Category Archives: natural wine

Wine Review: Cascina Tavijn Ottavio 2018

12 Saturday Sep 2020

Posted by in Italy, natural wine

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As I get older and continue my exploration of Italian wines, purity and originality are two key qualities that set the standard for me in the wines of the Italian peninsula. Beyond aesthetics, I am searching for wines that speaks of the territory and tell the story of the people that make them.

After all wine is an object of art because it elicit powerful emotions. Piedmont in Italy is full of artisanal winemakers with a beautiful story to tell. These are the inspirings artists that brings us the great liquid canons that we enoy every night.

One of these protagonists is Cascina Tavijin. Nadia Verrua reminds me for a strange reason of the Countess of Castiglione. Maybe because she was flamboyant or plain original?. Cant pinpoint why, but her wines are truly beautiful and original.

It took me a while to get the Ottavio bottling ( which Nadia named after his father). It is a 100% Grignolino with great rustic Piedmont rustic roots. It is available by strict allocations only and it might be sold out by the time I am writing these lines. Represented by Oenopole, it has a great price tag ( $27.55. Case of 12)

Cascina Tavjin Vino Rosso Ottavio 2018 ( $27.55-Case of 12, private import-oenopole.ca)

100 % Grignolino. Aromas of dry redcurrants, roasted herbs complemented by delicate nuances of cacao buds and tobacco leaf. Medium to full body and quite earthy. Savoury animal notes with a killer finale that reminds me of labrador tea leaves. Quite harmonious wine. Well paired with a simple pasta consisting of spinach, mushrooms and pepperoncino with lots of Reggiano.

Natural wine at the SAQ

03 Thursday Sep 2020

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This is a piece of good news that I have been waiting for a while. Finally, the SAQ formally adds up the category of natural wine to it’s portfolio

An ambitious sale of 50 references online ( saq.com) today and in a SAQ branches as of next week.

The truth is that some natural wine references has been present at the SAQ for a number of years. This latest addition to the wine category is a step forward to recognize the existence of a niche market

Much of the natural wine trading happens in the private import market. Hopefully with this move the SAQ will attempt to democratize more the availability of natural wines to the general wine consumer

Traditionally, natural wines have been reserved for the flourishing Quebec artsy-hipster restaurant trade. This have created a polarization effect between wine consumers. Despite the rising private trading, there is a gap between the elite and general wine consumer

In a post COVID reality, much of the challenge of selling natural wines will rely on the marketing efforts of the importers, SAQ and the media journalists. A part of the challenge is demistifying natural wine and making it more simple for the general wine public.

Make natural wine more welcoming into Quebec homes. Sadly, the hipsters and the new moneyed young class have appropriated themselves of the category. The enjoyment of natural wine should not be limited to a fancy or pretentious setting. It could be as simple with your roasted chicken weekday meal or in a good conversation with a friend.

It is my general feeling that the Quebec natural wine trade is very arrogant. Of course, with a few exceptions. Importers need to get off from their high chair and stop with the attitude ” I am doing you a favor by selling you these wines”. A humble attitude will serve the natural producers best.

For the list of products please consult the following link below:

https://www.saq.com/fr/produits/vin-nature?p=1

For reccomendations, please write at productionslevin@gmail.com

Cheers and happy shopping

Panevino Shugusucci 2017

30 Tuesday Jun 2020

Posted by in Italy, natural wine, orange wine

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I am fairly new with the wines of Gianfranco Manca ( Panevino). My first Panevino was Alvas which actually was also my first orange wine tasted. Raisonnance, their importer in Quebec offered me a taste in the now defunct Montreal restaurant La Salle a Manger. During those years, I knew very little about natural wine and nothing about Orange wine.

This wine was so different and unique from others that made me think about the concept of transcendence in wine. This  is a seldom concept found in wine but more in art.

Deriving from the Latin transcendere, which means to climb beyond, transcendence implies the sensation  of having a sense of significance  beyond ourselves. There are as many ways of experiencing transcendence as there are people. It can be a religious experience or non-religious such as being  connected to other people, nature, or the universe, or it can apply to a wordly experience of passing through a difficult situation. In the end, transcendence relates to a feeling of purpose in the world or  the joy of being alive.

