January 2024

Welcome to Wine Club-- our first ever!

This month we are celebrating female winemakers, and although women are still outnumbered by men in the wine world, we found no trouble selecting wines worthy of celebration and ringing in the New Year. 

Historically, women often fell into winemaking through widowhood. Madame Clicquot, the first woman to run a Champagne house, branded her house “Veuve Clicquot”-- literally, Widow Clicqout. Both Antónia Adelaide Ferreira (who helped save Portuguese vines from the pest phylloxera) and Hannah Weinberger (the first female winemaker in Napa) took over family wineries when their husbands died. It wasn’t until the 1960’s and 70’s during the 2nd wave of Feminism that female winemakers truly began to grow in number.

If you’re a woman, you know that the hustle is real. The women we are featuring this month have truly hustled to produce wines that are special, delicious, and as Lil says, “taste expensive.”

Domaine Hauvette Jaspe Alpilles Blanc 2022

Dominique Hauvette is a woman with whom I’d love to talk dirt. Like actual soil, not gossip. She is considered to be one of the most important natural winemakers in France, and her wines are beautiful expressions of both the grapes she tends to and the land. Originally from Paris, working as a lawyer in the Loire, she came to Saint-Remy-de-Provence with the intention of taking a month-long vacation. She never left. In 1988, her neighbor retired and she took over a small property planted with Grenache, Syrah, and Cabernet. She spent the next few years farming organically and learning from the land. She now tends to 17 hectares of vines, all biodynamically managed with minimal tilling. 

Like all of her wines, this “Jaspe” is hand-harvested and fermented spontaneously using native yeasts. It is 100% Roussanne and made from whole clusters (as are all of her whites), aged in cement eggs and stainless steel tanks. She bottles herself, and does not release her wines until she feels they are ready. This is a truly special wine. Complex with straw and super ripe pineapple, the minerality and acid are well integrated and reserved. Lil says, drink it with a rotisserie chicken! Hoff says, savor it. 

Mesquida Mora Mallorca Sincronia Negre 2021

Bárbara Mesquida Mora’s vineyards represent both the past and the future. Before starting her own winery, Bárbara ran her great-grandfather’s, earning one of Spain’s first Demeter biodynamic certifications. When she inherited vineyards from her mother in 2012, Bárbara sought to pay homage to her ancestry and terroir by cultivating indigenous Mallorcan grapes using the same pre-tourism agricultural practices her great-grandfather used. (More than one hundred fruit trees are planted among her vines.)

This Sincronia Negre is a blend of indigenous varieties Manto Negro and Callet with Syrah and Merlot. Each variety is separately aged in stainless steel before blending and resting in small two or three-year-old oak barrels. Fruit forward with ripe strawberry and coy tannins, this is a fun wine. Pepperoni pizza maybe?

Bodega Stella Crinita Omaggio Pet Nat Viognier Valle De Uco

Technically, Bodega Stella Crinita is run by a wife and husband team, but it is Joanna Foster’s unique background and passion for environmental and social justice that created the slice of paradise that is Stella Crinita. 

Joanna was raised single-handedly by her activist mother, who deeply influenced Joanna’s sense of social justice. She studied gender roles in natural resource management and went on to complete a MSc in Sustainable Environmental Planning. Stella Crinita is the culmination of her philosophy: a 7 hectare biodynamic entity comprising grape vines, rose gardens, a food forest, an orchard, an apiary, and a forest fungi project! Joanna believes that creating sustainable, biodynamic food systems (and natural wine within those systems) is a cornerstone of a healthy community. Stella Crinita is situated in the Uca Valley in Mendoza, Argentina within the larger Finca Tikal Natural Vineyard, from which Stella Crinita also sources grapes. Joanna and her husband, Ernesto Catena, are cultivating native species and are building a seed bank.

This resiliency, observation, and deep respect for nature is reflected in their wines-- none are filtered or fined. This lovely wine is 100% Viognier from a single vineyard. It gets one day of skin contact and then 23 days of fermentation with native yeasts, and is bottled partway through this primary fermentation (thus trapping carbon dioxide in the bottle). The result is fine bubbles and lively acidity with subtle golden apple and pear. Great as an aperitif or with fried chicken.

