Little is big.  This Saturday we are pouring five wines from small organic producers from the countryside of France and Italy.  Come have a small sip of these big wines.

2017 Domaine Montrose Côtes de Thongue Rosé  $10
65% Grenache, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Syrah
Montrose is located in the Languedoc region of Southern France, 15 km away from the Mediterranean coast. Red berries and peach flavors with spicy overtones. It is an elegant wine combining roundness and freshness. Was $13 now $10

2018 Château Brézé Clos de Midi  $20
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 La Montagnette Côtes du Rhone Villages  $14
70% Grenache, 20% Syrah, 5% Mourvédre, 5% Carrignan
A non-interventionalist CDR. no cultured yeasts, no filtration, no fining, no enzymes, no SO2 on the grapes at harvest (or during the vinification), only a little bit for bottling, just great tasting Rhone wine.

2018 Mélaric “le Tandem”  $19
60% Grolleau, 40% Cabernet Franc
Mélanie and Aymeric Hilaire established their young property in the outer ring of the Saumur, near the new appellation of Saumur Puy-Notre-Dame. This is where the dark volcanic soils of the Loire begin their shift to bright limestone, and the Mélaric wines stylistically sit in Saumur-ness and the Anjou wines to the west. It makes the best of its mix of relaxed Grolleau fruit and tensile, spicy cabernet franc. Fresh, vivid and grippy with tight raspberry and cherry, and some pepper notes.
 
2017 Reale Cardamone  Tramonti Costa d’Amalfi $25
80% Piedirosso, 20% Tintore
Tintore is known for a very dark purple-red color, adding a deeper hue to the Piedirosso. The wine has notes of plum and dark fruits, very fresh.  There is also spice, black pepper, and chewiness to the wine. Medium-bodied with light tannins. The wine finishes long.  Organic

Madrona Wine Merchants offers free wine tastings featuring 3-5 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.

It is another wet weekend here in Madrona.  Nothing to do about it other than take lots of vitamin D and pull the cork on a good bottle of wine.  Stop on by the wine shop and watch the rain with us.

Saturday we are pouring wines from the Republic of Georgia, where they still ferment in qvevri — clay pod-like vessels nestled in the earth for natural temperature control. It is very old school wine making.  
2017 Mosmieri Kakhuri Amber $14
2017 Saperavi Qverri Red  $15
2017 Alazani Valley Red $11
2017 Khvanchkara AOC Red $22
2016 Satrapezo Rkatsiteli Ice Wine  $30

Sunday we have two Italian wines open as we watch the rain drops fall.
Palama Arcangelo Salento Bianco Frizzante  $12
A lightly sparkling Malvasia from Puglia. The wine is refreshing, quite dry, fizzy with a touch of salinity and lemon peel. 11% alcohol by volume
2017 Terre Margaritelli Roccascossa  $11
70% Sangiovese, 30% Cabernet Franc
From the heart of Umbria, the Roccascossa is a blend of Sangiovese and Cabernet Franc. The flavors move between fruity cherry and savory smoke. The ripe, red berries are contrasted with hints of pepper and bright acidity.

Madrona Wine Merchants offers free wine tastings featuring 3-5 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.

Marani’s vineyards have been cultivated for generations.  Their Kondoli vineyard is mentioned in 1742 in Life of Georgia as showcasing the best of Kakheti region.  The terrain is composed of alluvial, strongly skeletal, loamy soil on a limestone bedrock. Climate is transitional from humid subtropical to continental under the influence of the Great Caucasus Mountains from the left bank of Alazani River and Tsiv-Gombori mountain range from the right. Cold air flows down the valley from the Caucasus glaciers, forming an ambient microclimate for quality viticulture with large swings between day and night temperatures.  Most of the 240 hectares of Kondoli vineyard are still planted with indigenous Georgian varieties, such as Saperavi, Rkatsiteli, Alexandreuli, Mtsvane and Kisi. Come taste a bit of the old world.
 
