27% Semillon, 27% Chenin Blanc, 20% Viognier, 17% Sauvignon Blanc, 9% Petit Manseng. All dry-farmed in Swartland and Darling. Destemmed, crushed, fermented in qvevri separately by variety for 4 months, then racked off and blended, aged in qvevri. 11.75% alcohol. 565 six-packs made. Score: around 9. Cost: $28.
2022 Jermann “Ramat” Pinot Grigio, Friuli, Friuli Venezia-Giulia, Italy Palest orange-bronze in color, this wine smells of apples, peaches, and berries. In the mouth, apricot, orange peel, and a faint hibiscus note are all bright with zippy acidity and wonderfully stony minerality. There’s a faint, barely perceptible tannic grip to this wine that adds complexity and depth as hints of forest floor and earth linger in the finish. 13% alcohol. Closed with a screwcap. Score: between 8.5 and 9. Cost: $42. click to buy.
2022 Bartholomew Estate “Leake Family Vineyard” Viognier, Sonoma Valley, Sonoma, California Light gold in color, this wine smells of candied apricots and tinned peaches. In the mouth, peach, lemon, and apricot flavors have a nice zing thanks to very good acidity. There’s a faint herbal bitterness in the finish. Rich, but not too heavy on the palate. 14.5% alcohol. Closed with a screwcap. Score: between 8.5 and 9. Cost: $??
2022 Brookdale Estate “Mason Road” Syrah, Paarl, South Africa Dark garnet in the glass, this wine smells of dark berries, flowers, and wet chalkboard. In the mouth, blackberry and black cherry fruit flavors are wrapped in a thick, fleecy blanket of tannins. Good fresh acidity. Muscular. Organically dry-farmed fruit picked in seven passes through the vineyard. Fermented in stainless steel with ambient yeasts and aged in a variety of neutral barrels of various sizes. 13.5% alcohol. 3050 cases made. Screwcapped. Score: around 8.5. Cost: $26. click to buy.
2023 Tenuta Scerscé “Nettare” Nebbiolo, Rosso di Valtellina, Valtellina, Lombardy, Italy Light ruby in the glass, this wine smells of bright, fresh strawberries, dried sage, and flowers. In the mouth, cherry and strawberry flavors have a nice easygoing brightness to them buoyed by juicy acidity, as gauzy, hazy tannins hang at the edges of perception. There’s a hint of minerality under the fruit, but mostly this is a pleasant quaffer of a wine. 12.5% alcohol. Closed with a technical/resin cork. Score: around 8.5. Cost: $30. click to buy.
2018 Tenuta Scerscé “Infinito” Nebbiolo, Sforzato di Valtellina, Valtellina, Lombardy, Italy Medium to dark ruby in the glass, this wine smells of raisins, strawberry jam, and dried herbs. In the mouth, brisk acidity makes flavors of stewed strawberries, cherries, and prunes lively and juicy as dried and fresh herbs flavors mix with black tea. Intense in flavor, but not heavy, with just a little heat in the finish betraying the wine’s 15% alcohol. The acidity and the herbal notes make this a very food-friendly bottle despite the higher octane. Closed with a technical/resin cork. Score: between 8.5 and 9. Cost: $65. click to buy.
