Lo-Fi Albarino
Grapes 100% Albarino
Place Santa Barbara, California
Process 100% Destemmed. Skin contact for 20 hours and aged on the lees for 6 months in stainless steel. Bottled without fining or filtering.
Family Lo-Fi is a partnership between two lifelong friends who believe in hand crafted honest wines that are made for everyday drinking. Wines to be enjoyed not to be collected. Easy drinking lower alcohol wines made to pair well with all types of foods, from pizza to paté.
They believe in neutral barrels, native yeasts, little to no sulfur additions, and no adjustment of pH. We love whole cluster fermentation. They adore carbonic maceration. They embrace a nothing added, nothing taken away philosophy that gives birth to wines that are young, vibrant and alive.
Bottle: $35 | Glass: $15
Gulp Hablo Orange
Grapes 50% Verdejo, 50% Sauvignon Blanc
Place La Mancha, Spain
Process Organic and Biodynamic farming practices. All grapes are harvested by hand. Fermented using only indigenous yeasts in stainless steel tanks. No Malolactic Fermentation in order to encourage a bright, zingy, and fresh profile. Minimal filtering or fining.
Family Nestled on the high-desert plateaus of La Mancha, Bodegas Parra Jiménez is renowned for its production of wines, crafted from a blend of native and international grape varieties grown in certified organic and sustainable vineyards. The winery is committed to producing wines that are not only pure and elegant but also structured, reflecting the unique terroir of the region.
For generations, the Parra family has been deeply rooted in the agricultural traditions of La Mancha. However, it wasn't until 1993 that they established their winery, at a time when organic viticulture was still a novel concept in the area. Undeterred by this, brothers Francisco, Javier, and Luis Parra chose to pioneer organic wine production.
They founded their winery in the village of Las Mesas, near Cuenca, and by 1996, they were exporting their first certified organic wines. In 2004, the Parra family embarked on an ambitious expansion, constructing new facilities at the Cuesta Colorá estate.
Their vision was to create a biodynamic, self-sustaining ecosystem. This led them to diversify their agricultural practices, incorporating livestock rearing and the cultivation of garlic, grains, peas, and lentils, thereby completing the agricultural cycle. Today, the estate boasts Sohiscert organic and Demeter biodynamic certifications and produces not only wine but also organic garlic and Manchego cheese.
Since 2017, Pablo, Javier's son, has led the winemaking efforts at Bodegas Parra Jiménez. Drawing on his education from the University of Ribera del Duero and mentorship from the esteemed Juan Antonio Ponce, Pablo has curated a collection of concentrated, well-structured wines. His innovative approach has introduced new techniques and styles to the estate, including the production of orange wines, pet-nats, and amphorae-aged wines, alongside traditional methods.
Under Pablo's guidance, Bodegas Parra Jiménez continues to be a beacon of biodynamic farming and winemaking in La Mancha, pushing the boundaries of traditional viticulture and enology to new heights.
Bottle: $25 | Glass: $11
PoderiCellario ‘Il Vino Che Non C’e’ Vino Bianco
Grapes 80% Nascetta, 20% Cortese/Favorita
Place Piedmont, Italy
Process Spontaneous fermentation with 2 to 3 months of skin maceration in Amphora. Aged in Amphora. No filtering or fining and minimal sulfur added if necessary.
Family Fausto and Cinzia Cellario are 3rd generation winemakers in the village of Carru` on the western outskirts of the Langhe. The family believes in only working with local, indigenous Piemontese grape varieties and fiercely defends local winemaking traditions both in the vineyard work and the cellar practices. The Cellario vineyard holdings cover some 30 ha between 5 different vineyard sites covering the southern Langhe. With holdings in Novello and Monforte, the Dogliani plot is arguably the family’s most prestigious land and I would consider them Dolcetto specialists. Vineyard work is organic (soon to be certified) and all the fermentation take place with indigenous yeasts. Sulfur is only added in tiny quantities at bottling if necessary (a practice not common with a winery in this mid-size range).
Bottle: $37 | Glass: $16
Kosovec 'Ovnek' Škrlet
Grapes 100% Škrlet
Place Moslavina, Croatia
Process Organic farming. Picked by hand at full ripeness, lightly crushed and 100% destemmed. 40% of the wine is macerated and fermented for 2 weeks without temperature control in open vats and the other 60% is immediately pressed and spontaneously fermented with natural yeasts with temperature control (max up to 20°C) in inox tanks. After fermentation, both wines were mixed together, aged in inox tank, no fining, no filtering and with use of minimum SO2.
Family In a small rural village named Popovača, located in the Moslavina region about 60 kilometers southeast of Zagreb, lies the humble winery of Ivan Kosovec and his family. Ivan’s journey to becoming a winemaker began in high school when he helped his late grandfather in the family-owned vineyard of 300 vines and in the cellar. He took on chores such as mowing grass, pruning, washing barrels, racking wines, and harvesting.
In 2003, Ivan attended oenology school in Istria. During this time, he and his family managed to purchase almost 4 hectares of pristine but neglected land at the top of a hill in Moslavina, 200 meters above sea level. This property included a small, neglected old traditional wooden house, which provided ideal conditions for vineyards and a cellar. From 2003 to 2005, the family spent time deforesting, cleaning, and cultivating the land in preparation for planting, which occurred in the spring of 2005. A total of 19,000 vines were planted across 3 hectares, including Škrlet, Chardonnay, Frankovka, Zweigelt, and Pinot Noir.
Ivan learned much about modern winemaking; however, much of it did not resonate with him. He spent considerable time reading, studying, and contemplating organic viticulture and non-interventionist methods of winemaking. In 2008, Ivan began working organically in the vineyard, resulting in extremely small yields but with no artificial fertilizers, insecticides, or herbicides. He focused on manual labor, ensuring meticulous attention to detail. In the cellar, he added nothing—wines were fermented naturally with indigenous yeasts, with no added enzymes or bacteria, no fining, no filtration, and only minimal SO2 when needed.
2011 marked Ivan’s first great vintage, where everything came together, and this philosophy has remained unchanged to this day. As he says, it will continue “as long as I am running the business because for me this is the only right way to make wine.”
Bottle: $35 | Glass: $15