Passing time with (natural) wine.
Agnès et René Mosse VdF Rouge - Le Gros 2018
Selected by Brandon LoperThe wine: There is something about lineage and following in a family member's footsteps that, whether or not you are the one doing it, can resonate with you. That's part of the reason the MOSSE wines resonate with me. Agnès and René Mosse bought a plot of land in 1999 after leaving the wineshop that they owned in Tour, France. Their two sons Sylvestre and Joseph, now lead the charge and are making beautiful wines in the same style as Agnès and René while adding their own twist.
The Region: Anjou, Loire Valley, France. This has been a region I've been fascinated with for some time now. The typical wines here aren't usually what I reach for such as Cab Franc and Chenin Blanc, but the wines of the MOSSE Family keep me intrigued. Tasting notes for this particular wine are juicy red fruit, dusty earth, with enough lift to enjoy chilled on a Summer day or a bit warmer to warm up during the Fall.
About Golden Age Wine: A documentary filmmaker, Brandon Loper hasn’t always been interested in wine. Coffee was his pathway into the culinary world. Fueled by a desire to uncover a new side of the coffee industry and plenty of caffeine, Loper and the Avocados and Coconuts crew set out to create the feature documentary, A Film About Coffee. The next obvious subject for Loper was wine, but it unfolded unexpectedly. A move back to his home state of Alabama, and several trips around the world on production sparked a deep desire Loper had to open his hospitality project focused on Low-Intervention wines. Loper joined up with the brightest wine mind in Alabama, Trent Stewart. The two opened up Golden Age Wine - a neighborhood wine shop and bar with a large selection of delicious wines from all over the world. Golden Age is committed to offering wines grown sustainably with little to no intervention in the winemaking process, which means vineyards that do not use herbicides or chemical fertilizers and are practicing organic or biodynamic farming practices.
Good Boy - Warm Breeze Grenache 2019
Selected by David BourkeThe wine: You know the feeling - it’s the end of the day, the late afternoon golden glow paints the sky and a gentle warm breeze brushes your skin. Much like sunny California days, this wine is long, bright, gentle, and full of color. We pick our Grenache early to give it that extra unfiltered, tangy goodness that will keep your tastebuds yearning for more.
The Region: Our approach to winemaking is a somewhat purist form - no added sulfites, all naturally occurring yeast, very low intervention, no fining or filtering and no oak. Just a clean representation of the fruit and the land. Because of this, the farming practices and the terroir of the region is extremely important. We can only make the wine taste as good as is the grape straight from the vine. The grower of this grenache is our friend Ryan Roark of Demetria Estate in Los Olivos. He also believes in the naked, natural approach to winemaking and farming. Demetria has been biodynamic certified for 10 years, meaning they use all natural methods derived from the land to solve any issues that arise. All of this with the goal of restoring, maintaining and enhancing ecological harmony. Even though we make this wine in our cellar in Los Angeles, every time I open this bottle I am transported to the rolling hills of Los Olivos. I taste the mineral rich sandy loam of the region, the zesty acidity in the raw grape juice and feel the cool air of the 1450ft elevation. But hey, I’m pretty biased.
About Good Boy: Good Boy is not a single person or well-behaved animal. It is everyone that enjoys drinking quality wine ... accessible, authentic and appropriately imperfect. A wine to bring to a friend's housewarming, pair with your partner's famous Khao Soi, or toss in a cooler and imbibe outside whilst watching the sun sink slowly into the mighty Pacific. Good Boy was founded by David Bourke, a cinematographer who regularly collaborates with Avocados and Coconuts, and Eric Bach, an entrepreneur and creative strategist based in LA.
Valentina Passalacqua -
100% Negroamaro 2019
Selected by Little Vine and Union LarderThe wine: Valentina Passalacqua’s 100% Negroamaro, a rosato (rosé) made entirely from Negroamaro grapes, shifts our perception of rosé from the (unfair) moniker of summer water to something more substantial - displaying weight and structure, and bordering on being considered a light red. It starts out smelling like baloton cherries and beach rocks, promising tart red fruit and ocean spray. The lively flavor mirrors and multiplies that sour cherry nose, stacking layers of plum, unripe strawberry, and finger lime, with the inherent acidity and minerality making themselves known as the wine quickly opens up. Much is said about terroir, but in drinking Valentina's heartfelt wines, an unmistakable sense of place coalesces as you imagine salty breezes blowing in from the sea, and decades-old vines growing in the limestone and calcareous soils of her homeland.
The Region: Valentina Passalacqua farms 80 hectares of certified organic and biodynamic vineyards in Italy's southern region of Puglia. Her farmland is located in the northern part of Puglia, within Gargano National Park, and scant kilometers from the Adriatic coast.
About Valentina: Valentina is a fantastic example of natural winemaking; her vineyards are certified both organic and biodynamic, and she promotes biodiversity among the vines and a minimalistic approach in the wine room. Fermentation is done using only native yeast, and her wines are both unfined and unfiltered, with only a small amount of sulfur added at bottling. She even designs many of her wine labels using the art her young children create. Valentina’s wine was recommended to us by Little Vine and Union Larder, both of which are San Francisco based wine shops.