New Producers Available from Louis/Dressner Selections! It has been a busy time for us and we have been able to sign on some more producers to import. Some are still in the works and we will have some dramatic announcements in the weeks to come. New producers include: Domaine Antoine Arena in Corsica These wines are insanely delicious expressions of local grape varieties from one of the leaders of France's natural wine movement -- they cost a fortune but are worth every last penny. Insanely delicious is a precise term used by professional and seasoned tasters. What is remarkable here is the balance of acidity they still get here by working the land. They are now looking to make the whites somewhat drier than in the past, as the sons find they go better at meals. Arena has planted séléctions masale of vermintino in exceptional landscapes that cost a fortune to clear and cultivate. The results are in the bottle. Patrimonio rules! Domaine Agnés and Réné Mosse in Anjou Réné is one of the great bon vivants of France and his wines have a great joy and exhuberance. This is a fairly recent estate, the first vintage being 1999, but Réné has worked for estates like de Montille in Volnay and brings considerable experience and passion to his work. Réné toyed with non-sulfured bottling in the past, and often looked for a light oxidative style. His 2004s transcend this trendiness and have that little extra dose of stability to make the wines delicious and precise. Philippe Pacalet Burgundies Philippe has a small négoce house where he buys uniquely from plots of pinot fin, the old massale of Pinot Noir. The wines lack color, lack spoof, lack extraction and lack wood flavors. The wines actually taste different from AOC to AOC and are light, aromatic, tender, teasing, ethereal and magic. Just what you used to think Burgundy was about. Coincidentally, we recently learned that he is Marcel Lapierre's nephew! Sophie et Pierre Lamandier Champagnes We worked briefly with these vignerons about nine years ago, bringing in the Terre de Vertus bottling. We've remained friendly and I've remained a great fan. This is the Champagne I have enjoyed drinking over the past several years and we run into them every year at natural wine events in France. The Larmandiers do not believe there is such a thing as "grower champagne," because grower who does the same style of work as the larger houses is not better because they are smaller. These are wines are at no dosage or little dosage, but with fat richness and intensity. This is one of the few Champagne producers where you spend more time visiting the vines than you do in the cellars. Exemplary work all the way around. We are delighted to be working with them again. Nathalie et Christian Chaussard of the Domaine le Briseau, Jasnières Chaussard is one of the great, larger than life characters of the French natural wine scene. I know Christian for maybe 12 years now, back when he was ploughing his estate in Vouvray with a horse. At first, he thought the only way to go was to make demi-sec Vouvray. They he wanted Vouvray with a slight touch of oxidation, in the style of Robert Plageolles. It didn't work out, he went backrupt and closed shop. Chaussard and Nathalie were able to set-up camp once again in the Jasnières/Coteaux-du-Loir region and we have finally decided to work together. The wines are now a shade less wacky than in the past, with Chaussard doing slight filtrations or adding a bit of sulfur at the bottling if necessary. It took 12 years for us to import his wines and it has been worth the wait! Coincidently, Chaussard is also an oenologist! I Clivi, Friuli We've been discreetly selling these wines for the past few months in New York, but are now selling them around the country. A “Clivo” is a little hillside in Friulian dialect and Ferdinando Zanusso is organically working two Clivio to make uncharacteristically elegant wines from this region. After a career in Africa where he spent most of his time as a consultant to the United Nations in its logistical distribution of food to troubled regions, Ferdinando Zanusso returned to his wife’s native region of the Collio, where he had already fallen in love with the local wines. There, they settled into the life of contadini. The wines are raised in stainless steel without extended lees contact, and have a clarity and purity that is startling and long. Daughter Accepted to Concordia University Art School BFA Program, Montréal I have known my daughter now for nearly 18 years and have watched her develop into a forceful, intense and creative personality. Yesterday, she received a letter from Montréal accepting her to the Concordia University Studio Arts program. New York's loss will be Montréal's gain, unless she decides not to go to school and harvest at Pierre Breton and Thierry Puzelat's next fall. Congratulations are in order!
Domaine Antoine Arena
Hey, Joe, congrats!
You must continue to be among Harmon and Michael's favorite people!!
Congratulations! (Since they were ordered...)
congratulations indeed. the mysterious and wonderful bond between father and daughter will continue wherever she goes to pursue her dreams.
These are all very exciting developments. My hats off to Louis/Dressner Selections and to Alyce!
I'll ask Chaussard about the clivos. I'm not sure. |