Pay no attention to the byline. This primer to our new seasonal selection of natural wines is the work of TK, our wine guy, unfiltered, with no added sulfites.
La Patience, Blanc is a blend of grenache blanc, chardonnay, and vermentino grapes (all white grapes). It comes from the Rhone River Valley in the south of France, close to the Mediterranean Sea. This wine is certified organic in its farm and cellar practices. 2018 Vin de France.
Tasting notes of golden raisins, ripe pear, and honeysuckle, medium acidity.
Great with the Great Summer Caper, Saucisson Sec, Whitefish & Herring, Pork Lion, Big Dipper, Spring Roll, Comté cheese, Hidden Falls cheese, Prairie Breeze cheddar.
Served chilled. $7 BTG / $30 BTB—750 mL bottle
Pullus is made from 100% pinot gris grape and is a dry wine. Pullus is a skin-contact white wine, meaning that during maceration (the crushing of the grapes while the juices start to ferment) the skin of the grapes are left in with the juice for up to 72 hours, giving the wine a hue ranging from copper to hay. This process is characteristic of central Europe and over the past few years has seen a resurgence in the natural wine world. Pullus is produced in the oldest winery in Slovenia, Ptujska Klet winery, in the city of Ptuj. Wine produced in this region dates back to the Romans. 2018 vintage.
Tasting notes of crisp citrus, pear, dry minerality and complexity coming from the extended skin contact of the grapes.
Great with the Cold Turkey, Clubhaus, NWS Salad, Fuzzy Bunny, Gorilla, any of our dry cured salumi, Whitefish & Herring, dill salmon, Bent River Camembert, Sogn Tomme.
Serve chilled. $6.5 BTG / $28 BTB—750 mL bottle
La Boutanche Gamay. You may be familiar withLa Boutanche from the Trollinger, a wine we carried from August into the early Fall. Welcome—from the Beaujolais region in the Rhone River Valley of west central France (just north of Lyon)—La Boutanche’s Gamay . This is a 100% gamay grape and very much an all-day drinker (glou glou). Each winemaker from the La Boutanche collective has their own animal “deity” as their labels. The Hawaiian shirt wearing-sweaty pig belongs to French winemaker Olivier Minot. 2018.
Tasting notes that are light to medium bodied, tart fruit forward cherries, while soft tannins of black tea round out this delicious gem.
Pairs excellently with the Sitka Sushi, Spring Roll, Fuzzy Bunny, Slammin’ Gordon, Bahn Faux Mi, Big Dipper, and the Hedonist. Also fantastic with all of our salumi, especially the pepperoni and chorizo. As for cheese, goes great with our Blue Earth Brie, Hidden Falls, Friesago, Camembert, Comté.
$7 BTG / $43 BTB—1 L Bottle
Tamí is 100% Nero d’Avola, an idigenous grape from Sicily, Italy. 2017. Where to start with this one? Arianna Occhipinti made her first vintage in 2006 at age 24. She debuted at a wine expo in Italy and blew everyone away. Super long and great story short, she graduated from university then went back to study viticulture and found herself arguing against all her professors. At this time in the early 2000’s, it was very common practice to use pesticides and non-indigenous grapes in the wine world. Rewind a few years back, her uncle had been making wine the natural way for his whole life and when she was 16 she helped him during harvest and since then, she understood that growing grapes naturally and being in-sync with nature, the grapes would produce the most reflective terroir possible.
Arianna has become a prominent figure for a new generation of winemakers in Sicily and furthermore globally.
Tasting notes of juicy, cooked black cherry and berries with a little bit of woodsiness. Refreshing and medium bodied with nice acidity, salinity, and soft but prominent tannins.
Pairs extremely well with the Big Dipper, Italianesk, salamini & all dry cured meats, Black Pepper and Coriander salmon, Great Summer Caper, Pastrami Mommy, Purple Range, King candy. Cheeses it would complement include Sogn Tome, Camembert, and Friesago.
$7.5 BTG / $34 BTB—750 ml bottle
Looking for natural wine in liquor stores in Duluth? Check the bottles for one of these three importers: Selection Massale, Jenny & Francois, & Louis/Dressner.
