< Tasting Notes

Wines for Poppin' Prezzies
- December 2025

Happy Holidays Friends!!
Humbly submitted for your pleasure: a lovely lineup of wines for all your winter festivities.
Lively California reds for your family feasts. And elegant French bubbles for your NYE toasts.
They’re delightful. They’re delicious. They’re de-lovely!!

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

PATRICE COLIN ‘Perles Grises’ NV * Loire Valley, France
The Colin family has worked this sliver of the Loire since 1735, now nine generations deep under Patrice Colin. They farm 25 hectares on the plateau of Thoré La Rochette in the Coteaux du Vendômois, one of the Loire's most northerly and least known appellations. The soils are flinty sandy clay over limestone with a dry microclimate that lets vines concentrate without stress. Patrice has quietly revived Pineau d'Aunis, the historic red grape that nearly vanished when Cabernet Franc swept through mid-century. By the 1970s it was almost extinct. In the cellar, he works minimally: native yeasts, neutral vessels, low sulfur, no manipulation. His wines have become reference points for both the grape and the region, quiet and precise without ever shouting.

"Perles Grises" translates to gray pearls, nodding to the silvery-pink color Pineau d'Aunis throws and the wine's delicate mousse. This isn't plush or creamy. It's skeletal, high-strung, built on bones. The ancestral method locks in raw fermentation energy, giving texture and fizz that feel alive rather than polished. Pineau d'Aunis delivers pale red fruit and that signature white pepper bite with hallucinogenic clarity. Quartz and flint soils inject stony, vibrating tension that makes the wine feel kinetic. It rewards attention but never demands solemnity. Playful, nervy, quietly serious all at once.

Nerd Alert!! - Pineaus d’Au-what?!? - Pineau d'Aunis is one of the Loire's great cult grapes. Pale-skinned and aromatically transparent, it layers red fruit with white pepper, rose petal, and herbal lift in psychedelic clarity. Once widely planted before Cabernet Franc took over, it nearly disappeared. Now it occupies only about 80 hectares in the Coteaux du Vendômois. Growers like Patrice are keeping it alive.

Grape(s) - 100% Pineau d’Aunis

Flavors - Extremely pale salmon-grey with a fine bead. Wild strawberry, pink grapefruit peel, rose petal, thyme, white pepper. Feather-light but piercing, with tart berries, citrus, and saline minerality snapping into a bone-dry, electric finish.

Serving - Oysters, shrimp cocktail, potato chips, chèvre, gravlax. This is the bottle to open first when coats are coming off and the evening is just beginning.

Album Pairing - STEREOLAB – ‘Emperor Tomato Ketchup’ - 1996 * Motorik pulse, vintage synths, French coolness. The album never sits still but never loses composure, moving through textures with the same effortless precision this wine shows. Propulsive but delicate, intellectual but danceable. The looping rhythms create the same hypnotic shimmer as bubbles racing up the glass. Both understand that movement doesn't require heaviness, that you can be serious about joy.

DEUX PUNX ‘Duo Terra’ Red 2023 * California & Lisboa, Portugal
Deux Punx was founded in 2007 by Dan Schaaf (water resources engineer, skateboarder) and Aaron Olson (software engineer, hardcore drummer). They met in 2005, bonded over punk rock, and decided to make wine their way without formal training. Operating out of Punk Dog Wineries in Napa, they keep their day jobs and embrace DIY ethos completely: building carbonic fermenters from saran wrap, repurposing beer kegs, mailing buckets to growers for pied de cuve. They try a new varietal and technique every year. For this bottling, they collaborate with Quinta do Montalto, a five-generation organic estate north of Lisboa farming 50 hectares of mixed agriculture. The project is built on shared values: organic farming, spontaneous fermentation, neutral aging, rejection of polish for energy and honesty.

"Duo Terra" means two lands, and it drinks like a joyful collision of climates and philosophies. Red and white grapes co-ferment, giving signature buoyancy and weightless shape. Portuguese varieties bring salt, savory tension, and citrus acidity. California Pinot softens edges with gentle warmth. This lives in the chillable red universe but with real structure and intention underneath. Casual without carelessness, playful without flimsiness. It straddles fun and serious with the ease of a great punk song: smart enough to respect, simple enough to love.

NERD ALERT!! - California and Portugal?!? Say more… - It is genuinely rare to see wine from grapes grown on two continents. "Duo Terra" blends Portuguese natives with California Pinot, not for novelty but as a thoughtful experiment in balance and rule-bending. Portuguese grapes bring structure and salinity from coastal limestone. California fruit brings ripeness from warmer sun. Together they create something neither region could achieve alone.