2017 Mosmieri Kakhuri Amber $14
This amber colored wine has a delicate bouquet of fresh quince and dried fruits, with mild tannins, complimented with pleasant finish.

2017 Saperavi Qverri Red $15
Saperavi is Georgia’s premier red varietal, it comes on with the intensity and longevity of an all-night feast. The wine has firm tannins with an earthy element from 6 months spent aging underground in qvevri (clay pod-like vessels nestled in the earth for natural temperature control). That earthen quality is a signature trait of Georgian wines.  Notes of tart pomegranate and currant jam give way to a peppery dill on the finish.
 
2017 Alazani Valley Red $11
100% Saperavi, grown in the Alazani Valley in Kakheti. The wine has dominant blackcurrant, blackberry and cherry aromas. It is fresh and fruity, but still full bodied.  The varietal notes are followed by a complex and sweet finish.
 
2017 Khvanchkara AOC Red $22
50% Aleksandreuli, 50% Mujuretuli
A blend of two Georgian grapes from the Khvanchkara AOC, the wine shows aromas of raspberry, strawberry with some notes of roasted almonds.  The palate is of wild strawberry is followed by a mellow blend of dried fruit, pomegranate and a touch of caramel, though there’s plenty of lively acidity to keep it fresh and balanced.
 
2016 Satrapezo Rkatsiteli Ice Wine  $30
Dense and sticky, it exposes ripe poached pears, candied berry, honey and golden raisin aromas. Vibrant fruit flavors accented by the natural sweetness are well balanced with embedded orange zest. The finish is fresh with fruity core leading to a tantalizing citrus and lingering aftertaste.

Madrona Wine Merchants offers free wine tastings featuring 3-5 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.

Happy Chinese New Year! Here in Madrona Wine we are taking a break the week’s events and celebrating by just watching the rain fall and drinking some very tasty wines. Come start the Year of the Rat in a laid back fashion.

Saturday we are pouring the Synergistic Wines of L’Archetipo from Puglia. Synergy is the next step in Bio dynamic farming, paying more attention to the ecological balance in the vineyard.  The taste tells all.
2016 Marasco Brut Nature $23
100% Maresco (Apulian indigenous vine).
2017 Greco Bianco $18
2017 Fiano $20
100% Fiano Minutolo
2016 Litrotto Rosso $19
30% Montepulciano, 20% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Primitivo, 10% Susumaniello.
2016 Niuru Maru $20
100% Negroamaro

Sunday, we continue celebrating with two more Italian wines starting with a Sicilian White and ending with Amarone’s little brother Ripasso. Stop on by and welcome the New Year.
2018 Firriato Altavilla Della Corte Grillo   $13
A Sicilian white with delicate scents of white spring flower and citrus. On the bright, linear palate, fresh acidity supports peach and lemon zest while a hint of saline picks up the finish. 12.5% alcohol by volume
2016 Cesari Mara Ripasso  $17
75% Corvina, 20% Rondinella, 5% Molinara
The Mara has notes of ripe fruit, fruit preserve and cherries.  Its incredible persistence is striking: it lingers on the palate, where it opens in all its power with a warm, elegant body.

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Madrona Wine Merchants offers free wine tastings featuring 3-5 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.

Francesco Dibenedetto, farmer from birth and later also agronomist, in the 80’s began to convert his land to organic farming, but he observed that the vitality of his lands was not like he anticipated.  In 2000 he implemented biodynamic farming, but after few years of biodynamic he realized that there was still something more that could be done. Francesco studied Masanobu Fukuoka’s thought and implemented a sustainable agriculture, in which all synergies in the ecosystem are linked.  This incorporates organic and biodynamic agricultures, but it deletes plowing, which disrupts the balance of the land. On the family farm in Puglia, Francesco farms native vines such as Primitivo, Aglianico, Negroamaro, Fiano and Greco and rediscovering forgotten vines such as Maresco, Marchione, and Susumaniello. The wines are grown without chemicals, unfiltered, unfined and with minimal SO2 added.  Come taste the Synergy.
 
