✈️THE SKY(AASEN)'S THE LIMIT✈️

What’s up winos,

Another big week at Parched HQ, which started with 13 pallets of wine landing on our shores from the sunnier side of the world. Man, unpacking pallets keeps me young! I can’t get enough of it. Seriously. They’re my raison d’etre. Top-ups and new vintages of all our Aussie imports, plus a few exciting new bottlings and brand new names to the portfolio. Resident Aussie Dan himself will no doubt be regaling you about these soon, but for now have a gander at Moorak and Margan. Lots to like here.

Back in Europe, stonking new arrivals from cult Burgs producer Maison Skyassen. If you’re not familiar with these guys, you’re in for a treat (although your bank account is not). We tried the new vintages a few weeks ago and the only thing I wrote in my notes was ‘w-o-w’. Not terribly helpful when it came to trying to remember anything specific about the wines to write them up for the website, but also, isn’t that all you need to know? They’ve thrown us a bone this year with a (relatively!) cheaper bottling of Aligote, plus all the usual big guns. These are the sort of wines that could bring you to tears, if you’re the kind of person who gets brought to tears by wine. Are you? Time to find out, I guess.

I’m aware that things have been up at the pointy end for a week or two now - such is life when allocations come flying through thick and fast - and that’s exactly why I took a break from Burgundy and went shopping somewhere else, for a change, coz we’re all about drinking superbly whether you’re a millionaire or not. Enter these bangers from Espera.

Idk if it’s just the side of Instagram that I’ve ended up on, but ‘Portugese girlie’ aesthetic has been dominating my feed for the last few months. While I can’t be much help on the fashion front (you try dressing nicely when 99% of your time is spent crawling around a warehouse like a goblin) I can help you drink like a Portuguese girlie. The Espera wines are everywhere in Lisbon, and everyone knows Lisbon is the height of cool RN. Don’t you want to be cool? Rodrigo paid us a visit last week and we tasted through the range, in between him trying to wrangle with his distributor on the phone (my favourite quote? ‘That’s not my problem, that’s your problem.’ *hangs up*. I’m going to start doing that). These are proper quality wines, while still being fun and fresh. My favourite kind! The white is proper deep, nutty, salty and mineral, while the Palheto red and white blend is ultimate glou glou, tangy and juicy and crying out for a little chill. The Castelão rounds out the range - a far cry from those hefty Portuguese reds you often see, Rodrigo uses 20% whole bunch for a lifted, thirst-quenching bottling that won’t hang around long once it’s been opened. You’ve been warned!

New arrivals also in the form of Robinot, whose mind-bending Chenins have been firm favourites around here for ages. His Lumiere de Silex is a rich, round take on the grape, with a caramel ‘n almond thing going on that’s kept firmly in line by his signature lipsmacking acidity, and a new pet-nat that’s got apero written all over it. We also got a little top up of Le Regard, if you’re more of a redhead.

Speaking of redheads, Beaujolais Day is fast approaching, and so therefore is our big Beaujolais party, aka my favourite night of the year. More than 20 wines and melted cheese. Sounds like it covers all the food groups to me. Got a handful of tickets left so don’t dilly dally. Get on it. Here.

That’s all! Off to go buy a new spine before the next lot of pallets arrives. Heh.

xoxo

Megan