< Tasting Notes

Winter Wines We Want
- January 2026

Happy New Year!!
We hope the holidays were a resounding success and look forward to sharing many beautiful wines with you for all of 2026.
Starting with these four stunners. Enjoy!

(**NOTE - Links are embedded in each winemaker’s names to direct you to their respective websites. Know thy vintner!**)

CÉCILE PAQUET Mâcon-Villages 2022 * Burgundy, France
Cécile Paquet grew up in Senozan, a small village in southern Burgundy, and spent over 20 years working in plant nurseries before deciding to focus all that knowledge on grapevines. She established her micro domaine in the early 2010s with just 1.5 hectares, working tirelessly to achieve maximum expression of terroir while farming with respect for nature's principles and rhythms. The estate is certified organic by Ecocert and practicing biodynamic. Cécile works every parcel herself with meticulous care, hand-harvesting into small 15kg baskets and rigorously selecting fruit in both vineyard and cellar. Her vineyards sit on clay-limestone and muddy clay soils in the Mâconnais, and her winemaking is refreshingly straightforward: native yeasts, concrete or stainless steel aging, no fining or filtering, minimal sulfur. These are wines of purity and precision, the kind of bottles that remind you why Burgundy built its reputation on Chardonnay in the first place.

This Mâcon-Villages is Burgundian Chardonnay stripped to its essentials. No oak, no manipulation, just fruit and terroir given time and space to speak. The grapes undergo spontaneous fermentation with wild yeasts, then age for 14 months in concrete tanks where they complete full malolactic fermentation. The result is a wine that balances tension with texture, minerality with richness. It's suave and silky but never soft, offering that classic Burgundian duality of opulence and restraint. The concrete aging preserves freshness while adding subtle creaminess from the lees contact. This isn't trying to be grand cru. It's trying to be honest, and it succeeds completely.

NERD ALERT!! - Tell me about these Villages? - Mâcon-Villages is one of Burgundy's unsung heroes, a regional appellation covering 43 villages in the southern Mâconnais where Chardonnay thrives on clay-limestone soils. While it doesn't command the prices or prestige of Chablis or Côte de Beaune, the best examples offer classic Burgundian character at a fraction of the cost. Cécile's micro-production approach brings grand cru mentality to village-level fruit, proving that scale and reputation matter less than farming and winemaking.

Grape(s) - 100% Chardonnay

Flavors - Pale gold. Citrus, pineapple, fresh almonds, spring flowers, orchard fruits. Lively attack gives way to ample mid-palate with long finish. Intense freshness meets creamy texture, everything balanced on a wire of mineral precision.

Serving - Oysters, sushi, dim sum, risotto, roasted chicken, goat cheese. Versatile enough for weeknight dinner, serious enough for special occasions.

Album Pairing - JONI MITCHELL – ‘Blue’ - 1971 * Intimate, confessional, stripped down to essentials. Mitchell's voice and guitar create something profound from minimal elements, the same way Cécile creates profound wine from just grapes and time. Both understand that restraint amplifies emotion, that saying less can mean more. The album's raw vulnerability and crystalline clarity mirror the wine's transparency and honesty. No studio tricks, no winemaking gimmicks, just pure expression of craft and feeling.

TERRE MARGARITELLI 'Freccia Degli Scacchi' 2018 * Torgiano Rosso Riserva DOCG, Umbria, Italy
The Margaritelli family's roots in Umbria stretch back to the late 19th century when patriarch Eugenio founded a company making forestry and agricultural tools. His son Fernando shifted focus to timber processing, deepening the family's connection to land and landscape. In 1948, Fernando retired to Torgiano in the heart of Umbria and started making wine purely for pleasure as his retirement project. That pleasure became Terre Margaritelli as it exists today: 60 hectares spanning vineyards, olive groves, and forests, with 52 hectares under certified organic vine. The estate sits between Perugia and Assisi in the famous Torgiano wine area, a small hill town about 650 feet above sea level. The family's timber heritage shows in the details—they age "Freccia Degli Scacchi" in French oak barrels made from wood they select themselves from the Bertranges forest. Production is intentionally limited to maintain quality, maxing out around 100,000 bottles while selling much of their grape production to other winemakers. Sustainability is at the heart of everything they do.

