Collection: Wine Share Picks

In similar fashion to years past, the January share features a kaleidoscopic range of wines including some spectacular bottles that have stoically aged on our shelves. A bit of a post-holidays grab-bag.

The emphasis for the non-reds in this month’s share is cold-climate. We start in Luxembourg’s Remich, an extension of the famed Moselle Valley in France, where on the Côteaux de Stadtbredimus Domaine Kox fashions superb examples of ‘Upper Mosel’ varieties like Elbling and Riesling. The liter of Riesling in your share is from ’21 and the several years of age has done it – like most Rieslings – so well – crisp & dry, yet buoyant. One of the best values in wine, at the moment. From Germany, we have in a liter of slightly a more aromatic white from the Rheinhessen in the form of Weingut Schmitt’s excellent Frei Korper Kultur Weiss – a touch of maceration also rounds out the palate. Next, we turn to Austria for a unique expression of Burgenland’s terroir courtesy of Markus Altenburger who, in the Leithaburg (limestone hills north of Lake Neusiedl), produces monovarietal Neuberger to pitch-perfection. An aromatic variety known for its very hard skins/flesh, it does not allow itself to be made into wine with anything but some maceration – again, not in the endeavor of an orange wine but rather a naturally wrought textural-yet-crisp white. Also in Burgenland’s Leithaburg, there is Claus Preisinger. For a bit of pop in the share, we’ve selected his ’Ordinaire’ pét-nat-rosé that pairs perfectly with a winter’s sunset against a northern sky. We quickly jump to Alto-Adige in northeast Italy, where Gentili’s gorgeous Souvignier Gris (a hybrid grape variety!) mixes elements more common to Roussanne with alpine pitch – think bone-dry honeyed elements veined with something citric. From France, rounding out the non-reds, are Chants Jumeaux’s ‘Plongeoir’ Muscadet which is perhaps the saltiest wine we’ve ever tasted, and Pepiere’s slightly-more-citric-&-classic-than-wild-&-saline Muscadet Moutons.

 Reds this month jump all around, and start with some boisterously Mediterranean elements in the form of the Blu, Viola, & Fucsia from Puglian upstart Vittorio Pugliese aka LoCo. These wines are crafted in the region’s Valle d’Itria, and show off a zestier & brighter end of Puglian reds owing to the colder micro-climate in which he farms. Blu is the deepest, composed of grapes like Cabernet Franc & Montepulciano; Fucsia the lightest as a light extraction Montepulciano; and Viola somewhere in the middle with a bunch of minerality, composed of Puglian varieties Nero di Troia & Bombino Nero. Next, we move to Italy’s north for a wonderfully fresh example of Alto-Adigean varieties Lagrein/Schiava in the form of Weingut Pranzegg’s Rosso Leggero (light red). Juicy, chillable, delightful. Just the other side of the border, from Austria, we also feature Weingut Heinrich’s Naked Red whose lightly piquant aspect gives an enjoyably tangy angle to the earthier elements of Zweigelt/St.Laurent/Blaufrankisch. Rounding out the share are two French options that are a touch burlier: Brunnhilde Claux (aka Notre Terre) in the Minervois makes southern Grenache with true garrigue-laden plump fruit (the perfect winter red) & Clarisse de Suremain has made a gem of a Monthelie with her 2022, grown on 25 year-old Pinot Noir vines in that famous old village in Burgundy. Elegant as they come.