Info on the 2020 releases added plus Corenthin here
Raúl Calle Viticultor information posted!
Almost everything we know about Raúl Calle’s wines for now has been posted here!
Raúl and Laura Calle are making brilliant, individualistic wines in the Gredos in a completely different style from some perhaps better known producers like their friend and equally iconoclastic Fabio Bartolomei (see here) or larger, much more polished producers like Comando G or Marañones. Here is very small scale artisanal work, with no added sulfites, wines with some edges, pulsating energy and plenty of emotion.
Celler Tarannà Po-etic information posted!
Almost everything we know about Aitor’s wines, Celler Tarannà Po-etic, for now has been posted here!
Aitor is a new voice in Tarragona, located between leading producers Joan Ramon Escoda and Jordi Llorens, both of whom he works with and both of whom have clearly influenced Aitor. Yet his wines are as distinctively his own as his painstakingly detailed labels.
Domaine de la Tour du Bon posted!
Almost everything we know about Tour du Bon’s wines for now has been posted here!
Agnès Henry has run this lovely, small Bandol estate since 1990, adhering with great consistency to a simple philosophy of organic farming and making the wines as simply as possible for maximum pleasure and digestibility. Bandol is the great source of Mourvèdre based wines, both red and Rosé. We can’t think of more charming, versatile, drinkable Bandol than those of Tour du Bon.
Domaine Balazu des Vaussières posted!
Almost everything we know about Domaine Balazu des Vaussières’s wines for now has been posted here!
Domaine Balazu des Vaussières is a tiny Domaine based in Tavel in the Southern Rhône, making biodynamic and minimal intervention wines, without added sulfites. They’re stunning wines, very pure, totally different from anything else in the region, yet utterly of the region.
SIN Project information posted!
Almost everything we know about SIN Project’s wines for now has been posted here!
SIN Project is another project by consultant winemaker Amós Bañeres with his pal Alex Rios. The aim is to make pale, fresh, light, vegetal, un-manipulated wines from their region which is better known for rich and heavy, usually oaked wines.
Domaine Gangloff information posted!
Almost everything we know about Yves Gangloff’s wines for now has been posted here!
Yves Gangloff produces some of the world’s greatest and most sought after Syrah from Côte Rôtie and Viognier from Condrieu. Starting in the mid 1980’s he has very carefully built a reputation for impeccable quality – at the expense of volume for the quantities are very limited. Yves remains totally hands-on carrying out every aspect of the work himself – and is usually there to meet his customers, too.
Nanclares y Prieto information posted!
Almost everything we know about Alberto Nanclares’s wines for now has been posted here!
Alberto Nanclares produces around just 40,000 bottles a year of sublime Albariño in the Rias Baixas D.O. He’s an economist turned farmer. And the pioneer of organic farming in this region and still one of the few. He’s adored by other natural winemakers in Galicia and little by little becoming known on a wider stage.
Bodega Frontio information posted!
Almost everything we know about Bodega Frontio’s wines for now has been posted here!
Bodega Frontio was founded in 2016 by Dane Thyge Jensen in the little known D.O. Arribes in the Duero region bordering on Portugal. He quit a good day job in Copenhagen to come here with his family to farm. Ever humorous he’s also evidently committed to making fine wine from local grapes and promoting sustainable farming while he’s about it.
Bernardo Estevez information posted!
Almost everything we know about Bernardo Estevez’s wines for now has been posted here!
Bernardo Estevez is based in the Ribeiro and is revered by the handful of Galician natural winemakers we know for his work in the vineyard while being totally modest about his wines. He makes far too few bottles but they’re as beautiful as the vines.
List of Off’s at Le Salon des Vins de Loire
Here’s a list of Off’s around the very mainstream Loire Salon.
What: Les Pénitentes
Where: Hôtel des Pénitentes, 23 bd Descazeaux, 49000 Angers
When: 2019-02-02 Saturday & 03 Sunday, 10h-18h
Dégustation professionnelle
What: Les Anonymes
Where: Abbaye du Ronceray, Passage de la Censerie, 49000 Angers
When: 2019-02-03 Sunday, 10h-19h
Dégustation professionnelle
What: Salon St Jean
Where: Greniers St Jean, 49000 Angers.
When: 2019-02-02 Saturday & 03 Sunday, 10h-18h
Dégustation professionnelle
What: La Dive
Where: Ackerman Caves, 19 Rue Léopold Palustre, 49400 Saumur
When: 2019-02-03 Sunday & 04 Monday, 10h-18h
Dégustation professionnelle
What: La Levée de la Loire
Where: Angers Parc Expo, Amphitea, Route de Paris, 49000 Angers
When: 2019-02-04 Monday & 05 Tuesday, 10h-18h
Dégustation professionnelle
There’s even less information to be found on who’s showing than for the Montpellier Off’s the weekend before but it’s likely to be similar to years’ past, in other words a treat; while sometimes a bit of a scrum.
Antonio Míguez Amil information posted!
Almost everything we know about Antonio Míguez Amil’s wines for now has been posted here!
Antonio Míguez Amil makes just one red wine, a fine, cool Ribeiro in Galicia called Boas Vides (good vines), from around six indigenous varieties, organically farmed on ancient stone terraces, on largely granite soils.
List of Off’s at Millesime Bio 2019
Here’s a list of salons around Millesime Bio 2019.
Millesime Bio itself takes place from Monday 2019-01-28, 10h-19h, to 2019-01-29 & 30, 9h-18h.