"Freccia Degli Scacchi" translates to "Arrow of Chess," named after a soldier, and it's the estate's flagship expression of Sangiovese. This is Torgiano Rosso Riserva DOCG, the region's first and most prestigious designation, requiring extended aging and showing what Sangiovese can achieve in Umbria's terroir. The grape thrives here just as it does in neighboring Tuscany, but Umbria's landlocked position makes it slightly hotter and drier without maritime influence, concentrating the fruit while maintaining structure. The wine sees careful oak aging in those family-selected French barrels, adding complexity without overwhelming the bright ruby fruit and floral character that defines great Sangiovese. This is powerful and elegant simultaneously, built for the long haul but approachable now with proper aeration.

NERD ALERT!! - What is DOCG? - DOCG (Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita) is Italy's highest wine classification, the "guaranteed" level above DOC. Introduced in 1980, it requires stricter production standards, lower yields, longer aging, and mandatory tasting panels before release. Only about 5% of Italian wine production qualifies for DOCG status..

Grape(s) - 100% Sangiovese

Flavors - Bright ruby with violet notes. Distinctive floral aromatics of violet and crushed roses, red fruit, raspberry. Powerful yet elegant palate with vivid acidity, firm tannins, cherry and berry fruit with herbal undertones. Long, savory finish.

Serving -Roasted meats, game dishes, aged cheeses, hearty pastas. Open an hour before serving. Best with slower meals and deeper conversations.

Album Pairing - NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS – ‘The Boatman's Call’ - 1997 * Dark, devotional, steeped in tradition while staying utterly contemporary. Cave's voice moves between tenderness and intensity the same way Sangiovese balances elegance and power. The album is spare and direct, piano and voice mostly, letting the emotion speak without excess. Similarly, this wine doesn't hide behind extraction or oak—it's fruit and earth and time. Both feel ancient and modern simultaneously, rooted in history but speaking to now.

DOMAINE ADRIEN BERLIOZ 'La Cuvée des Gueux' Blanc 2023 * Savoie, France
Adrien Berlioz established his domaine in Chignin, Savoie in 2006, following in the footsteps of his famous cousin and neighbor Gilles Berlioz. His family gave him his first vineyard rows, and he's built from there into one of the region's most respected producers. The domaine now spans 8 hectares divided into 17 parcels in the Chignin-Bergeron AOP, all certified organic since 2012 and biodynamic (Demeter) since 2020. The vineyards sit in the foothills of the Alps on incredibly steep slopes, most with gradients around 30-50%, which Adrien works entirely by hand including horse-plowing where tractors can't go. He grows native Savoyard varieties like Jacquère, Altesse, Mondeuse, and Roussanne, plus rarer grapes like Persan. His latest project involves reconstructing a forgotten vineyard in Détrier with four hectares of heritage varieties cultivated in traditional pergola style. Production is tiny—14 different cuvées from just over 5 hectares means quantities are severely limited. These are artisan wines in the truest sense, contemporary in approach but deeply rooted in Savoyard identity, wines that age with grace and energy.

"La Cuvée des Gueux" is an homage to the duo of cousins Adrien and Gilles Berlioz, named for the local laborers who work the steep terraced vineyards of Cellier des Cray. The fruit comes from "Les Châteaux" vineyard in Chignin, old vines averaging 50 years planted on silty limestone and marl with southwest exposure. Hand-harvested Jacquère is pressed directly, protected from oxygen, then gravity-fed to tank for static settling before spontaneous fermentation with indigenous yeasts kicks in. The wine sees no oak, just stainless steel aging to preserve maximum purity and freshness. The result is intensely fresh, joyful, crunching with vivacity that wakes up the senses. This is mountain white wine at its most compelling—transparent, energetic, mineral-driven, impossible to resist. Jacquère shows its alpine character fully here: citrus precision, saline minerality, and that trademark high-acid snap.

NERD ALERT!! - What is this grape?? - Jacquère is Savoie's workhorse white grape, covering over 1,000 hectares and producing fresh, mineral-driven wines with citrus and white flower notes. An ancient alpine variety mentioned as early as 1248 during the collapse of Mont Granier, it's the sole grape in the Abymes and Apremont appellations and rarely grown outside Savoie. These steep-slope vineyards produce tiny yields of concentrated fruit with vibrant acidity preserved by cool mountain temperatures. The best examples like this one show why Jacquère deserves more recognition beyond its home region—it delivers Chablis-like tension and Loire Chenin-like texture at a fraction of the price.

Grape(s) - 100% Jacquère

Flavors - Pale gold. White flowers, citrus, nectarine, iodine, kumquat, bergamot. Crisp and lively palate with green apple, lemon, subtle almond. Vibrant acidity, mineral-driven finish, vivid and trenchant structure.

Serving - Choucroute de la mer, grilled trout or sea bass, vegetable terrines, Savoyard cheeses, oysters. Aperitif wine that transitions beautifully to the table.

