Ancestral de la Cristina 2019
Jordi Llorens, from Catalunya, Spain; 12.0 % ABV; a straw yellow PetNat made of 100 % Macabeo from limestone. And a sweet rainbow on top. Do we need to add more? Trust us the wine is worth it, too. Biodynamic, small (this is one of 8 000 annual bottles from the whole yard.) The Macabeo does 1 week maceration, the rest in bottle. Flowers, they say. A lot of flowers. Citrus and sour dough. Creamy bubbles and long happy ending. Yes?
Force Celeste PetNat 2021
Mother Rock, from Swartland, South-Africa; 11.5 % ABV; fun peach coloured sparkling one! Tried this the other day, and you might get tricked by its pink looks, not to mention the berry and flowery nose. Watermelon sugar high? Not completely. In it: Chenin Blanc from granite soil and Pinotage from slate and clay. About 60/40 those two grapes. Naturally fermented on steel.
The Boyfriend 2019
La Sorga, Béziers, Languedoc, France; 11.5 % ABV; white, but called orange; orange but looking almost pink, cloudy. This is a cool one; a blend of Grenache Blanc, Marsanne, and Muscat of Alexandria. The Muscats are fermenting whole (yes, whole bunches of grapes). Flowers and rhubarb, they say, and apparently goes well with cheese. What do you think? (Can you taste the sea?) La Sorga is never boring. The rather funny name itself is worth a second look (and taste). Let us explore together.
Sorgaahl 2019
La Sorga, from Béziers, Languedoc, France; 13.0 % ABV; red clay wine. It was this or some Robinot pepper wine. Luckily, we managed to get ‘Sorgaahl’, made by our favourite wine guru Antony Tortul. La Sorga is not always pleasant, but still unforgettable. Hard core natural wine. In fact, Antony care for Norwegian Black Metal as well, and this one is named after Gaahl. (And even though we do not care much for labels, Gaahl was one of the first openly gay BM artists, just sayin’. He is cool. And we hope to hang in Bergen in October. But that is another topic.) In it: Cinsault and Carignan (113 years old stocks!) from warm and maritime environments with limestone, clay, some slate. Hand harvested grapes, fermented on amphoras, no filtering. Sounds rough? It is. Some say blue berries, cherries, even viols. We see density, ripe darkness. Smack.