2016 Marasco Brut Nature $23
100% Maresco (Apulian indigenous vine).
Made Ancestral method the Marasco has fine and quite persistent bubbles; intense fruity notes of peach, apple and pear and floral aromas. The taste is soft, tasty and very fresh.
 
2017 Greco Bianco $18
The Greco has floral aromas with notes of green apple, pineapple and honey.  It is medium-bodied, balanced, with a soft, fresh taste, and a mineral finish.
 
2017 Fiano $20
100% Fiano Minutolo
The wine has a fine floral, fruity and grassy nose. Medium-body, soft and very fresh.
 
2016 Litrotto Rosso $19
30% Montepulciano, 20% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Primitivo, 10% Susumaniello.
The Litrotto spends 36 months in steel tanks. It has a fine and quite intense fruity and mineral nose. This red blend is balanced, quite tannic, fine and quite tasty.  1 liter bottle
 
2016 Niuru Maru $20
Negroamaro
An authentic Negroamaro with a fruity nose (black cherry and plum), with clove aromas. It is smooth and balanced, quite tannic, fine and elegant.

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Madrona Wine Merchants offers free wine tastings featuring 3-5 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.

One look out the window tells you that it is not a dry January in Madrona.  One look at the weekends tasting lineup will tell you that it isn’t a fry January at Madrona Wine. Stop by and get wet.

Saturday, we’ll be swimming our way through Abruzzo, Molise. Campania, Puglia, and Veneto.
2017 Tombacco Pecorino Terre di Chieti  $12
2014 Tombacco Biferno Rosso Riserva  $14
80% Montepulciano, 20% Aglianico
2017 Tombacco Aglianico del Beneventano  $14
2016 Piantaferro Primitivo di Manduria  $14
2014 Scoula Grande, Amarone  $38
Corvina, Molinara

Sunday we have two Languedoc values from Domaine
Ferrandière.  In their unusual vineyard, the vines are planted on the old saltwater marsh of Marseillette and on the hillsides of Saint Frichoux. Deep beneath the clay soils lies a bed of salt that protects the roots from Phylloxera.

2018 Ferrandière Malbec  $11
The Malbec is lighter than most Argentinian Malbecs, but with an ample red fruit profile. Fresh and clean, with good balance and bright acidity.

2018 Ferrandière  Syrah $11
The Syrah has beautiful floral overtones, black olive tapenade, and black fruit. Punches well above its weight, an excellent wine for the price.

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Madrona Wine Merchants offers free wine tastings featuring 3-5 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.

Cantina Tombacco started 100 years ago as a peach orchard.  They quickly expanded to grapes and 100 years later are sourcing grapes from diverse areas of central Italy to make their wines.  Join us Saturday as we hop through some of their vineyards from Abruzzo, Molise and Campania.  We’ll follow that with a Primativo from Puglia and an Amarone from Veneto.  It’s a lot of ground to cover.  
 
2017 Tombacco Pecorino Terre di Chieti  $12
From Abruzzo, the Pecorino has a fruity (pear, apple) and floral aromas. Medium-bodied with a more noticeable earthy minerality with a slight buttery note. Sweetness still delicate and sitting nicely overall and balanced well against the acidity.
 
2014 Tombacco Biferno Rosso Riserva  $14
80% Montepulciano, 20% Aglianico
Biferno is a tiny appellation in the center-south of Italy in Molise. The Riserva has appreciated after time spent aging in both barrel and bottle and the result is an aromatic and seductive wine with cherry and floral lift, but a deep, plum and licorice richness of fruit and silky texture, the tannins mellowed into a gentle, rounded wine. Let it sit in the glass a few minutes (or decant) before drinking.

