This Saturday we are going green with five organic wines for local importer Petit Monde. All the wines are practicing organic, certified organic and/or biodynamic. They are also all French and all delicious.
2018 Château de Brézé, Clos de Midi $19
Chenin Blanc
From Saumur in the Loire region the Clos de Midi shows great acidity combined with a delicate, chalky texture. It has aromas of honey, dried exotic fruits, herbal tea and sweet lemon. Although this wine is 100% Chenin Blanc, it bears the freshness of a young Sancerre, the soft richness of Chablis, but with the unmistakable charm of Chenin Blanc.
2018 Domaine de la Graveirette, Ju de Vie Rose. $12
60% Grenache, 40% Syrah
This Biodynamic winery is nestled between the towns of Orange, Avignon, and Carpentras with the Dentelles de Montmirail and Mont Ventoux to the east and the hills of Châteauneuf-du-Pape to the west. Their fresh and full rosé is a big easy drinking crowd pleaser.
2018 La Bastide des Oliviers “Cuvée Classique” Rosé, $16
40% Cinsault, 30% Grenache, 15% Carignan, 15% Syrah
The Mourlan family has organically farmed their 10 acres of vines certified by Ecocert since for two generations. They built a modern cellar in 2000, equipped with thermoregulated steel tanks, allowing a perfect sanitary condition to make a sulfite free wine. Their light rosé has true Provence style, dry and crisp with tangerine and citrus flavors that are powerful and elegant at the same time.
2017 Domaine Guillaume, Pinot Noir $18
Vignoble Guillaume’s gorgeous, soil-driven 2017 Pinot Noir gleams a transparent garnet color from the bowl followed by aromas of earthy cranberries, geranium, rhubarb, and soft limestone minerals. Brisk acidity and savory tannins frame the wine’s crunchy core of red Pinot fruit, which transitions mid-palate to reveal fascinating suggestions of blood oranges, Earl Grey tea, and damp, calcareous earth. Fine tannins sneak in as the wine finishes crisp and crunchy, with layers of bright red berry and cherry fruit lifted by a persistent clay-limestone mineral undercurrent.
2017 Domaine de la Graveirette, Côtes du Rhone $16
Grenache
A lot of wine for the money, Graveirette’s Côtes du Rhone is full and chewy, with firm tannins. It has lots of earth, meat, garrigue, pepper, and spice but also clean and pure with bright raspberry and black cherry fruit. And it is biodynamic.
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.