Producers

  • Description:

    Cirò wine can be traced back to antiquity, when is was allegedly served to the winners at the ancient Olympics. Run by husband and wife team Francesco and Laura de Franco, ‘A Vita is located on the arch of Italy’s boot tip, nestled between the Ionian sea and Sila mountains; this situation ensures both coastal influence and dramatic diurnal shifts. DOC Cirò is dominated by one producer: Librandi, who produces over 200,000 cases per year. By contrast, Francesco & Laura make only 2000 cases total. 

    The red wines are 100% Gaglioppo, a rustic variety native to the area which typically has dusty tannins and aromas of roses; it is an offspring of Sangiovese and a cousin to Nerello Mascalese.  The vineyards are certified organic, and no fertilizer is used. Instead they plant cover crops, and are careful to not work the soil so as to favor natural biodiversity. In the cellar, there is zero technological input: the wines are fermented spontaneously without temperature control, decanted naturally, and are never rushed. A small amount of sulfur is used at bottling. The wines are often aged in bottle for an extended time before release.

    To view their website click here.

     For a nicely produced video (in Italian) click here.

     

    Image:
    Region:
  • Description:

    The Loire runs 1006 kilometers from its source in the Massif Central to the Atlantic Ocean, making it the longest river in France. From grape to glass, Pauline Lair makes minimalist wines in her urban winery in Angers, a project fittingly named 1006 Vins de Loire. Through personal and lasting partnerships throughout the Loire Valley, Pauline makes wines that honestly reflect their terroirs. By selecting growers with respect for their land and who follow the principles of organic farming, Pauline carefully monitors each plot throughout the year to ensure only the best quality fruit is designated for her wines. Realizing the quality potential of the vineyard work, fermentations are spontaneous, and elevage is gentle and respectful of terroir.
    Labeled by variety rather than the appellation, the range from 1006 Vins de Loire are far from being divorced from their place of origin. Rather, Pauline’s wines are equally satisfying for enthusiasts familiar with every nook and cranny of the Loire’s terroirs and those just learning about this region’s diverse wealth of varieties and regional expression.

    This profile and tasting note was edited from the European Cellars website, along with the pictures used. For more information please visit: European Cellars.

    Image:
    Region:
  • Description:

    The vision, passion and determination of Hector Galindo Miranda – known in the industry simply as “Hector” – resulted in the founding of 4 Copas Organic Tequilas, certified organic in 1997. Hector sought out the best scientists, master distiller and academics to produce a tequila with the best aroma and taste. This synergy gave him the ability to combine the best of science and nature to create a world class tequila. Crafted by renowned Master Distiller Sebastian Melendrez of Tequila, Jalisco, 4 Copas uses 100% organic agave as the foundation for a pure and clean spirit true to the traditions of small-batch tequila. Through the evolution of 4 Copas and its next generation of ownership, it has been certified as organic by the USDA and EU and blessed as Kosher by Rabbinical Law.

    The Organic Difference: the seeds come from agave fields specially selected. The organic agave is cultivated in the agave zone of the region of Tequila (Amatitán). Only organic fertilizers are used, requiring manual cleaning during the entire planting stage and until harvest. The agave is then cultivated, and the shoots are hand selected for planting and development. The organic certification process is complex and time-consuming because the process is different from common tequila. The fermentation is natural with its own unique proprietary recipe, resulting in the special aromas and taste profiles of 4 Copas that is hard to forget.

    Image:
    Region:
  • Description:

    45th Parallel is a small, family-owned craft distillery in New Richmond, Wisconsin. When they opened their doors in 2007, they were one of 50 craft distilleries in the United States; there are now more than 1,000. They have seen consistent growth over the years, doubling in both physical size and production capacity, and have gone from making a single vodka to producing gins, whiskeys, aquavits, and citrus liqueurs as well. Their name comes from the fact that they are located on the 45th parallel, halfway between the equator and the north pole.

    They take no short cuts. They use only locally-grown grain, and distill their whiskeys in a pot still; afterwards, they use traditional aging techniques in Ozark white oak barrels with medium char, constructed from wood staves that are air dried three years. The whiskeys are aged a minimum of 4 years.

