La Lisse
Chenin Blanc 2020
Reg. Price $16.99
Sale Price: $10.99
White Wine of the Month
I have featured the La Lisse Chenin Blanc a couple of times in the past but it may as well have been made for Thanksgiving. Chardonnay, Pinot Gris and Riesling are traditional pairings for white wines for Thanksgiving but I think this has some of the best traits of all of those. It has minerality and acidity like a Riesling, apple and citrus notes like an un oaked Chardonnay and texture and stone fruit notes like a Pinot Gris. This has consistently been one of my best selling French white wines since I brought it into the store and it always over delivers for the price. Normally I am singing the praises of red wines made in the Languedoc region of France but you would never know that this wasn’t from Chenin Blanc’s home in the Loire. The vineyards for La Lisse are planted on clay and limestone at slightly higher elevations to keep the vineyards cool and preserve the elegant acidity that Chenin Blanc is known for. Since the vineyards stay cooler at elevation the vineyards are among the last to be harvested so the grapes have intense complexity and texture with racy acidity. The fleshy texture is complimented by some vinification and aging in a combination of new and used French oak barrels that bring out rich, golden apple and honeysuckle notes. Lime zest and saline minerality cut through the decadence to create a perfectly balanced, show stopping wine that will pair with just about anything you would drink with white wine.
Bodegas Nekeas
Cepa por Cepa Garnacha 2019
Reg. Price $13.99
Sale Price: $9.99
Red Wine of the Month
Garnacha for Thanksgiving, is this my first day?? I promise you I haven’t lost my mind, this Garnacha comes from Navarra and is elegant, beautiful and light on its feet. Bodegas Nekeas is a family run winery in the Valley of Nekeas which has a history of wine making going back to 1572, almost 50 years before Europeans landed on Plymouth Rock. Vineyards and olive groves dominated the region with almost 1000 acres of vineyards until 1899 when the region was decimated by phylloxera. The vineyards were replanted but the low prices for grapes in the 1960’s caused a lot of the vines to be ripped up and only very small plots of vineyards remained. In the late 1980’s Francisco San Martín suggested that they pool their land and replant the vines that their ancestors loved so dearly. Most of them grew up in the vineyards and watched them get ripped out and they jumped at the chance to replant them. They got right to work and harvested their first crop in 1992 and a winery was built soon after. Cepa por Cepa translates to “vine by vine” which is how they replanted the vineyards; they picked the best vines and grafted them onto others to duplicate them and populate the region. The Cepa por Cepa is 100% Garnacha that is fermented at cooler temperatures and is aged in stainless steel. The finished wine is Pinot Noir ish but you still get the candied cherry notes that are unmistakably Garnacha. Enjoy this with the tiniest bit of a chill with anything from burgers to stews but this will knock your socks off for Thanksgiving.
Love & Squalor
Mother Shucker Blend 2020
Reg. Price $23.99
Sale Price: $17.99
I am so in love with this wine and it only has a little bit to do with the label. Portland Wine Company is a small, two person show run by winemaker Matt Berson and his wife Angela Reat that was founded in 2006. The first year there were 65 cases of wine produced and in 2019 there were 3000 cases so while they are still incredibly small they are growing! Matt Berson started working in wine cellars in 2003 after escaping life working in restaurants and he has traveled the world and has been mentored by some gargantuan names in the wine world. Patty Green from Patricia Green Cellars, Dr. Loosen, Susana Balbo, Jay Somers, John Grochau and Tad Seestadt among others helped him along his journey and it is actually because of Tad that we get these delicious wines. The two man distributorship that brings these wines to the state worked with Tad and his Ransom Wine and Spirits project and they asked him for more Oregon producers and he sent them to his neighbors, Portland Wine Company. The Love and Squalor label represents getting back to the basics because as Matt puts it “passion and poverty are two of the building blocks for any worthy endeavor”. Matt sources his grapes from vineyards throughout the Willamette and makes his wines in painstakingly small batches. All of his wines are blends of these small batches that are made in a very hands off fashion. The whites are gently pressed with whole cluster before fermenting with wild and commercial yeasts in stainless steel vats. He likes the fruit and place to come through so he doesn’t use much oak on his wines. The Mother Shucker White Blend is a blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling and Pinot Gris and is inspired by oysters of course and dedicated to the Pacific Walrus. Only 280 cases were made and I am so excited to get 10 of them! The finished wine is surprisingly weighty and slightly briny with notes of under ripe stone fruits, melon, pear and citrus zest. Calm down, even though it has Riesling in it it is still dry and it is delicious.
