DECEMBER FESTIVUS
'Tis the season to be JOLLY ️️️
We know how the holidays can go, so we got your back with not one, but TWO 1 Liter bottles. That's right, folks. Let the festivities begin! Maybe that extra large bottle get's cracked during prep time, but either way this holiday-inspired, shareable, party friendly bunch is just waiting to join your December fun. We wish everyone a healthy, happy, easeful and joyful holiday season. Cheers!
Montesco Parral
40% Malbec, 35% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Bonarda
A delightful mix of fresh red and black fruit, spices and herbs blended with delicate notes of vanilla and smoke. This wine is full of personality! Enjoy with a grilled skirt steak and chimichurri.
Matias Michelini, the owner of Passionate Wines, focuses on low production wines that express the terrior of Valle de Uco in Argentina. His colorful winemaking has made him a rebel of the Argentine wine scene and he likes to produce wine that is light and mineral forward. The bodega was originally owned by Italian immigrants and had been abandoned for more than a decade. Street artists were hired to paint the space with Passionate Wine’s labels on the walls making it a colorful and relaxed space. With names for wines like “Brutal” or “Hulk”, Matias tries to keep his innovative creations approachable and playful!
The Montesco wines are small production wines that focus on place and varietals. Made using sustainable farming practices, native yeast, and aged 12 months in used french oak.
El Serralet Brut Nature
Trepat with a touch of Pinot Noir
Earthy minerality comes through on the palate as this refreshingly bright sparkler offers hints of ginger, honey, apple, and citrus. Savory and a touch earthy with zippy fine bubbles. Drink on Christmas morning!
The Rosell Mir family has cultivated the Can Guineu farm in Subirats, 30 Km south of Barcelona, since the fifteenth century. The family began making wine and brandy in 1776 from their grapes and sold it in bulk. It wasn’t until 1979 that the current owner Josep M Rosell, 17th generation, began bottling the wine under his family’s own brand. His son now helps out, making this an 18 generation family owned winery! The farm has 64 hectares of Xarel·lo, Macabeu, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Garnatxa Blanca organically grown in Subirats and Sant Sadurní d'Anoia. The vineyards in Subirats, where the winery is, are located between the Subirats mountains and the Noya river and the soils are more loam in the river area and more calcareous in the hills parts.
Typical Mediterranean climate, with hot dry summers and mild winters and all limestone soils. All organic vineyards. The fruit is from 2017 vintage, secondary fermentation in 2018, and disgorged in 2021. Bottled without fining or filtration, zero dosage.
Espera Nat'Cool
100% Castelão
Notes of light raspberry, pomegranate, and forest floor come together with zippy acidity and light tannins. Lower in alcohol for a Portuguese red wine and bottled by the liter, this is meant to be enjoyed fresh! No fuss necessary!
Winemaker Rodrigo Martins started his Espera Project in 2014. The winery and vineyards are located in the Alcobaça region in Portugal which is close to the coast and about an hour and a half by car north of Lisbon. Alcobaça is famous for its large population of Cistercian monks, who have been making wine for many generations. Rodrigo looks to their historical winemaking practices to influence his own winemaking. These wines are a true insight into the terroir of Alcobaça and the history which defines the region. “Espera”‘ means “wait’ in English. Which is a nod to the patience required to produce wine. Nat Cool is not a producer, but a whole range of natural wines produced around Portugal by different producers. Keep an eye out for more unique wines from this project!
Martins has been an outspoken proponent of organic wine around the Lisbon area. Lisbon’s wine association, Comissão Vitivinícola da Região de Lisboa or CVR is considering creating a separate category for “organic wines” in part thanks to him.
With only a 2 day skin maceration, this wine is very pale in color. Hand-harvested then fully destemmed before pressing and fermenting with indigenous yeasts in steel vats. Unoaked.
only with native varieties, working in an organic way in the vineyards and winery. All fermentations are made by indigenous yeasts.
Nibiru Tradition Red
Zweigelt and Merlot
Tradition is a juicy blend packed with ripe red and black fruit, herbs and vibrant acidity. Would do well served chilled.