    Image:
    Region:
  • Description:

    After 30 years as technical director and world–renown winemaker for Vega Sicilia, Mariano Garcia Fernández founded Aalto Bodegas y Viñedos in 1999. From the beginning, he has been guided by three principles: old-vine, massale selection Tinto Fino, a wide range of terroirs spread over nine villages in Ribera del Duero, and his decades of experience in viticulture and winemaking in the region. Today, Aalto controls and farms 130 hectares of vines scattered among more than 200 separate plots, all situated in the provinces of Valladolid and Burgos. Twenty hectares are young vines propagated from a massale selection of their best old-vine material, while the remaining 110 hectares range from 40 to 100 years old. The soils where Aalto’s vineyards are situated include pale clay-limestone, ferrous clay, sand, sandstone, rocky glacial, loam, and alluvial. This diversity of terruño provides complexity married to power and structure blended with a purity of fruit – the exact characteristics which have earned Aalto Bodegas y Viñedos praise from around the world as the leading proponent of the modern style of Ribera del Duero. 

    Vineyard work at Aalto is entirely manual, with the primary goal of maintaining low yields. With many of the vines being old, yields are kept low naturally, but Mariano will also green harvest to ensure that the fruit is concentrated and evenly ripe. Harvesting is manual as well, and the grapes are transported to the cellar in small crates where they are sorted, chilled, destemmed, and sorted again before crushing. Fermentations are conducted, by parcel, in stainless steel, cement, or oak vats designed specifically by Mariano. Maceration is gentle with regular pump-overs ensuring a good extraction of fruit without harsh or bitter tannins. Once the fermentation is complete, the wines are racked, by gravity, into French and American oak barrels located in a cool, subterranean cellar. In recent vintages, Mariano has reduced the amount of new oak he uses in the aging of his wines and the time they spend in barrel – small, incremental steps to add more freshness and purity in his wines.

    Final blends are decided by how each plot performs in each vintage rather than a barrel selection. The primary cuvée, known as Aalto, sees about 30-70% new oak, with the remainder in second and third fill barrels. In each vintage, a small selection of fruit from the best-performing sites is bottled separately as Aalto PS – Pagos Selectionados. This wine is aged entirely in new French oak and sees a slightly longer elevage.

    This profile and tasting notes were edited from the European Cellars website, along with the pictures used. For more information please visit: European Cellars.
    Image:
  • Description:

    Thank you to Louis/Dressner for this profile of Eduardo Torres Acosta:

    (Click here for LDM's Acosta notes on their website)

    Eduardo Torres Acosta, a young winemaker from the Canary Islands, first began working with vines in Tenerife where his father (a local postman) had a small plot of land. In 2012 Eduardo moved to Sicily, where he interned at Azienda Arianna Occhipinti (you may have heard of her). Soon thereafter he got a job as the enologist at Azienda Passopisciaro, one of the pioneers of Etna's new wave of producers. Despite Eduardo’s "outsider" status, he managed to rent several fine parcels on Etna from locals. Up until the 2017 vintage, the grapes were harvested and then trucked to Arianna Occhipinti’s estate in Vittoria. Since the winemaking facility was not on Etna, the wines were not allowed DOC status and simply carry the IGT Terre Siciliane designation. In 2018, Eduardo was able to convert a small Etna garage into a winery but has decided to keep the wines IGT.

    Today Eduardo works eight small parcels totaling 4.5 hectares. The main production is a wine called Versante Nord, produced in both white and red. Both wines are sources from six parcels totalling less than two hectares on the cooler, north-facing side of Mt. Etna (hence the name) at elevations ranging from 750 to 950 meters. In traditional style, he vineyards are mixed plantings of various local varieties. The red grapes include a majority of Nerello Mascalese with Nerello Cappuccio, Alicante, Garnacha and others; the whites include Minella, Catarratto, Grecanico, Carricante and Inzolia. The training is mainly alberello, in some cases growing as bushes and in some trained on wires.

    Two single vineyards are produced, Pirrera and Quota N, the latter from a vineyard called Germana. Pirrera comes from a single contrada located at 850 meters in altitude. The name of the vineyard, Pirrera, stems from the presence of volcanic stones which were extracted from a quarry during a lava flow in 1614. The vineyard had been largely abandoned and is slowly being restored by Eduardo. Lighter and fresher than the Versante Nord due to the higher altitude, this is a blend of 90% Nerello Mascalese and 10% local varieties from vines of 50 plus years.

    Quota N was first bottled in the 2018 vintage. Eduardo acquired this flat, half-hectare, west-exposed parcel of ungrafted (hence piedi franco on label), 80-100-year-old, co-planted bush vines. It is surrounded by stone walls on very rocky, sandy volcanic soils at the high elevation of 1070 meters in the contrada. The parcel is named Germana for its historical family owner, but Eduardo was not allowed to use this and was also not premitted to use the Nave contrada name because the site is too high to fall within DOC Etna Rosso rules. The local road is called strada quota nave and from this phrase, Eduardo pulled the "Quota N" name for the wine. The production is unavoidably miniscule, smaller even than the parcel size would suggest, due to the naturally low yields of these old-timers as well as to holes where they have died or stopped producing.

