< Tasting Notes

Wines for Love and Friendship
- February 2026

The world is filled with hate. Lots of hate. Way too much hate.
For a much needed contrast, allow us to offer these wines of love and friendship.
In a dark world, you deserve a really nice glass of wine. It’s a proven certainty.
That’s why you keep us around, after all. Right? Well we won’t disappoint!

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

EZIO CERRUTI ‘RiFol’ Rosato 2022 * Castiglione Tinella, Piedmont, Italy
Ezio Cerruti farms six hectares in Castiglione Tinella, halfway between Asti and the Langhe, on steep limestone slopes at 400 meters elevation. His vines reach 75 years old, and he's been organic from day one in a region where monoculture and conventional farming dominate. Trees and wildflowers grow between his rows, making his vineyards look more like a garden than the sanitized industrial blocks you'll see elsewhere in Piedmont. Ezio is something of a Moscato specialist, making everything from bone-dry frizzante to sweet passito, all from this single grape he clearly understands better than most.

RiFol Rosato is a frizzante blend of Moscato Bianco and Freisa, fermented in stainless steel and aged seven months in cement tanks before the magic happens. Fresh must gets added to restart fermentation in the bottle using the ancestral method, creating natural bubbles without any dosage or additions. The result is a pale salmon-grey wine with gentle fizz, aromatic but dry, sitting at 12.5% alcohol with just 16 ppm total SO2. It's what Moscato should be when it's not drowned in sugar and trying to be dessert wine.

NERD ALERT!! - Cheeky winemakers be cheeky! - The name "RiFol" is a play on words. "Fol" is Ezio's white pét-nat made from 100% Moscato, and "RiFol" is the bottle-refermented version of that concept made rosato with the addition of Freisa. The ancestral method means the wine finishes its fermentation in the bottle you're drinking from, creating natural carbonation without any disgorgement or dosage. All the sediment and character stay put.

Grape(s) - Moscato Bianco and a splash of Freisa

Flavors - Pale pink with fine bubbles, blood orange and white pepper on the nose, red berries and herbs. Bone dry despite the Moscato, with bright acidity and a savory mineral finish.

Serving - Chill it down and serve it with anything that loves a squeeze of lemon. Grilled prawns, burrata with heirloom tomatoes, prosciutto and melon, or just as an aperitivo with good olives and almonds. This is patio wine.

Album Pairing - ANDERSON .PAAK – ‘Malibu’ - 2016 * This masterpiece of California funk and soul captures the exact energy RiFol brings to the table. Both are sun-soaked and effortlessly sophisticated, blending vintage influences with modern sensibility. Paak's Malibu grooves like a beach day that turns into an all-night party, and RiFol does the same thing in a glass. The album's lush arrangements and live instrumentation mirror the wine's aromatic complexity, while both know how to celebrate without taking themselves too seriously. Pop this bottle when you need that West Coast golden hour feeling, no matter where you actually are.

MARTHA STOUMEN 'Post Flirtation' Red 2023 * Mendocino & Contra Costa County, California
Martha Stoumen grew up in Sebastopol and studied geography and environmental systems at UCLA before heading to Tuscany for her first vineyard job in 2006. After earning a master's in viticulture and enology from UC Davis, she spent years apprenticing under Chris Brockway at Broc Cellars, Giusto Occhipinti at COS in Sicily, and Didier Barral in Faugères. In 2014, she founded Martha Stoumen Wines as a first-generation, self-funded winemaker asking one question: what does California actually taste like? She farms or sources from dry-farmed, organic vineyards and makes wines with native yeast, minimal intervention, and the kind of patience that's nearly extinct in modern winemaking.

Post Flirtation Red is a blend of Zinfandel and Carignan from dry-farmed, organically certified vineyards. The Zinfandel comes from Del Barba Vineyard's 65-year-old vines in Contra Costa County, picked just before the berries shrivel to capture hibiscus, rhubarb, and pomegranate instead of raisins. The Carignan from Ricetti Vineyard in Mendocino adds 75-year-old vine complexity and the savory, chaparral character that keeps this wine from being just another fruit bomb. Native yeast fermentation, neutral oak and stainless aging, 12.5% alcohol, unfined and unfiltered. Total SO2 is 20 ppm with just 7 ppm free. Less than 1 g/L residual sugar means this is bone dry despite tasting like pure, juicy fruit.

NERD ALERT!! - Cheeky winemakers: still being cheeky! - The name "Post Flirtation" comes from Martha's philosophy that wine should be approachable and joyful, not intimidating. This is the wine for after you've stopped trying to impress someone and you're just hanging out being yourselves. It's half her annual production and her most accessible price point, but it gets the same care and attention as everything else she makes. The old-vine Carignan brings savory complexity that most people don't expect from what looks like an easy-drinking crowd-pleaser.

Grape(s) - 62% Zinfandel, 38% Carignan

Flavors - Light-bodied and chillable red with bright acidity, silky tannins, and flavors of boysenberry, cranberry, black pepper, and rosemary. Serve it cool.

Serving - Pizza night, taco Tuesday, grilled kebabs, butternut squash pasta, or standing around the kitchen while someone cooks. This is the wine you open when friends show up unannounced and somehow end up staying for three hours.

** AUDIOPHILE LP OF THE MONTH CLUB VINYL**

Album Pairing - BUILT TO SPILL – ‘There’s Nothing Wrong With Love’ - 1994 * Doug Martsch's masterpiece of lo-fi fuzz-pop about growing up in Idaho captures the exact same energy as this wine. Both are West Coast, both are accessible without being dumbed down, both have real substance hiding behind an easy-going exterior. The album's about childhood crushes, driving nowhere in particular, and staring up at stars—and Post Flirtation is about enjoying wine without pretense, community over credentials, and the simple pleasure of something made right. Martsch sings about playing seven-up and hating your stepdad while Martha makes Zinfandel that tastes like California sunshine without the hangover. Same spirit, different medium.

