Autumn Picks

80% Tempranillo, 20% Garnacha sourced from the prized Finca la Pedrizavineyard.

95 points James Suckling
Savory and complex with dried orange peel, cedar and plenty of sweet spices, walnuts, caramel, dried mushrooms and pine needles. Shows maturity here, with a medium body and superb freshness. Incredibly long finish with lots of truffle and walnut. Lasts over a minute. Very complete now, but you can still hold it.

94+ points Wine Advocate
The 2016 Viña Ardanza Reserva was produced with 80% Tempranillo and 20% Garnacha that matured in used American oak barrels for three years, where it was hand-racked from barrel to barrel six times in the case of Tempranillo and five times for the Garnacha, as it had a slightly shorter élevage of 30 months. Against all odds, I found the 2016 to be fresher than the 2015 and less developed, despite the fact that winemaker Julio Sáenz told me he considers it a warmer year. But I have found many wines I like in 2016, and the wine feels very clean and quite harmonious, younger and less developed, with more primary notes and a velvety mouthfeel. 600,000 bottles produced. The wine was bottled in June 2020.

Organic

The review is on a previous vintage.
92 points Jeb Dunnuck
Moving to the reds, the 2020 Vacqueyras Les Hauts De La Ponche is 50% Grenache and 25% each of Syrah and Mourvèdre. It actually reminds me of a Pomerol with its red and blue fruits as well as bouquet garni, damp earth, and floral nuances. Medium to full-bodied on the palate, I love its balance, and it has silky tannins and remarkable purity of fruit. Drink bottles over the coming 7-8 years.

"Our Bone Dry is a throwback to the original American dry cider. In that spirit we make Bone Dry with a higher concentration of heirloom and bitter cider apples, age it on the lees for 10-12 months, and then lightly carbonate it. It walks a tightrope of finesse AND intensity. Its clean, crisp mouthfeel is balanced by bitter notes and, of course, a spine of acidity. Is it any wonder why this was our first cuvee to sell out!?" -Brooklyn cider House

Shows super lush fruit on the nose, followed by spice and sour black-cherry. There's also a hint of graphite and tar-qualities rarely gleamed at this price-point. An everyday guzzler that is lively, light and screaming for some red-sauce driven southern Italian bites. You know: spaghetti, pizza, or anything parmiagana will all be happily met by this Apulian gem. Go for it.

Organic / Biodynamic / Natural

A beautifully delicate and aromatic sparkling wine from Gruner Veltliner, Welschriesling, and Muscat.
Only 10.5% abv.

Organic

Powerful nose, red fruits, undergrowth and violets. And blueberries. Dark, red-black robe. On the palate it is also strong and very fruity. The fruitiness lingers well on the finish. A good cartridge from northern Portugal.

80% of Touriga Nacional + 20% of Old Vines
Clay-Limestone at 300 meters altitude.
Spontaneous fermentation in old granite tanks with foot stepping for nice extration.
Aged in used French oak barrels for 18 months + 6 months in still + bottle.

Quinta do Poldrado is located in Portugal inside the wine region of Tras-os-Montes near the city of Chaves, where the wine making tradition comes from the passage of the Romans in the region. The Estate has existed for more than 200 years, being one of the oldest Estates in the region. If you travel around the region it's common that you?€?ll find granite tanks dug in the rocks that the romans used at that time to make their wine. All the wine making respects the tradition of the Estate and the region, and it's fermentation occurs in those old granite tanks, with foot steeping for a nice maceration and extraction of aromas and structure. Poldrado?€?s wines have a mix of more than 50 varieties of grapes coming from the over 70 year old vines, such combinations make every wine an authentic, and remarkable piece of history.

Natural

Waves is a cider with apples, red + blue plums, blended with a young Montmorency cherry cider.

Each fruit has built on top of each other to create something wildly crushable. Waves is our attempt to enhance the depth of each individual ingredient by bringing them together in a single neat package.

Only 3-5 grams of residual sugar.

5.7% abv

Natural

To make Soif, we blended two spontaneously fermented ciders aged on cherries and strawberries and added almost one tonne of Zweigelt skins for an extra month of skin contact. It's a red fruit bonanza.

Soif is easy. A thirst quencher; a glugger; a quaffable refresher.

Ingredients: Apples, cherries, strawberries, grape skins.

Zero grams of sugar. Naturally fermented.

6.1% ABV

The limited release Solstice has aromas of passion fruit, white peach, lavender and ginger.

2019 Harvest: Gold Medal, GLINTCAP 2019 (Natural Cider)