WINE MINUS Ø - March 2021: The Elephant in the Room

There is intrigue and surprise in all the best love affairs - the butterflies, the swoon, the unexpected twist. It’s the same with mischief - like sneaking into a hotel hot tub or out of bounds at the ski resort - there is a thrill, a feeling of being vibrantly, profoundly alive.

It’s hard to access this particular kind of joy with an overabundance of caution. It usually takes accepting a little bit of risk and being willing to just see what happens. This doesn’t mean that you don’t bring experience, intelligence, creativity, and skill - you better have a beacon and know how to avoid an avalanche if you are ducking ropes into the backcountry - but it does mean that you’ve decided to be ok with exchanging a little control for a little trust in your quest for pleasure (and perhaps enlightenment!)

So too with natural wine.

You might be able to achieve a technically perfect wine by eliminating weeds and pests from your vineyard, selecting a carefully engineered strain of yeast, adjusting your sugar and acid for an ideal pH and alcohol, and then fining and filtering until your wine sparkles clear and there is zero risk of anything left living in there to potentially spoil it. On the other hand, if you do not take this route - if you duck the rope and strike out for the hinterlands, if you let all the life in the vineyard and the wine just live - and here it is, the elephant in the room - your wine could get funky. It could end up cloudy or “earthy” or with super weird chemistries that make it difficult to control. Unexpected things could happen. It might not end up being for everyone, but for those who love it, it will be nothing short a profound swoon.

This month, we selected a few wines that unabashedly acknowledge the lovely, elegantly dancing, vibrant, multi-colored, magical elephant here in the room.

MIDNIGHT CORRESPONDENCE SELECTIONS, MARCH 2021

Caves de Nomades Banyuls-Sur-Mer Amphorisme Murmure Résonnante 2017
Wine Type: Skin contact white
Country: France
Region: Languedoc Roussillon
Grape Variety: Blend
Producer: Caves de Nomades

For some people, wine and the concept of terroir are all about history and legacy, and for others, the most important thing about wine is its uncanny ability to transport the person drinking it to a specific time and place – to tell a story - to inspire a feeling. As a lifelong artist and musician, Zé Tafé's wines are creative endeavors, each a stand-alone work of art. The idea for Cave des Nomades was born on a night of revelry but with the help of Manuel Di Vecchi Staraz and Alain Castex, the dream is now very real. Zé Tafé farms eight hectares of vines spread across twelve parcels around Banyuls. With an artist’s heart, a curious mind, and guidance from exceptional mentors, he makes an array of cuvées, which he describes as “imaginary stories of nomads roaming the land […] inspired by real life experiences.” The Vin de France Amphorisme is made from Macabeau, Grenache Gris, Grenache Blanc, Chardonnay, and Vermentino, all aged in amphora for six months. With label design from artist Katja Stroph, it is truly a rare find.

SKINNY DIPPING IN THE WATERTOWER SELECTIONS, MARCH 2021

Kasnyik Tramin 2018
Kasnyik rodinné vinárstvo, Južnoslovenksá, Slovakia
appellation: Strekov
100% Tramín Červený (100% Gewürztraminer)
Founders Autentista Slovakia
organic viticulture

Kasnyik produces an array of wines, but it is the small-scale skin macerated orange wines that move us. Gábor explains, "...orange wine is like living in the marine world,...it is like being submerged and completely surrounded."  Tramín Červený (Gewürztraminer) aromatics are kaleidoscopic and function this way effortlessly–they surround you without sacrificing a kind of buoyancy. Tramin 2018 was fermented for 21x days on the skin in open vats and spent 12x months on less in Hungarian (neutral) oak barrels. The wine is not fined, bottled unfiltered with a slight addition of SO2. Bright acids, gregarious flowers, dried fruits and spice. Wines of this seriousness and structure seem reminiscent more of tea than free run juice, the experience more akin to something from the genie's lamp than any wood barrel. 

Les Clos Perdus Project 108 2018
Wine Type: Red
Country: France
Region: Languedoc
Grape Variety: Mourvèdre, Carignan
Producer: Les Clos Perdus

Sometime in the history of winegrowing, vineyards stopped being yards on the hillsides behind French country houses and started growing. They grew and grew. They grew so big that they could no longer be farmed by a family and their horse. Farmers bought tractors and tillers and sprayers. We optimized, enhanced efficiency, increased yields, and gradually began to believe that it wasn’t worth farming the small, old, low-cropping parcels of the past. Enter Les Clos Perdus - the lost clos - named after the isolated parcels of derelict old-vines “lost” in time. Founded in 2003 and now tending 16 hectares of vines spread across 35 small parcels in Haute Corbières and Vallée de l’Agly, the small winery works without chemicals, guided by biodynamic principles to breathe health and balance back into disregarded sites. Grown on limestone and clay, this Mourvèdre / Carignan is earthy and primordial - not flashy but bold - true to its pedigree and origins. A confident old-soul kind of wine.