    Image:
    Region:
  • Description:

    Agricola Grillos Cantores is a single vineyard, side project started in 2019 by Paco Leyton of Clos des Fous. The vision began in Chile's southern coastal Andean range–Itata when Paco met the 70 something year-old José Neira and visited the vineyard planted by his grandfather over 150 years ago.
    Paco fell in love with the head-trained, bush vines comprised of Corinto (aka Chasselas), located in the La Leonora subregion of Guarilihue. The single vineyard (1.5 hectares) sits on a steep slope of white silt, sand, and granitic soil, littered with mica and a high concentration of quartz. The vines are non-irrigated, plowed by hand, and naturally farmed. The steep terrain enables the vines to grow deep roots and produce complex, balanced wines that are vertical and mineral-driven.
    Paco believes that Corinto is a great terroir translator because of its dry, neutral typicity and strives to produce clean and pure wines. He also produces a Corinto with Flor and eventually, he hopes to take advantage of of the red grapes on the property–Pais, Cinsault, and Aramon to create a blend in the future.

    This profile and tasting notes were edited from the Brazos Wine website, along with the pictures used. For more information please visit: Brazos.

    Image:
    Region:
  • Description:

    Alion is Vega Sicilia’s second project in Ribera del Duero.  There are 130 hectares of land divided into three large blocks, seventy of which are located on the Vega Sicilia estate itself: 30 hectares in the Padilla de Duero, and another 30 hectares in the nearby town of Pesquera de Duero.  Alion is the “younger sibling” to Vega Sicilia; made with the same elegance, but aged three years before release and meant to drink within the first 15-20 years, though there is no doubt that it can age longer.

     
    Image:
  • Description:

    Alta Gradazione was born out of the passion of four young guys for drinking quality liqueurs and a desire to create and experiment new tastes.

    The project was started in Rome, Giacomo was the first to take the big step, he quit his job in a famous big consulting company and threw himself headlong into the new project: in 2017 Alta Gradazione, the “artisan liquor production company”, was born.

    The result, after many recipes refinements and tastings, is fantastic handcrafted liquors, characterized by high quality natural and local raw materials, processed according to family recipes that have been handed down and perfected from generation to generation. The production is entirely artisanal and made in small batches in order to give the right attention to every step and with different techniques for maximizing the natural flavors of the ingredients.

    The products perfectly suit for mixology purposes, they can be an edgy alternative to the usual aperitif or can be enjoyed neat at the end of a meal.


    THEIR PURPOSE
    To rediscover the Italian culture of liqueur-making, with a modern, innovative touch  re-proposing Italy’s classics. Using High quality natural and, wherever possible, local raw materials, processed according to family recipes that have been handed down and refined from generation to generation.

    Image:
    Region:
  • Description:

    Calatayud is a fairly innocuous and rural region of Spain. As far as the eye can see the hills and plains are blanketed by a patchwork of head-pruned Garnacha vineyards, olive and cherry orchards and fields of grain. Just to the north of Calatayud is Campo de Borja, Navarra and Rioja Baja, so this sea of Garnacha is a small part of a wider ocean. Much of the inexpensive and pleasurable Garnacha sold in the US comes from these regions in Spain and Eric Solomon was an early pioneer and proponent.

    Years ago while working on a project in Calatayud, Eric Solomon met Jean-Marc Lafage and Yolanda Diaz. Yolanda is a native of the region and knows the terruño of Calatayud better than anyone. Jean-Marc is the very talented Catalan winemaker and consultant from the Roussillon in France. Together they “discovered” a unique place within Calatayud, a high and arid plateau between the villages of Acered and Atea and bordering the Sierra de Santa Cruz.

    At 1000 meters above sea level this is the highest part of the DO of Calatayud. Even more interesting is that the soil here is pure schist, the same soil one can find in the Priorat and in Maury where Jean-Marc was born and where he runs a small estate, Château Saint-Roch. This unique terroir and the old vines of Garnacha rooted in it, are the origins of Evodia.

    This profile and tasting note was edited from the European Cellars website, along with the pictures used. For more information please visit: European Cellars.

     

    Image:
    European Cellars
    Region:

Pages