in the news

 

Has Pét-Nat Jumped the Shark?

Megan Kriegbaum, Punch Drink
June 2023

“‘Just about the most delicious sparkling for everyday usage,’ says Talitha Whidbee of this sparkling riesling, made from organic fruit in Germany’s Pfalz. Brothers Gabriel and Simon Scheuermann are to thank for this tingly, mouthwatering and intensely satisfying wine. Made in the Charmat style (a method used widely in Prosecco and Lambrusco production), by which wines are fermented and then see secondary fermentation in a pressurized tank, this is the sort of sparkler that you might not even realize you’re gulping until it’s gone.”

 

Bubbles (What Else?) to Ring In the New Year

Eric Asimov, The New York Times
December 2022

“For eight generations, the Lelarge family has been farming in the Vrigny region in the Montagne de Reims in Champagne. For so old a family, they are in the Champagne vanguard today, farming biodynamically and aging their reserve wines in a solera. This cuvée, half pinot meunier with 30 percent pinot noir and 20 percent chardonnay, is aged for 11 years in the bottle before release. It’s taut yet creamy with chalky flavors of citrus and herbs.”

 

The Most Memorable Wines of 2022

Eric Asimov, The New York Times
December 2022

“I’ve tried a number of these wines and find them exciting, but none more so than the wines of Alessandra Divella in the town of Gussago. She farms organically and her wines are thrilling, none more so than her Clo Clo rosé, which I drank in August at Corner Bar on the Lower East Side.

The wine, named for Ms. Divella’s mother, is bone-dry, yet refreshing and crackling with energy and intrigue. You can’t wait for the next sip to see where it will take you. As Ms. Divella slowly adds to her vineyard holdings and gains experience, I’m eager to see where the future will take her.”

 

How to Drink the Best Restaurant Wines at Home This Christmas

Nathalie Nelles, Eater London
December 2022

“Once the fancy wine’s done, and everyone stops pretending to care about what’s in their glass, it’s nice to have a couple bottles of of easygoing sparkling wine on hand. At Cadet, Christophe Lindenlaub’s “Tu Bois Quoi Là?” jaune is a permanent staple of the by-the-glass list, and for good reason — it’s got all the bells and whistles of a proper apéro wine.”

 

8 Expert Tips For Pairing Wine With Vegan Cuisine

Jillian Dara, Forbes
November 2022

“Doreen Winkler, natural wine sommelier and founder of Orange Glou in New York City, points to creamy, rich and aromatic wines as the perfect pairing with vegan cheese. ‘Ideally an aromatic grape like Muscat,’ specifies Winkler. ‘Retour de Milan is an amazing Muscat from Domaine Fond Cypres in Languedoc; it is creamy and full of layers, mineral with notes of apricot, peach, and herbs.’”

 

“These fizzy pink wines are pure gold”

Ellen Bhang, The Boston Globe
June 2022

“To make “Pink Gold,” a collaboration with importer-distributor Super Glou, Gold macerates trollinger for about a week and presses the juice into stainless steel. Fermentation completes in the bottle. Vivid scents of pink grapefruit and cool, wet stones lead to a frothy mouthful of citrus pith and spritz, anchored by appetizing bitter notes.”

 

“The Wines of Right Now”

Leslie Pariseau, Punch Drink
June 2022

“‘She is refining an already-fine product: taking the practice of Franciacorta, and identifying single vineyards and special cuvées,’ says Helen Johannesen of Helen’s Wines in Los Angeles. ‘It resonates right now, when people tend to think a digital representation defines the individual. But really, it’s the artist, in the vines, creating something astounding, that does.’”

“Today, the family-run operation grows biodynamically and relies only on native yeasts with a focus on pinot meunier. Lelarge-Pugeot has broken away from the grower Champagne pack to forge its own identity within a classical framework, experimenting with zero-zero, still wines (thanks to climate change) and deploying local honey for dosage.”

 
 

“This is an expertly composed champagne that is riveting. Brought by Lelarge-Pugeot family, an eighth-generation winery, the sparkling wine is golden yellow in color. A bottle of champagne would cost about $44 and offer a wide range of flavors of apples or apricots. In addition, the champagne also offers a tangy hint of orange zest which is too good for your taste buds. A blend of variety, it is made of Meunier, Pinot Noir, and Chardonnay.”

 

Le Vin Commence À La Vigne

Terre de Vin
2022 (originally published in print)

“Le blanc de meunier est planté sur des sols sableux, qui donnent ces notes de groseille. Pour ne pas abîmer ce fruit, on a veille à utiliser pour l'élevage des fûts plus anciens. Le coteau blanc de blancs, élevé dans des fûts plus jeaunnes, est issu de chardonnays qui ont poussé sur une glaise ferrugineuse. Minéral, sa tension lui confère une allure plus jurassienne que bourguignonne.”

 

The Best Wines for Valentine’s Day

Kate Dingwall, Maxim
February 2022

“‘Champagne Lelarge-Pugeot’s entry level bottling, the non-vintage Tradition, uses the three typical grapes of Champagne: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and their specialty, Pinot Meunier. Grapes are grown using organic and biodynamic principles and the resulting wines show zip, refreshment and a clear view of the land they come from. All this and usually under $60 retail.’ – Troy Bowen, co-owner and sommelier at Noble Riot”

Photo Courtesy of Minum Selections

 

“When it comes to labor and transparency, however, we are proud to be known for highlighting that part of the supply chain. In an ideal world, asking those questions would be an industry standard.

I do think the shift to shining the spotlight on labor has encountered resistance in pockets of the industry. People who have been doing this a long time don’t like to have their feathers ruffled. They have it down to a formula and want it to be plug-and-play.”

