Meza Wine Cub / December
Connoisseur
Wine 1: Domaine Julien Barraud Puilly Fouisse 1er Cru La Marechaude Clos de La Verchere
Certified organic
100% Chardonnay, from In Vergisson below the Roche de Vergisson, around the Barraud home. The grapes are from 60+ year old vines - South facing at 280 meters, On a cooler limestone-dominated site. Cultivated on scree, gryphea limestone and clay-limestone soil, Alliance is an assemblage of parcels planted 40-60 years ago.
The wine is mineral and fruity. It has great potential for aging up to 7 years, but can be enjoyed young as well.
Wine 2: Atalier by Raul Perez A Cruz das Animas Albarino
Atalier is the exciting new Rías Baixas Albariño project from the redoubtable Raúl Pérez, produced in conjunction with his friend and frequent collaborator Rodri Méndez of the Forjas del Salnés estate in the Val do Salnés subzone. The origins of Albariño are not universally agreed upon, either by ampelographers or winegrowers. Some believe that the variety is native to the northwest corner of the Iberian Peninsula (insomuch as any grape can be considered truly “native” to Western Europe). Others believe that it was brought over by French monks in the 11th and 12th centuries via the Camino de Santiago. Still others believe its origins to be Germanic. “Alba” is a Latinate root for “white” and “Rin” is the Rhine River, so it’s possible to interpret the name Albariño as “White of the Rhine”.
Wherever it came from originally, there is no dispute as to Albariño’s ancestral home in Spain: the Val do Salnés. The southern zones of the appellation were historically planted more to red varieties like Caiño Tinto, Loureiro Tinto and Espadeiro, and white varieties like Caiño Blanco, Treixadura and Loureiro Blanco (the latter two of which are still widely planted just over the border in Portugal), but the vast majority of those plantations were pulled up to make way for Albariño over the last three to four decades. With very few exceptions, Albariño vineyards that are referred to as “old” in Condado do Tea or O Rosal top out around 35-40 years of age. In Val do Salnés, however, it is still possible to find some very old parcels. Owing to the predominance of sandy soils in the coastal areas, there are even some plots that survived the phylloxera crisis of the late 19th century, thus making them some of the oldest un-grafted vitis vinifera plantings in the world. Atalier Albariño comes from a trio of such vineyards, all within a kilometer of the coast in the village of Dena.
100% Albariño • Sourced from a selection of the oldest (typically the most sea-adjacent) vines of the pre-phylloxera finca del atelier in Dena on granitic sand • Whole-cluster pressed and fermented spontaneously in thoroughly seasoned French oak • No malolactic • 18 months on the fine lees in barrel before bottling