Pinot & Friends
Pinot Noir is the most famous grape from this lineup but all of these wines are elegant stunners. If your in the mood for the lighter side of red this is your flight.
Gustavo Riffo ‘Lomas de Llahuen Pipeño’
Grapes: 100% País
Place: Valle del Itata - Chile
Process: The Pais comes from an organically farmed single parcel called Parmenia. These own-rooted vines are roughly 200 years old, densely planted on granitic clay-loam soils, and are unirrigated. Winemaking is very traditional: the grapes were destemmed, macerated on their skins during a roughly 2-week fermentation in stainless steel, pressed, and then the wine rested in stainless steel for 11 months. Bottled unfined and unfiltered, with a small amount of SO2.
Family: Gustavo hails from Portezuelo, a typical area for Pipeño production in the Itata Valley. He has been making Pipeño in the traditional style, aged in Raulí, from his family’s vines for over 10 years. After receiving a government grant to study winemaking and farming, Gustavo spent a harvest with Benziger Family Winery, one of Sonoma’s pioneers of biodynamic farming. After working harvest, he was inspired to improve farming practices on his own family farm. He started by converting the property to organics and plans to incorporate biodynamic practices in the future.
Bottle: $27 | Glass: $13
Luigi Giordano Rosso
Grapes: 80% Nebbiolo 20% Arneis
Place: Piedmont - Italy
Process: The Arneis grapes are destemmed and
pressed gently to ensure preservation of aromatics before beginning fermentation at a controlled temperature. The Nebbiolo grapes are harvested two weeks later, at which point they are also destemmed and pressed gently. The cap of the Arneis tank—complete with skins, seeds, and
actively fermenting must—is then added to the Nebbiolo. Fermented under temperature control and daily pumpover, the wine spends 8-10 days on the skins and then completes malolactic fermentation in stainless-steel tanks. After completing fermentation, the wine ages for 2 months in large Slavonian botte followed by at least 3 months in bottle prior to release.
Family: The winery was established by Giovanni Giordano in the 1930s during a time of profound crisis in the Italian wine world. After a period of growing and selling grapes, Giovanni’s son, Luigi, made the bold decision to vinify his own fruit, bottling the first wine under his own label in 1958.
Bottle: $25 | Glass: $12
Thevenet & Fils
Grapes: 100% Pinot Noir
Place: Burgundy - France
Process: The Pinot noir for this wine is found in the village of Bussières and is sourced from the lieu-dit Les Clos. The vines are south-facing at 350 feet above sea level on gently sloping hills that are principally composed of clay. The fruit tends to ripen early due to its excellent exposure. Pigeage and remontage are practiced during fermentation. This wine is marked by notes of black, ripe berries, often a touch “sauvage”.
Family: Jean-Claude Thevenet took control of the family domaine in 1971 from his father Raymond; at this time their holdings were a mere three hectares. Over the decades, Jean-Claude built the domaine to its current size of thirty hectares with vineyards centered on their village of Pierreclos at the heart of the Maconnais. Wines of purity, honesty, fine value were the objective, and indeed, the wines consistently performed at a high level.
Jean-Claude’s three sons (Benjamin, Jonathan and Aurélien) grew up dedicated to the family domaine. Jean-Claude passed away in 2008 at the too-young age of 54; but, his three talented and dedicated progeny, all functioning under the rigorous supervision of their mother Helene, have continued the domaine.
Bottle: $31 | Glass: $13
M.A.N
Grapes: Pinotage
Place: Cape Coast - South Africa
Process: Fermentation took place over 5 days in stainless steel tanks with regular pump-overs. Before the end of fermentation, the grapes were pressed and put back into tank for malolactic fermentation. Fined and filtered before bottling.
25% maturation in American oak barrels (20% new) for 12 months.
Family: As budding young winemakers back in 2001, we sometimes struggled to find decent wines we could afford. My brother Philip and I were involved with our family winery (Joostenberg Wines) and José was busy at his (Stark-Condé Wines). We weren’t looking for rockstar bottles that cost a fortune. But we had pretty high standards (in our own opinion) and wanted wines we could enjoy with our friends, most of whom were also in the wine industry. We were wine geeks in need of an everyday wine. We saw a niche in the market and got to work but first had to come up with a name for this new project. To keep peace in the families, we took our wives’ initials (we each have one wife!) — and that is how we explained to Marie, Anette and Nicky that we were going to be “busy” most weekends. “It’s for you!” we told them. We immediately got to work in an old tractor shed and that first year, we made a total of 600 cases of Pinotage.
Bottle: $14 | Glass: $5