Wine Club: Out of Bounds; wines from unexpected regions
When you think of Mallorca, what comes to mind? You couldn’t be blamed for not having “wine” anywhere near the top of the list- it would surely be pushed aside by “large, sunburnt British tourists.” But the “jewel” of Spain’s Balearic Islands, known for limestone cliffs and a rugged landscape alongside beachfront tapas and bustling nightlife, has every chance of becoming an unexpected outpost for incredible natural wine. Much as Corsica and Sardinia benefit from the ocean influence on their sun-drenched island landscape, so too can Mallorca claim this combination of Mediterranean sun, craggy elevation and cooling sea breeze. And it is home to some of the best wines you’ve probably never heard of.
Taking advantage of this fortuitous terroir is woman winemaker Barbara Mesquida, of winery Mesquida Mora. Barbara began working with her grandfather’s and mother’s vineyard holdings located around the town of Porreres over fifteen years ago. Recognizing the “dead” soil, plant sickness and heavy reliance on pesticides and chemical fertilizers in the area, the vigneronne began a project of converting the seven vineyards (over 20 hectares) she oversaw to biodynamic growing. She received one of Spain’s first biodynamic “Demeter” certifications in 2007. She’s combining her own deep Mallorcan roots with an eye to a future of the island and its inhabitants who will benefit from healthy land and soils, a booming wine-growing culture and economy, and a stable, co-beneficial relationship with the environment. I’m so excited to introduce you to these wines and hopefully a place we’ll all get the chance to visit someday. Happy Crushing!
Mesquida Mora ‘Sincronia Blanc’
Sincronia, meaning “synthesis” is the white-wine half of the sincronia line made by Mesquida Mora, a kind of “introduction” to the winery and its principles. This blend of indigenous varietals (prensal blanc, giro) with chardonnay inherits the fresh, herbaceous qualities of the island’s native fruit with the weight and refreshing minerality of the import. Aged in stainless steel, with native yeast fermentation and minimal intervention and use of sulfur, this white has been delicately handled to promote a clean, pure expression of the terroir of Mallorca. Citrus and white peach notes are balanced by a healthy slatey-ness and creamy, dreamy finish. This wine transports you like no other. Get your big sun hat ready.
Mesquida Mora ‘Sincronia Negre’
Barbara describes this red blend as a “love letter” to Mallorca’s diversity of varietals, again, a “synthesis” between elegance and freshness with boldness and power. Indigenous plants, first placed by her grandfather and great-grandfather, generations ago, are blended with newer plantings of international varietals, to achieve a Mediterranean cross-section of flavor. Callet, Gorgollasa, Mantonegro, Monastrell, & Cabernet introduce both herbaceous, peppery “garrigue” notes like those you’d find in the south of France, with ripe, sumptuous, dark fruit as you may expect from a Spanish territory. Mouth-filling, ripe, precise, and lingering, this is an ideal wine for sunsets on a deck and spice-rubbed barbecue goodness.
The wines of Domaine De La Cadette are a great example of what happens when you “love the one you’re with,” or rather, when you work with the marginal, cold, north-of-even Chablis holdings to produce wines now worthy of their own official AOC. Or when you pivot (remember last month?) to source fruit from further south because the world can be an unkind place to a little grape during a cold snap.
Jean and Catherine Montanet planted their first vineyards in 1987 outside of St.-Pere, in a little area known as Vézelay, north of Burgundy. Farming carefully and splitting off from their cooperative in 1999 to increase the quality of their wine and grow organically, the Montanets continued to seek to produce singular wines from the region which defined the unique terroir of their land. By 2010 their son Valentin had taken over as head winemaker, and continued to focus on organic, non-intervention winemaking with a core of minerality and freshness defining each cuvee. Although Vézelay is a very new, relatively unknown little Burgundian region (like I said, it only got it’s official come-uppance with recognition of AOC status in 1997) I think it’s really one to watch, especially for Chardonnay and Melon de Bourgogne.
Domaine de la Cadette ‘Melon’
100% Melon de Bourgogne (the grape used to make Muscadet, the ultimate dry, high-acid oyster-pairing wine) aged for five months in stainless steel before bottling. All fermented naturally and with minimal intervention in the cellar. Zippy, light, but flinty and serious in its slow-dwindling, refreshing finish.
Domaine de la Cadette ‘Julienas’
A cool climate is necessary to grow perfect pinot noir and gamay. A downright COLD climate, however, may just kill your chances of producing a red. Early spring warmth with bud-break put vines in a vulnerable position. They might all die if another frost struck...which of course, it did. (Vermonters, doesn’t this sound familiar?) Rather than simply putting out no “rouge” from the winery at all for a whole vintage, Valentin decided to work with producers in the southernmost part of Burgundy, Beaujolais. Sourcing fruit from the village of Julienas, Valentin found organically grown gamay from granite-rich soils and vinified his own Beajolais, respecting the grape and its home while offering it a new life, up where the frost had been far more unkind. The result is a perfect, textbook Julienas. An age-worthy, grippy, ripe and masculine expression of gamay which deserves a quiet, thoughtful appreciation. Sometimes losing a whole vintage isn’t so bad (for us) afterall!