Our final wine tasting of 2021! Sam & Oli of Natural Born Wine are heading back up the M1 from London to join us for anther evening full of wine & tales from behind the vines!
Showcasing some new producers and some old favourites, this free tasting will be a chance to try lots of new additions to our wine shelves.
Drop in anytime from 4pm or join us for dinner where Sam & Oli will be on hand to help you pick the perfect pairing for your meal.
Read on to see the wines we’ll be tasting on the night.
J. Brix, California, USA
Husband and wife Emily Towe and Jody Brix Towe began their journey into professional winemaking almost by accident. It was 2009 and they had come to the end of volunteering in vineyards and cellars in Santa Barbara and they thought it might be fun to put their newly acquired skills to the test. Three barrels in their residential garage later, and they were hooked. Flash forward to 2021 and it’s still just the two of them (with a bit help from their kids) but their little garage is now a warehouse (that they share with other ‘garagiste’ winemakers) and their label J. Brix has grown from 75 cases into over 3,000 cases across more than 14 different wines. Pet-nats, skin-contact whites, a San Diego rose, light and chillable reds, carbonic reds, heavy and snuggable reds – there’s not a whole lot that Emily and Jody won’t try their hands at, guided always first and foremost by the vines, where they come from and what they feel they want to say. “From the site to the soil to the growing season, our wines, if we're doing our work correctly, will speak in their own voices,” say Emily and Jody. “We adore the variety California has to offer, which means we find ourselves compelled to make tiny quantities of as many different wines as we can and, we try to add a new grape or style each harvest. Our fruit comes from a number of vastly different, soul-stirring vineyards all over the state. We use neutral vessels, native-yeast fermentation, and absolutely nothing else, with the exception of sulfur dioxide as necessary. In keeping with this minimalist approach, we choose not to fine, filter or cold-stabilise our wines. Our motto, in winemaking and life: ONLY LOVE.” Their combined backgrounds in horticulture (Jody) and creative writing (Emily) make for the perfect winemaking duo: not just in producing delicious juice but communicating the story of each wine, too. They currently work with 16 grape varieties from vineyards spread throughout the Central Coast (where they learned to make wine); San Diego County (where they live); and the Sierra Foothills (owned and farmed by their dear friend and mentor). Over the years, they’ve won the hearts of sommeliers, journalists and consumers across the USA for their fun, fresh, stripped back take on classic Californian varieties like Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, as well as their more unusual wines like a San Diego Counoise and a Riesling Pet-Nat that was ranked No. 1 by The New York Times. Known for their unpretentious, curious, adventurous energy – captured in every one of their bottles – Emily and Jody’s respect for the land they belong to is inspiring and their vision for the future of winemaking in California (particularly in San Diego, an emerging region) is tremendously exciting.
The wines we'll be tasting:
Cobolorum Riesling Pet-Nat 2020 - Nicknamed ‘The Naughty Goblin Bubbles’, this pet-nat is disgorged for the first time this year to remove what Emily and Jody describe as ‘the heavy layer of sediment that necessitated detailed opening instructions to avoid potential eruption (in previous vintages)’. It still has a tiny whisper of sediment, however, a fine persistent bubble, an easygoing flavour and an unpretentious ‘Cali’ vibe that makes it work with pretty much any sparkling wine situation from celebrations and drinks parties to pizza nights and self-care Sundays.
Limestone + Schist Chardonnay 2019 - Emily and Jody never set out to make a Chardonnay - that was until they visited their friend and mentor Matthew Rorick at his historic vineyard in a former Gold Rush town in the Sierra Foothills. ‘After years of fits and starts and plan-foiling frosts, we finally created our very first Chardonnay; the only one we ever wanted to make, from vines we loved the moment we laid eyes on them in early 2014,’ say Emily and Jody. ‘Own-rooted, Wente-clone, 1974-planted; vine-souls equally elegant and gnarled; thriving in this haunted, magical land full of limestone and schist’. The limestone brings the acidity, while the schist gives texture and the lack of grafting brings further depth and purity. This is clearly a California Chardonnay but with refreshing minerality and without any of the make-up (over buttery / over oaky) that leads some people to think they don't like California Chardonnay.
Stay in Bed Red 2020 - ‘As always, carefully blended from select barrels, the unanimous winner of our blind tasting,’ say Emily and Jody of this juicy fuller bodied red. ‘The goal is to make this the one wine beloved by everyone from your Bordeaux-fan friend to your natural-wine aficionadas (and your aunt who just likes "reds"). The new vintage of Stay-in-Bed Red® is a smooth, fresh blend of Merlot, Pinot Meunier and Syrah, with just enough grip to keep it dreamy. Order a pizza - Cue up a movie - Open a bottle - STAY IN BED. RED.’
