An industry workshop drilling down on richness and texture in white wines. Industry folks can register for the next workshop, on Monday March 31, here.
Rather than taste conventional examples adhering to appellation law and varietal typicity, we explored a slew of growers working naturally in the vines and in the cellar.
Some of them are on their own, working against the grain of their regions’ norms and in ways very different from their neighbors. Some are classically-minded, in small, well-established places with a reputation for quality. Some are part of nexuses of natural winegrowing that define their regions’ contemporary energy. All are wines that I might put on a list, drink for fun, or recommend to somebody as worth caring about.
Tasting natural wine blind means tasting a wider spectrum of approaches and possibility in terms of practice and flavor. (For example: a WSET question like “new oak, used oak or stainless?” becomes, “wood vessels like oak, acacia, chestnut, or rauli? clay, like qvevri, tinajas, dolia, or amphora? concrete eggs? tanks made out of steel, fiberglass, glass, or food-safe plastic?” A binary choice like “White or red?” becomes a rainbow of potential color. )
Texture in these wines came from a variety of places: aging intentional exposure to oxidation for years, destemmed grapes soaking on the skins, lees circulating in egg-shaped concrete vessels, sugar ripeness and sunlight, the mark of different soils, vine age and grape variety.
Blind tasting them was less about a correct guess, and more about learning to key in to winemaking choices and climate, and thinking through who might make a wine like this, and where.
After blinding (A) together, each small group worked through three of the wines below on their own, before revealing to the room. We tasted through everything together at the end.
The tasting sheets we used are over at the Patreon. Below, here’s a little more about what we tasted, who made them, and where they came from:
A. MICHEL BREGNÉON, “Sur Lies” 2022
Michel was one of the pioneers of high quality Muscadet, in a region where farmers overwhelmingly sold their wines for cents on the liter and industrial practices remain common. A young, ambitious winegrower named Fred Lallier took over from Michel in 2011. He began converting the domaine to organics, extremely rare and difficult in the region, and began exploring for himself different ways to bottle his different soils and plots. The gold-foil basic “sur lies” bottling appears to be an importer exclusive for Kermit Lynch, probably held over from Michel’s day; the wines on his own website, in contrast, look like this.
TEXTURE FAST FACTS malo (occurs sometimes naturally, but I think not here), lees (2+ years in glass-lined concrete), filtration I would not be surprised if his entry level sees a light filtration before bottling x factors organic farming, lower yields relative to region variety melon b place Muscadet between the rivers Sevre and Maine.
B. MARKUS ALTENBURGER, “Betont”
Markus pursues soil regeneration (he has a Fukuoaka quote on his homepage!) and light-touch winemaking in Burgenland, in southeastern Austria on the Hungarian border, wrapped around a vast shallow lake (Europe’s second largest). Burgenland is backed up against a range of hills in the northwest (Leithaberg) and faces the beginning of the vast warm plains of the Pannonian Basin to the east; it’s Austria’s main red wine growing region, and one of the nexuses for the country’s natural wine movement.
Neuburger is a wild crossing of sylvaner and roter veltliner and has a distinct, mild textured quality — not necessarily held in high regard, but Markus has a soft spot for it. (So does Milan Nestarec, in Moravia, southern Czechia, where it was widely cultivated in mid-century.) “Bentot” means “concrete”, and here you can see him playing with ways to push the variety and lean in to textural complexity.
TEXTURE FAST FACTS malo (yes) lees (10 mo in concrete egg) skins/press destemmed and soaked for 4-5 days before pressing climate warm, dry, moderated by a huge shallow lake variety neuburger place Burgenland
C) CATHERINE RISS, “Dessous de Table”
Catherine is an ex-restaurant kid and exemplifies the current energy in the Alsatian natural winegrowing scene. Her first solo vintage was in 2014 after buying 3 hectares of vines the year before, which she immediately began converting to organic certification. She’s friends / colleagues with folks like Lucas Rieffel and Jean-Pierre Rietsch. Wines are wild, alive, and usually zero-zero. Alsace will surprise you with how warm and dry it is despite being one of France’s furthest-north wine regions; between the shadow of the Vosges Mountains and the Rhine,.
