March 2024 Wine Share

For March, we hop around a bit both in place and style – a panoply of delightful angles and aspects from which to welcome (beckon) some springtime weather. We start in the south of France where all 3 of our reds are from this go round, each with various calling cards. Two wines from the ever-faithful biodynamic estate Domaine Ledogar whose wines are still painfully under-appreciated. Their “Roug’e Clair” is a throwback in new outfitting – a ‘claret’ style wine akin to those cherry-driven Bordeaux of yore meant for youthful and joyous imbibing and a touch more texture than something grown farther north. Mourvédre/Carignan with a short maceration – very pretty. The other red from Ledogar is their “Emmenez Moi” that shows off a vintage countryside rusticity of the French South, garrigue-y and texture with a wonderful solidity. Bistro wine with real presence, that is, medium-full length on the wine with a medium-body and deeper, reduced fruit tones on the palate. Yum. Rounding out the reds is a lovely Aramon/Grenache co-ferment from Thomas Angles who works organically near St. Chinian. The wine captures something of the song from which it got its name – Laurent Voulzy’s “Le Cœur Grenadine,” it is a dreamy light-medium bodied red that has sappy turns counterbalanced by joyous lift. For the non-reds this month, we begin in Sicily – the land of Marsala in western Sicily, to be exact. Fabio Ferracane’s “Magico Bianco” technically sees a short maceration but drinks like a salty, Mediterranean classic of Grillo whose nose is always freshness incarnate. Green and bright and brimming with a kind of honeysuckle edge, the nose gives way to a dry, relaxed wine of medium acidity. Just peachy and easy to love. Next is a very different style but similarly meant for easy consumption – the famed Immich-Batterieberg’s “CAI” entry Riesling. 10.5% from the maker of some of the Mosel’s finest Rieslings, CAI is their workhorse, dry, mineral table white. Give to anyone who doubts the grape or says they ‘don’t like Riesling because it’s sweet.’ This one ain’t! Rounding out the share are 2 fascinating wines produced worlds away. Radoar’s 2019 “Etza” that is 100% Müller-Thurgau cultivated in the Alto-Adigean heights of northeast Italy. Crystalline and mountainous the wine is a blade of sunshine thru the stalks and veins of an alpine spearmint. Finally, we have Pino Román’s “Naranjo” that is Moscatel/Torontel from the classic centenarian bush vines of the Chilean South, this time Itata. 10 months on the skins didn’t extract too much tannin, color, or texture. Rather there is this gentle grain to the wine that gives it mouthfeel without grip and aromatics that began to spice and sun-dry without being pruned to oblivion. Delicious wine from a new producer to watch down there!
March 2024 Wine Share