Two Tastings This Week!

Cahors and Rhone Wines with Authentique Vin

with special guest Thomas Meunier
Friday, February 28th
5:00 - 7:00

We originally set this tasting up with Thomas Meunier as part of his annual grand tour of winemakers in North Carolina, and we were to host Manu Rybinski of Clos Troteligotte.  Unfortunately, Manu was not able to attend at the last minute, but Thomas offered to come to the rescue and conduct the tasting himself!  And we still want to feature several of Manu's fantastic wines.  Clos Troteligotte fits snugly into the Natural Wine ethos, following all organic and bio-dynamic agriculture, hand harvesting, native yeast fermentation, and minimal or zero addition of sulpher for stabilization.  Manu's wines are pure, unadulterated, and delicious.  To round out this Friday tasting, we decided to also pour two wines from another of the winemakers in Thomas' portfolio who was unable to attend this year's visit to North Carolina - Coralie Goumarre of Domaine Galévan.  Coralie is one of the Rhone Valley's only premier female vignerons, and the first woman in 9 generations to run her family estate of 120 acres.  Coralie's vineyards have been certified organic since 2011, and she also follows a minimalist winemaking style.  Please welcome Thomas Meunier with us this Friday!

Clos Troteligotte K-BO
100% Gamay
Vin de France, 2018

Clos Troteligotte K-nom
85% Malbec, 15% Merlot
Cahors, France, 2018

Clos Troteligotte K-pot'
100% Malbec, No Added Sulfites
Cahors, France, 2018

Domaine Galevan 'l'Esprit Devin'
60% Grenache, 20% Mourvèdre, 20% Syrah
Côtes du Rhône Villages, France, 2015

Domaine Galevan Châteauneuf-du-Pape
80% Grenache, 20% Mourvèdre
Châteauneuf-du-Pape, France, 2015

---

Wines of the Veneto

Saturday, February 29th
4:30 - 7:00

Getting to know Italian wines can be a nearly full time job!  There are over 350 unique indigenous grapes in Italy, (at least), and over 400 recognized appellations.  This makes learning Italian wines in depth to be a daunting task, but there are ways to get break the information down into manageable units.  A good way to start is to realize that each of Italy's 20 major regions tend to specialize in a few primary wines, and that's a great place to start.  For this week, we'll look at wines from Italy's Veneto region in the Northeast of the country.  We'll start out with a Rosato Spumante, which is essentially a Prosecco Rosé, although current wine laws of the region prohibit it from being labeled as such. The others wines will focus on the Western part of the Veneto around the city of Verona.  We'll taste a great example of a wine from the renowned medieval village of Soave, and then taste three tiers of Valpolicella, from the great table red everyday blend, to a Ripasso and finally an Amarone.  This should be a fun exploration of a great wine region!

Belstar Cuvée Rosé Extra Dry
Italy, NV

Coffele 'Castel Cerino'
Soave Classico DOC, Italy, 2018

Corte Majoli Valpolicella
Valpolicella DOC, Italy, 2018

Tezza 'Ma Roat' Valpolicella Ripasso Superiore
Valpolicella Ripasso DOC, Italy, 2017

Coffele Amarone della Valpolicella
Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG, Italy, 2016