TEXTURE FAST FACTS malo (yes), lees (fine lees for about a year), sunlight (warm/dry due to rain shadow) x factors zero SO2, blue schist/sandstone varieties pinot auxerrois and sylvaner region Alsace
D) LAMORESCA, “Bianco”
True polyculture in central Sicily, between Mt. Etna and Vittoria to the island’s south (i.e. the middle of nowhere): 5 hectares of vines amidst another 20-plus of olives, orchard, and almonds. An elevated plateau/rugged hills means a degree of freshness you can’t take for granted here, off the coast of north Africa.
TEXTURE FAST FACTS malo (yes), lees (racked three times before bottling), skins/press destemmed, soaked 2-3 days before pressing aging cement, one triconic oak barrel x factor limestone soils, relatively high elevation (450m), polyculture (olives, fruit trees, prickly pear, almonds) variety vermentino di Corso region central Sicily
E) BORACHIO, “Battered Sav”
Mark Warner and Alicia Basa met at a hardcore show in Sydney in 2003 and got married eleven years later at a courthouse in NYC, along with porrons of poulsard. Wine wasn’t the original goal — they came to it via produce — but they worked their first harvest with James Erskine of Jauma, one of the foundational people of Australia’s natural wine movement. After bouncing around the world, they ended up back in Australia: first independent vintage 2016, outside of Adelaide, which has become a nexus point: Jauma the start, but also new small folks like Commune of Buttons and Gentle Folk. Territory ranges from the agricultural flats of McLaren Vale to the hilly nooks and crannies of the Basket Range and the heights of Mt Compass.
TEXTURE FAST FACTS malo (yes), oxidation (in barrel without topping up for a year), varieties two thirds / one third sauvignon / chardonnay region Adelaide
F) TISSOT, “Patchwork” 2022
Emblematic biodynamic winegrowers in Arbois, Stéphane and Benedicte farm (with the help of a hardworking team) a whopping 35 hectares, out of which they make a daunting slew of particular wines of place. It’s a wild amount of effort to farm this way on a slightly larger scale. Stéphane’s father started the domaine in 1962, and their family has been farmers in the Jura for generations (see how many Tissots you find around these parts). “Patchwork” is exactly what it sounds like, a blend of multiple blocks that balances the more laser-focused acid structure of the limestone-forward sites with the deeper, broader Bajocian clay parcels. Winemaking here is topped-up, not oxidative or under the veil: mutant white Burgundy.
TEXTURE FAST FACTS malo (yes), aging (14 months in barrel / foundre), x factors (clay-limestone soils) variety chardonnay place Arbois, Jura
G) SEPP MUSTER, “Erde” 2021
In Austria’s southern, sub-Alpine green garden, overwhelmingly devoted to white varieties and particularly a place that grows sauvignon blanc that tastes like nowhere else, there’s a tiny biodynamic winegrower’s association called Schmecke das Leben, the taste of life, formed in 2010 to help promote each other’s wines: Strohmeier, Tauss, Andreas Tscheppe, Werlitsch, Sepp Muster. This a pretty compelling list of southern Styria’s most interesting winemakers! You should picture middle-aged Austrian guys with nice sweaters who make slightly fancy, beautifully farmed natural wines and go on sunrise hikes.
TEXTURE FAST FACTS malo (yes), skins/press (12 months on the skins), oxidation (2 years in 1200L oval cask after pressing) x factors limestone, zero SO2 varieties sauvignon blanc, chardonnay place Steiermark
H) UROGALLO, “Pésico” 2017
Asturias, on Spain’s northern Atlantic coast, is mostly about goats, green hills, sheep’s milk cheese, and cidermaking, but there’s been a sliver of winegrowing here for a long time, and the energy of the landscape has a lot in common with Ráis Baixas or Basque Country. Fran Asencio farms about 17 hectares very near the coast: slate soils, terraces, on the cool side, something like a cross between the Mosel and Ribeira Sacra. Zero sulfur, and a testament to the way wines settle clear and stabilize if you have the time to leave them alone for 2 winters.
