raffaele Mastrovincenzo

Tom Shobbrook in his vineyard March 2020 Hello everyone... Most of you know I'm living in Australia and I have been working with wines in Melbourne for some time. Natural wine in Australia has a very identified scene, due to some winemakers in South Australia. The heart of the concentration where the movement starts, it is in Adelaide Hills in the village of Basket Range, with a great producer in Barossa Valley "Tom Shobbrook", in Mclaren Vale Jauma by James  Erskine.  Here a little article by Eric Asimov in the NY Times about the movement:  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/04/dining/drinks/natural-wine-australia-lo-fi.html Basket Range is on the hills of Adelaide city with lots of natural forests with those patches of vineyards very beautiful, you'll find when you drive up with the car. From Adelaide airport, it's very close 30 minutes driving. Long and cool growing season with vines placed between 450 to 600 meters above sea level, make this region a cool climate...

 Auvergne is a region of south-central France a continuation to the east of the Loire Valley, further close to the Jura, and the French Alps; It is dominated by the foothills and low mountains of the Massif Central. The typical red wine from these central French vineyards is a light-bodied red or rosé, produced from Gamay and vinified via carbonic maceration.  The soils here are volcanic through the vineyards with different types of lava rocks, with a little percentage of chalk/limestone. Mostly the producers located in this region they farm halfway between organic and biodynamic. The higher altitude vineyards are between 400 and 500 meters; a continental climate that leads to less densely structure wines. The wines rely on fruity aroma and refreshing acidity. Rivers than come across the region are the Allier and the Loire.  No Control consists of 5 hectares of vines, where one can find several grape varieties : Gamay, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Chardonnay, Sauvign...

This is a little post about smashable Vini Naturali, Glou Glou wines from Italy:  Le Coste was born in February 2004 from Gianmarco and Clementine, the owner of three hectares of abandoned land known as "Le Coste."  The farm is located in the town of Gradoli, near Lake Bolsena on the border between Lazio and Umbria. Here the soils are from volcanic origin rich in iron and minerals that make the wines very fragrant. They produce wines deriving from organic agriculture in synergy with nature and the surrounding landscape. Today Le Coste covers an area of about 14 hectares, 3 of them dedicates to vines planted by Gianmarco and Clementine, 4 hectares of very old vineyards, 4 of olive trees, and 3 of woods and Mediterranean scrub, wild chestnut trees, oaks secular trees and elms. In the cellar which is encaved underground, they do not use any new oak and the process of vinification is carried out with natural fermentation and time.  Litrozzo is a nickname for lite...

SIMON BUSSER from the village in Prayssac, in the AOC Cahors: Cahors is a small town in southwestern France, located 160km to the east of Bordeaux. The climate here is subject to multiple influences; from the Atlantic coast which bring a continental climate, and the Mediterranean from the south which gives a maritime influence. We can divide the AOC into two different terroirs the "Causses" based limestone plateau that produces more tannic, mineral lived wines. The other vineyards profile is the one that influenced by the river Lot with a more gravelly slope which makes more approachable wines on the fruity spectrum profile.  Cahors is home of Malbec, Bordeaux grapes mainly Merlot, and also a small amount of Tannat more present in the neighborhood Madiran AOC.  Simon Busser has been training with Olivier Cousin in the Loire. He returns to his village Prayssac and start to looking after his father’s vineyards. He works his small vineyard with a horse, as Cousin taugh...

 Lately I have been enjoying the Pinot Noir for the Commune of Maranges in Burgundy: This commune grows mainly Pinot Noir plus some Chardonnay, is bordering between the Côte-d’Or and the Saône-et-Loire close to the village of Santenay; with some great Premiers Crus. Maranges was granted its own AOC Village in 1988 covering the three villages of Cheilly-lès-Maranges, Dezize-lès-Maranges, and Sampigny-lès-Maranges. The vineyards mostly have a South/South-westerly exposure and lie at altitudes of 240-400 meters. The hill-slopes are differently oriented to those of the Côte de Beaune, making up a varied patchwork of hills and valleys.  Previously in this blog I spoke of Clair Obscure and their 1er Cru Sur less Bois Sud  https://raffaelemastrovincenzo.blogspot.com/2019/10/la-bourgogne-en-feu.html In this post I want to speak about this amazing vigneron Jean & Isabelle Vantey a Domaine des Rouges Queues "Fields of red tales".  The story ...