Bottle Rocket: 2020 Le Petit Saint Vincent Saumur-Champigny – Les Poyeux

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If you’re a devotee of cabernet franc, chances are you’re quite familiar with Les Poyeux. This esteemed vineyard, located within the Saumur-Champigny appellation in the central Loire Valley, boasts a unique terroir highlighted by sun-drenched southern exposure and exceptionally sandy soil composition. The resulting wines are loaded with character and complexity, and the best of them offer a truly spellbinding combination of depth and freshness, of gravity and liveliness.

Dominique Joseph, of Domaine Le Petit Saint Vincent, works with less than a hectare of organically farmed old vines in Les Poyeux. (His family has owned these small parcels for decades.) The grapes are de-stemmed and fermented in concrete vats before resting in larger neutral barrels for about a year.

Dominique’s 2020 Les Poyeux is a wonderful example of the site’s capabilities. There’s a wave of dusky red fruit on the attack, and it’s buttressed by a distinct herbaceous streak and a notable hint of stony minerality. The ample acidity and abundant tannins (naturally softened by the sandy terroir) tell you that this wine will age gracefully for several years, although it’s already a knockout–and at $50, it’s quite a fair deal for a wine that comes from one of the Loire Valley’s most prestigious vineyards.

Dominique Joseph

Thanks largely to world-class bottlings by cult-favorite producer Clos Rougeard (and various disciples), Les Poyeux has been elevated to legendary status among cab franc lovers. This version from Le Petit Saint Vincent offers a chance to appreciate its charms without the hefty price tag that is often attached to these wines.

As the saying goes, “Les Poyeux c’est soyeux”–silky. Come visit the shop, and find out for yourself.

/by Marc Greilsamer

Regional Roundup: California Regeneration

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Fall is when we often see deliveries of wines so limited in supply, or so “oversubscribed,” that they aren’t normally available for purchase. Not wines limited by savvy marketers, but limited because the acreage of the vineyard is limited, and the yield per vine is low.

Two deliveries I’m especially happy to take are from Scar of the Sea and Âmevive. Both are owned by young couples that do their own farming as well as the winemaking. It’s often impossible for young people in California to own the land that produces their grapes, or even to have a long-term lease on it that enables them to farm it the way they want, without compromise (since doing so will surely lower the yield).

Scar of the Sea’s Mikey and Gina Giugni

SOTS made news when Mikey and Gina Giugni bought a vineyard they formerly leased. They were making excellent wines from Bassi, just over a mile from the Santa Barbara coastline, before they purchased it, and now that it’s theirs, the wines have even more vibrancy and depth. It helps that 2023 is turning out to be a superlative vintage.

Alice Anderson of Âmevive

Âmevive is the work of Alice Anderson, who’s taken over farming a vineyard that was well tended for many years by Bob Lindquist of Qupé. Bob’s wines from the Ibarra-Young vineyard were often exceptional, but now, with additional vine age and rigorously healthy farming, Alice is producing wines that truly shine. (And, yes, 2023 was such a wonderfully balanced year in Santa Barbara.)

Both wineries are dedicated to practicing what’s known as “regenerative organic” farming. While organic certification limits what chemicals may be used, regenerative farming goes much deeper into soil health and how animals are used and treated. It’s hard not to feel just a little optimism when reading about people working their land with as much heartfelt care as these farmers do.

From SOTS’s Bassi vineyard we have a pinot noir and syrah (plus a superb gamay from another plot), and from Âmevive, we have their unusually lifted and pure grenache and syrah. These young winemakers are truly worth investigating, and I encourage you to do so.

/by David Gibson

Bottle Rocket: 2019 Piemaggio Chianti Classico – Le Fioraie

Every so often, we encounter a wine that turns out to be a surprise hit with our customers. After a week or two on the shelves, the wine continues to build momentum, and we notice that we need to reorder more frequently and in higher quantities. Piemaggio’s Chianti Classico is such a wine. And it isn’t just the clientele who have responded so positively. Several members of the PMW staff have enjoyed a bottle at home and come back to the shop singing its praises.

The Piemaggio estate is located in the hamlet of Le Fioraie (the flower sellers) on the northwest slopes of Castellina in Chianti. According to legend, three young flower sellers revived a traveling friar in the 10th century with a glass of wine. He never forgot their efforts and later returned to build a church and plant vines.

Surrounded by forest on all sides, the 12 hectares of sangiovese (and small amounts of colorino, canaiolo and ciliegiolo) grow at altitudes between 380 and 480 meters. The wine undergoes spontaneous fermentation in stainless-steel tanks and is then aged in a combination of concrete, Slavonian oak, and French oak.

