FUN 2 SAY, FUN 2 DO 🎷

What’s up winos,

Coming to you this week from New York, which sounds cool but isn’t. It’s actually a little bit like coming to you from the surface of the actual sun, if the sun was also located within the humid confines of a tropical rainforest. I’d forgotten what it’s like here in summer, where taking a shower is more of a token gesture towards personal hygiene than it is a useful thing to do, given the second you close the bathroom door it’s like you never showered at all. Time to make friends with sweat, I guess. For now I’ll just keep this fan pointed directly at my face and pray for nightfall.

Speaking of sweat. Absolutely sweating to tell you about some new arrivals this week. Got five new wines of all colours, origins and vibes, because my taste is eclectic (or random and unfocused). I prefer to think of it as providing a little something for everyone. If they had a uniting quality, it’s that they have fun names. Is there a better reason to choose a wine? I didn’t think so.

First up is #Senzavandalismi! I love a wine with an exclamation mark in the title, it sets your expectations soaring before you even open it. The Vandalismi they’re referring to, btw, is sulphur, so goes without saying that this is a pretty natty bottling. Although I did just say it. Whatever. This is Passerina (every day a new grape in this endless journey towards ultimate wine knowledge) and just so damn refreshing. Fruit is of the orchard variety, with some nice floral elements chiming in too. It’s lovely, and you guys are lovely, so why not be lovely together?

Next on the roster is a gorgeous skin contact from La Grange de L’Oncle Charles, which is a total flex of a producer name and quite a flex of a wine, given it contains thirteen different grapes. Sometimes with field blends I’m just like, really? After four varieties are the others even adding anything? Not so with this one. You get all the Gewürztraminer wafting out of the glass at first whiff but then the palate is so savoury and balanced, presumably thanks to the other twelve varieties pulling their weight. This is that rare skin contact wine that won’t scare off any newcomers but also has enough intrigue to keep the true orange-heads interested. How is that possible? Don’t ask me, just go see for yourself.

A nice crunchy Gamay also heading your way courtesy of Karim Vionnet. ‘Du Beur dans les Pinards’ = put some butter in your spinach = live a little. I hope that putting butter in his spinach (or eating spinach at all) isn’t the sum total of Karim’s personal definition of living a little, but I think his point is that this wine is just fun. There’s depth if you want to find it, but if you just want to drink some wine and not feel ~challenged~ by it then this is your guy. Throw in the fridge for twenty minutes for added deliciousness.

German Pinot next – I know, don’t start – what I also know is that we wouldn’t be buying it if it wasn’t something special. I’m not a huge red wine gal personally (I know, again) but this is my kind of thing. The nose is pretty classic Pinot but the palate is that good kind of weird, savoury and a little sour and deep and complex and and and. I love it, you’ll love it too, go and show it some love here.

On the subject of things I wouldn’t normally consider: an Englishman making Chianti Classico, but here we are. Sean O’Callaghan, or the one-eyed bastard as he is ‘affectionately’ known in Italy, has 25 years’ experience in the region, so we can forgive him the small oversight of not being born there. Started from the bottom, etc. He’s certainly got the lay of the land. This is just a delicious, classic, elegant bottling. The perfect gift for someone who thinks it’s appropriate to drink non-chilled red wine in the summer (aka, your dad, probably).

Gotta run, I think this fan is about to explode so I need to find some other means of not spontaneously combusting. Don't forget to snap up tickets to our next tasting. Five British pet nats? We're too good to you!

Love u!

Xoxo

Megan