Hank Beckmeyer and his wife, Caroline Hoel, met in the 80s while he was on tour in Europe with his band Half Japanese. Hank left the band and the tour to remain with Caroline in Europe, and over the years they would take trips to the south of France, drink a bunch of Bandol at Domaine Tempier, and discuss how much they loved what these smaller producers were doing. They eventually decided to make wine themselves, and California seemed like the right place to do it.

In 2001, the two settled in Somerset (El Dorado County, Sierra Foothills) at a site 2600 feet up in the foothills and planted a few acres of vines - mostly Tempranillo but also Syrah, Tannat, Grenache, Negroamaro, Cabernet Sauvignon, and some unknown varieties that emerged from seeds in the compost heap. The vineyard was first farmed biodynamically (certified for a few years), but eventually evolved into the farmer-philosopher Masanobu Fukuoka’s ‘do nothing’ methods. As the name implies, the vineyard grows wild with weeds, insects, birds, and all sorts of life teeming among the vines.

From this vineyard a single wine is made in extremely low quantities and for the rest of their wines, Hank and Caro purchase fruit from like-minded, organic farmers in the foothills.

Hank and Caroline use natural methods for making their wines and have been doing so long before it became trendy in California. Generally, this means native yeasts, neutral vessels, and nothing added except a small amount (if any) of SO2 at bottling. Their goal is to make wines that are alive and enjoyable to drink during all stages of their lives while at the same time expressing the vineyards. Just taste a vertical lineup of Sumu Kaw Syrah or Cedarville Mourvedre and see for yourself!

Fattoria La Gerla, named for the large, old-fashioned, conical baskets that grape-harvesters used to carry on their backs, was founded in 1976 by the late Sergio Rossi. Originally from Milan, Mr. Rossi purchased the property in 1975 from Tedina Biondi-Santi, the daughter of Tancredi Biondi-Santi, who had inherited the property after her father’s passing. The purchase of what was then called the Podere Colombaio Santi included an ancient farmhouse and 6.5 hectare of vineyards. Mr. Rossi, who by then had been managing the Altesino-Caparzo estate for several years, renamed the property La Gerla and set about restoring the estate and replanting the vines using selection massale. His first vintage was 1976, making La Gerla one of the first 35 bottlers of Brunello di Montalcino; these days, there are 280. 

Today, La Gerla consists of 11.5 hectares, divided between the original 6.5 hectare vineyard in Canalicchio (Montalcino) and an additional 5 hectares in Castelnuovo dell’Abate, where Mr. Rossi was presciently the first to plant vines in earnest. The estate, now run by vineyard manager/director Alberto Passeri and winemaker Vittorio Fiore, makes five wines, all made entirely from Sangiovese Grosso, the only grape planted on the property:

• Poggio Gli Angeli— made from young vines in Castelnuovo, in the Brunello zone but not registered as such. This wine spends 4 months in Slavonian botti.
• Rosso di Montalcino— sourced from the same sites as the Brunello, is aged for two years, one of which is in Slavonian oak casks.
• Birba— an IGT Toscana that is made from 100% Sangiovese; it starts as a Brunello di Montalcino and is then declassified. The only difference is that it sees about a year in barrique before moving to large Slavonian botte.
• Brunello— a blend of both the Canalicchio and Castelnuovo vineyards. The grapes are kept cool for 7-8 days before fermentation, which lasts up to 15 days. The wine is then transferred to large 50-100hl casks and is aged for three years, racked twice a year, then bottled. It is then aged for an additional year before release. This is classic Brunello; focused and flavorful, with hints of violets and berries on the nose, a rich, velvety texture and excellent acidity.
• Brunello gli Angeli (Riserva)— made in select years, this comes entirely from a one hectare parcel of old vines from the original Biondi-Santi site, located between 270 and 320 meters above sea level. This hillside vineyard occupies a privileged position at the estate and consistently offers beautiful and healthy fruit. The wine is kept for 4 years in 50 hectoliter Slavonian oak casks and kept for an additional year in bottle before being released.

Welcome to La Mîche, our newest addition to the Bowler portfolio!!!

