July 2025 Newsletter
July's newsletter divides evenly into two parts. There are wines that are made close to the ocean, and wines made far from the ocean. We're curious to see if they taste different.
Part I: Wines from the Ocean: Open to taste on July 5th
Mokoroa Txakolina Rosado 2024 $18
Basque wine is like Basque food. Just like the Pintxos at a bar in San Sebastian or Bilbao, it should be served casually, in any sort of glass and never more than an ounce or two in a constantly re-filled glass. Basque wine is crisp and bright and extends an open invitation for the next sip, just the way every Pintxo is a perfect appetizer for the next. The two go together perfectly, and in the green valley behind the seaside fishing village of Getaria, Jose Antonio Mokoroa makes perfect Txakoli. His Rosado is a blend of two native varieties, Hondarrabi Zuri and Hondarrabi Belza, picked early and bottled with a whiff of trapped CO2 to add even more zest to a wine already humming with an electric current of acid. There’s aromas of fresh strawberries, dewy roses, peach and salt. There’s flavors of fresh picked raspberries and cranberries and lime blossoms. There are crunchy salt crystals on the finish. Txakoli is always delicious, but it’s even better on sunny days with small plates.
La Patience Vin de France Rose 2024 $16
Whatever blessed soul first thought to put Grenache and Cinsault together in a pale pink wine, their legacy has spread throughout Mediterranean France and given life to hundreds of delicious Rosé wines from Provence and Languedoc. One such wine is Christophe Aguilar’s estate Rosé, organically farmed since 2007 in the Gard district of eastern Languedoc. The wine is named for the herb that grows throughout the vineyard, an element in the garrigue aromatic recipe that permeates the region. A little of that aroma makes it into the wine too, alongside notes of grapefruit, wild strawberry, lavender, orange and salt. The palate is fresh and lively and juicy and filled with notes of bright red cherry, strawberry, and sunshine. As luck would have it, no actual patience is required for this friendly summertime wine. Serve it with curried chicken salad, with potato salad, with tuna salad, and the sandwiches you might have alongside salad.
Terre Porziane Frascati Superiore 2024 $19
For all the work Romans did to spread vineyards to every corner of Europe, the wines that actually come from the city of Rome have never attracted much fanfare. History has a sense of humor sometimes, but for Antonio Pulcini, Rome’s most local wine is no joke. Frascati is the name, generally a light, inoffensively crisp wine made from Malvasia. Antonio believes that most of it is made from the wrong Malvasia. There’s a local strain called Malvasia di Lazio, or Puntinata, that Antonio considers the only correct grape for Frascati, and while he allows a small proportion of Trebbiano in his wine, the Puntinata does most of the work. There is nothing shy about this wine. Aromas come blasting out of the glass like peach and flint, orange peel and white flowers. The palate is creamy yet cut with razor sharp acidity, filled with meyer lemon, cara cara oranges, and white pepper. The finish offers lip-smacking minerality and a whiff of pineapple. Serve with white pizzas, brown lentils, and yellow cheeses.
Castiadas Vermentino di Sardegna Praidis 2023 $21
Castiadas is a village in southern Sardinia between scrub-covered mountains and the sea. From 1875 to 1956, it was the site of Italy’s largest penal colony. The surrounding farmland was largely abandoned and returned to marshland. After the prison’s closure the Sardinian Agrarian Reform Agency partnered with local winemakers to form this cooperative winery, dedicated to reclaiming agriculture in the region. Today, the winery farms 150 hectares spread throughout the province of Serrabus-Gerri. The profound lack of romance in Castiadas’ story is surprising, considering the impressive quality of the wine. This Vermentino was raised in stainless steel to preserve the striking nose of mint, rosemary, lavender, peach and preserved lemon. The palate is fairly full bodied with even more herbaceous flavors; eucalyptus, sage, rosemary and thyme alongside lemons and limes and sea salt. A convincing match for saltwater fish dishes or garlicky chicken.
Brea Central Coast Chardonnay 2023 $22
This clear-headed, fresh flavored California Chardonnay is the surprise of the newsletter! Chris Brockway of Broc Cellars and Tim Elenteny of TE Imports formed Brea Wines to make fresh and food friendly workaday wines from California with a minimum of fuss. For this Chardonnay, they sourced grapes from two Monterey-area vineyards – two of California’s coldest – with old vines and exceptional exposition. With acidity in mind, they picked the grapes much earlier than most California Chardonnay comes off the vine, and put it in exclusively neutral oak barrels for seven months to give a hint of extra texture. The result is classic old-school California: aromas of peach and lemon curd, oregano and salty brioche; flavors of applesauce and lime and orange and crunchy crystals and vanilla bean, before a beautifully crisp finish. We were frankly stunned at the quality and value of this wine, and we think this will appeal to both fans and skeptics of classic California Chardonnay. Serve up with lemon-pepper chicken for best results.
