December Wine Club

Dec 23, 2022

Another year come and gone. It feels like they get faster every year. We hope you had a lovely year, filled with moments with the ones you love, adventure and of course delicious wine. Thank you for going on this wine journey with us. We love sharing what we’re drinking with you. Almost like we’re raising a glass together. May your holiday season be cozy and safe and best wishes to you and yours in the New Year. Cheers, P. & E. Mullins

Living Roots Session Sparkling White NV

Finger Lakes, New York

Living Roots is a winery that has locations in two hemispheres. Seb Hardy has winemaking in his genes dating back 6 generations. In 1850 his great-great-great grandfather immigrated from England to Southern Australia and planted vines. 160+ years later, Seb worked with his dad in the vineyards through his youth and then after high school worked several harvests across Australia and Europe. He studied Viticulture and Oenology in Adelaide with a program offered through UC Davis. The other half of Living Roots was raised in Rochester New York, Colleen studied marketing, entered the corporate life, and lived in Chicago for a while. The world of wine kept pulling her and in 2014 she decided to jump in with both feet and landed a job as a cellar hand during harvest at Seb’s family winery in Australia. The rest is history in a bottle. They fell in love with each other and the wine and decided to follow the harvest back and forth from Australia to the Finger Lakes region in New York, Living Roots was born in 2016. Sharing today the Session Sparkling, made with Elvira and Riesling varietals. Naturally low in alcohol at only 8%, these are perfect bubbles to enjoy earlier in the day. There are bright aromatics on the nose of white peaches, golden delicious apples, and pears. The palate is lush with tiny tingling bubbles, it finishes dry with some fine chalkiness.

2019 Villemade Les Souchettes

Loire, France

We can’t end this year’s wine club without taking a trip to one of our favorite little regions in the Loire Valley, Cheverny. Winemaker Hervé Villemade focuses on low intervention wine making. He is very delicate with everything from the soil to the bottling. From tiling the soil gently to treating the vines by hand with only natural products, to fermenting the wine with indigenous yeast and zero additives except for the tiniest dose of sensible sulphites to help make sure the bottles travel well to the moment they are enjoyed. This 100% Menu Pineu is fermented and aged in amphora, pottery essentially. In the glass it is like a liquid honeyed amber. The nose has notes of dried hay and sage, peppercorn, persimmon, and banana. The is palate has a bright acidity and round appley juicy notes, its complex and fresh, reminiscent to a Sicilian white.

2021 Kobal ‘Roots’ Blaufränkisch

Lower Styria (Štajerska), Slovenia

With an annual production of just 9000 bottles, we are fortunate to have this wine here in our little shop in Three Oaks. The winemaking history here dates to Roman times and even back then was considered one of the top wine-growing regions in Central Europe. Winemaker Bojan Kobal has been an ambassador for this region as its terroir and geography rival the dramatic slopes of the Mosel and Duoro. All the farming is organic. The vineyards are hand harvested and the grapes de-stemmed before macerated for 21 days. Fermentation is spontaneous in large open oak vats and then aged in barrique barrels for 6 months and bottled unfined and unfiltered. In the glass it is a light medium body with a violet red and a blue tinge. The nose has notes of mulled plums and cherry coke with a gravelly minerality. The palate is perfect for a holiday get together or a cold snowy day. It has gentle tannins, nice acidity, it’s fun, joyful and has a velvety lingering finish. Open this up and let it breath for about an hour before enjoying. Cheers!