LIQUID SUNSHINE ⛅

What’s up winos,

Got something for ya today to brighten up what looks to be an extremely rainy and miserable week. Just added another banging producer to our increasingly banging direct import portfolio. It’s good to be us right now, which means it’s also good to be you.

Late last year Dan took an ultra short hop across the drip to visit Clos des Mourres, a beautiful property in Vaison-la-Romaine. Ingrid and Jean-Philippe took over the family business in 2012, including 10ha of vineyards planted to a wide range of varieties, both local and imported, mostly grown on sand. They added to this with an astute purchase in Cairanne, taking control on a thankfully north facing plot on the Col du Débat. The soils here are mostly clay over solid limestone.

Viticulture has been organic since inception, with particular attention being paid to biodiversity in their vineyards in Vaison-la-Romaine, just outside the back door. Inter-rows are all planted to native herbs, and on the day Dan visited they were busy planting several rows of olive trees to provide a natural form of protection from the Mistral, which blows strongly through these valleys. Volcanic SO2 treatments for the soil are also being experimented with, imported from Sicily. The local growers here are big on knowledge transfer and there seemed a genuine sense of community in trying to preserve and promote the natural environment.

In the winery the work is lo-fi, with SO2 used only when absolutely necessary. Fermentation is in a combination of vaslin, fibreglass and ceramics. Fining and filtration are eschewed in favour of natural settling and the subsequent wines are full of vitality and character. We tasted through the lot last week (a fitting reward after unloading a pallet of them in the pouring rain) and these are seriously punchy for the price.

The Pompette Blanc is Rolle, Grenache Blanc, Bourboulenc, Clairette… you get the vibe. Very citrus driven and refreshing, there’s almost a chalkiness to the grip making it both moreish and crowd pleasing. 665 Jours is Grenache Blanc and Clairette from a small plot within the Cotes du Rhone village of Roiax.  A beautifully textured wine, showing hints of bitter bite and phenolic grip to compliment its orchard fruit flavours. Pompette Rouge is Grenache, Cinsault, Counoise and Tempranillo (!) all co-fermented as whole bunches. Tingling and energetic, this is definitely a candidate for the fridge.

Now onto the Rosy - a ‘blouge’ comprising 2/3 Grenache Noir and 1/3 Grenache Blanc - alluring, juicy fruited and very fluid in terms of texture. A Table is a small, single parcel bottling of Syrah - violet scented, light yet meaty. And finally the Adessias - 90% old bush grown Grenache and 10% Clairette with a tonne of herbs de Provence, anise and decaying florals. It’s immensely perfumed and also delicious. Srs bargains to be had here, if I were u I’d get one of each. Or maybe two of each?

For those with cash to burn, we got a little elite drop late last week as well. First in the door was François Cotat. Cotat's estate sits on prize territory in the heart of Chavignol, on vertiginous slopes, making hand-harvesting both necessary and pretty hard work. He picks the grapes late to maximise the flavour, and works to a non-interventionist approach in the winery, fermenting the juice in demi-muids and using native yeasts. Supremely age-worthy wines, but also ripe for busting out now, if that’s your vibe. Shop the full range here.

Then we’re zipping across the pond to New Zealand for the stupidly good and stupidly hard to find wines of Hiro Kusuda, Japanese ex-pat and former lawyer turned creator of benchmark Martinborough wines. Hiro has a cult following in Japan, from where many volunteers happily head over to help him out during the fastidious harvest. His maniaical meticulousness is what makes these wines so banging. These are proper rare to come across as so many of it gets shipped straight to Japan, unless you know people in high places (aka us). Check ‘em out here.

Oh, and ICYMI, we did the right thing and released a bunch of extra tickets for our two tastings in Feb, Domaine de l’Iserand and Manuel Girard. Not many better ways to spend £25, if you ask me.

Love u!

xoxo

Megan