Exclusive offer: 6/10/2022 – Last chance reds, plus Ribolla Gialla three ways
This offer is available from Friday, June 10th at 3:00 pm to Sunday, June 12th at 3:00 pm.
If the offer is still on, you’ll see the order form at the bottom of this page. Completed forms are sent to Solo Vino Wine Shop in St. Paul, MN, for final fulfillment (shipping is available).
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LAST CHANCE REDS plus RIBOLLA GIALLA
This week’s offerings are split into two groups. The first group comprises three OUTSTANDING red wines, all with a touch of age to them (and drinking at peak right now), and all down to the last little pile of bottles at the wholesaler’s warehouse. Once they are gone, they are gone.
The second group is a collection of three wines from one of my favorite grapes, Ribolla Gialla. These are three super cool wines, including one of the best and rarest sparkling wines available for the savvy consumer.
Gamling & McDuck Cabernet Franc, Pickberry Vineyard, 2016
This is the last inventory on what may be one of the best Cabernet Francs we’ve had in the last ten years.
Our love of Gamling & McDuck is known to many. Minnesota natives Adam McClary and Gabrielle Schaffer took off to Napa Valley in the early 2000s with the dream of learning about viticulture and making wine. I first met Adam when he was the wine buyer and bartender at The Craftsman on East Lake Street (now The Bungalow Club). He took wine notes in a little notebook, and rather than write words like “full-bodied, spicy, long finish, blah blah blah” he would draw pictures.
His creativity is evident and obvious when you visit the Gamling & McDuck website.
The Pickberry Vineyard is legendary. Located on the edge of Sonoma Mountain (within Sonoma Valley AVA), it’s 30 acres of Bordeaux varieties, made famous by the Pickberry wines of Ravenswood (the Ravenswood Pickberry Merlot 1986 is one of the best wines I’ve ever had). The vineyard owners work with a very small list of top-notch wineries, including Gail and Smith Story.
This wine has everything you expect in a great Cab Franc: that smoky core of blue and black fruit, a touch of pyrazines (but not too much), balanced out by firm acids and detailed tannins. It has just enough age on it now to really be hitting its stride.
Only 31 bottles left, then that’s it for this wine.
Monteti (Super Tuscan) 2012
A rare opportunity to grab a ten-year-old Super Tuscan, aged perfectly and showing what bottle time and development can do to great wine!
I’ve been a big fan of Monteti (and its little brother, Cabrunio) for years. It’s produced in microscopic quantities in Maremma (the home to some of the best big reds of Tuscany), with organic farming, natural yeast fermentation, extremely little sulfite, and top-quality barrels. The blend is 55% Petit Verdot, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Cabernet Franc. It’s a big wine, but ten years of age have integrated the aromas and flavors to perfection. This is the kind of wine you pop when you’re grilling that special steak for a special occasion.
From the producer’s website:
Monteti is our flagship wine. It is named like the estate after the hill that protects our vineyard from the strong Mediterranean winds guaranteeing an ideal microclimate thanks to which our vines can benefit, protected, from sea proximity.
It is a blend of Petit Verdot (with percentages varying depending on the vintage from 40 to 55%), Cabernet Franc (between 30 and 25%) and Cabernet Sauvignon (between 15 and 20%).
It matures for 18 months in medium-toasted French oak barriques, 70% of which are new. This is followed by further 2 years of bottle ageing before being released onto the market.
Only 66 bottles are left of this wine, then that’s it for this wine. This quality for this price, combined with it being aged for you, makes this a bargain considering the price of similar quality Super Tuscans.
Chanson Marsannay 2015
Note this is 100% Pinot Noir — by the time we got to photograph the bottle, we had consumed it all. 🙂
Let me rephrase that … it’s 100% kick-ass Pinot Noir.
We popped this earlier in the week for our CĂ´te d’Or webinar over at The Wine Workshop (which you can purchase for only $19 and get instant access to the replay of the webinar, all the tasting notes, and tons of info on 18 villages in Burgundy — it was a great webinar!) and were blown away by it. We immediately locked down the rest of the inventory for Solo Vino, and now we can offer it to you today.
Marsannay is the northernmost village in the CĂ´te d’Or, and is just south of the city of Dijon. It’s the only village in Burgundy that makes white, red, and rosĂ©. The RosĂ© wines of Marsannay are fantastic but hard to find, for most of them are consumed in nearby Dijon. The rosĂ© was also historically important to Marsannay because being the furthest north village, the Pinot Noir sometimes struggled to get ripe. Of course, with things warming up this is no longer the case and Marsannay is sudden making some reliably great Pinot Noirs.
2015 was a terrific vintage here, and it was just by chance that we happened upon the last bit of this wine during a warehouse walk for the local importer. 2015 Burgundies are almost impossible to find, and inflation + demand + shipping challenges are making all future releases of this wine almost 40% more expensive.
In other words, this is the last chance to get this wine at this price … with the added bonus of some bottle age. It’s really spectacular wine.
