Julie & Toby Bainbridge, “Cuvée Crush” 2023

A classic in our wine education here at 11 Greene, this perennial offering from Julie & Toby Bainbridge is what it purports to be: a wine filled with the refreshment of something as freshly made as being at ‘crush’ aka when the grapes arrive at the winery and are pressed to barrel. Purity with low alcohol – a kind of Anjou Nouveau. Which is where we are: Anjou, the western end of the Loire Valley just a bit farther inland (east) from Muscadet, still in the colder environs of northwest France. 100% Grolleau, a variety made infamous by the bulk-produced semi-sweet Rosé d’Anjou of yesteryear, this is Grolleau at its ‘glou glou’ finest. A grape that has excellent fruit character with earthy, brambly tones and a cinched finish which inspires reaching for another glass – this is the object example of what first opened our eyes to ‘a chillable red’ outside of, say, Beaujolais many moons ago. A short maceration, pressed, spontaneous fermentation and aging in fiberglass and bottled unfined, unfiltered, minimal sulfuring – again, it's a pure Grolleau, categorical for form. And is from a producer who have long produced fine natural wines of Anjou – Julie (from America) & Toby (from England) originally met and fell in love while Toby was working stateside before moving together to Anjou some 20 years ago. Farmer-first, the wines are truly made in the vineyards – Toby is as proud of his John Deere collection as he is of the cellar where the wines are made. Part of his CV also took him to Domaine Mosse where he worked as the winemaker for years before the eponymous project in Chavagnes. And now they are standard-bearers of honestly made, always well-priced and precise natural wines of this favored corner of the Loire (part of their lore: their first wine sale was their entire production to NOMA after a chance tasting with the head somm there after the couple’s first vintage – a pretty good endorsement of the wines!).