Cheers to Summer! I know it’s been HOT but how fun is it to have summer weather, long days, and beach time again? This month we are featuring fun summer wines! Exciting and easy drinking that go great with a day in the sun and an evening BBQ. Here’s to toasting the season and soaking it all up, you know we’ve all earned it!
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Cheers,
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P. & E. Mullins
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Hild Elbling Sekt Brut NV
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Mosel, Germany
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When we think of Mosel Germany, we associate it with Riesling. However, this go round we are visiting the Upper Mosel where instead of slate terroir, we find limestone and instead of Riesling we find Elbling. Elbling is an ancient varietal in Europe. It is pure, it is bright with acidity, and it is joyful. Winemaker Matthias Hild works the old vines by hand, accepting that they yield less fruit and take more work but finds reward in preserving the culture and style of these sacred grapes. Made in the traditional method, this sparkling is a light banana yellow in color. It’s perfectly clear and tiny streams of bubbles shoot up to the top like shooting stars. The nose is reminiscent of wet gravel and chalk with a hint of pineapple. The palate is delicate but also so full of creamy bubbles that wash though your mouth quickly. The pineapple and banana taffy notes carry through to the super dry finish. Told you this would be fun!
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2021 Clos Sainte-Magdeleine
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Provence, France
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A nod to the perfect parings in life; peanut butter & jelly, vodka & caviar, Champagne & Lays potato chips, hotdogs & mustard, Pat & Ellie, Provençale rosé, and a sunny day… Doesn’t it just bring a smile to your face? Winemaker Jonathan Sack sources these grapes from a commune in La Ciotat on the coast of Provence right between Cassis and Bandol. The grapes are all organic and sustainably farmed. A blend of 35% Grenache, 35% Cinsault, 20% Mourvèdre and 10% Syrah make up this rosé. It is fermented in stainless steel and unfined. In the glass is a pale peachy pink. You can see the weight in the body of the wine as your swirl your glass. The aromatics come straight out of the glass and wow you. There are notes of ripe stone fruit, peaches and plum and a little cantaloupe melon. The palate has an oily mouthfeel (in a good way!) that coats your tongue and mouth with silky macerated strawberries notes and it carries all the way through to the long finish where there is a little ting of acidity and salinity. This is the type of rosé that makes rosé lovers out of all of us.
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2021 COS Frappato
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Sicily, Italy
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Three legendary winemakers and friends from Sicily started COS together in 1980. COS is an acronym of their last names, Giambattista Cilia, Giusto Occhipinti, and Cirino Strano. The Occhipinti name may be familiar to you as his niece Ariana Occhipinti wines are quite popular all the way from our little bottle shop to the Stanly Tucci show, to Sicily. He was a mentor to her and learning more about this winemaking style and his friends in the business I can see why. The focus of COS is to showcase the volcanic terroir of Sicily by fermenting and aging the wine in terracotta vats. All the vines are organically cultivated and tended to with biodynamic practices. The grapes are harvested by hand and fermented through spontaneous fermentation with native yeasts. This 100% Frappato is native to Sicily, and it is lush and full while remaining bright and buoyant. In the glass this wine is obviously unfiltered. It’s not super dark but a nice translucent cloudy ruby tone. The nose is of blackberries and dark cherry skins, the kind that stain your fingers, tongue, and everything else. There’s a little vanilla on the back end. The aromas are so rich they fill your glass. The palate is both fruity and savory, with dried cherries, plums, tobacco and cedar. It finishes super dry with gentle tugging tannins. A prefect hot weather red. We recommend enjoying it with a slight chill.
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