All posts tagged: Natural Wines

Featured Wine of the Week – Solminer 2018 “Rubellite”

Published by

Happy New Year and welcome to our first Featured Wine of the Week for 2020! Today we’re drinking a wine from Sominer called “Rubellite.” This wine is 72% Syrah, 27% Grenache, and 1% Riesling. It’s from Santa Ynez Valley in California. If you’ve been following me, you know this is my type of wine. I love wines from this region, and especially Syrahs. So, let’s dive in! Solminer is a labor of love between a husband and wife team. They were Certified Organic in 2014 and Demeter Certified Biodynamic in 2018. Their focus is on natural wines. They use chickens, donkeys, sheep, bees, fruit trees, native plants, compost, and herb teas(!) to encourage the health of the vineyard. The most notable varietals they planted were the Austrian Grüner Veltliner and Blaufränkisch, which have flourished. Solminer even makes a skin contact “orange” Grüner! The Rubellite Syrah/Grenache blend we’re drinking today is described as “an experiment gone incredibly well.” It was fermented with natural yeast and spent seven months in neutral French oak. It is unfined and …

Furlani “Joannizza” Pét-Nat

Published by

Grown in the alpine city of Trento, Italy, “Joannizza” is created from Joannita, a grape created in 1968 from a cross of Riesling, Seyve-Villard, Rulander, and Gutedel.  This varietal is fungus and disease resistant…and rare. It is only grown in a few places, mostly in Germany and Switzerland. The Furlani family vineyard has 2.5 acres of Joannita. This vineyard is currently in the hands of Matteo Furlani, a 4th generation winemaker. While the family has always practiced organic farming, Matteo has also introduced some biodynamic techniques. Additionally, wines are fermented with no yeast or sulfur, in cement tanks and small glass jugs with no temperature control. The wines are placed outside in the snow to settle. This hands-off, small-batch approach is reflected in the wine. With a week of fermentation on the skins of the grape, the secondary fermentation is completed in the bottle with conserved grape must, resulting in lovely and persistent medium-sized bubbles. The hue is a bright and cheerful lemonade yellow, with strong aromas of yeasty baked bread, unripe apricot, and toasted …

Bele Casel Prosecco ColFòndo

Published by

The natural wine movement is in full swing, and I’ve been on a hunt for a trendy “pét-nat,” or a sparkling wine that has used the pétillant naturel method. What is the pétillant naturel method? Basically, it is the process of bottling a partially fermented wine and completing the fermentation in the bottle, which produces the bubbles. The wine placed in the bottle is raw and often unfiltered – it is “natural.” This is considered the simplest way to produce effervescence, but it also has the most risk.  Since the wine in the bottle is unfinished, it’s always a gamble as to how it will turn out. Given the popularity of pét-nats, it was fairly hard to find one.  Finally, I found a cool, local wine store that had not one, but two pét-nats.  I purchased both and decided to try the Prosecco first. However, I quickly found out this Bele Casel Prosecco is not a traditional pét-nat. This one is made like a Champagne, with finished (versus unfinished) wine completing fermentation in the bottle.  Unlike …