Conestabile della Staffa + Ceppaiolo, Umbria, Italy
‘No chemistry in the vineyard, no technology in the cellar, natural wine’ - this is the philosophy behind Conestabile della Staffa. For more than 200 years from the 1700s, Conestabile della Staffa produced some of the finest wines in the region but with two world wars came a diminished farming workforce and from 1956, the estate ceased to make anything, forcing the vineyard to sell off their grapes each year over the subsequent decades to make other people’s wine... and then Danilo Marcucci came along. Former student of architecture and one-time Umbrian wine-seller, Danilo turned to natural winemaking in the early 2000s after discovering first-hand what the chemicals in industrially produced wines can do to the body. A chance tasting of a natural wine made by his parents’ neighbour Vittorio Mattioli began what Danilo describes as a ‘radical change’ in his life and within a week of drinking the amber coloured white he joined Vittorio for what would become the first of many collaborations with masters of natural winemaking across Italy. Around 12 hectares of vines were in need of some love when Danilo took the reigns at Conestabile della Staffa but by 2015 he was able to release the estate’s first vintage in 60 years, using native grapes, natural processes, native yeast, no temperature control and no added sulphites. For Danilo, it is Mother Nature who determines the wine.
The wines we'll be tasting:
Litro Bucce 2020 - super easy-going, relatively low-alcohol, skin-contact white that hits every note without ever overdoing it. An orange wine for people who think they don’t like orange wine; an orange wine for people who wanna feel festive (‘tis spicy) without having to reach for a red; an orange wine for thirsty friends and family gatherings and tastier office parties.
Liquido 2020 - This medium-bodied easy-drinking red is a new one for Danilo’s portfolio - ‘a young but mature‘ red he says of Liquido, crunchy and fresh but with bags of warmth, too. Perfect with poultry and roasted veggies on a winter’s afternoon.
Ceppaiolo is an experimental side-project vineyard to Conestabile della Staffa:
Named after the Italian word for the poorest man in the village who historically only got to heat his home with the unwanted roots of a tree cut down and divided up, with the best logs and branches going to the richest - Ceppaiolo is a tiny vineyard that it isn’t easy to find. It’s on the side of a quiet road in Umbria, on a large non-descript plain, watched over by a small neighbouring restaurant and the Apennine Mountains further on. To find it, you must go through a padlocked gate, past a stone shed (the winemaking cellar as it turns out) with graffiti on the wall, a beaten-up car and a caravan. It couldn’t be further away from that picture postcard image of an Italian vineyard. No castle, no neat rows of vines or polished tasting room with glass doors. No, this is Umbria in the 1950s, from the expired vintage car outside the ‘cellar’ through to the small rows of native grape vines, many of them more than 70 years old, guarded on all sides by overgrown flowers and wild as can be. Winemakers Danilo Marcucci and Riccardo Pennaforti saved this two-hectare vineyard from demolition after meeting its wild, untouched vines. The cellar is kept exactly as Danilo found it with old 1950s winemaking equipment and what they have aimed to do with Ceppaiolo is to not only save the vineyard and keep making wine but maintain a small part of Umbrian history and tradition.
CeppaBianco 2020 - Old vine San Colombano, Trebbiano, Malvasia di Candia, Uva Pecora from a tiny experimental project that tastes like tinned peaches, lychee, lemon, almonds, black tea, honey.
CeppaRosso 2020 - Complex red that's both light but long; juicy cherries, blackcurrant, raspberry, rosy finish.
Tiberi, Umbria, Italy
Situated in northern Umbria, near the picturesque village of Monte Petriolo, Tiberi is a fourth generation family winery tended to by Cesare Tiberi and his grandchildren Federico and Beatrice. Spanning less than 4 hectares, Tiberi’s small plots celebrate native red and white grape varieties including Gamay del Trasimeno, Ciliegiolo, Grechetto, Trebbiano and San Colombana on soil that is mostly rocky marl and brushed by dry Mediterranean winds. This link to the past – through the untouched soils and Cesare, who has always lived and worked in the village – makes for very rustic wines with soul. In 2015, Federico and Beatrice, with the help of Cesare, brought Tiberi into the modern age by selling their wines beyond just the local village. The experiment paid off and now they are widely considered to be ‘ones to watch’ in the region, with every vintage better than the last. Cesare has his own little wine cellar, separate from the main Tiberi cellar. It’s here that he makes one orange wine – Bianco di Cesare – and one red wine – Rosso di Cesare – each year using the oldest vines and barrels. The Tribulato sparkling white is so-called to commemorate the first year the Tiberi family made this wine. That particular year, the grapes decided to reach perfect ripeness in the middle of a public holiday – with everyone off work and partying, the winemakers had no idea how they would harvest without their usual workforce. In the end, friends, family, acquaintances and local residents rallied together to bring in the fruit and the Tribulato celebrates their hard work that day.
The wines we'll be tasting:
Tribuato 2020 - This super refreshing bottle of bubbles is both rustic but refined; textured, green apple, white flowers and herbs.