Farmed in the hills around the medieval walled city of Carcassonne (a UNESCO world heritage site), this wine is crafted at the Vignobles d'Alaric, a high quality co-op whose members work their vineyards with respect for the environment. The cooperative works with 1,300 hectares of vineyards located across more than 20 communes between Corbières and Minervois, with a mosaic of limestone terraces, clay-limestone slopes, gravelly alluvial plains, and pockets of sandstone.The wine is vinified in a mix of concrete and steel tanks, finished at 14% alcohol. La Miche carries its HVE3 certificiation for sustainability on its label; it is also certified by Terra Vitis. Medium-bodied, low in tannins, and fabulously ripe, like a bowlful of ripe cherries with a kick of kirsch and warm spices, it's smooth on the palate and true to its deep French roots. There are fewer and fewer values like this in the wine world. Grab this one while you can!

Thanks to Louis/Dressner for this profile of their new import Domaine La Providence:

(Click here for more on La Providence on the LDM website)

For over 20 years, Jean Benoit and Bénédicte Comor have dreamed of starting their own estate. They’d even gotten close a few times: first in the Beaujolais, Saint-Véran and Pouilly-Fuissé then in Limoux. From false starts and dashed hopes, opportunity struck in 2016: located in the village of Lambesc, about 30 minutes North-West from Aix-en-Provence, a property called La Pomme had become available. The couple, originally from the area, instantly fell in love with the old farm house and 18 hectares of vines.

Lambesc and its surrounding environs have changed dramatically in the last 20 years. Well into the 1990’s, this was a poor agricultural region where most farmers lived off traditional models of polyculture. Then came the rosé craze of the early 2000’s, with Provence front and center. A shift in focus was inevitable: almost overnight vines became a monoculture, with people planting anywhere they could: terroir be damned, if it grows it goes. The prior owner of La Pomme worked in an ultra-conventional fashion, focusing exclusively on yields. 95% of his grapes were destined for the local cave cooperative’s rosé.

From the beginning, JB and Bénédicte wanted more than an organic conversion, hiring famed biodynamic consultants Lydia and Claude Bourguignon. In addition to the conversion (the estate is now certified organic), JB quickly starting ripping out vines to replant three hectares of indigenous Provençal grapes and is planning to rip out an additional five hectares including all of the estate’s Cabernet Sauvignon. Much of what has been ripped out was planted on richer soils on the edge each parcel,  now left bare or replanted with olive and fruit trees. Convinced that white wine has a huge potential on his white clay and limestone soils, Jean Benoit has currently planted three plots with a dizzying array of white grapes: Terret, Ugni Blanc, Vermentino, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Marsanne, Carignan Blanc, Macabeu, Bourboulenc, Grenache Gris, Clairette Rose…

They are also replanting thousands of replacement vines in select parcels suffering from esca and/or overproduction and adding palissage for the Syrah vines that desperately need them. All new plantings are selected between three pépiniéristes to ensure as much diversity as possible. For vines destined for estate production, JB works every other row superficially while planting the other with cover-crop and letting it rest a year. For those still destined for the cave cooperative, only the edges of the rows are worked with a mechanical disk. Finally, the biggest project is to create terraces in one of their main plots where years of chemical abuse, erosion and tractors have warped the rows, making it impossible to work the soils without switching devices or vehicles mid-row. What a tremendous undertaking: five years of hard work and this is just the beginning!

After five years honoring their inherited contract with the cave cooperative, in 2020 Jean Benoit was able to vinify a small amount of rosé and a scant 2000 bottles of a delicious red wine called “La Providence”. From a small makeshift cellar in their barn, roughly 20 times more wine was vinified in 2021, an atypical and rainy vintage that led to blocked maturations and low concentration. Grapes were hand-harvested and fermented with native yeasts in various vessels (fiberglass, stainless, concrete) but mostly in old Burgundian barrels. The barrels saw two bâtonnages a day and were racked after malo; depending on volatility levels, sulfites were added to some but not all vessels. It’s unclear what blends will come out this complicated first vintage, but from what we’ve tasted the goal is to make elegant, structured but not over-extracted reds that break the regions’ conventions while (perhaps by) respecting the terroir. Everything will be bottled in Vin de France, perhaps not so crazy in our world but pretty damn ballsy in the ultra-chic, celebrity winery milieu of 2020’s Provence.