Great art is transcendent. It directs to something outside itself and the artist who made it.

A reason why the Greek civilization believed in gods and muses. They were in touch with something : Art describes the outer limits world; it points at the hidden story.

Can the same principle could be applied to wine?. Until that day, I wasn’t aware and was happy to discover it with Panevino.

There was something mystical about that alvas and to this day I cant forget. It went beyond the completely unique perfurm  and its marvelous texture on the palate. It was an experience greater than the sum of its parts. The wine elevated me and conncected me to the land but more important to the hidden soul of Gianfranco.

It was the same feeling with Shugussucci. A field blend of indigenous Sardegnan wine varieties, this wine display so much energy and vibrancy. It is hard to pinpoint that elusive feeling. It is truly an emoional wine, much the same feeling like looking at a canvas of Mark Rothko.

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Source:Britannica.com

Here is the formal tasting note for descriptive purposes with no intention of capturing the emotional wine aspect

Aromas of wild oregano, amaro herbs with dry dark fruit tones complemented by cured leather and hints of volatile acidity. On the palate, multilayered with snappy acidity. Deeep flavours of red flowers, Jamaican curry with currants. Raging finale reminiscent of animal notes such a cured meat and goat meat.

Panevino is represented by Raisonnance in Quebec, Canada by strict allocation only.

 

An anecdote of a brunch and wine pairing exercise

11 Thursday Jun 2020

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These days we really have to be creative in the kitchen. The possibility of going out to eat has faded away and it represents a risk to be gastronomically bored. Of course, there is always the take out option but can you really put  a fine dining experience in a few boxes?. Montreal’s restaurants are set to be reopen on June 22th and who knows how fine dining will be living with Corona.

I miss the pre corona days where I could normally take my car and head to Montreal to eat out. After my separation eating out became a more frequent activity. However, the activity was reserved for the weekends when I had my 6 years old daughter Alessia. It is my strong opinion that children should start early their gastronomical education so they develop a palate.

With my daughter and Paola as a dining companion, I had some of the most memorable dining experiences. As these lines are written, fantasies come into my head about memorable skin contact wines and Elena pizza.

My recent culinary experiences are last minute improvisations of my head. But today post is my sister Paola that takes the credit. A neophyte home cook she surprised me with her reinvented version of a Venezuelan arepa. She also has great taste for natural wine and food.

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A very interesting spin off she puts flax seed and whole wheat in the corn dough. This gives a nice crunchiness and earthy nuance contrast to the sweetness of the dough. My filling consisted with a boiled egg, some turkey and aurugula. It was a great pairing with the petnat ( Pretty ) from Alex and Maria Koppitsch. Really fun sparkler reminiscent of lots of red fielberries. On the palate, really fun and quite refreshing with slight herbal flavours. It is represented in Quebec, Canada by the good people of Ward & Associates.

Looking foward to go out again with those two lovely girls and experience great restaurants

The wine cellar-the emergency solution for crisis?

04 Saturday Apr 2020

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As I wrap up my upcoming private wine orders for April, my wine buying activity will be reduced in the months to come. I dont see a complete halt but me too I am a victim of the virus crisis. I have lost temporarily my job as a baker. My patron has taken my place and have reduced staff to a minimum. A very sensible solution. I rather the bakery be saved because I know things would get back on track eventually. So, I have to be very careful on what I shall be buying

Also, With a lot of free time on my hand, it is very easy to over indulge with wine. It is more tempting for me as well, since I am separated and have no one to give me dirty looks-you are drinking too much for instance

Treat your wine collection with respect and be smart about it. It is a finite resource much like the money in your bank account. Once is gone, it is forever. Each wine bottle is the memory of a vintage of what happened during that specific year. You just cant replace that.

Besides facing an empty cellar, if you drink too much you could be faced with a much bigger problem: alcohol dependency. No matter the quality level of the wine you are drinking, it is still alcohol. Trust me, I have been there and know what I am talking about. It is very important to self check your wine consumption levels at all times but be more strict during these uncertain times. It is very tempting to overindulge so if you are doing it very often that should ring lots of alarm in your head.