TEXTURE FAST FACTS malo (yes), lees (2 winters on full lees), oxidation (five years under cork after bottling, aging in barrel) variety albarín place Asturias, northern (green) Spain
I) CANTALAPIEDRA, “Majuelo de Chiviritero” 2022
Isaac and Manuel Cantalapiedra are one of the few remaining guardians of Rueda’s ancestral history of winemaking, which encompassed flor aging, intentional oxidation, and skin contact to add texture to the region’s local variety, verdejo. Modern Rueda encourages planting sauvignon blanc and making artificially crisp dry whites in a hot place via temp controlled steel tanks and malo blocking. Some of you called ouillé Jura savagnin on this, and it’s exactly the angle I take when I want to blow a wine geek’s mind in a restaurant setting with this bottle.
TEXTURE FAST FACTS skins/press destemmed, soaked for a day before pressing malo (yes), lees (9 mo in barrel), oxidation (old barrel) variety verdejo place Rueda
J) HAUVETTE, “Jaspe” 2023
Dominique Hauvette makes beautifully farmed, classically proportioned wines of place in the Alpilles, a wild natural park / crumpled hillsides / site of ruined fortresses in Provence’s northwest, closer to the Rhône and Avignon. It’s a small place whose local AOP, Beaux de Provence, became the first in France to require organic farming from all of its growers (I think it’s a dozen or so?). See also: Trévallon, Henri Milan. Concrete eggs are central to the way she explores texture in her silky, infused reds, her mindblowingly good rosé, and this unctuous, candelit white.
TEXTURE FAST FACTS malo (yes), lees, aging (9 mo in concrete egg), soils limestone climate warm, Mediterranean, moderated by elevation and a crazy north wind variety roussanne, with its oily, bitter-walnut signature place Alpilles, a natural park / set of hills in northwestern Provence
K) JOAN RUBIO, “Obstinat” 2018
The Penedès is an incredibly interesting place to drink wines that are not cava right now. Xarello isn’t the only local white variety, but it’s the one that has been most widely embraced for its herbal-mineral-textural dimension, its acid structure, and its capacity to make ageworthy wines of place. You’ll see a pretty wide array of approaches if you taste a bunch of xarello, with a lot of them I think revolving around lees and aging vessels. Joan’s is particularly special and unique because he doesn’t have a press, so there’s this push-pull between the skin maceration and the absolutely gentleness of extraction. (Also here’s a wine with some age!)
TEXTURE FAST FACTS skins/press destemmed, soaked for 6 days and juice drained off (Joan doesn’t have a press!), malo yes lees/aging mostly in tank, bottle age/oxidation 6 years! variety xarello place Penedes
L) ALBAMAR, “Ceibo” 2022
Almond-y, slightly neutral godello is a wine I’ve been selling tableside as a chardonnay headfake for a long time now, so I’m happy this is how it was read by the table that blinded it too! Albamar is mostly about Xurxo making albariño on the seashore, but “Ceibo” is purchased fruit from a friend further inland. Notable: this, according to tech, naturally did not go through malo.
TEXTURE FAST FACTS fermentation/aging fermented in 2500L fuder, 8 months lees aging malo did not occur! bottle age 2 years variety godello place Valdeorras, Galicia (northwestern Spain)
M) TESSA LAROCHE, “Berceau des Fées” 2023
Chenin on schist from one of the standout producers in Savennières; they farm 12 of the 22 hectares of the walled vineyard of the Roche aux Moines, right next to Nicholas Joly’s Coulée de Serrant. Tessa took over from her mother a little over a decade ago and half ago, moved the estate to organics, and is part of the general movement in the village towards better farming / native yeast fermentation, fruit clean of botrytis, and lower sulfur. “Berceau des Fées” is an earlier, easier-drinking wine bottled with low to no SO2 from the youngest vines on the estate, next to a row of trees called the “cradle of the fairies”.
TEXTURE FAST FACTS malo (yes), lees (9 mo in tank), x factors (schist soils, chenin’s varietal character), climate (mild, green, moderated by the Loire river and warm water from the Gulf Stream, frost a major concern) variety chenin region Anjou / Savennières
N) STATERA, “Rudis” 2020
Chardonnay from a single vineyard the Willamette Valley, fermented and aged in the same neutral barrels on full lees, without topping, for 3-4 years. Inspired by Jura whites.
TEXTURE FAST FACTS malo (yes), lees (3-4 on gross less), oxidation (no topping up, old barrels), climate (mild, wet winters, moderated by cool air from the ocean through the coastal range) variety chardonnay region Willamette Valley
Children's Atlas of Wine 