Porter Creek is owned by Alex Davis, who biodynamically farms his low-yielding, hillside grown vines in the Russian River Valley.

The winery got its start in 1977 when Alex's father George Davis purchased 40 acres of land off Westside Road in what would eventually become the Russian River Valley AVA. Seeing that it was an ideal location for growing Burgundian varieties, George planted 10 acres of Chardonnay in addition to the 12 acres of Pinot Noir already on the land. The winery was bonded in 1982 and for the next 15 years, George paid no attention to the ever-changing wine trends and simply worked to express the unique terroir of the Russian River Valley.

In 1997, George handed wine-making responsibility to his son, Alex. In addition to growing up working along side his father at the winery, Alex studied Enology at Fresno University and spent several years in France working with renowned wine makers including Christophe Roumier and Marcel Guigal.

Although the style at Porter Creek has remained true to George’s original vision, one major change Alex made was the transition of their vineyards to biodynamic farming. Rigorous attention is paid both to the soil and the vines to ensure the entire vineyard is operating in harmony. The results are pure, balanced wines that speak strongly of their source, not just the hand that got them into the bottle.

The winery produces Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from the 20-acre estate vineyard, and also purchases fruit for the Zinfandel, Carignane, Syrah, Viognier and a few other variety wines.

In the cellar, Alex uses about around 30% whole cluster on the Pinot Noirs, while the whites are direct pressed. Following a 3-4 day cold soak (for the Pinots), native yeasts are used for fermentation which happens outdoors in stainless steel tanks. Aging is done in 25-30% new oak.

Click here to read Bram Johnson's review of Porter Creek Vineyards!

Señor Don Primitivo Quiles is one of the great figures of Spanish wine. His bodega in Monovar, established in 1780, is the oldest in Alicante, if not in all the comunidad Valenciana. They have been a family-owned winery for over 100 years and maintain of the oldest soleras on the market, dating back to 1892. Their wines are highly valued treasures in wine cellars all over Europe and a source of pride for the winemaking industry in Alicante.

The Fondillon is 100% Monastrell harvested in late October or November then placed in a solera system that began in 1948. The Cono 4 is a joven style made in large cono foudres, and represents a great expression of the warm Alicante climate yet also very earthy and complex: it's also one of the best deals in our book!

www.primitivoquiles.com

Thank you to importer Louis/Dressner for this profile of the Puech Redon estate:

We were introduced to Domaine Puech Redon by Eric Texier, who as of 2017 is helping proprietor Cyril Cuche make unpretentious, unsulfured wines from his meticulously farmed land.

Puech Redon is a large property: in total 380 hectares are split between 200h of cereals, 52h of vines and over 100 of woods and garrigues. Cyril's grandfather acquired this land in the aftermath of World War 2. Under his father, the property was farmed conventionally for 30 years. Cyril, seeing the potential of such a large, contained area, decided from the get-go that it had great potential for organic agriculture and prioritizing biodiversity:

"It was a choice I imposed on myself. Besides the incredible bore of working conventionally, with it's by the book itineraries traced step by step by lobbyists for large phytosanitary corporations, I wanted to prove that within organics, you could work in poly-culture on a large surface and still be profitable. I learned to feed the soil and not the plant, I reclaimed the link that unifies the farmer to his land. The vines have been worked organically since 2008, and the cereals since 2010. Over the last decade I've been able to observe the immense consequences of such work. The effect of a culture without chemicals on such a large surface is truly impressive: for the soil, the plant but even more so the animals that had deserted us slowly coming back to our lands."

For winemaking, minimal-intervention was evident in Cyril's philosophy but not obviously attainable. After a chance meeting with Eric Texier, the two instantly hit it off. Through a bond of shared experience, they agreed to collaborate on the vinifications. In 2017, a limited amount of pet-nat from Cinsault was produced under the name "Pour de Vrai",  a 100% Cinsault called "L'Apparente" and a minuscule amount of white wine from Viognier, Grenache Blanc and Roussanne. While distinctly southern, the micro-climate of the area is actually quite cool and the wines are rarely above 12.5% when harvested at optimal maturity.

