Traditional Wines 

Pavette

the place

North and Central Coast California

the grapes

Sauvignon Blanc

the process

Grapes picked early in the season at just over 21 Brix. Cool and slow fermentation in stainless steel tank with no malolactic conversion.

the price

$15

Marcel Couturier Mâcon-Loché Les Longues Terres

the place

Burgundy

the grapes

Chardonnay

the process

After a manual harvest, whole bunches of grapes are crushed in pneumatic presses. Two presses are used simultaneously to avoid any oxidation or loss of aromatics. The must is then naturally decanted and racked off its gross lees before going into four and five-year-old barrels for fermentation with indigenous yeasts. As the cellar is kept cold, fermentation is very slow and goes on into the following spring. Malolactic fermentation goes until the following summer. The wines ferment and age in the same barrels until the following August without racking and bâtonnage, as Marcel is wary of making the wines too fat and leesy.

the price

$33

Les Heretiques

the place

Languedoc

the grapes

80% Carignan and 20% Grenache

the process

The Carignan vines average 40 years in age, with some of them being up over 100 years old. The fruit is sustainably farmed and harvested partly by hand and partly by machine. The Carignan remains in whole clusters and goes through a carbonic maceration in tank. The Grenache is destemmed and goes through a 3-4-week maceration in concrete vats. Fermentation is with selected yeasts. The two varieties are blended and aged in tank.

the price

$15

Amaltea de Loxarel

the place

Penedes

the grapes

34% Tempranillo, 33% Cabernet, and 33%Merlot

the process

The harvest is done manually. The grapes are de-stemmed and macerated in stainless steel tanks at a controlled temperature of 10 ° C. Loxarel Amaltea is fermented for 15 days at a temperature of between 20º and 25º. Each variety undergoes this process separately. Finally, Loxarel Amaltea is aged for 10 months in Hungarian oak barrels. Only when aging has completed, the final blend is made. Biodynamic.

the price

$23