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The Mas de Cadenet estate is located at the base of the Sainte Victoire mountain (the mountain that Cézanne made famous through his paintings), in the heart of Provence. A family estate, it has been owned and run by the Negrel family for seven generations.
Sainte-Victoire is a sub-appellation of the Côtes de Provence which was granted its own AOC status in 2005; twenty-two winemakers (including Mas de Cadenet) fought for their AOC status for 15 years, and rosé from this region is widely understood to be the best of those produced in Provence. Mas de Cadenet's 45 hectares of vineyards are situated 250 meters above sea level, with a southern exposure: 40 hectares are located in AOC Sainte-Victoire and 5 hectares in AOC Côtes de Provence. Rosé is their primary focus, and at 60% of their total production, making an exceptional rosé is clearly a priority; they also produce vin rouge (30% of their production) and vin blanc (the remaining 10%).
Sainte-Victoire is also noteworthy for a "gentleman's agreement" in effect here: the vignerons of Saint-Victoire have all elected to practice organic viticulture. As with all of their neighbors, striking a balance with nature is central to the Negrel family's philosophy, and their vineyards have been certifed organic since 2013. The average age of their vines is 35 years old, with the oldest vines now over 70 years old. The age of the vines is a key factor for the wines consistency and quality; the yield of the wines is naturally kept low to ensure high quality of the wines (45 hl/ha in average). www.masdecadenet.fr Image:
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Nothing encapsulates the next generation of Penedes - quite literally in this case - as the work of father and son team Joan and Joan Vendrell at Mas Goma.
The estate is located in Les Cabanyes, in the heart of the Penedès, a historic and traditional area of the viticulture. The property has been owned by the Vendrell family since 1918 and has been growing grapes and producing wine on and off since then. The new era started in 2009 when Joan Vendrell (the son), who handles the business side of things, and Joan Manel Vendrell (the father), who has 30 years of winemaking experience took control.
Only the oldest vines are used to make wine on the estate, and they currently sell grapes from younger vines to other producers in the area. In the cellar everything is fermented with native yeasts, little to no sulfur is added depending on the cuvée, and everything is unfined and unfiltered.
These wines are laser-focused and run a range of different styles, from long-aged cavas to seriously refreshing still wines in liter bottles. Some wines have just arrived, and we are thrilled to share them with you.
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Matchbook Distilling Co. is known for its experimental, ingredient-driven approach to spirits production. Matchbook is the brainchild of distiller Leslie Merinoff-Kwasnieski. She and her team produce an immensely diverse set of spirits built around the abundant produce of their local farmers. Founded with a focus on culinary technique and transparency in sourcing, Matchbook works directly with farmers, foragers, and producers to build spirits from raw agricultural ingredients. Located on the North Fork of Long Island, Matchbook operates as both a distillery and research-driven beverage lab, producing a diverse portfolio that includes gin, amaro, aperitifs, and specialty botanical spirits. “We think healthy, live soil produces the healthiest ingredients - and the healthiest ingredients produce the best flavor. We find endless inspiration in the history of how people have regarded spices, herbs, fruits, minerals - at once medicine, nourishment, perfume and flavor.”
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For more information on Mateus Nicolau de Almeida, please visit Selection Massale.
Available in California.
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For more information on Meles Augustín Normil, please visit Selection Massale.
Available in California.
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The name "Menaud" is an homage to a book titled “Menaud, maître-draveur” (Menaud, log driver), written by Félix-Antoine Savard and published in 1937. Savard lived in Clermont, the same town in which Menaud Distillerie is based in Charlevoix, Canada. A nature-lover and staunch advocate for conservation, Savard serves as an appropriate inspiration for the ambitious project that is Menaud. The distillery was founded by four friends: Grégoire Bluteau, Charles Boissonneau, Enrico Bouchard, Martin Brisson, and Gilles Brouard. It is a collaboration with the farmers of Charlevoix, and all ingredients are locally-sourced (except for the juniper which comes from England). The botanicals, which include honeysuckle, glasswort, and haskap berries, are all researched in depth before being incorporated.
This is due in part to the special microclimate of the region, a combination of the humidity of the river, the salty air, and the late arrival of the seasons. Much of the work is in maintaining a conversation with the terroir. As Charles Boissoneau puts it: “We explore the flavors, sometimes for months, researching different things in an effort to preserve the essence of the ingredients. To honor the tradition of the place and yet shake things up, one must understand the ecosystem-- the manner by which everything lives and interacts together. The choice of each ingredient is the fruit of a great deal of labor and research regarding the land and many tastings of ingredients along the way."
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In 2010, after having dedicated the previous 20 years to the recovery and maintenance of his vineyards—not to mention a lifetime to winemaking—Pedro Merayo established Bodegas y Viñedos Merayos. The Merayo family has always been strongly linked to the world of wine and they have owned one of the most important wineries (Bodegas Merayo, closed c. 1989) in the region for decades. However, in the late 1980′s, Pedro Merayo decided to take time off from winemaking to concentrate his efforts on the care and maintenance of the family vineyards. After the great changes of the late 1990′s, including the creation of new wineries and the modernization of existing ones in the context of an international market, the family decided to return to its roots.