For the superb 2019 vintage, the result is this beautifully balanced, traditional, structured wine of intensity and finesse. It is bright and elegant enough to match with simple tomato-based pizzas and pastas, yet offers the power and complexity to stand up to more serious, robust fare. And, at $29, it sports a great quality-to-price relationship.

“Wow! The Piemaggio is so good,” say both co-workers and customers. Come visit us at Paul Marcus Wines and see for yourself. Don’t miss this one!

/0 Comments/by Joel Mullennix

Producer Profile: Kumusha

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A few weeks ago, we were fortunate enough to receive a visit from Tinashe Nyamudoka, proprietor of Kumusha Wines. A native of Zimbabwe, Nyamudoka rose to fame as a highly acclaimed sommelier in South Africa. With a deep knowledge of consumer tastes and keen interest in winemaking styles, he decided to start his own winery in 2017, and the results so far have been quite impressive.

Kumusha (which means “your roots, your origin, your home” in his native Shona language) boasts wines that are interesting and creative without being at all weird or unfriendly. They nod knowingly toward tradition and terroir while keeping an eye on modern trends. Modest, reserved, thoughtful, and cerebral, Nyamudoka works with only sustainable vineyards in Swartland, Slanghoek, Sondagskloof, and the Western Cape. His minimal-intervention, natural-leaning approach is the perfect fit for Paul Marcus Wines, and we are pleased to feature three of his wines at the shop.

2023 Sauvignon Blanc – Western Cape ($17)

Very mellow for a New World sauvignon blanc, this gently tropical and aromatic wine eschews intensity in favor of elegance and refinement. The grapes come from sandstone soils at 300 meters of elevation, and the juice ages for four months on the lees in stainless-steel tanks. It’s a fresh, mineral expression of the grape–think Loire Valley rather than Southern Hemisphere.

2022 Cabernet Sauvignon / Cinsault – Slanghoek ($23)

This blend of 75 percent cabernet and 25 percent cinsault is in some ways an ode to the “traditional” style of South African cabernet–when it was common for winemakers to fill out their cabs with unlabeled amounts of cinsault. As it happens, the cinsault gives this wine a welcome spicy lift, balancing out the luscious purple fruit–the perfect barbecue wine.

2023 Wild Mutupo Chillable Carignan – Slanghoek ($25)

A classic summertime “glou-glou” red, this carignan oozes with vibrant cherries and berries complemented by a mild savory, piquant touch. It’s fermented with 15 percent whole cluster, then aged for six months in stainless steel with an additional four months in large foudre. This one goes down a bit too easily…

/0 Comments/by Marc Greilsamer

Regional Roundup: Temperance Hill Vineyard

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Originally planted more than 40 years ago, Oregon’s 100-acre Temperance Hill Vineyard is one of the most esteemed grape-growing sites in the U.S. Located in the Eola-Amity Hills AVA in the northern Willamette Valley, Temperance Hill is a cool-climate, high-elevation, late-ripening vineyard planted atop the remains of an ancient volcano, making it a perfect home for pinot noir.

The renowned Dai Crisp has been managing Temperance Hill since 1999; he immediately began farming organically, and the vineyard was eventually certified organic in 2012. With vines that are between 660 and 860 feet in altitude and the pronounced influence of the chilly Van Duzer winds, Temperance Hill produces pinot noir that is noted for its elegance, finesse, and energetic sparkle.

Vineyard honcho Dai Crisp

More than two dozen producers make wines from Temperance Hill fruit, and at Paul Marcus Wines, we are currently featuring a pair of single-vineyard expressions from this magical plot.

2021 Walter Scott Pinot Noir Temperance Hill

Walter Scott’s rendition of Temperance Hill pinot comes from a single block on the vineyard’s north side, with an elevation of 750 feet and a location directly in the teeth of the Van Duzer winds. Despite the cooler growing conditions, the Walter Scott delivers a deep core of mouth-coating blue and purple fruit–not aggressive or intense, but not particularly shy either. This explosion of fruit is gently supported by savory, herbal accents that help complete the picture. There’s real vigor and vibrancy to this bottle, and it fans out across the palate with purpose, leading to a delightfully persistent finish.

2021 Goodfellow Pinot Noir Temperance Hill

The Goodfellow Temperance Hill emphasizes and embraces the earthy spice, woody tobacco aromas, and citrusy zip that help distinguish this vineyard. Made with 100 percent whole clusters, this is a crisper, subtler take on Temperance Hill fruit that truly allows the mineral edge to shine through. Perhaps not as viscerally alluring as the Walter Scott, the Goodfellow is a graceful, charming, and wholly appealing take nonetheless.

