GLOBE TROTTING 🌎

Hi! Fionn on a Tuesday? Lucky you.

Currently, writing this waiting for a flight home from a whirlwind weekend in Alsace. I had the pleasure of celebrating 500 years of Beck-Hartweg. With a modern mindset Florian and Mathilde make beautiful, unique wines that still manage to capture the rich history of their region. I urge you to give these a go. They are quite remarkable and utterly delicious. A copious amount of wine was enjoyed…

It started with joyous pours of this, fleshy, fresh, fun Pet-Nat.

Some classic powerful Alsatian Riesling followed.

A standout site-specific bottle in the form of Bungertal was next.

More maceration in the form of Rittersberg. We’ve got a few of the ‘19’s left too. After a short slumber, this is now tear-jerking drinking.

Speaking of time in bottle, we drank this Grand Cru from 2001. A profound wine. All I can say is that it will stay with me forever. Only fools say you can’t age natural wines! Get a couple of these before I cellar them all.

Finishing off with a chartreuse-esque Pinot Gris from the same site. Again, a perfect amount of aging has kindly been done for you. Thank us later.

If you want the true Alsatian experience, you’ll need some vinous spirit to see it all off. The Alsatians make a lot of wines. You name it, they make it. As such tastings can be quite long, quite dangerous. Seemingly never-ending. When you think you’ve consumed the last of the Munster and the 𝒏th gewurz of the session, the typical Alsatian vignernon will smirk before whipping out their finest selection of Marc and Eau de Vie. These are fruit bombs that capture the essence of Alsace. Unrelenting, yet utterly compelling. The perfect snapshot of this mad little region.

Once, I’ve sweated out all the tarte flambee and choucroute I promise to give you the proper write-up this region, and weekend deserve.

Back on UK soil we also have new gear from Westwell. Megan and I spent a lovely day in the vines a few weeks back. It’s a tough job but someone’s gotta do it! The direct press Pinot Meunier is like biting into the crispest apple imaginable. Unique, clean, and delicious. A crazy good fizz as well. They’ve opted for labeling this as a multi-vintage. Consider this an elite NV due to a blend of choice years, from the same site. Racy and razor sharp. The pick of the bunch though is this bone-dry beauty from 2013. Yep, you read that right. History in a bottle. A case in point example of what lees aging can do to a wine. Biscuity, textured but with that distinct zippy English acid line. With only 500 bottles produced and at this insane price point, it’d quite frankly be rude not to grab a few…  I can see why the champagne houses are getting scared.

Ok, so I’m still waiting to board so have one more for good measure…

To me, summer only starts when the new Lamoresca vintages land. If you put a gun to my head and ask me to choose one red to drink all summer. This is it. Alluring in its aromatics and full of refreshing blood orange acidity. Get this in the fridge pronto.

A Bianco that is all I love about Sicilian whites. Citrusy, salty, and addictive. 100% Vermentino di Corso that after a sip will practically drag you to your local fishmonger.

Finishing up with the ever-reliable, yet always changing Rosato. You can't take your eyes off this one. Stunning colour. Drinks like some magical elixir that mentally has you basking in the Sicilian sunshine. Now the wines have landed all we need is the sun to follow suit.

Plenty, and I mean PLENTY more elite stuff is on the way too. Lots going live this week. Insta notifications turned on. Trigger fingers at the ready etc…

For now though, I’ve gotta go. Planes ready for take off.

Speak soon,

Fionn

xoxo