Division Wine Co.
Gamay Les Petits Fers 2020
Reg. Price $28.99
Sale Price: $18.99
Division Wine Company is another cool, new-ish winery from the West Coast that pays homage to the winemaker’s love of French wines. The company was founded in 2010 by Kate Norris and Thomas Monroe and they wanted to make small batch, organically farmed, non manipulated wines that are inspired by wines from the Loire, Beaujolais, Burgundy and Northern Rhone. Both Kate and Tom have made wine in Loire, Burgundy and Beaujolais and after travelling the world they decided to make Portland their home and open an urban winery there. Now they make an average of 25 unique bottlings per year from 10 different grape varieties but their hearts lie with Chenin Blanc and Gamay. Les Petits Fers is their homage to their time making wine in Loire at Domaine des Grands Fers and it is 100% Gamay from the Eola-Amity Hills in Oregon and is made like they make it in Beaujolais using carbonic maceration. Carbonic maceration is used in many wine regions for Gamay, Pinot Noir and others in which the stems are left on and the bunches remain whole. The bunches are put in an enclosed container and CO2 is pumped in to create an anaerobic environment without any oxygen which is when the magic happens. Without oxygen present the grapes start fermenting themselves from the inside out and the grapes slowly break down and get crushed under the weight of more grapes and so on and thus forth. The finished wines are always intensely youthful, lively, fruit forward, gulpable and damn delicious. This process works best with light to medium bodied reds and a lot of my favorite wines are made this way. Les Petits Fers is no exception and is bursting with notes of sour cherries, cranberries, ripe raspberries and herbaceous notes. You pick up a smidge of tomato stem and woodsy herbs from the inclusion of the stems and the wine is incredibly drinkable. Throw it in the fridge for 20 minutes and drink it just cool to the touch with Thanksgiving, roasted chicken with rosemary, sausage dishes or duck.
Maz Caz
Blanc 2019
Reg. Price $18.99
Sale Price: $14.99
Cascina Feliciana
Chiaretto Rosé 2020
Reg. Price $22.99
Sale Price: $18.99
I have been finding some oddball rosés this year but it’s been really fun to find new favorites and shake up our rosé set here! I am guilty of having a lot of my favorites year after year so some new wines are needed every so often! This incredible rosé comes from Lombardy in northern Italy which is frequently overlooked for the more famous northern regions like Piedmont, Friuli and Alto Adige. Lombardy makes a lot of wine and unfortunately a lot of it doesn’t make its way here. Most of the wines that do make it here from Lombardy are oddballs themselves, like Lugana, Valtellina and Franciacorta which most people won’t recognize even though the wines are stunning. Another type of wine that the region around Lake Garda is known for is Chiaretto which is the local word for rosé. The wine is typically based on the grape Corvina that is also grown in the Veneto but this rosé is a blend of Marzemino, Groppello, Barbera and Sangiovese. Don’t worry, I haven’t heard of all of those grapes either. This rosé is heartier than your typical Provence style but not as dark as a Tavel, instead striking the perfect balance for a fall rosé. Notes of dark cherry, cranberry, dried herbs and balanced minerality make this a fantastic food wine! Enjoy this with anything from Beef Bourguignon to grilled salmon and roasted veggies to roasted chicken and potatoes. Or turkey. This rosé was made to pair with Thanksgiving!
I can’t wait to explore these wines and more with you!
Pop into the store for all of your beverage needs and don’t forget about our in store tastings!
Beer Tasting Thursday 5 pm to 7 pm
Wine Tasting Friday 4 pm to 7 pm