 

Lelarge-Pugeot élabore un champagne millésimé d'une belle spontanéité de fruit

Alexis Goujard, Olivier Poussier, La Revue du Vin de France
February 2022

“Les Meuniers de Clémence 2017 conserve une belle spontanéité de fruit”




 

Holger Koch: Unsung Brilliance in Baden

Jonathan Kemp, Vanderbilt Wine Merchants
2021

“…I always feel his wines starting in my head and moving directly towards my heart in rapid succession. When I visited Holger several years ago, he seemed to me a little technical and stoic at first, earnest and impressively intelligent to be sure, but after a few hours with him one-on-one I also saw how passionate and warm he was. This is exactly how his wines land, too, a mix of raw intellect and passion sublimated to the service of great wine.”

 

“Christophe Lindenlaub is the definition of a bundle of positive energy. He broadcasts total enthusiasm and a strong drive towards the future and what tomorrow is going to bring. Visits to the winery and encounters at wine fairs, leave you with a slice of the Lindenlaub enthusiasm and energy. This comes on the foundation of the Lindenlaub family running their vineyards since the 18th century.”

 

In Search of the New Franciacorta

Zachary Sussman, Sevenfifty
December 2021

“That tension is tangible in her racy Blanc de Blancs, for instance, fermented in equal parts concrete tank and used barrique and aged 30 months on the lees, as well as her Ni Nì bottling, a savory blend of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay that walks a tightrope between ripe orchard fruit and a faintly oxidative edge (a result of the reserve wine that constitutes 25 percent of the blend).”

 

“‘This is a German pét-nat that is almost a bit too easy to drink,’ says Bowen. ‘Made from the grape Trollinger, this bottle is cracking with candied grapefruit, strawberry and floral notes.’ It’s highly quenchable and a late-night karaoke party in a bottle; tart, salty and zippy with big minerality.”

 

Minibar: Champagne Nature von Lelarge-Pugeot

Christina Fieber, Der Standard
August 2021

“Der Verzicht auf Schwefel ist in der Champagne noch unüblich – entsprechend unmaskiert präsentiert sich dann auch der "Nature". Möglich ist das nur mit astreinem Traubenmaterial, das im Fall von Lelarge der biologischen und biodynamischen Bewirtschaftung geschuldet ist. Er ist pur und straff, zeigt aber, dass Zero Dosage durchaus Tiefgang besitzt. Zarte Zestenaromen verleihen dezenten Charme.”

 

“Holger Koch is Making Us Fall In Love With Baden”

Jonathan Kemp, Vanderbilt Wine Merchants
2021

“Holger has once again given us wines that are irresistible in their charms and their accessibility. Though Baden may seem obscure to some, the profile of the wines feels as classic and satiating as my favorite Beaujolais and Burgundy producers, but with less hype and less strain on my wallet. It's really hard not to love Holger and the work he continues to do to elevate the natural gifts that Baden has been hiding for too long.”

 

Champagne’s Rule-Breaking Winemakers Have a Sweet Secret

Kathleen Willcox, Wine Enthusiast
October 2020

“‘We are beekeepers,’ says Lelarge-Pugeot. ‘This honey comes from our land. It’s essential to us that we make our footprint as small as possible in every way, and it is the product of bees that gather nectar from our land. The only organic source we could find for sugar is from halfway across the world.’”

 

“There’s More to German Wine Than Riesling”

Eric Asimov, The New York Times
August 2020

“Holger and Gabriele Koch make exquisite wines in the Baden region. This spätburgunder is sheer, graceful and juicy, with stony, earthy red berry flavors that are both lip-smacking and thought-provoking.”

 

:: Update - Spring 2021

Since harvest of 2020, we’ve been mapping out several strategies to present the information we have gathered from our winemakers.

We have all seen how easily the humans behind picking operations can be erased, even on the scale of the natural winemaking we feel we know and understand. Using the platforms provided by Super Glou and Glou Glou, we have been asking questions directly of our producers and purveyors: if a wine is hand-harvested, whose hands are doing the harvesting? Why are human details interpreted as inferior to tech specs? Why aren't pickers considered part of the vintage report? Why are we counting the invisible (mg of sulfur) instead of the visible (people in a field)?


On Super Glou’s end, we've been developing a way to standardize these details across our winemakers. We have interviewed them and compiled the results in a visual format. Here is what we've come up with:

 
 

The idea is that by proactively volunteering harvest information for our own winemakers, we can catalyze a discussion across the industry as a whole. We believe this dialogue is necessary to upholding the integrity of the natural wines we all hold dear.


Plus, transparency tastes better.

 

On Sunday, July 26, we took up the mantle of the Valentina Passalacqua investigation via our magazine Glou Glou. By Friday, July 31, we had discovered and released two hard pieces of evidence implicating the winemaker in the ongoing Carabinieri investigation, and by that evening, Passalacqua’s US importer of the Calcarius brand announced they were cutting ties. 

We realize the conflict of interest here, given that we also run an import company of our own (although microscopic in scale by comparison to the importers of Passalacqua). We wouldn’t have taken up this mantle if we didn’t think our own producers would stand up to scrutiny.

Of course, the Passalacqua scandal has forced us to take a hard look at our industry and re-examine what transparency means going forward. Why, for instance, do we obsess over terroir and the size/exposition of parcels but fail to account for the size of human teams needed for harvest? Details like these are just as relevant in any tech spec sheet, if not more. Over the next few weeks, we will be updating our website with our producers’ plans for harvest, which we are asking them to document to the best of their ability. 

We don’t believe in heroes but we do believe in villains: bad actors driven purely by capitalism with no regard for human life. But if we want to talk heroes, let’s talk heroism. Heroism is doing everything you can—day in, day out—to make sure villainy doesn’t happen in the first place. That is true justice. We invite all our fellow importers and distributors to join us in this fight.