If you do have a wine cellar, this is the perfect time to do a cleanup just like you are doing in certain parts of your house. This is the time to drink wines that are reaching maturity or trade styles that you dont appreciate it anymore. In my case, I will be drinking some mature Bordeauxs in the months to come. In addition, I will be exploring how certain natural wines are evolving with age.

Leave your young wines to rest. They are like children and need their beauty sleep to become beautiful. In a million years, I would never imagine bothering my daughter in her sweet sleep. It is the same thing with wine: you open a bottle of wine too soon and you risk it not to be at its best performance. It could be muted or shy.

So I will leave with that so you can think about..And now for the wine reccomendation:

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Dard & Ribo St Joseph white 2017 ( Six pack case, $60-$70, Rezin)

René-Jean Dard and François Ribo, two famous winemakers from Mercurol, north of Valence, founded their estate in 1984. Working from just a single hectare, the estate is today composed of 9 hectares of vines, with parcels in the appellations of Saint-Joseph, Crozes-Hermitage and Hermitage. The wines produced are always of incredible  quality, with tremendous work put into their single vineyard cuvées (one soil + one grape variety = one cuvée). Their methods stayed the same  for the last 30 years: non-intervention,  10% of the grapes are trodden by foot, no additives are used, a long decanting period is used in place of filtering, and no sulphur is added. The estate’s winepress dates back to 1955, which was bought from Prieuré-Roch in 1992.

This St Joseph is a monovarietal Rousanne from the vineyards of Les Champs” and “Opatyres,” on granite with clay and stones. The wine ferments and ages in a mix of vats and small, used barrels. It is quite powerful and quite heady. Powerful nuances of marzipan with ripe apricots with a touch of pineapple and coconut. Very rich and round with a very long persistent finale. Available by allocation only from Rezin.

Until next post, be well and drink great!!

 

Life in the time of a pandemic

03 Friday Apr 2020

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The days don’t have a structure anymore and that’s great for me. It took a virus, a surrealist natural force to give me the ultimate liberation much desired

Daytime and evening pass by and can’t make the distinction anymore. Activities reserved for the night time find their way during the day and vice versa. Days pass and sometimes I don’t leave home unless it is to pick the occasional wine order or food

It is a paradise for me. While others lament the loss of social contact, I find myself in delight drinking great bottles of wine and looking through virtual art galleries. Mind you, I still take care of a child which every day is becoming more autosufficient.

My wine collection is taking a coup d’état and my freezer is taking a hit. Alas, this is great because once this is over, I can replenish again from friends and private imports.

This is what I have been drinking in the past few days..

I do miss the tastings, my wine colleagues and the occasional going out to the restaurant with my daughter. As time passes this is becoming a fading memory. I am adapting fast. Maybe.

I have been separated since december from my spouse but much longer from the local wine trade. Perhaps, I will be reviewing mainstream wines once this is over. I am very curious to see to see how the wine media will look alike after the post crisis.

Nothi

Bajola 2018

Bajola Orange is a skin contact (orange) wine made from a field blend of grapes – Vermentino, Viognier, Incrocio Manzoni, Malvasia delle Lipari, and Sauvignon Blanc -grown on the island of Ischia, Campania, Southern Italy. Extended maceration on the skins, spontaneous fermentation with native yeasts in “palmenti” cement vats, unfiltered, unfined. 

This one of the wildest orange wines that I have ever tasted. It has a racy acidity and packed with some of the most perplexing flavours of grapefruit with autumn spices. A crazy finale. Well paired with chickpeas rice with broccoli. It is $44.76 ( six pack case) uand available with the good people of Bacchus 76.

SP 68 with homemade pizza

Another amazing wine that I have enjoyed is the SP 68 red 2014 by Ariana Occhipinti. You can buy the current vintage 2018 for the modest price of $32.75. Every year, I buy a few and keep it for the cellar. It has a flair of a Morgon but with a sunny side. The 2014 is evolving quite nicely displaying notes of pitted black cherry with smoked pepper and animal notes. It is round with mature tannins. Good acidity with an elegant funky note. Arianna’s wines don’t need an introduction. This is a half half blend of Frappato and Nero d’Avola.

Cantina Margo is the project of Carlo Tabarrini, one of the luminaries of the Italian natural wine world. Years ago, my introduction to natural wines included some of their wines. From Umbria with love, Carlo plants old clones of Sangiovese, Grechetto and Trebbiano grapes without controlling the temperature and no filtration.