To learn more about these exquisite offerings, stop by the shop and say hello.

/0 Comments/by Marc Greilsamer

Why We Love: Treixadura

Treixadura is not one of those grapes that most wine drinkers seek out. Yet, when you do have one, you’re more often than not pleasantly surprised. For me, it’s a little like Cesanese from Italy–you don’t have to think too hard when reaching for it. It’s a versatile table wine of sorts, one that easily pairs with most anything or nothing at all.

The venerable Luis Anxo Rodríguez Vázquez

The treixadura grape, found most commonly in the Ribeiro DO of Galicia, Spain, has a subtle richness that is buoyed by its rustic character. It’s happy alongside most seafood, especially sauced fish with plenty of herbs, but also plays well with roasted pork or something earthy like sunchokes, celery root, or sweet potatoes.

The Ribeiro DO is a small, concentrated area known for its decomposed granite and sandy soils. Ribeiro was once a thriving grape-growing region with plenty of its wines being shipped to England for consumption during the 16th and 17th centuries. Things changed after phylloxera (insect pest) hit, and many people were forced to rip out their vines and consider other means to an end. Recently though, the tide seems to be swinging in favor of bringing back the quality production of treixadura and other varieties that are at home in this verdant landscape.

I was first exposed to treixadura by Luis Rodriguez’s Viña de Martin Os Pasas Blanco. It is composed of mostly treixadura, with lado, albariño, and torrontes rounding out the blend. The beauty of this wine lies in its lemon-lime-hued complexities dancing on a spine of granite-derived minerality. I have had this bottling many times over the years, and it always makes me smile–not only for its balance of flavors but also because of its place of origin. This wine comes from Luis’s hometown of Arnoia, home to some of Ribeiro’s steepest south-facing slopes.

The 2022 Gomariz Ribeiro Treixadura ‘La Flor y La Abeja’ is 100 percent treixadura, and it really shows the grape’s quince-like qualities that keep you coming back for sip after sip. This wine shines for its overall quality-to-price ratio, and I find myself turning to this bottle often.

Also of note is the 2022 Formigo Ribeiro Blanco ‘Finca Teira’–65 percent treixadura, 20 percent godello, and 15 percent torrontes, fermented and raised entirely in stainless steel. This shows a supple, yet chiseled wine highlighting the yellow- and green-tinged fruits of this appealing grape.

When I think of Ribeiro, I think bucolic, wooded hillsides with wisps of wood smoke rising above lush, green river valleys. It’s exactly the kind of place I would love to visit and explore a bit more.

/0 Comments/by Jason Seely

The Answer: What Is Lees Aging?

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According to some, there are two kinds of people in the world: those who wonder “how it works” and those who ponder “what it does.” The “it” could be a tool or a machine or a process. Put another way, some folks focus on how a final product is achieved while others focus on the various characteristics of the final product itself.

Since I’ve always been more of a “what does it do” guy than a “how does it work” guy, I will mostly sidestep the chemistry aspect of lees aging (proteins and enzymes and the like) and turn our attention to the final product. How does lees aging affect the wine in your bottle?

Lees aging is a winemaking regimen in which the juice is not cleared of its fermentation residue. After the yeast is introduced and the process of fermentation–converting sugar to alcohol–is complete, the dead yeast (lees) sinks to the bottom of the vat or barrel. At that point, the winemaker might decide to leave the juice in contact with this milky byproduct for an extended period. Depending on how much lees influence is sought, the juice can be stirred (a process called bâtonnage) to increase its effect.

For starters, lees contact will give the wine richness, depth, and warmth. It helps to smooth a wine’s rougher edges while adding complexity and breadth to the flavors and aromas. Lees aging might also help stabilize a wine by helping to fend off oxidation. Producers of “serious” wines from Champagne and Burgundy have traditionally relied on lees aging, but so have makers of sleeker, mineral-driven wines such as Muscadet and Galician albariño.

To me, there is a certain sweet spot when it comes to lees aging–when the technique takes place in stainless-steel tanks. The combination of stainless steel and lees contact gives a wine creaminess and texture without sacrificing acidity. It creates wines that are fleshy but still fresh, and it lends the wine a bit of weight and gravity while maintaining expressive, bright fruit. It offers some characteristics associated with wood aging, but with a more restrained touch.

