SPRING DRINK
This week at Spring we will be pouring several wines that make us feel good on this
cold dark day in Paris, in between Christmas and New Years. The first white wine we
are happy to have around is a Chablis 2010 (17€) from a young wine-maker gaining
notoriety, named Thomas Pico who works on a small surface of 8 hectares. It’s a
wine with a lot of energy and purity- we find it to be a good introduction to the style of
chardonnay made in Chablis, with a crisp acidity and round body. It’s not much of an
exaggeration to say that Thomas is a rising star in Chablis.
The second wine comes from Chateau Pierre-Bise in the appellation Savennières,
which lies right on the Loire river next to the city of Angers. The grapes picked for
this cuvée come from the Roche aux Moines (19€) ,a specific vineyard that has
historically been noted as one of the best terroirs in the Loire valley for Chenin blanc.
Pierre-Bise makes a straightforward and sharp Chenin with that citrus fruit that
marries so well with all sorts of seafood and certain fish. It’s also good by itself.
Need a little spice in your life? If you like earthy, deep red wines, than come taste
Matthieu Barret’s Brise Cailloux (40€) from the terroir of Cornas in the northern
Rhone valley. This cuvée is a very aromatic syrah that gives off aromas of violette
and pepper, all held together with a profundity that lingers on the palate after each
sip. Like everyone in the northern Rhone, he had a lot of hail in 2008, and Matthieu’s
response was to make only one cuvee, so it has a good deal of his best vineyard
fruit in the blend. Barret is another wine-maker who has been working his vineyards
biodynamically, with little to no intervention in the cellars. One might say his wines
are alive…
The last red on the line-up is a Vacqueyras from Domaine Sang des Cailloux. The
owner and wine-maker, Serge, a lively gentleman from the south of France with a
mustache that deserves its own appellation. At the risk of sounding like a broken
Rudolf Steiner record, Serge was one of the first in his region to adopt biodynamic
farming. As a result, many would say his wines have gained in acidity, balancing
the rich and generous body and alcohol content. If you like wines that have a darker
red or black fruit, you will fall under the charm of this blend (Grenache, Syrah,
Mourvedre, Carignan), especially with the colder weather arriving.
With the new year coming around, we also decided to throw in a sparkling wine –
Vajra’s sparkling Rosé from Piemont – a blend of Nebbiolo and Pinot Noir that is a
quite successful experiment.
Stop by any time this week to try the wines – or come to the Spring Drink Social on
Thursday between 18h00 and 20h30.
Cheers!
Brendan
