April 2021 | 3 Bottle Club
Welcome to the April 3 Bottle Club from MYSA Natural Wine!
A note from our founder:
Spring is here! This season always feels to me like the most versatile time of the year for wine because it's crisp, but getting warm, everything is blooming, and the options are endless! This month we've gone with some bubbles that call for Mexican food, a chillable red, and a white that deserves a gorgeous meal to go with it! These should definitely get you started for successful Spring pairings.
- Holly, founder MYSA Natural Wine
- Flower Girl Pet Nat - Botanica
- Grotta di Sole - Clos Marfisi
- Deu Pinote - Bojo do Luar
- Wine Evaluation Sheet
Flower Girl Pet Nat - Botanica
Western Cape - South Africa
Description:
A hazy and unusual expression of a Cabernet Franc. Tons of ripe green habanero peppers, and a touch of floral on the nose. On the palate it's tons of fun and a bit of funky while also creamy. Get ready for an acidic bite combined with smooth fizzy bubbles that will prepare your palate for a light afternoon snack! Or even better, pair with Mexican food like tacos, or enchiladas. This is the perfect spring wine!
Pairings: Mexican food, Roasted Chicken, Soft Cheese
Serving Temperature: 48°-52°
About Botanica
Ginny Povall is the heart and soul behind Botanica, and much like Ginny herself, these wines beam with life and a great sense of purpose. Originally from Massachusetts, Ginny eventually made her home at Protea Heights, a farm on the outskirts of Stellenbosch. For several decades, Protea Heights established a reputation as the first farm in South Africa to cultivate their national flower, the Protea. Ginny continues growing flowers and in 2009 expanded the farm when she planted several hectares of vineyard.
For over a decade now, she has poured herself into Botanica and quickly become one of the most exciting winegrowers in the region. Since the inaugural vintage in 2009, Botanica has consistently produced some incredibly compelling wines from very special, but often overlooked, regions and vineyards across the Western Cape. All the wines are vinified and bottled at Protea Heights. In addition to the Botanica range, Ginny now produces several wines under the Big Flower label, which utilizes the fruit grown on her property. - Pascal Schildt
Grotta di Sole - Clos Marfisi
Patrimonio - France
Description:
A thought provoking wine and one of the best representations of what we would enjoy sipping in early Spring. Comes from the French island, Corsica. Produced by a brother and sister duo, who are 5th generation winemakers. On the nose, citrus, creaminess, lemon meringue, tart green apple, and a touch of minerality. Lovely and round on the palate. The texture and feel is light and bright yet still complex. Medium acidity. Best paired with a lemony dish, such as a crisp arugula salad drizzled with a lemon vinaigrette and topped with salmon. You could also try lemon roasted chicken, asparagus, a soft cheese board. Stay away from fried foods, pizza, fries, or even ham. Play with the fact that this has a really nice acidic backbone, is complex, and it's not just your regular Glou Glou!
Pairings: Pasta, Lean Fish, Cured Meat
Serving Temperature: 48°-52°
About Clos Marfisi
If you aren’t familiar with Corsica, the main event is Patrimonio. This AOC covers 400ha with half of them being owned by the two largest producers, and the other half split up amongst 30 smaller growers. If you haven’t already guessed, Clos Marfisi is part of the latter. Brother and sister, Mathieu and Julie are fifth generation at the helm of this estate, having taken over from their father, Touissant, when Julie returned in 2001, and her brother in 2012, from having careers elsewhere in France.
Now, we thought that we had seen it all in terms of limestone, but Corsica takes the cake. Clos Marfisi’s vineyards (which Touissant planted about 40-50 years ago) rise up from the Mediterranean with southern and western exposures on steep slopes that are practically white with large chunks of broken up limestone. Seriously impressive. Equally impressive is the fact that they never gave into outside pressure and the entirety of the estate is planted to local varieties, so you won’t find any Grenache here. Their father is still very active in the vineyards, and is the main reason that this estate has never been touched by pesticides or herbicides, which were shunned for one reason or another by previous generations of vignerons on the island. This commitment to organics continues and the estate will be certified Bio by the 2018 vintage. Vestiges of the old guard remain in the cellar as well where native yeasts have always been used for fermentations, and sulfur levels are kept to a minimum.
As president of the Patrimonio AOC, Mathieu has a clear vision for where the estate is headed, and we like what we are seeing. Their commitment to honoring the past while shaping their own future is incredibly exciting to us.
- Selection Massale
Deu Pinote - Bojo du Luar
Vinho Verde - Portugal
Description:
All of the varietals are fermented in stainless steel other than the Arinto grape, which is fermented in concrete. Ground chestnut flowers are used in fermentation to help stabilize the procedure. A super light and refreshing red that we recommend chilling for around 30-40 minutes before serving. Tons of bright red fruit such as cherries on the nose, a touch of jamminess, and vegetal notes such as green pepper. Taste wise it's very crushable! A Glou Glou wine with low tannin. Under ripe fruit with pepper notes on the palate. Have this red with food you would typically pair with a white. Try with fish, Asian food, or a slightly spicy Pad Thai.
Pairings: Lamb, Burgers, Grilled Vegetables
Serving Temperature: 48°- 52°
About Bojo do Luar
The Bojo do Luar project came to life during a trip Savio made to the Vinho Verde region. Here he met Fernando Paiva, a biodynamic producer who has been experimenting with adding ground chestnut flowers to the grapes and must before fermentation began. Meanwhile he’s halted using SO2 altogether since 2017.
Fernando is a regional reference for non-interventionist winemaking. He was the first Portuguese producer to acquire the DEMETER certification and through him Savio met another producer, Antonio Sousa, who practiced biodynamic viticulture, but still used traditional and conventional winemaking methods in the cellar.
Savio was undeterred and saw this as an opportunity: to use the traditional autochthonous varietals of Northern Portugal, and apply his knowledge and experience of many decades working with French producers, mainly in Burgundy and Loire.
With Antonio’s winemaking experience and openness to experiment using a non-intervention approach in the cellar, the Bojo do Luar wines started to take shape. The region has a mostly cool temperate climate throughout Spring, then very warm days, and cool nights until the harvest in September. Five red grape varietals and three whites were chosen for their natural high levels of tartaric acids and low PH. -Savio Soares Selections
Wine Evaluation Sheet
Want to have some fun evaluating and taking note on your wine? Check out our natural wine tasting sheets we made special for the club!