NIBIRU is located in Thürneustift, a village in the northernmost part of Kamptal. The winery is led by Josef Schenter and Julia Nather. The young couple continue to farm and make wine in Josef’s family home! According to ancient Sumerian scripts, Nibiru is the name of a planet that crosses our solar system every 3,600 years, traveling in the opposite direction than the rest of our planets.The name has come to symbolize their philosophy. As Julia and Josef have stated on their website: "Our wines are willful and determined to follow their own direction. Our principle is honesty."
Farming is organic, with all wines fermented with indigenous yeasts and bottled unfined and unfiltered with sulfur used only at bottling where necessary.
Sabbie di Sutta Cerasuolo
Nero d’Avola and Frappato
This organic red wine combines the intensity of Nero d’Avola and the freshness of Frappato. The floral and fruity notes, together with a warm, full-bodied and harmonious taste, create a perfect blend of persistence and drinkability. Cherry-red in color with vivid violet highlights. An intense fruity aroma featuring notes of raspberries and blackberries. Palate is soft and well-balanced with a good structure.
Just a few miles from the southernmost tip of the Italian peninsula, in a corner of Sicily that smells like Africa, is the lively agricultural center of Vittoria, home to Cerasuolo di Vittoria Classico. The surrounding territory, set between two rivers, is characterized by its fertility and typical Mediterranean climate. The large Bonincontro vineyards are found in the heart of this area historically devoted to making high-quality wines. The characteristic sandy texture soils are ideal for raising the native grapes of Nero d’Avola and Frappato.
Cerasuolo di Vittoria is the only wine with Controlled and Guaranteed Designation of Origin (DOCG) in Sicily and boasts ancient and noble origins. This wine dates back to 1606, the year that marked the foundation of the city of Vittoria. It owes its quality to the terroir, the Southeastern Sicily's climate and most importantly to the quality of the two grape varieties it is made with.
Also know as "Calabrese d'Avola", Nero d'Avola is Sicily's most widely grown red grape variety. The characteristics of this variety, such as its deep color, rich aromas and excellent structure, produce a classic Italian red wine that is known and respected around the world. Frappato is an age-old variety typical of Southeastern Sicily dates back to the seventeenth century. It has fairly elongated bunches and grapes with an intense red, almost violet color, and produces wines known for their heady fruity aromas, freshness and mellow palate. Organic viticulture. Fermented and aged in stainless steel.
Merci, André Jacquinet
Garanoir & Regent
Dark in color and just a touch opaque, this wine begins juicy on the palate but finishes with clarity. Alpine cool forest vibes on the nose, the fruit is accompanied by a touch of pepper, slightly vegetal or even a tea like quality. Super fun to enjoy with or without a meal.
Golden Cluster was born in 2013 by longtime Portland resident, Jeff Vejr - pronounced (V-ee-r). But before launching his own wine project in Oregon, Mr. Vejr was involved with a wine project in Europe. He is obsessed with old vines and the art of blending wines, so he set out to work with a different producer of “old vines” each vintage.
In 2013, Mr. Vejr was brought to the David Hill Vineyard & Winery in Forest Grove, Oregon. He noticed some huge vines and inquired to find out the vines were Semillon; Mr. Vejr’s first white wine love! To know that one of the oldest vineyards in Oregon had 48+ year old Semillon vines on it was a shock to him. There was really only one thing to do, stay in Oregon and make some “old vine” wines. Mr. Vejr still works closely with David Hill Vineyard today.
In the preceding years, Mr. Vejr was able to secure not only the Semillon, but “old vine” Gewurztraminer, Flora, Pinot Noir, and he was instrumental in discovering the oldest known Savagnin Rose vines in the U.S.A. For 50 years these vines were thought to be Gewurztraminer. He was the first in Oregon to make a single varietal bottling of the “old vine” Flora and Savagnin Rose. Golden Cluster is now a family of brands.
Garanoir is a clone of Gamay and Reichensteiner varietals, which was developed in 1970 by André Jacquinet in Switzerland. This grape was created to be an alpine red wine with a deep color and mostly disease resistance, which comes in handy for our cooler Northwest climates. The clone Regent was developed in 1967, but was not commercially viable until 1996. Regent is an interspecific crossing of Diana and Chambourcin varietals. Similarly dark and disease resistant, this grape was created in Germany. Bottled unfined (vegan) and unfiltered.