Château Tire Pé Bordeaux Diem 2023 $21
There is no shortage of Bordeaux that tastes just like classic Bordeaux. There is a kind of gravity to the land that pulls wine inexorably to the center of the flavor wheel at the nexus where clay and plum meet. There is so much Bordeaux that it is difficult to stand out from the crowd, but when it happens, it is pure magic. On an unusually steep hill above the town of Gironde-sur-Dropt on Bordeaux’s eastern edge, David and Hélène Barrault make wine that stands out. This cuvee is made entirely from Merlot grown in clay-limestone soil, and after the grapes are harvested by hand, the fermentation and aging take place entirely in cement tanks. The resulting wine smells purely of plums and proper Maine blueberries, orange oil and wet clay and dried herbs. The palate is utterly silky, fairly full bodied but fuller of flavors like blackberry, orange peel, and limestone minerality. The finish is pleasantly earthy too, with hints of pepper, cranberry, and currant. Play the classics with this workaday Bordeaux: steak, potatoes, and cuts hot off the grill.
Josep Maria Vendrell Montsant Serè 2023 $20
This is Josep Maria Vendrell’s fourth vintage. A young winemaker with long and bright future, he farms 17 hectares of wines in the mountains of southern Catalonia, where the most famous wines are the rich, savory, deeply carved reds of Priorat. Montsant surrounds Priorat on four sides. The clay and schist teruno (terroir) is wilder, and the stakes are a little lower, so if Josep Maria wants to pick his grapes a little earlier than his neighbors, and if he ages his wines in neutral oak to preserve the pure flavors produced by eighty year old Carinena and Garnacha vines, no one is going to stop him. It would be silly to try, because this is a fantastic wine that perfectly captures the spirit of Montsant. Aromas of fig, dried cherries, tobacco leaf, orange peel, and sun-baked soil come before a surprisingly fresh feeling, full bodied palate that still delivers warm climate flavors of orange cordial, dried figs, tinder-dry underbrush and slate minerality. This wine will do wonders with rare steaks, polenta, and patatas bravas.
Part II: Wines from the Land: Open to Taste on July 12th
Markus Molitor Mosel Sekt Brut $20
There was a time when there was very little distinction between quality Sekt from the Mosel and quality Champagne. Since those days in the early 19th century, the gap between the two has grown somewhat, but every now and again, we see a glimpse of potential for German sparkling wine. Markus Molitor’s cheerfully crisp Sekt is one of those glimpses. His vineyards are in most of the grand cru vineyards along the Mittelmosel, hand-farmed steep slopes that produce intensely flavored Riesling grapes. In this wine we get the vibrant side of Riesling, with aromas of lemon, lime, apple blossoms and slate. The palate is zesty and clean cut, full of lemon zest and applesauce before a clean cut finish. Sparkling wines this good tend to cost at least $30, stock up before anyone tells Markus he should charge more. Pair this with charmer with all sorts of light summer fare, charcuterie, or bratwurst.
Mary Taylor Wines Felipe Ferreira Douro Branco 2023 $17
The Calem family has owned the Felipe Ferreira vineyard since 1872. Nestled into the Cima Corgo of the Douro Valley where most of the great Port houses are based, Ferreira wines are made in a strictly low-tech way. Grapes are planted on steep terraces, so all work in the vineyard is done by hand, and most of the work in the cellar is done by foot, the oldest and least sophisticated method of grape pressing. The Branco is a blend of four native white varieties; Rabigato, Malvasia Fina, Viosinho, and Gouveio, grapes that blend together just as naturally as the red grapes do in Douro’s Ports. The wine does a similar job of capturing the Douro’s sunny, stony, and savory terroir. Aromas of peach and plantain, preserved lemon and dried herbs come with a touch of salt and granite. The palate is full bodied and comes in waves of peach and orange and mineral salt before a starburst of acidity on the finish. Seafood stew, ceviche, and paella are a few of many pairing options.
