#chillablewine

[dandelionwineshop]

THURSDAY NIGHT TASTING 6-8PM:  STAY HYDRATED! OR WHATEVER

(but seriously, drink some water, add cucumber or lemon!, in between all the wine you may consume this weekend, it's gonna be hot AF)

Stone Cold Chillers:  Wines to Fridge Right F*ing Now!

It’s going to be a HOT weekend – our sources say Sunday temperatures will feel like 105. SO, our dear friend Ariel from Savio Saores takes her place behind the Lions Club Bar tonight to run us through a lineup of organic & natural wines that are eminently CHILLABLE! We love rosé of course, and we also do believe as point of religious faith that bubbles are the best answer to any question. But this time of year demands a full quiver of refreshment options, and it can be a challenge to know which other wines will perform well VERY COLD. Tonight we’re pouring a CHILLABLE RED, as well as a CLEAN MINERAL WHITE. We also have on hand a GRIS choice - these are essentially pink or orange-skinned grapes (in this case Pinot Gris) that can create a lightly tinted wine depending on the amount of skin contact during the fermentation process. And our personal fave for chilling these days is CO-FERMENTED RED & WHITE! (Yes that’s sort of rosé.) We’re talking about a lot of fun for your FRIDGE! You bring your legitimate concern for your thermal future – we’ll have the WINE, BREAD, CHEESE, and VINYL!

UIVO, Renegado 2018

This really might be our favorite kind of wine at the moment: co-fermented red & white grapes and lots of ‘em! In this case the blend includes as many as forty varieties – YES, it’s Portugal! – roughly half red and half white. It’s wholly delicious, and amazing in the fridge. Folias de Baco makes this wine from field-blended grapes grown in the Cimacorgo area of the Douro Valley. White varieties include gouveio, rabigato, donzelinho, malvasia fina & viosinho; red varieties include rufete, tinta barroca, touriga franca, mourisco, and tinta roriz (aka tempranillo). Obviously there are many more and they’re all from 80 year old vines planted on 2 hectares of schist and granite, hand harvested separately and sorted in the vineyard. Sound complex and beautiful? Yup. Like Joanna Maçanita, who was behind the bar last month, Winemaker Tiago Sampaio is also part of the revolution in the Douro, pushing the boundaries and producing wines some might not expect out of such a traditional region. Organic, natural & unfiltered. $18

Schlossmühlenhof, Boden Funk 2018

Another summer love! From the Rheinhessen, this slightly spritzy Grauer Burgunder (aka pinot gris) shows amazing dirty pink and yellow fruit against a backdrop of volcanic ash. Yet it’s a very clean sipper! This is a wine that’s as hard to describe as it is hard to forget, and somewhat addictive. The Schloss Mühlenhof property has been in the family since 1846 but was mostly focused on producing rye and wheat until the 1920’s, when the vineyards became the focus. Now in the hands of the sixth generation, the farm operates 100% organically and the focus in the cellar is on purity and freshness. Knowing their soils for so long (mostly limestone combinations), the family does capture a clear minerality and a distinct spirit from each varietal. Crisp and delicious.  Organic & unfiltered.$20

Mas d'Agalis, Vin de France Yo No Puedo Mas 2017

If you’ve eaten in Montreal in the last few years, well, you know that it’s awesome. But you might also have noticed that this wine is on pretty much every list. It’s also fairly ubiquitous in New York and for good reason. We’re very big fans of this vintage in particular with it’s up-front dark red fruit flavors and characteristic hint of ferrous granite. This is carignan, syrah, mourvedre, and grenache, grown on clay and limestone, about 40 kilometers northwest of Montpélier in the Languedoc. Lionel Maurel is of the fourth generation of winemakers in his family, but he broke from the ways of his father and grandfather who previously sold their grapes to co-ops, choosing instead to make and sell his own wines in 2004. Above all, he seeks to reflect the vintage in his wines and that is clearly in evidence here. Aged about 12 to 18 months in the barrel. Organic, natural, unfiltered. And chillable!! $20

Domaine Augis, Touraine Elegance 2017

We can’t have enough Sauvignon Blanc from Touraine these days. We often suggest these wines for people looking for something as crisp and mineral as Sancerre but at a lower price. The Aguis is vibrant with mineral notes, citrus, herbs, and a little gooseberry. Very clean and easy drinking, this wine comes from 25yr old Sauvignon Blanc vines growing on "perruches" (flinty-clay) soils with grasses planted in between. Aged on lees for a year before bottling.  Philippe is the 5th generation at Domaine Augis.  Organic, natural & seriously crushable. $16