Named for the beautiful flower that grows on Tenerife (which is also depicted on the labels), Tajinaste is run by the indefatigable Agustín García Farrais. He works alongside his parents, Cecila (“Chilla”) and Agustín Snr., who are both sevety years old going on thirty. The bodega was started by Agustín’s grandfather. They own three hectares in the Valle de la Orotava, and their oldest vines were planted in 1914. Many are trained on the very traditional method of ‘cordon trenzado’, or “braided cordon”, a method of training vines where their branches intertwine with each other creating a sprawling plant that grows on the ground. Historically vines were trained like that so that they could easily be moved and rearranged in order to allow other crops to be planted in the same plot.

Having trained in Bordeaux, Agustín is a precise winemaker. He vinifies each parcel separately, which has allowed him to get to know the character of each vineyard so well that he can masterfully blend extremely consistent and beguiling wines year after year.

www.tajinaste.eu

https://www.facebook.com/BodegasTajinaste

Thank you to importer Louis/Dressner for this profile of the Tarlant estate: 

(Click here for more on Tarlant on the Louis/Dressner website)

In 1687, Pierre Tarlant began cultivating his first vineyards in Aisne. The family stayed put for almost 100 years before moving to the village of Oeuilly in 1780. At the turn of the 20th century, Louis Tarlant took over as head vigneron. His tenure would prove instrumental to shaping the family legacy, principally due to his involvement as mayor of Oeuilly in the rarely discussed Champagne Revolution, a tumultous movement that you have probably never heard of. Let us explain.

By the early twentieth century, it had become increasingly common for the big Champagne houses, who even then had a strong-hold on commercialisation, to bring in fruit from all over France and even different countries (the farthest being Portugal!) to vinify and sell the wine as Champagne. When this became common knowledge amongst growers in the region, many were infuriated that such practices could be happening right under their noses. Through rigorous organisation, many villages managed to block off the points of entry of outside fruit, as well as skillfully organizing themselves to codify the Champagne region. As a result, Louis helped achieve worldwide recognition of the AOC in 1911 and contributed to the establishment of the AOC Champagne region in 1927.

In the aftermath of these events, Louis swore never to sell a single grape to the big houses again, making Tarlant one of the first independent estates in the region (less than 10 existed at the time). Fast forward to today, and head vigneron Benoît Tarlant is the 12th generation working the land under his family name. Benoît is the real deal: his great understanding and respect of history, tradition and nature, coupled with his experimental, forward thinking tendencies have been the driving force of some truly next level, terroir-centric Champagnes. With his sister Mélanie joining the family business in 2003, things are more than ever a family affair.

The estate consists of 14 hectares of vines within 31 lieu-dits of Pinot Noir (50%), Chardonnay (30%) and Pinot Meunier (20%), along with small amounts of Champagne's "forgotten"grapes" - Pinot Blanc, Arbane and Petit Meslier. From empirical observation, Benoît and Mélanie have singled out 63 parcels that they vinify individually each vintage, permitting unparalled precision in blending decisions for base and reserve wines, but also letting them highlight single vineyard expressions of their land.

In the vines, chemicals are never used and biodiversity is prioritized. Because of the Marne's extremely diverse terroirs, Benoit adapts his viticultural approach parcel by parcel, using the soil, grape and micro-climate to guide him. While only contact treatments have been used for the past two generations, Benoît and Mélanie have decided to work towards organic certification.

"Our father fought for grass in the vines and to stop have garbage from cities being thrown in the vines as a fertilizer. It took five years. That was his fight. Organics seems like the challenge of our generation."

In the cellar, the grapes are gently pressed and racked by gravity to Burgundian barrels, where each parcel ferments and ages individually. Malolactic fermentation almost never occurs but is not blocked: Benoît feels that through careful pressing, attention to temperature and the correct viticultural practices, Champagne's naturally cold climate gives them grapes with low PH and high acidity, a combo that does not incite malo. Sulfites are are only added in microscopic doses at press and intermittently to casks of reserve wine. The wines are never filtered:

"“Disgorgment is sort of like a filtration. If you’re going to take the time to do long élevages and letting the solids deposit themselves, you don’t need to filter. It requires a respect of the rhythm of the wine."

The big particularity of the Tarlant Champagnes, a tradition started by Benoît's father Jean-Mary in the late 1970's, is that the vast majority of the production (90%) is bottled without dosage. While the idea of Brut Nature Champagne has slowly but surely gained momentum since the early 2000's, this was unheard of at the time. Still, Jean-Mary stuck to his guns and over time this has defined the Tarlant style. In such, the house's entry level cuvées are named "Zero".