What: Vin de Mes Amis
Where: Domaine de Verchant, 34170 Castelnau le Lez
When: 2019-01-27 & 28, 10h-19h
http://www.le-vin-de-mes-amis.com/fr/
Cost: €12
Dégustation professionnelle
What: Les Affranchis
Where: Château de Flaugergues, 1744 Avenue Albert Einstein, 34000 Montpellier
When: 2019-01-27 & 28, 11h-19h & 18h
Cost: €10
Dégustation professionnelle
What: Biotop
Where: Les Grands Chais, Mauguio
When: 2019-01-27 & 28, 10h-18h
Cost: €10
Dégustation professionnelle
What: Les vignerons de l’irréel à Montpellier
Where: Le Dieze, 188 Avenue du Marché-Gare, 34070 Montpellier
When: 2019-01-27 & 28, 10h-18h
Cost: €10
Dégustation professionnelle
What: Roots 66
Where: Château de la Mogère, 2235 rte de Vauguières, 34000 Montpellier
When: 2019-01-28 & 29, 11h-18h
Cost: €5
Dégustation professionnelle
It’s surprisingly difficult to find lists of producers attending the fairs other than and even on third party platforms like Facebook (which we don’t do). But usually it’s the same or similar to previous years.
Celler La Salada-Mas Candí information posted!
Almost everything we know about Celler La Salada-Mas Candí’s wines for now has been posted here!
Toni and Anna Carbó with Ramon Jane Garriga and Merce Pujol are making a large and eclectic but very fine and ever improving collection of wines, from organic wines and without any additives.
Els Vinyerons Vins Naturals information posted!
Almost everything we know about Els Vinyerons Vins Naturals wines for now has been posted here!
Els Vinyerons Vins Naturals is a brilliantly realised project to make inexpensive organic, sans soufre, terroir wines. By Alex Rios and Amós Bañeres, who each produce very successful but totally different wines in their own name.
La Perdida information posted!
Almost everything we know about La Perdida’s wines for now has been posted here!
La Perdida is run by Nacho Gonzalez who produces fewer than 15,000 bottles a year from 28 tiny parcels of vines in inland Galicia. A maverick, he’s fiercely organic, and works without any additives in the cellar. The wines are humorous and generous, and as riveting as Nacho’s work.
Amós Bañeres information posted!
Almost everything we know about Amós Bañeres’s wines for now has been posted here!
Amós makes tiny quantities of pure, complex, elegant, rich and totally gorgeous wines from a small hillside near Vilafranca in the Penedès of Macabeu on one side and Xarel-lo on the other. Without added sulfites.
Valentin Valles information posted!
Almost everything we know about Valentin Valles’s wines for now has been posted here!
Valentin makes some of the most original and natural wines in the Rhône. He worked for a several years at L’Anglore. His own wines have a wonderful lightness of touch, sense of fun and play about them, as well as great balance and harmony.
Jean-Philippe Padié information posted!
Everything we know about Jean-Philippe Padié’s wines for now has been posted here!
Jean-Philippe Padié makes some of most natural, pure, delicate and complex wines in the Roussillon from his biodynamically farmed vines sited on a mosaic of soils in Calce. Each Cuvée is a fabulous adventure.
Charvin information posted!
Everything we know about Laurent Charvin’s wines for now has been posted here!
Laurent Charvin is one of the greatest producers in all of France, crafting great Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Côtes du Rhône unlike almost any others in these Appellations, bringing incredible freshness and elegance to the rich natural taste of the terroir.
Bois de Boursan information posted!
Everything we know about Bois de Boursan’s wines for now has been posted here!
Jean-Paul Versino is one of the few remaining producers in Châteauneuf-du-Pape to work traditionally: a blend of all terroirs of the Appellation, very old vines, whole bunch fermentation with natural yeasts, minimal intervention and long ageing in foudre. He consistently produces great wine, which we’ve been drinking for 20 years. He has resisted all attempts to modernise and we’re grateful.
Thierry Alexandre information posted!
Everything we know about Thierry Alexandre’s wines for now has been posted here!
Thierry Alexandre makes tiny volumes of Syrah and Marsanne in the Northern Rhône, both St Joseph and Vin de France, and since 2017 a Crozes-Hermitage Blanc (just 300 bottles, though). The wines have a delicious purity and are old fashioned in the sense of being relatively light, gently balanced, neither too fruity, nor too earthy.
Charly Thevenet information posted!
Everything we know about Charly Thevenet’s wine for now has been posted here!
Charly Thevenet makes outstanding Cru Beaujolais. Like his Papa, Jean-Paul, he makes a very limited quantity of just one wine from one Appellation, in his case, Regnié. Fruit, finesse, freshness, complexity are all present.
Escoda-Sanahuja information posted!
Everything we know about Joan Ramon Escoda’s wines for now has been posted here!
Joan Ramon is one of the pioneers of natural wine in Catalonia, Spain, has been working sans soufre since 2007 and makes brilliantly digestible and energetic wines that carefully balance fruit and root savouriness. The whole range is a delight.
Jean-Paul Thevenet information posted!
Everything we know about Jean-Paul Thevenet’s wines for now has been posted here!
Jean-Paul Thevenet is one of the pioneers of natural wine in Beaujolais. His wines are subtle, complex, fine, sublime.
Viños Ambiz information posted!
Everything we know about Fabio’s wines for now has been posted here!
Fabio is a unique voice in the trendy but still unknown Sierra de Gredos region west of Madrid. It’s a large, dispersed mountainous area with a sea of abandoned vineyards from another age which producers like Fabio are slowly recovering. Fabio is entirely self-taught, his wines have an innocent purity, are usually cloudy and strange-looking but burst with the taste of what they are.
Jordi Llorens information posted!
Everything we know about Jordi’s wines for now has been posted here!
Jordi makes beautiful sans soufre wines in the Conca de Barberà region, near his friend Joan Ramon Escoda. An eighth generation farmer who has a deep understanding and love of his soils, he’s been making wine since 2008.