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Leonel Hernández (Don Gil), a third generation maestro mezcalero, produces his mezcal in San Pablo Villa de Mitla, a town and municipality in Oaxaca. It is famous for being the site of the Mitla archeological ruins and is part of the Tiacolula District in the east of the Valles Centrales Region.
Mezcal Local is made with 100% agave Espadin, harvested after 10 years. The agaves are cooked underground for 3 days, ground using an Egyptian mill, and then fermented in wooden vats for 10 days. During the distillation process agave hearts, as well as a combination of fruits (apple, peach, banana and orange), are added to the still. The heart of the agave acts as a natural purifier and the fruits add a wide range of distinctive flavor notes. This mezcal is distilled twice in copper.
Mezcal Local is a vegan mezcal de pechuga (pechuga translates to breast in Spanish). This means the finished mezcal is redistilled with local fruits, grains, and nuts, and a raw chicken or turkey breast is hung over the still, cooking in the emanating vapors, supposedly adding to the spirit’s final flavor.
These mezcals are usually made in small batches according to old family recipes and served during special occasions such as harvest, weddings, funerals and festivals.Due to lack of protein, as Local only uses fruit during distillation, the CRM will not allow the Pechuga classification on the bottle.
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The Michelini family is not short of terroirs to explore in their native Argentina, and brothers Gerardo, Matias, and Juan Pablo continue to amaze with the amount and quality of the projects they get involved with in South America. Zorzal, Gen del Alma, Passionate Wines are just some of the labels they are associated with, and that have helped change and shape the current viticultural landscape of their native country. Now Gerardo has gone a step further and has taken his family craft and vision to Spain.
With the help of his wife Andrea Mufatto (formally the winemaker at Gen del Alma), and their talented son Manu, he is making terroir-driven wine at one of Spain’s most exciting regions, Bierzo. It was César Marqués, and Raul Perez, both visionary winemakers and Bierzo natives, who instigated the Michelinis to start producing in the area. They now have their own winery in Toral de Merayo, a two centuries-old building made of the stones that shape the mountainous landscape, and here they parked some old foudres, and even some amphorae made by the master of clay, Juan Padilla.
They farm their very old vines organically (soils in the region are mostly clay with slate and quartz) and the range of wines includes a village level with fruit from different plots, a couple of paraje (lieu-dit) wines, and the prized cru of El Rapolao.
Manu is the young winemaker, and he takes a traditional as well as an experimental approach: the reds are foot-stomped in the amphorae, sometimes with whole bunches, and they also ferment in clay. The aging is done in a mix of vessels, amphorae as well as used oak and chestnut barrels, and the wines see short macerations of less than 20 days, followed by aging in neutral French and American oak barrels.
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Rioja has been for a while now at a threshold, a place that sooner or later all of the most celebrated wine regions find themselves.The traditional and familiar wineries that defined its style are firmly established, producing some of the finest wines in the world, while on the other side of the gate young growers and winemakers are working to find their place, refining - and sometimes indeed redefining - the style of the wines made in the region. What the new generation of winemakers and bodegas share is an emphasis on place, not in the cellar. Instead of making wines that represent the region as a whole, with a marked house style, they focus on sites and vineyards, hoping that their wines reflect the different terroirs and landscapes found in the region. Miguel Merino Jr is the perfect example of someone making the best of this moment, with a solid foundation in the style that made Rioja’s most emblematic and venerated wines, while at the same time creating something new.
His father paved the way, when after a successful career as a wine exporter he decided to start a small bodega, choosing Briones as their focal point, a small and historic village where old vines abound, and are mostly planted in steep slopes, with varying soil-types of sand, clay, and limestone, and markedly Atlantic influenced climate. Merino Jr. worked on and off with him and in other wineries, and he and his wife Erika joined full-time in 2017, bringing contemporary ideas to the production (such as the emphasis on single-vineyards, the creation of a monovarietal Garnacha and a white wine, as well as a stronger focus on farming.) Today he owns 7 hectares of vineyards, and farms another 6, distributed among 24 different plots, all located in Briones. The oldest of his vines were planted in 1929, many in the 60’s and 70’s, and the younger ones planted in 2001.
His portfolio is now made of the first wines created by his father, still conforming to the traditional standards of the region, labeled Reserva, and Gran Reserva, as well as new wines named after the vineyards Merino Jr chose to focus on. The style on both lines is decidedly elegant, and what stands out after the judicious work in the vineyards - all done by hand, without the use of herbicides or fertilizers - and the soft approach in the cellar is balance, his main goal.
The still tiny production - just under 60,000 bottles - is growing as his work keeps getting discovered and praised, and some of his work and wines become references for the new Rioja, such as the single-vineyards La Loma (Tempranillo with a bit of Garnacha), and La Quinta Cruz (100% Mazuelo or Carignan.)
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