Representing 70% of the total production, "Zero" is the Tarlant's calling card and consists of a non vintage, no dosage wine made equal parts Pinot Noir, Meunier and Chardonnay. "Zero Rosé" is a majority of Chardonnay with a bit of still Pinot Noir for color. For an entry level wine, a huge amount of thought is put into its creation:

"Zero is a reflection of the four villages we work in and the goal is to express a Champagne without the external sugar masking the land's characteristics.”

To achieve this, Benoît and Mélanie rigourously taste through each micro-vinification to pick which will serve as the base wines with the innate knowledge that they will be released five to seven years later. These will be aged until the spring after harvest then blended with reserve wines before an extended period sur lattes. The remaining vinifications are blended into reserve casks for future use.

“We don’t buy or sell grapes. We have to work our vines the best we can to have the best wine. "

Single vineyard cuvées -a rarity in Champagne- are also bottled. "La Vigne Royale" is from a vineyard of Pinot Noir originally worked by Benoît and Mélanie's maternal grandfather in Celles-lès-Condé at the confluence of La Dhuys and the Surmelin rivers. Historically, it was a terroir favored by the Bourbon kings, hence the name.

"La Vigne D'or" is a Blanc de Noirs from a parcel of Pinot Meunier planted in the sparnatian clay of the Vallée de la Marne. The vines are 65 years old and planted by Benoît and Mélanie's paternal grandfather, Georges Tarlant.

"La Vigne d'Antan" is 100% ungrafted Chardonnay from the lieu-dit "Les Sables". The name Antan essentially means "yesteryear", a reference to the historical roots (pun intended) of this franc de pied bottling.

"Cuvée Louis" is Benoît's homage to his great, great grandfather mentioned above and the top of the top from Tarlant's single vineyard offerings: Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from a single parcel of 65 year old vines (originally planted by Louis himself!) called Les Crayons, vinified and aged in oak.

Vintage releases have also joined the lineup in recent years. These wines are meant to capture a snapshot of the years' characteristics by blending specific parcels that best reflect it. Each year has a different name ("Étincelante", "La Matinale") and so far the wines have aged for well over a decade sur lattes before release!

Terrazzi Alti, the High Terraces, makes its happy debut at Bowler.  Siro Buzzetti is Valtellinese through and through, born and raised in the hamlet of Triasso, near the “big town” of Sondrio.   Not from a winemaking family, he became its first vignaiolo in 2005, as his love for his native land pushed him out of the paper business and into the business of drastic, terraced vineyards in the cru of Sassella, where he started with a mere 0.1 hectares of old vines.  Since then the estate has expanded exponentially, to a whopping 1.5 hectares of vines and one hectare of woods.  Today Siro is joined by his son, Francesco.

We’re far from the Barolo zone here, three and a half hours to the northeast into Lombardia--north of Milan, north of Lake Maggiore, almost to Switzerland.   It’s here that we find Nebbiolo’s most Alpine expression.  Its local name, Chiavennasca, is usually attributed to the nearby town of Chiavenna, but Siro explains that it truly derives from either ciuvinusa (più venosa in Italian, more vein-y, referring to Nebbiolo’s noted vigor) or from ciuvinasca (più vinosa, more vinous, meaning the variety that made the greatest wine).     

Valtellina was carved out by the glaciers, with the valley oriented almost perfectly east/west.  The vineyards are the north side of the valley, facing due south, perched impossibly into the cliffs on dramatic dry stone wall terraces.   Terrazzi Alti’s vines, shooting up from 320m to 600m, are trained in the local archetto valtellinese, with the rows planted north/south on the east/west terraces, negating any attempt at mechanization.  The mother rock here, fairly rare in the world of Nebbiolo, is metamorphic gneiss rich in porphyry, quartz, and feldspar.   The rock is weathered down into poor, acid and shallow topsoils that are around 70% sand, 25-30% silt, and, importantly, almost no clay.  Terrazzi Alti works delicately to encapsulate these distinct conditions.

Watching Siro and Francesco scale these vineyards like mountain goats, the brutal task of creating and maintaining these walls is on full display.   This is what is meant by heroic viticulture.  It cannot be easy, and there’s no illusion of making significant quantities of wine here.  Speaking with Siro, though, one can immediately see the resolved sense of pride and satisfaction he feels from doing this work, from the luxury of being an ambassador for his homeland through the uniqueness of its wine.  

Terrazzi Alti makes two wines:  Valtellina Superiore Sassella and, in select years, a Valtellina Superiore Sassella Riserva, which is released a year later.  