This is a high class Sangiovese. A bit balsamic with fantastic concentration of red fruits and wild flowers. It has a beautiful balance and structure which entice you to have more. Pure Bliss. Represented by Vinealis.

Pico Taibane 2017 by Angiolino Maule

31 Tuesday Mar 2020

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Maybe spending $50 in a bottle wine is not the greatest thing to do in these strange times. This is the type of thing that my mom told me the other day: “you can’t spend money on wine during times of pandemic”. But I never listen to my mom or anyone else, just the little voice inside my head.

The wines of Angiolino Maule were some of the first natural wines that I ever tasted. Angiolino owns the mythical estate of La Biancara in the Veneto. He is a man of many hats: Saxophonist, Pizzaiolo, baker and a prominent winemaker. La Biancara makes some of the greatest natural wines in Italy and perhaps the world. I have been drinking their wines for some years now and they never had dissapointed me.  They are extremely clean and well balanced.

You dont know Garganega until you try one of Angiolino white wines. His wines are even praised by conventional wine media such as Wine Spectator. For an excellent profile of la Biancara, consult this article: Out of the funk, Can “natural wine” be free of faults? Ask Angiolino.

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One of the latest wines that I tried from him was Pico Taibane 2017. Pico is produced with Garganega grapes only, carefully selected in the highest hills of Gambellara, its fermentation starts spontaneously. The aging takes place for 12 months in big barrels (15 hectolitres). It is bottled without filtration and sulphites.

Pico is a light maceration wine. The nose is fascinating like all the wines of Maule. It has deep notes of honey laced with herbal undertones with soft aromas of apricot jam. The palate displays a pristine quality. The wine is rich but very well balanced. Lots of yellow fruit but also all those lovely mineral volcanic notes of volcanic Garganega.

I paired this wine with a simple dish of carbonara pasta. It went really well. The wine complemented nicely the richness of the pasta.

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Do not hesitate to order via Oenopole. Get together five friends and share a case of 6.

Cheers!!

Strange times with not so strange wines

31 Tuesday Mar 2020

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The current situation that we live in with the Coronavirus is nothing short than a Bunuel movie or the Netflix series: Stranger Things. Most of us are confined in our homes while a mysterious virus slowly infects the world population.

It is April and the situation is even more weird because it is spring. The days are sunny and the weather is starting to warm up. There is a serene calm on the streets, almost eery. It brings to mind the movie I am legend.

We try to carry on with our lives but have the feeling that nothing will ever be the same again…

We are home prisoners and continue to carry on. Some of us exercise, cook, do origami or even drink massive amounts of natural wine. I do all of the above mentioned except the Japanese art.

This is the perfect time to try different wines because we are living extraordinary times. So break a leg, escape the routine and try something new

And also by doing so, you are supporting your local wine trade that is being very strained during these times

Here are three wines from my selection in these strange times.

Alessandro Viola Note di Bianco 2018 ( $40, Six pack case, Agence Sans Nom)

Perhaps one of the most sensational wines tried in 2020. You drink this Grillo by the nose. Aromas of citronella, lemon nougat and blanched almonds. Fresh with a nice savoury acidity. Alessandro Viola owns 7 hectares with varietals that include Grillo, Nero d’Avola, Nerello Mascalese and Catarratto. Located on Monte Bonifitato, overlooking Alcamo, the company philosophy is simple: make wine using only grapes. Pure wine, Viola believes, is not only more ethical but better.

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Dobra Vinice Pinot Noir Pet Nat. ( $33.28, Six pack case, Ward et Associes)

The wines of the Czech continue to intrigue my imagination. This sparkler from Vinice can give a run for it’s money for any Champagne from one of the big houses. It has fantastic aromas of red berries with the appropriate dose spice note:vanilla bean and white chocolate

Tre Dame Emilia Rosato Bio Frizzante ( $35.74, Six pack case, Ward et Associes)

Tre Dame” by Ca de Noci is a sparkling wine based on Sgavetta and rare native varieties, obtained with the method of refermentation in the bottle. The “Tre Dame” proves to be an excellent rosé with light funky tines, minerals and small berries, with excellent acidity complemented  by subtle tannins.