Disznoko Tokaji Dry 2023 $19
Disznoko has been home to grape vines since at least 1413, according to tax records. When Empress Maria Theresa of Austria established Europe’s first legally defined Crus in 1757, Disznoko was among them, a status it held until Soviet-era bulldozers arrived in the 1950s to erase Tokaji’s centuries-old status as Europe’s finest wine. After the collapse of the communist government in the 1990s, Hungarian winemakers returned to Tokaji to revive the region’s fortunes. Disznoko was one of the very first vineyards to come back. For most of its history, Tokaji was known as the first and greatest botrytis-infused sweet wine, but dry wine is easier to make and faster to market in a fragile recovering economy, thus was Dry Tokaji born. The Furmint grape makes great sweet wine because it has outrageous acidity; for a dry wine, that same acid makes crystalline bright notes of lemon and lime, yellow roses and basalt-driven minerality. The palate is full of nervous energy, lemon and yellow plum and green apple before a lightly salty finish. A perfect choice for chicken flavored with paprika, shellfish, or sushi.
Francesca Castaldi Vino Rosso Pianazzi 2023 $21
Briona is a small and unassuming town in the Colline Novaresi region of northern Piedmont. Just north of town, a bank of hills begins to rise out of the Po River Valley. These hills eventually turn into Swiss Alps, but here, they are gentle slopes covered in forest and the occasional vineyard. Francesca Castaldi’s ancestors came here in the 1700s and have been making wine ever since. When she took over the family vineyards in 1997, she revitalized the vineyards to take better care of the oldest vines, and introduced modern equipment for gentler handling of the grapes. This cheerful and bright red Nebbiolo is the gentlest wine she makes. The clear shade of ruby is a strong hint of things to come; backed up by aromas of cranberry and raspberry, gooseberry lemon zest, and white pepper. The palate shimmers with acidity and clean, fresh flavors of strawberries and cherries and raspberries, lightly peppered with delicate tannins. Pull this wine out of the refrigerator and pair with light salads, charcuterie spreads, and caprese salad.
Domaine Colin Coteaux du Vendômois Pierre François 2023 $21
Pineau d’Aunis is a rare and specific grape variety that grows nowhere but along the banks of the Loir River north of Tours, in an appellation called the Coteaux du Vendomois. It’s quite cool here, but the river gives just enough warmth to temper the vines that hug the banks. The Colin family has been making wine in the area for eight generations; after all that practice they’ve just about nailed it. Patrice Colin farms a mix of Pineau d’Aunis, Chenin Blanc, Cabernet Franc, Pinot Noir and Gamay on 25 hectares of organically tended vines. Domaine Colin wines are always spicy, but this red blend led by Pineau d’Aunis is particularly so, with aromas of white pepper, black raspberry, yellow clay, red strawberries, pipe smoke and rhubarb. The palate is sharply defined by burbling acidity and peppery tannins, supporting flavors of pepper and raspberry and chalky soil. Serve with peppery chicken, saucy pork, and charcuterie.
Domaine du Cros Marcillac Lo Sang del Pais 2023 $19
Marcillac is not a famous wine destination, and it never has been. Marcillac is a mining town, close to several rich coal deposits in the upper reaches of the Massif Central. In the 18th and 19th century, miners flocked to the area and filled up local taverns and pubs. The local wine trade boomed, and the Fer Servadou grape became the standard shift drink. Domaine du Cros names their cuvee “blood of the earth”, a name that takes extra resonance with this context. The nose gives notes of potting soil, pepper, oregano, black cherry and tobacco. The palate offers black cherry, pepper, and tarry, iron-struck earth, robust tannins and just enough acidity to keep the fruit fresh. The coal mines mostly closed in the 1960s and most of the people moved to Toulouse or Montpellier looking for better work, but a few remained, just enough to preserve this old school and solidly blue collar wine region. Serve with hearty dishes like burgers, stews and risottos.
The Winemaker's Barrel: Sound & Vision: Open to taste July 26th
Joe Chepolis and Carmen Nydegger didn’t expect to end up in southern Oregon making wine. It was a surprise to everyone involved that a bike racer and a film producer found themselves farming grapes in the Rogue Valley, and yet it seems to work. Working with a minimum of fuss in both the vineyard and the cellar, they make some extremely tasty wine from some unheralded varieties that certainly turned our heads. Saturday afternoon, Joe will be on hand with some very cool wines.
Sound & Vision Applegate Valley Vermentino 2024 $24
Sound & Vision Applegate Valley Rose of Primitivo Pig Missile 2024 $24
Sound & Vision California Dolcetto 2022 $30
Sound & Vision 4 Diamonds Vineyard Nero d'Avola 2023 $30