2017 Tombacco Aglianico del Beneventano  $14
From Campania in in Southern Italy, Tombacco’s Aglianico is big, rich, warming and smooth. Hints of cherry and red berries, with a marked vanilla and spicy note lead into an excellent mouth feel, elegant and warm, sapid and full-bodied with some spice on the long finish.

2016 Piantaferro Primitivo di Manduria  $14
An oaked Primitivo It is a single varietal Primitivo, from a small vineyard parcel in the heart of the superior Manduria DOC in the heel of Italy. This is a fine example of Primitivo: full-bodied, jammy, with tones of chocolate and raisins. Really meant to be drunk young, those that love fruity wines will not be disappointed.

2014 Scoula Grande Amarone  $38
Corvina, Molinara
Amarone is the king of the Veneto.  The Scoula Grande has deep, dark, intense, with pleasant slight granite shades. A sequence of perceptions of cherry, plum, and black cherries under liquor and toasted almond; interesting final notes of coffee, tobacco and cocoa.

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Madrona Wine Merchants offers free wine tastings featuring 3-5 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.

Unless they have a lot of resources, winemakers typically work for someone else making wine to suit the winery’s style.  Occasionally they make little bits of interesting wines in their own style– more a labor of love than income boosters.  This Saturday we’ll have two such winemakers in the shop pouring their small batch love childs.  Erica Orr and Linn Scott will be here from 2 to 4.  Come meet them and taste their creations.

In 2005, Erica Orr moved to Washington State and started an independent winemaking consulting and enology business in Woodinville, where she helped wineries like Baer, Mark Ryan, and Guardian rack up 90+ point scores.  In 2013, she made the inaugural and limited release of her Old-Vine Chenin. 
 
Linn Scott spends most of his working hours as the winemaker at Sparkman Cellars.  In his spare time he and a couple of friends make a few small lots of wine respectfully modeled after wines that that they love to drink.
 
2016 Six Atmospheres Blanc de Blancs  $32
Chardonnay
The Six Atmospheres is a Washington State Method Champenoise sparkler.  The fruit is from a special part of Bacchus Vineyard where the soil is deeper and the Chardonnay attains the right sugar and acidity for sparkling wine: The fruit is hand harvested, pressed whole cluster and fermented in neutral oak with traditional champagne yeast. Malolactic fermentation is blocked with sulfur addition following fermentation.  The secondary fermentation was done in bottle as traditionally is done for sparkling wines and the wine has rested on the yeast lees or ‘en tirage’ for 24 months prior to degorgement.  It is crisp and delicious.
 
2016 Wild Type Dionysus Vineyard Riesling  $16
The fruit for the Wild Type comes from an old-vine (1970’s era) block of Riesling at Dionysus Vineyard. This is a terrific vineyard within the Sagemoor Farms family of vineyards farmed by Lacey Lybeck and Kent Waliser. These gnarled old vines are slow to ripen and hang a fairly light crop with excellent air-flow and fruit exposure which keeps disease pressure (particularly from botrytis) very low. The wine is a very smooth and creamy Riesling.
 
2018 Orr, Old Vine Chenin Blanc  $25
Hand-harvested from vines nearly four decades old, this fresh, dry, 100% Chenin blanc was fermented naturally with native yeast. This Chenin is green-gold in color and has a nose of fresh lime zest, pineapple, and honeydew melon rind. It’s lively, bright, precise and a tiny bit saline in the mouth with a hint of cucumber peel and wet sidewalk in the finish.

2018 Orr Columbia Valley Grenache  $25
91% Grenache,  7% Mourvèdre, 2% Syrah
Rustic and approachable, this hand-picked Grenache was fermented with a touch of Mourvèdre and Syrah and aged in mature French oak. The color is violet ruby and the nose is full of fresh raspberries, pomegranate, plum and black tea. It’s vibrant and lively all the way through to the lifted and mouth-watering finish.

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Madrona Wine Merchants offers free wine tastings featuring 3-5 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.