We commend our friend Marko, Nomad Wine Guy, for bringing Terrazzi Alti to our attention.

To learn more:

www.terrazzialti.com
@terrazzi_alti

Dominik Huber started Terroir al Limit in 2004 with his friend Eben Sadie, a South African oenologist. The pair met in Priorat at Mas Martinet, and quickly became friends. Dominik, a native German with a growing interest in wines and gastronomy found in Eben the perfect partner to explore and understand the Catalan region.

With the help of the Pérez family of Mas Martinet, Eben and Dominik purchased some fruit and leased a little corner in the cellar of Cims de Porrera, where they vinified their first vintage of Dits del Terra in 2001. After two years at Cims de Porrera, they moved into a tiny cellar in Torroja del Priorat. From the tiny cellar in Torroja the pair started releasing new cuvées and increasing their range to site-specific wines: Arbossar in 2003, Torroja in 2005, Manyes and Tosses in 2006, Pedra de Guix in 2008, and Terra de Cuques in 2011.

Since its founding, Terroir al Limit has slowly evolved its understanding of the Priorat as a region as capable as Burgundy in its complexity and potential to make elegant and transparent wines. The Torroja and Terra de Cuques are the village wines, Dits del Terra and Arbossar the Premier Crus, and Manyes and Tosses are the Grand Crus.

Eben eventually left the winery to devote himself to his projects in South Africa and Dominik took the reins of the winery. Devoting himself primarily to the cultivation of the growing number of vineyard sites, Dominik could see his vineyard efforts were resulting in healthier fruit. With better fruit coming into the cellar he quickly realized that ripe, concentrated grapes combined with extractive winemaking and aging in barriques didn’t show their vineyards’ authenticity. By favoring wines of infusion rather than extraction, using whole clusters and avoiding pigeage and remontage, the wines emphasized elegance rather than the typical weight of other Priorat wines. Another differential was in the oak treatment; barriques were eschewed and concrete and neutral foudres became the preferred methods of aging. 

Realizing that organic or biodynamic farming during an era of global warming is insufficient for a region as hot and dry as the Priorat, Dominik farms rigorously to guarantee the health and vitality of his soils. The goal is to retain as much moisture as possible, reducing the hydric stress on the vines in summer and allowing for an earlier harvest of physiologically ripe fruit.

Through his work with Eben Sadie, and now with the help of Serbian-born Tatjana Peceric (who in the past few years became the head winemaker at Terroir al Limit and its sister projects) Dominik Huber has changed the way the wines of the Priorat have been perceived, showing the world what this region is capable of: characterful wines which are elegant, approachable and explicit about its terroir.

Terroir Històric

While working on establishing Terroir al Limit, Dominik Huber became entranced with the Priorat’s history – its rhythms of life, the simple cuisine, and the honest wines that honored their origins. When walking past the crumbling Sindicat Agricola in Torroja, he could recall those few bottles of Priorat he had tasted from vintages in the 1970s, and he envisioned a future where such wines could again be made.

Nostalgic and honest in spirit, the wines of Terroir Històric are a nod to the past and the style of winemaking that was popular at that time. Rather than focusing on individual parcels, Dominik sources grapes from many different vineyards throughout the region. These complex blends – dazzling mosaics of aroma and flavor – are an effort to express the Priorat landscape’s diversity.

Grapes here are sourced from vineyards in Bellmunt, Gratallops, El Lloar, Escaladei, Porrera, Poboleda, Torroja, Vilella Alta, and Vilella Baixa. Some of these are from younger vines planted high up in the Montsant near the border of Escaladei and Morera and where the soils are unique for being clay and limestone rather than schist. Finding that these white varieties are relatively scarce and under-appreciated in the Priorat – especially at the table – a significant percentage of Terroir Històric’s production is white wine. Unlike Terroir al Limit, which was founded on the Burgundian principle of site-specific wines, Terroir Històric is meant to showcase the complexities of the Priorat in its entirety.

There is one red and one white. The white is currently a blend of Garnatxa Blanca and Macabeu, the red, Garnatxa, and Carinyena. Harvest is manual, and the grapes are pressed whole cluster (whites) or fermented whole cluster (reds) without any manipulation, so their flavors are infused rather than extracted. Nothing is added or removed, and the wines ferment and age in concrete tanks. Bottled 6 months after the harvest, they are meant to be drunk young.

This profile and tasting notes were edited from the European Cellars and Terroir al Limit websites, along with the pictures used. For more information please visit: Terroir al Limit and European Cellars.