Album Pairing - SIGUR RÓS – ‘Ágætis byrjun’ - 1999 * Glacial beauty, soaring clarity, music that sounds like it's coming from somewhere pristine and remote. The album's crystalline guitars and Jónsi's falsetto create the same sense of elevation and purity this wine delivers. Both feel weightless yet substantial, delicate yet powerful. The expansive soundscapes mirror the wine's mineral lift and alpine character. Music for mountains, wine from mountains, both impossibly clean and pure.

WALTER SCOTT 'Cuvée Ruth' Pinot Noir 2022 * Eola-Amity Hills, Willamette Valley, Oregon

Ken and Erica founded Walter Scott Wines in 2009, pouring everything they had—including their life savings—into a dream of making elegant, transparent Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in Oregon's Willamette Valley. Ken worked at St. Innocent and Evening Land with Dominique Lafon before going out on his own. The winery sits in the Eola-Amity Hills, surrounded by some of the valley's most historic vineyards and overlooking the Cascade Range. Their focus is producing wines of elegance and purity that convey site transparency and vintage character. They work with fruit from exceptional vineyards farmed mostly organically or sustainably, picking earlier for lower pH and higher acidity to create tight, polished wines that integrate well with oak and age gracefully. Cuvée Ruth is dedicated to the memory of Ruth and Irv Kantor, partner Sue's parents, and represents a thoughtful barrel selection from their best Eola-Amity Hills vineyards. Each vintage, they blend this wine to capture the precision and tension unique to the AVA while reflecting the distinct character of that year.

The 2022 Cuvée Ruth blends fruit from some of the Eola-Amity Hills' most iconic vineyards: Justice, Koosah, Sojeau, Temperance Hill, Witness Tree, Bracken, and X Novo. These sites sit on volcanic basalt soils at higher elevations where water retention keeps things cool, resulting in wines with higher acidity, lower pH, and bright red fruit character. The wine sees 5% whole cluster fermentation with ambient yeasts, then ages 10 months in French oak (30% new). It's bottled unfined and unfiltered. The blend incorporates multiple Pinot Noir clones and some of their oldest vines, allowing the wine to demonstrate refined purity associated with classic Eola-Amity Hills Pinot. This brings elegance to the forefront, showing generous red fruit layered with floral and mineral depth that balances the power individual sites achieve, giving overall polish through blending. It leans heavily into freshness without sacrificing complexity or aging potential.

NERD ALERT!! - Eola-Amity, you say? - The Eola-Amity Hills AVA, established in 2006, sits in the northern Willamette Valley where volcanic Jory soils and elevation (200-1,000 feet) create ideal Pinot Noir conditions. The region catches cool winds funneling through the Van Duzer Corridor from the Pacific, creating significant diurnal temperature swings that preserve acidity while allowing full ripening. Sites like Temperance Hill and Witness Tree are considered among Oregon's finest, producing Pinots with tension, minerality, and elegant red fruit rather than the darker, riper styles from warmer zones.

Grape(s) - 100% Pinot Noir

Flavors - Medium ruby. Wild lavender, alpine herbs, raspberry, cranberry, violet, crushed slate. Bright and lively palate with red and blue berry fruit, saline minerality, fine tea-textured tannins, shimmery acidity. Long, layered finish with citrus lift.

Serving - Duck breast, grilled salmon, mushroom risotto, charcuterie. Serve slightly cool. Pacific Northwest wine for Pacific Northwest evenings.

** AUDIOPHILE LP OF THE MONTH CLUB VINYL**

Album Pairing - BRIGHT EYES – ‘Digital Ash in a Digital Urn’ - 2005 * Conor Oberst's electronic meditation on memory, loss, and trying to hold onto things that slip away. The album's spare digital production and deeply personal lyrics mirror the wine's balance of precision and emotion, restraint and depth. Both are dedicated to memory—the wine to Ruth and Irv Kantor, the album to moments and people that haunt us. There's a crystalline clarity to both, a refusal to hide behind excess or sentimentality. The music's fragile beauty and tense electronics match the wine's delicate power, its ability to be both vulnerable and structured.

REMINDERS

• To celebrate our valued club members we offer 20% off all food ordered on the day you pick-up. 

• If you can not pick up on the pick up dates please contact mckay@barmiriam.com and we will hold your allotment offsite and can arrange for a future pick up.

• Email mckay@barmiriam.com to buy more single bottles or a case with special club pricing.

• Queen Anne Bottle Shop is open Tuesday-Saturday from 3:00pm — 8:00pm.

• Wine pairs best with friends. Tell your friends.