Sadly, only 17 bottles are left. First come, first served.
THE RIBOLLA GIALLA TRIFECTA
It’s one of our favorite grapes from a favorite place.
The place is Friuli, located in far northeastern Italy on the Slovenian border. Friulians are a proud people and are some of the best winemakers in all of Europe. There is little debate that the best whites of Italy come from here.
The Ribolla Gialla grape is one of the top varieties of the region and gives the magic combination that we seek out of body plus acidity. So many grape varieties get flabby as they ripen (think Chardonnay from Napa Valley), but Ribolla is one of the few that really holds that acidity well. Typical aromas of Ribolla Gialla include baked red apple, tangerine, beeswax, lemon skin, and herbs (especially thyme).
Zuani “Sodevo” Ribolla Gialla 2016 and 2018
This is so cool. Or should I say, “So Devo?”
Zuani is a favorite producer of ours, and their “Zuani” super white blend will be a featured wine in a future offering. The owner/winemaker is Patrizia Felluga, of the famous Fellgua family of winemakers (she’s the daughter of Roberto Felluga, the “Lion of Friuli”) and runs the estate with her daughter Catarina. Patrizia Felluga is a force of nature and was in charge of the Friuli wine consortium for many years.
We’re offering both 2016 and 2018 because this is one of the neatest sets of wines you can find. They are showing totally different and unexpected ways.
The 2018 Sovedo Ribolla Gialla is as you’d expect it to be: loads of baked apple meets citrus and herb aromas. It’s a classy, pitch-perfect Ribolla with firm acids and a long finish. If you’re wondering what Ribolla is all about, this is your wine. Textbook.
The 2016 is, ironically, showing younger than the 2018. The fruit is more nuanced, and the acids are higher! In fact, the 2016 Sovedo reminds me more of the top-level wine from Zuani, which is a blend of four different grapes. The wine packs a punch, and I can’t think of a more perfect wine for rainbow trout, clams and pasta, or just a hunk of Pecorino cheese. Wow!
So if you’re geeking out like I am on this, here’s a cool opportunity to acquire both vintages.
We were lucky enough to hang out with the Fulluga family in 2011, and this is when our love of their Rioblla Gialla was solidified.
Something totally special and under the radar!
SINEFINIS “RIBOLIUM” BRUT
(sparkling Ribolla Gialla from Italy + Slovenia)
Here’s a diamond in the rough.
This is something NOBODY knows about and is totally under the radar.
And if you have sparkling wine friends, this is one of the top wines you can gift them. Or just keep it for yourself. Or buy two and do both.
100% Ribolla Gialla, harvested by Robert Pricnic in Friuli, Italy, AND harvested by Matjaz Cetrtic from Kojsko in Brda, Slovenia. It’s a cross-border wine! As they tell the story on their website:
Although the two young winegrowers, Robert Princic from Giasbana-San Floriano, and Matjaz Cetrtic from Kojsko in Brda, live only a stone’s throw apart across the Italian-Slovenian border, they only met for the first time during a Wine Business Masters course at the MIB School of Management in Trieste.
The exchange of views on the world of wine and approaches to wine marketing, but above all a history with its roots deep in the past and a shared culture inspired the two producers to create one of the very first examples in Europe of a cross-border wine, a wine which recounts a story of peoples and their lands and transmits a message of unity.
So it was that Rebolium Sinefinis, a wine without borders, first saw the light, using the native variety that unites the two denominations of the Collio and the Brda, Ribolla Gialla/Rumena Rebula. Bringing together grapes sourced from vineyards in Italy and Slovenia and combining the know-how and the resources of the two wineries, Gradis’ciutta and Ferdinand, they created a traditional method sparkling wine which truly speaks of Europe.
This is made in the Champagne method, with 36 months of aging on the lees, which brings out deep complexity that reminds me of the Champagnes of Vilmart and Pierre Peters. The acidity of Ribolla is very apparent, making for a wine that, on one hand, is delicate and floral, yet on the other, has grip and power.
In other words, this is incredible bubbly. And pretty much nobody has ever seen it or heard of it. Cross-border coolness!
BUYING ADVICE
The wines in the offer speak for themselves. There is a range of styles and prices for everyone, depending on what you’re looking for.
All of the wines are showing great right now. Some of them, such as the Super Tuscan and the sparkling wine, can age further. I’d also throw the Cab Franc in that category, though I wouldn’t hold onto it too long. It’s drinking beautifully right now.
The 2016 and 2018 Ribolla Giallas are just plain fun, and if you have a gathering coming up this summer, I think popping them side by side would be a blast.
And as I mentioned, if you have friends into Sparkling Wine but you don’t want to get them yet another bottle of Champagne, the Sinefinis Rebolium is a slam dunk.
Thank you, everyone! Please spread the word about our Friday offers!
Jason Kallsen
Sommelier, founder of Twin Cities Wine Education
This offer has been completed. Thank you for your interest.