From 2017 to 2021, Cyril had been selling the majority of his grapes to a négociant, slowly ramping up estate production every year. But in 2022 he decided to start renting his cereal fields and over 30 hectares of vines, solely focusing on roughly 16 hectares of his best terroirs. Without the pressure to work the rest of his sprawling property, we only expect the wines to become more focused and precise.

Quinta do Infantado was founded in 1816 in the Cima Corgo sub-region of the Douro--considered its finest zone for both Port and dry wines--by the Portuguese crown heir D. Pedro IV, hence the name of the estate: “Infante” is Portuguese for "prince". The Roseira family has owned it since the end of the nineteenth century. Today, Infantado is run by third generation João Roseira (winemaker and vineyard manager) and other family members, who oversee family holdings of about forty-six hectares of vines. Quite interestingly, Infantado evolved over the last fifty years into the best kind of outlier and innovator in a wine region ruled for centuries by large-scale production and full-blown commerce.

Up until the 1970’s, like most small growers, Infantado sold their wines off to large shippers; they then made the radical decision to go it alone, becoming the first estate to not sell or buy fruit or wine and to exclusively bottle estate-grown wines. At that time, their wines could not even be sold outside of Portugal: the law allowed only shippers with a commercial cellar in the town of Vila Nova di Gaia on the Douro near the coast to export. Given its location and small size well upriver, Infantado did not have and never intended to have such—only when the law changed in 1986 (when Portugal joined the EU) were they able to sell beyond their home country.  

Behind the bold decision to go independent was the inherent quality of Infantado’s vineyards. Port is highly regulated and those regulations are built around an A-to-F vineyard classification scale. Infantado owns exclusively A-grade sites, which is the Douro equivalent of having nothing but grand cru vineyards. Theirs are mainly the classic steep, schistous, terraced, old-vine parcels of the traditional mixed plantings of local varieties (featuring around fifteen out of the possible seventy or so grapes). Typically in the Douro, A-level vines go only into vintage Port and B-level into aged tawnies and LBV’s; the C-F classes are used for basic rubies and tawnies and get a higher fortification as well. Infantado by necessity uses only A-level vineyards for every level of wine.

The excellence of their material dictated not only their decision to go rogue and bottle estate wines but also determined their choice of a rare house style: that of medium-dry or meio-seco rather than fully sweet Port. Most Port comes from at best average fruit of only modest ripeness that is quickly fermented and left with a lot of sugar and just modest alcohol, never mind complexity, and thus a need for a large dose of brandy for fortification. Infantado harvests well-ripened, more complexly flavored fruit which is fermented further, to a point of less sugar and more alcohol and a reduced need for fortification—thus their wines contain around thirty percent less brandy than a standard Port.

Beyond the quality of the fruit, the particulars of Infantado’s harvest and cellar practices have a vital impact on the nature of the wines. Most Port grapes end up being trucked in bulk under a hot sun that causes fermentation to start and compromises the freshness of the fruit before it even gets to the winery; then that fruit goes into huge steel tanks, cultured yeasts are added and fermentation flies to completion in twenty-four hours. Taking a more artisanal approach, Infantado harvests into small boxes so that the fruit lands quickly at their nearby winery. The fruit goes into a modern steel version of the traditional stone lagar—a long open tank where they do a combination of some traditional foot-treading and an updated, more consistent mechanical version of it—with only its natural yeasts for a much slower three-to-four-day fermentation.  This approach results in more moderate extraction and ultimately greater balance in the final blends. Aging takes place in a combination of very old, traditional wooden casks in a range of sizes and shapes, from the classic 550-liter horizontal pipas up to the tall, 3,000-to-60,000-liter wood tanks called toneis or balseiros.

Infantado has successfully distinguished their Port wines with some atypical choices in the last fifty years. The wines reflect the terroir and the tradition of the region in myriad ways through a modern, more vinous lens. João is continuing the exploration of terroir with some organic viticulture in a couple of parcels--from which they bottle a dry red wine from the traditional varieties—as well as single-variety vineyard plantings for Port production alongside the old mixed-grape plots. He takes nothing for granted and is emphatic about the importance of hands-and-eyes-on observation and engagement in the vines and in the cellar. Nothing is done by rote at Infantado, and the results of this thoughtful approach are evident in the bottle.