I FABBRI 'Due Donne' 2020 * Tuscany & Friuli, Italy
Due Donne (Two Women) is the friendship bottled between Susanna Grassi of I Fabbri in Tuscany and Anna Grillo of Vini Grillo in Friuli. Susanna's family has owned Casole in Lamole di Greve since 1600, working both as winemakers and blacksmiths (fabbri means blacksmiths). In 2000, Susanna revived the abandoned family estate as I Fabbri, farming organically in the high-altitude terraces between 550 and 650 meters. Anna farms in Friuli's Colli Orientali, specializing in indigenous varieties including the rare Schioppettino di Prepotto. They met through wine, became friends, and on a trip to England decided to blend the best of what each of them makes. This collaboration started as something to share with friends and family, but it was too good to keep to themselves.

Fifty percent Sangiovese Grosso from Susanna's high-altitude Lamole vineyards, fifty percent Schioppettino from Anna's Friuli estate. Each winemaker vinifies her grapes separately in her own region, aging them 18 to 24 months in 500-liter oak barrels. Then they meet halfway and Susanna drives her demijohns to Friuli, where Anna blends the two wines together. After another month to marry, they bottle it. The Sangiovese brings elegant red fruit and structure, while the Schioppettino contributes black pepper spice and a wild, herbal edge. The intersecting red circles on the label represent the overlapping worlds these two women have created.

NERD ALERT!! - What is with how cheeky these winemakers be?? - This wine is technically Vino da Tavola (table wine) despite its quality because it breaks Italy's strict appellation rules by blending grapes from two different regions. Sangiovese Grosso is one of Tuscany's most prized clones, while Schioppettino di Prepotto is Friuli's rare indigenous red that nearly went extinct before being revived. The fact that this blend exists at all is a statement about friendship mattering more than tradition, and about making wine because you love it rather than because the rules say you can.

Grape(s) - 50% Sangiovese Grosso, 50% Schioppettino di Prepotto

Flavors - Brilliant ruby red with black pepper spice, red cherry, and subtle oak. Medium structure with fresh acidity, velvety tannins, and a long savory finish.

Serving - Grilled lamb chops with rosemary, wild boar ragu over pappardelle, aged pecorino with mostarda, or a big Tuscan steak. This wine needs food with some fat and char. Open it with people you've known long enough to have real conversations with.

Album Pairing - PJ HARVEY – ‘Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea’ - 2000 * Harvey's album about love, distance, and finding unexpected connections in different cities mirrors the trans-regional collaboration at the heart of Due Donne. Both the wine and the album are about bridging worlds, maintaining individual identity while creating something new together, and the kind of creative friendship that produces work neither person could make alone.

FLORÈZ WINES 'Sweet Cavendish' Cabernet Franc 2020 * Santa Cruz Mountains, California

James Jelks was born in Santa Cruz and raised in Davis, studying winemaking at UC Davis before spending a decade working in cellars from Burgundy to New Zealand. In 2017 he returned home to Santa Cruz to found Florèz Wines. The name came to him in a dream where he met a guru named Florèz who shared secrets of winemaking. James farms some vineyards himself using dry-farming methods and sources from small organic and sustainable growers who care more about the land than yield. He works exclusively with native yeast, adds nothing except minimal sulfur at bottling, and never fines or filters. His winery sits in a retrofitted apple cold storage building in Corralitos, surrounded by orchards. The labels are Japanese-style woodcuts by his friend and tattoo artist Drew Nelson.

Sweet Cavendish is 100% Cabernet Franc from Cooper Garrod Vineyard in the Santa Cruz Mountains, grown organically on sandy clay loam and eroded alluvial soils. James fermented it in a concrete, beeswax-lined fermenter with 80% whole clusters and 20% destemmed fruit, using pumpovers and punchdowns to keep the native fermentation happy. After two weeks, the wine was pressed at dryness and aged 18 months sur lie in neutral oak barrels. This was James's first over-vintaged wine, meaning he let it sit through an extra winter before bottling. While Loire Cab Franc inspires him, this is unabashedly rustic California—ripe, structured, and named after Sweet Cavendish pipe tobacco because it matched the mood.

NERD ALERT!! - Beeswax-lined concrete? Now that’s cheeky! - Cooper Garrod Vineyard is one of the historic Santa Cruz Mountains sites that has been farmed organically for decades. The vineyard was historically dry-farmed, but recent California droughts have forced them to introduce supplemental irrigation when absolutely necessary. The beeswax-lined concrete fermenter gives gentle temperature control without the influence of oak or steel, letting the fruit express itself purely. Whole-cluster fermentation adds stem tannins and a green, herbal complexity that Loire producers love but California winemakers often avoid.

Grape(s) - 100% Cabernet Franc

Flavors - Medium-bodied with notes of dark cherry, black pepper, tobacco leaf, and dried herbs. Structured tannins, bright acidity, and a long savory finish.

Serving - Roasted duck breast with black pepper and cherries, mushroom risotto, grilled ribeye with herb butter, or cassoulet. This wine wants rich, savory food and enough time in the glass to open up. Decant it if you're impatient.

Album Pairing - THE WAR ON DRUGS – ‘Lost in the Dream’ - 2014 * Adam Granduciel's album of sprawling, atmospheric rock captures the same balance James strikes between Loire-inspired restraint and California's natural abundance. Both the wine and the album feel like driving through coastal mountains with the windows down—expansive, contemplative, and rooted in a specific sense of place while reaching for something universal. Sweet Cavendish and Lost in the Dream both understand that sometimes the journey matters more than the destination.

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.