I find that wines made in this style are often perfect for rich, shellfish-based dishes. At Paul Marcus Wines, we offer a wide range of white wines made in this steel-plus-lees style that are worth discovering, including three of particular note:

2019 I Favati Fiano di Avellino – Pietramara Etichetta Bianca

Fiano from the hills of Campania is perhaps the most esteemed white grape in all of Italy, and this multifaceted bottling offers ample proof why–especially when accompanying casarecce with rock shrimp in a spicy tomato-cream sauce.

2022 Benanti Etna Bianco

Made with 100 percent carricante from the eastern and southern slopes of Sicily’s Mt. Etna, this bright, gently smoky, beautifully balanced wine will shine alongside brinier dishes such as steamed clams and mussels in a lemon and white wine broth.

2020 Luis Rodriguez Ribeiro – Os Pasás

Predominantly treixadura, and filled out with small amounts of albariño, torrontés, and lado, this Galician stunner would pair well with gambas al ajillo (garlic shrimp) atop buttery white beans.

These three wines seem to have much in common: distinct minerality, lovely texture, and a subtle tropical vibe–melon and mango and such–along with a cleansing salinity. We are talking about dynamic, age-worthy whites that are much more complex and stimulating than your run-of-the-mill Sancerre and half the price of a comparable white Burgundy. As summer approaches and shellfish season begins, it’s the perfect time to get to know these charming white wines.

/0 Comments/by Marc Greilsamer

Bottle Rocket: 2021 Bodega Chacra Patagonia, Argentina – Sin Azufre Pinot Noir

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Every so often, we encounter a wine that we all love, but are a bit hesitant to buy for the shop. Perhaps it doesn’t fit neatly into any of the store’s most well-traveled sections. Maybe the price tag doesn’t scream “value.” It could be that the grape or the region of origin is unfamiliar. Still, we deem it worthy of shelf space at Paul Marcus Wines because we want to share these discoveries with our customers.

Piero Incisa della Rocchetta

One recent arrival that falls into this category is the 2021 Bodega Chacra Sin Azufre Pinot Noir from Patagonia, Argentina. The winery, which lies in the Rio Negro Valley, was founded about 20 years ago by Piero Incisa della Rocchetta, grandson of an esteemed Tuscan winemaker. The Rio Negro is basically desert terrain, with fewer than 10 inches of rain per year. However, the valley is also a riverbed for the confluence of two Andes tributaries, and so its soils offer a unique mix of clay, limestone, and sand–as it turns out, a perfect home for old-vine pinot noir.

Piero’s ‘Sin Azufre’ cuvee checks all of the boxes of a natural wine–biodynamic grapes, no sulfur added–but has little of the funkiness you’d expect. The grapes, from a vineyard planted in 1955, undergo whole-cluster fermentation, a Burgundian touch for a wine that is certainly Burgundian in style, and the juice sees no new oak. Bright, floral, and succulent, this wine will especially delight cru Beaujolais fans with its clarity and liveliness, balanced by subtle mineral and earthy tones. It’s a buoyant wine, with loads of character.

To learn more about this wine or to discover other hidden gems at Paul Marcus Wines, please come visit us at the shop.

/0 Comments/by Marc Greilsamer

Producer Profile: Oszkár Maurer

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We’re all familiar with the thriving natural wine scenes in France, Italy, Spain, and the rest of Western Europe–as well as here on the West Coast. But not everyone knows that Central and Eastern Europe is a hotbed of natural winegrowing and winemaking as well. Oszkár Maurer is a celebrated natural grower and maker in Subotica, Serbia, just south of Serbia’s border with Hungary. Farming is organic, and all wines are ØØ: nothing added during the winemaking–including sulfites–and nothing taken away (no fining or filtration). We currently have four Maurer wines in stock, three of which just arrived at Paul Marcus Wines.

2022 ‘Crazy Lud’ Red

“Lud” means “goose” in Hungarian and “crazy” in Serbian. So: Crazy Goose, as shown on the label! The 2022 ‘Crazy Lud’ red is mostly kékfrankos (a.k.a. blaufränkisch), cabernet sauvignon, and kadarka, with a little muscat Hamburg and prokupac for heightened aromatics and grip. The wine is macerated briefly (two-to-six days) on the skins in open vats and then aged in used 500-liter Hungarian oak barrels for one year. It’s a light-bodied red or even a dark rosé that responds well to 20-30 minutes in the refrigerator. This is an excellent introduction to Maurer’s wines: It’s playful, distinctive, and easy to drink, yet with underlying complexity and even seriousness.