Mary Taylor Cabrerisse (Elaboré par Anne Sarda) 

Anne Sarda is the winemaker behind this unassuming white label, but before we delve into her story, we need to pay dues to the woman behind this white label series. Mary Taylor is that woman, and her white label series seeks to pay homage to how wine is understood in Europe: terroir. Mary Taylor has an impressive and varied resume. She has been an executive assistant to Elie Wiesel (yes, the author of Night) and a financial advisor at Merrill Lynch. Most of her professional life, however, has been dedicated to buying and selling wine. In 2013, she founded Mary Taylor Wines, an import and sales company that works directly with farmers and winemakers to bring affordable, true-to-terroir wines to market. 

This Cabrerisse is from the Languedoc, a stony arid region in the south of France. It is 100% Carignan and the vines (some 60 years old) grow as bush vines. Anne Sarda and her team work the vineyards by hand-- no pesticides, herbicides, or irrigation is used. Sarda uses minimal intervention: spontaneous fermentation by native yeasts occurs in concrete tanks, and the wine is aged in old concrete vessels. This wine boasts dark fruit yet is refreshing! Finishes quite dry but the tannins are not overwhelming. She's rustic. I would love to drink this with duck or venison.

Kloovenburg Gatekeeper White

Dating back to 1704, Kloovenburg is the oldest wine estate in the Swartland, a region some 30 miles north of Cape Town, South Africa. In 2015, they appointed Jolandie Fouché to be their head winemaker, and she has been creating some awesome minimal intervention wines. 

Jolandie Fouché was born in Cape Town and raised in the Swartland, where she spent much of her young adulthood on vineyards. She received a Bachelors of Agriculture from the Elsenburg Agricultural Training Institute, and worked harvest seasons in California and Australia before returning to her homeland. She worked as the head winemaker for Kloovenburg Estates before realizing the dream and turning her side-hustle, Wolf and Woman Wines, into her full-time project. 

The Gatekeeper is a blend of Chenin Blanc, Roussanne, Grenache Blanc, and Verdelho. The grapes are hand-harvested in the early morning hours and naturally fermented with indigenous yeasts. It spends 6 months in old French oak barrels before it is blended and bottled. White flower and green apple on the nose, this wine is spring fresh, but has a great backbone of acidity measured against minerality. It could stand up to pork loin or even a good chowder.

Kiki & Juan, Utiel-Requena Blanco y Tinto

So technically, Kiki is not the winemaker of Kiki & Juan, but she is the powerhouse behind the production and distribution. Spanish wine is a passion for Kerin ‘Kiki’ Bembry. She has worked as an importer and distributor of Spanish wine in particular for two decades, founding La Luz Selections, which specializes in importing Spanish and Portuguese “off-the-beaten-path” wines. Prior to that, she operated her own wine shop in Manhattan, Tinto Fina, Vinos de Espana. 

John ‘Juan’ House is a longtime friend of Kiki’s (they met in Spain) and is the winemaker behind their Kiki & Juan label. Their goal is to highlight a little known Spanish wine region-- Utiel-Requena. They work multiple small vineyards, all organically and dry- farmed. The liter bottle speaks to both the value and the drinkability of these wines. Salud!

The “Tinto” is 70% Bobal, 10% Tempranillo, and 20% Macabeo and is co-fermented. Grapes are hand-harvested at night to retain freshness. Native co-fermentation occurs in tank and then a portion of the wine is aged in local tinajas (amphora). So fresh and drinkable!

The “Blanco” is 90% Macabeo and 10% Sauvignon Blanc, also co-fermented. As with the Tinto, the grapes are hand-harvested at night (the days are hot in Utiel-Requena!) and are de-stemmed before pressing. Native fermentation in stainless steel and aged on lees for 9-10 months. Strong minerality and some interesting peppercorn notes make me think this wine would go well with green curry.