October Wine Club

Hello Spooky Season!!! Le Mistral Tier: Tenuta di Tavignano’s Il Pestifero is the kind of wine we love to have around: playful, a little wild, and matches the crisp evenings heading our way. Plus the monster face on the label helps. From the Marche region of central Italy, Tenuta di Tavignano is a 230-hectare estate in the hills of Cingoli, within the Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi appellation. The estate was purchased in 1973 by Stefano Aymerich di Laconi and Beatrice Lucangeli, and in the 1990s they made the decision to focus on native Marche varieties rather than the international grapes that were fashionable at the time. Today the estate is certified organic, and Il Pestifero comes from their “I Love Monsters” line. Made primarily from Verdicchio, this is an unfiltered, ancestral-method frizzante with a gentle natural sparkle. It’s bright and dry, with lemon and citrus, fresh herbs, soft florals and a subtle mineral quality, while the bubbles give the wine a lively, almost salty finish. This is a bottle for aperitivo, salty snacks, fried seafood, tinned fish, fresh cheeses or anything with a little heat.

Claré J.C. from G.D. Vajra is truly special wine and we were allocated just a small amount this year, making it a great addition to wine club. Made from 100% Nebbiolo in the Langhe, it is a lightly sparkling red inspired by the way young, fresh Nebbiolo was made and enjoyed in the Piedmont of the past. The Vajra family spent years experimenting to recreate this historic style, using their own version of the Metodo Ancestrale, including whole clusters and fermentation that leaves just the slightest natural spritz. Even the name has a story: “Claré” is an Italianized version of “claret,” the old English term for a good dry red, while the J.C. honors Thomas Jefferson's accounts of this style of wine from the region, and the wine-loving John Corti. The result is Nebbiolo stripped of its serious, cellar-worthy reputation and turned loose: bright ruby fruit, wild strawberry, raspberry, rosehip, fresh citrus peel, white pepper and flowers, with silky tannins and a little fizz that makes the whole thing feel electric. Chill it down and drink it with pizza, grilled sausages or a plate of salty French fries.

Iruai’s Psychic Terroir is a mountain wine fitting for the season. Iruai is the project of winemaker Chad and Michelle Westbrook Hinds. The wines are made from high-elevation vineyards and a wonderfully eclectic collection of alpine varieties. Psychic Terroir is a whole-cluster field blend from the Rogue Valley’s Applegate Valley AVA, combining Grenache, Muscat, Cabernet Franc, Syrah, Gamay and Gewürztraminer. The idea behind the wine is wonderfully unconventional: terroir isn’t only soil, climate and elevation, but also the emotional and intuitive experience of drinking a wine. It is meant to feel like a memory or a song rather than a technical exercise. In the glass, expect bright blackberry and mountain berry fruit alongside tomato leaf, peppercorn, rose and an aromatic lift from the Muscat and Gewürztraminer. It’s juicy, savory and just a little strange in exactly the right way. Pair it with whatever happens to be on the table. You can find a playlist for each of their wines on their website, here are their selections for Pyschic Terroir https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0TSra3q9mKv0cJXP9wYhdN?si=TrNEe-y1TsykEDHMdPi-RQ Bora Tier

Heron Sauvignon Blanc comes from one of California’s original independent wine personalities, Laely Heron, who founded Heron Wines in the mid-1990s after a life that included growing up around the world, studying enology in Bordeaux, opening a restaurant and importing wine in Denmark, and pursuing Master of Wine studies. Heron was unusual from the beginning: Laely was one of the early American women to build her own wine brand, and her goal has always been to seek out excellent vineyards and make balanced, affordable wines that let the grapes speak for themselves. The Sauvignon Blanc is sourced from California, with Mendocino County playing an important role, where warm days and unusually cool nights help the grapes retain acidity and freshness. It’s bright and juicy rather than aggressively grassy, with lemon, lime, mandarin, honeysuckle and tropical notes of mango and papaya. This is the Sauvignon Blanc to reach for when you want something refreshing but not one-dimensional. Drink it with goat cheese, oysters, green salads, herby roast chicken, grilled shrimp or anything with fresh citrus.

Krasno Pinot Noir comes from Klet Brda in Slovenia’s Brda region, a beautiful wine-growing area tucked into the hills near the Italian border. This is a sister wine to last month's offering. Clearly we are loving Slovenian wines this season. The vineyards sit on terraces of marl, sand and clay, with a sub-Mediterranean climate influenced by warm air from the Adriatic and cooling winds from the Alps. The Krasno Pinot Noir is hand-harvested and fermented before spending 16 months in French oak, giving the wine a little more depth and structure than you might expect from Slovenian Pinot Noir. It’s translucent ruby in the glass, with ripe red berries and wild fruit, followed by sweet spice, smooth sandy tannins and a long, warm finish. It has the freshness we love in Pinot Noir but enough texture to stand up to food, making it especially good with mushroom risotto, roast duck, smoked salmon, grilled vegetables or a simple roast chicken.

This month's wine club art club comes from Goldie's own El Bruner