Showing new wines at our Saturday tastings is always a pleasurable experience, but every so often we get a chance to do something REALLY FUN!! This Saturday we’ll be showing some very special wines from two different wineries using some very old fashioned techniques with amazing results. These wines spurn the use of sulfites and other additives instead letting the grapes develop their own character and preservative qualities. Their amazing color character has earned them the nickname Orange Wines. These are totally unique wines.
The Movia estate dates back to 1700 and extends over 22 hectares of of the best vineyards in the borderland between Slovenia and Italy. Aleš Kristancic has put Movia’s wines on the map with his radically biodynamic winemaking.
2011 Quattro Mani Tokai $10
Quattro Mani’s [toh-kai] is grown in Movia’s organically farmed Exto Gredic vineyard and made in accordance with the biodynamic principles. It is a brief introduction to his wine making style. Light but complex aromas of spice, herbs and flowers lead to a body that is full and crisp at once with a bit of nutty depth.
2010 Movia Rebula $32
100% Ribolla from 66 years old vines
The name Ribolla stems from “ribollire”, meaning to re-boil. The Bora wind in the littoral cooled the cellars stopping fermentation, only for the wine to then “re-boil” in the spring. Movia uses hand-picked harvesting with a short period between the picking and fermentation – 2 hours maximum — with natural yeast picked out from the same grapes harvested during pre-harvesting (5 %). Quiet fermentation is completed in wooden barriques where wine matures on its own lees without decanting. Until it is bottled no sulphur or any other conservation additive is used. Thus the wine has gone through all natural processes and becomes sound and stable naturally, ready to last lifetime. The wine has aromas of fresh fruit, spice notes and a brilliant balanced acidity.
2008 Movia lunar $47
100% Ribolla
Movia’s Lunar take their winemaking to the next level The grapes are destemmed by hand and placed in new oak barrels with custom caps. Fermentation begins in the berries themselves, which gradually release the wine. After 8 months of maturing, at full moon, the wine is gravity racked into bottles, no added sulphur, no filtration, no pressing. This is as close as it gets to the wine ancient man found in nature. Nature, with a helping hand from the moon, does most of what is usually done by man. “Our most healthy and pure wine. Pure nature in your wineglass.” The wine shows unexpected complexity — notes of nectarine, anise, spice, and lemon curd conspire to make this seductive, fresh wine with plenty of character and a fine, long aftertaste.
Azienda Agricola COS was founded in Sicily by three friends who wanted to recreate the work of their ancestors. In 2007 they completed their new cellar with the old oak barrels were replaced by terracotta amphoras of 400 and 250 liters capacity , one of the largest collections in the world, and they began making their Pithos wines – “absolutely lacking in external substances.” We’ll be trying both Pithos wines.
2012 COS, Pithos Bianco Bianco $44
100% Grecanico form 22 year old vines.
2011 COS, Pithos Rosso $40
40% Frappato, 60% Nero d’Avola
Madrona Wine Merchants offers free wine tastings featuring 4-5 selections on a theme every Saturday from 2 until the bottles run out and on Sunday we offer a mini-tasting of two wines all day from 11-5. No matter what day you stop by we always have something open to sample.