2022 Bakator 1909

Fehér (white) bakator is an extremely rare grape variety; according to Maurer, there’s only one other winery producing it, in the Transcarpathian part of western Ukraine. Maurer’s Bakator 1909 comes from ungrafted, bush-trained vines planted 115 years ago. The 2022 vintage had 15 percent healthy botrytis (noble rot) at harvest, was macerated with the skins overnight, and was then fermented in stainless steel for six months. The wine is light amber in the glass, with remarkable concentration, savoriness, and depth. It’s bone dry, despite being just 10.6 percent alcohol. This is a more serious, elegant Maurer wine that nonetheless retains brightness and easy drinkability.

2022 Bakator Pét-Nat

Maurer’s Bakator Pét-Nat comes from the same ancient vineyard and grapes as the Bakator 1909 still wine, but picked earlier and with fermentation finished in the bottle to create the fizz. It’s undisgorged but barely cloudy, 10.7 percent alcohol, and bone dry. Take this bottle to a party, and you’ll definitely win the excellent-fizzy-wine-from-an-obscure-country-and-even-more obscure-grape prize.

‘Babba’

This is the most baroque wine in our Maurer lineup. It’s a blend of five white varieties (medenac beli, rajni rizling, tamjanika, kövidinka, and sremska zelenika, if you must know) from several vintages built with three sequential fermentations and then aged in 500-liter Hungarian oak barrels. It’s darker amber in color, exotically spicy, with some tannin, oxidative notes, and wild complexity. There’s nothing else like it in the shop.

/0 Comments/by Mark Middlebrook

Why We Love: Mencía

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A surprising number of Loire Valley cabernet franc aficionados are somehow unfamiliar with the mencía grape. Thriving in the far northwest of Spain, mencía produces bright, herbaceous wines with fairly moderate tannins and acidity. The combination of succulent red fruit, savory, earthy notes, and a streak of minerality would absolutely delight any cab franc lover.

Thanks to a relatively cool, ocean-influenced climate and the artistry of modern winemakers, today’s mencía wines offer complexity and finesse (with alcohol levels often at 13 percent or lower) while remaining robust enough to accompany heartier fare. At Paul Marcus Wines, we are fortunate to be able to feature a number of impressive examples of this food-friendly variety.

2016 A Portela Mencía – Valdeorras

The grapes for A Portela, made by Alberto Orte, come from a single hilltop vineyard in Galicia’s Valdeorras appellation. The plot’s granite soils help create a lighter-style, perfumed mencía with ample acidity, and the extra time in the bottle seems to have highlighted the grape’s greener, more vegetal tones–perfect for croquetas de jamón and other early-meal nibbles.

The vineyard of Fazenda Agrícola Prádio in Ribeira Sacra

2021 Prádio Mencía – Ribeira Sacra

A classic, textbook style of mencía from Ribeira Sacra in Galicia, this offering from winemaker Xabi Soeanes boasts fruit that is a tad darker and riper, balanced by a subtle range of floral and smoky flavors.

2020 César Márquez Bierzo – Pico Ferreira

César Márquez of Bierzo

Moving farther inland, we find the Bierzo DO in Castilla y León, just over Galicia’s eastern border. With the ocean influence diminished, the wines from Bierzo tend to be a little bigger and bolder, and while the ‘Pico Ferreira’ does exhibit a bit more density than the others, the high-elevation, rocky slate soils and Márquez’s touch in the cellar still lead to a graceful, focused result. This cuvée is 85 percent mencía from 100-year-old vines, rounded out by 10 percent alicante bouschet and other indigenous white and red grapes. Márquez studied under his uncle Raúl Pérez, a mencía legend, and has learned his lessons quite well.

2021 Envínate Ribeira Sacra – Lousas

The Envínate gang makes wines from vineyards throughout Spain, including the Canary Islands, and they are at the forefront of modern Spanish winemaking. Their mencía-based bottlings come from Ribeira Sacra and are among the finest examples of mencía available. The 2021 Lousas, like the above wine, is a high-altitude field blend with about 85 percent mencía as its foundation. The grapes, fermented mostly whole cluster, come from several different plots within Ribeira Sacra, and the juice is aged for about a year in a combination of concrete and used French oak. This wine is a knockout, top to bottom, and its modest alcohol (12.5 percent) allows it to pair well with a range of spicy red and white meats.

For a real treat, check out Envínate’s site-specific Doad–a savory, spicy, stylish gem that will make cab franc heads feel like they’ve been transported straight to Chinon!

/0 Comments/by Marc Greilsamer