European Wine Tasting
Friday, March 8th
Le Petit Bijou
Gorgeous high elevation Italian Reds & Vibrant French Whites from Burgundy & Languedoc!
European Wine Tasting
Le Petit Bijou
Friday, March 8th
4pm - 6pm, $20
With Special Guest, Robert Gunn of Pinnacle Imports
256-964-7980 to Reserve
2019 Olivier Morin Aligote, Burgundy, France $24.99
Made from 100% Aligoté from 10 – 25-year-old vines using only organic fertilizer in the fields. Bright citrus aromas. The palate shows depth and beautiful focus, with a touch of yeasty complexity from the time spent sur lie. Crisp flavors of green apple and citrus zest, with a subtle mineral note on the finish. This charming Aligoté is a deliciously refreshing must-have!
The little town of Chitry is starting to make waves as a source of top-notch Burgundian wine; and the name on everyone’s lips is Olivier Morin. Since 1992, when he left a life in the music industry to take over his family’s domaine—trading in his turntables for a tractor—Olivier has never looked back. He and his wife Nelly tend some 30 acres of vineyards in the department of the Yonne, between Auxerre and Chablis.
2021 Boyer De Bar Sauvignon Blanc, Languedoc, France $23.99
Winemaker Vincent Boyer of Domaine Boyer-Martenot as of 2018 has teamed up with his childhood friend Emmanuel Lucas De Bar, who owns vineyards in the Hérault valley in France’s Languedoc, to form a winemaking partnership across appellations. Organically raised and crafted with the same care as Vincent’s peerless Meursault wines, these new, very limited-quantity wines combine the pleasure of the sunny south with serious Burgundian quality—and represent excellent value.
Tasting Notes: Aromas of blossom, lemon, some stone fruit, herbs. Fresh and juicy, with good acidic balance. \
2021 Toscolo Vernaccia Di San Gimignano, Tuscany, Italy $17.99
Bright white lilies, ripe lemon, asian pear, bright minerals. The sleek and fruity palate is loaded with ripe lemons and pear. 100% Vernaccia di San Gimignano from the Chianti region of Tuscany. Neil and Maria Empson founded the project in 1988 to express their love of the region, leveraging the talented winemaker and friend, Franco Bernabei to create the wines they imagined. "Toscolo" means Tuscan boy. Cool temperature fermentation in Stainless Steel.
2020 Colombera & Garella 'Vispavola' Rosso, Piedmont, Italy $25.99
100% Vespolina
Cottignano vineyard, 2 ha total. 15-50 yr old vines @ 350m atl. Soils are of volcanic origin, reddish-brown silty sand. Native yeast, spontanteous fermentations in steel. No temp control. Elevage in steel. Unfined, unfiltered. Organic, awaiting certification.
2018 Colombera & Garella Bramaterra 'Cascina Cottignano', Italy $50.99
Bramaterra DOC
Grapes: Nebbiolo 80%, Vespolina 10%, Croatina 10%
Enticing aromas of leather, fig and date, on the palate the tannins are silky, the fruit fine and floral, shot with violet, salt, orange peel and spice. 13%
The soils have an unusually low PH (4.4-acidic) and are a mix of red-brown sands over degraded volcanic rock. The vineyard is farmed following a minimum intervention ethos, only natural fertilizers are used on the soils and ‘Bordeaux mix’ on the vines. The vineyard covers two hectares at three hundred and fifty metres and faces Southwest. The land is planted with seventy percent Nebbiolo, twenty percent Croatina and ten percent Vespolina, half the vineyard is fifteen years old, the other half between forty and fifty years old, overall the yield is 50 hectolitres per hectare. It is surrounded by woodland.
The grapes are picked by hand in the second week of October and fermentation is in concrete tanks using native, wild yeasts without temperature control. The wines are aged in used barriques for 24 months and bottled without filtration of fining.
2019 Foradori Teroldego, Trentino - Alto Adige, Italy $30.99
Once you have graduated to being curious about the Teroldego grape of Northern Italy, you can go ahead and certify yourself a "wine geek." Italy, with its 4000 native grapes, imported varieties notwithstanding, hosts many-a-lesser-known oddity, but few of these command the loyal following of Teroldego aficionados. And no producer of these infrequently explored wines represents the category more completely than Foradori. The proprietor here, one Elisabetta Foradori, has been instrumental in keeping this quietly revered grape on the map. Bright, playful, spicy, and tightly wound, Foradori's Teroldego will appeal to those curious wine drinkers who may have found love in Mencia, Trousseau, Cabernet Franc, Zweigelt, or Lemberger. It certainly sings the tune of northern European reds, but in the unmistakable timbre of Northern Italy. With certain holidays approaching, you may need to look no further than this tiny pocket of Trentino for a dinner pairing!