Grape(s) - California Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris meet Portuguese Tinta Amarela, Castelão, and Arinto

Flavors - Light ruby with faint haze. Cranberry, sour cherry, plum skin, herbs, tea leaf, brine. Brisk and juicy with tart fruit, citrus acidity, subtle grip, and a dry, lightly savory finish.

Serving - Serve chilled. Smash burgers, sausages, tacos, pizza. Outdoor wine for people who weren't planning on staying this long but are glad they did.

Album Pairing - THE CLASH – ‘London Calling’ - 1979 * Punk spirit meets global ambition, crossing borders into ska, reggae, rockabilly, jazz the same way this wine crosses continents. Raw energy channeled through real craft. Rough edges polished just enough to let skill shine without losing grit. The album understands breaking rules only works if you know them first, and this wine operates the same way. Fun and serious, smart and accessible, punk and pop all at once.

DOMAINE LÉON BOESCH ‘Zéro’ Crémant d’Alsace NV * Alsace, France
Domaine Léon Boesch is an 11th-generation estate farming biodynamically in Westhalten since 1640, tucked into the Vallée Noble at the Vosges' foot. Protected by the Petit and Grand Ballon peaks, the microclimate is almost Mediterranean where cicadas, lizards, and almond trees thrive. Matthieu and Marie Boesch converted to biodynamics in the late '90s. Their vineyards are now a wildlife haven with birds nesting in vines and bees building hives. The family approaches Crémant with the gravity they give grand cru wines: low yields, native yeasts, long aging, minimal interference. "Zéro" isn't a gimmick. It's a statement that great sparkling wine doesn't need sugar.

"Zéro" is a study in subtraction: no sugar, no makeup, just vineyard and lees. Base wine ages 12 months on lees in old foudres for mid-palate richness, then minimum 18 months sur lattes before disgorgement. No dosage locks it into crystalline focus, almost architectural transparency. Champagne-level structure filtered through Alsace clarity. Pinot Blanc and Riesling bring aromatics and freshness, Pinot Gris adds weight, Pinot Noir contributes backbone. Tense but generous, mineral but comforting, celebratory and serious. It knows when to show up and when to step back.

NERD ALERT - Zero dosage?? - means no sugar added after disgorgement. What you taste is strictly base wine, bubbles, and lees time. No safety net or sweetness to mask flaws. Ultra-dry, fiercely transparent, intensely textural. The acoustic version of sparkling wine. Only the best vineyards and winemakers can pull it off because there's nothing to hide behind.

Grape(s) - 50% Pinot Blanc, 40% Riesling, 5% Pinot Gris, 5% Pinot Noir

Flavors - Straw gold with fine, persistent mousse. Green apple, lemon peel, toasted almond, chalk, wet stone. Razor-clean: citrus and stone with saline bite, creamy texture resolving into bone-dry elegance.

Serving - Raw bar, fried chicken, tempura, triple-cream cheese. Holiday wine, celebration wine, "we dressed up just because" wine.

Album Pairing - OVERTON BERRY TRIO – ‘At Seattle's Doubletree Inn’ - 1970 * Recorded live in 1970 at Tukwila's legendary lounge, capturing Seattle jazz's golden age. Berry's piano is sophisticated but never showy, moving through Beatles covers and standards with restraint and interplay that mirrors the wine's balance of cream and mineral. Lounge jazz at its best: polished, unhurried, made for slow sipping. The warmth feels lived-in, musicians finishing each other's sentences. Both wine and record understand elegance doesn't announce itself. Berry's Pacific Northwest cool and Boesch's Alsatian precision arrive at the same place: understated mastery and quiet confidence.

CRUSE WINE CO. ‘Alder Springs’ Tannat 2018 * Mendocino County, California

Michael Cruse founded Cruse Wine Co. in 2013 with the same philosophy as his Ultramarine sparkling project: acid, structure, transparency, no trends. Born and raised in Northern California with deep North Coast roots, he's obsessive about precision without preciousness. His wines balance ripeness with restraint, power with elegance. Starting Cruse, he consciously avoided Pinot and Cabernet, hunting overlooked varieties in compelling sites: Valdiguié, Carignan, St. Laurent, Tannat. His approach is minimalist but not dogmatic. Concrete fermentation keeps fruit vivid, used barrels add texture without oak, no fining or filtration. The result feels modern but not trendy, serious but not stuffy, Californian but not caricature.

Tannat is famous for brute force, one of earth's most tannin-packed grapes from southwest France and Uruguay. In wrong hands it's chewing leather. But Alder Springs' 2,300-foot elevation and Mendocino's cool evenings reshape power into discipline and architecture. The vineyard sits on decomposed sandstone in Laytonville, young vines on steep southern slope. Altitude, coastal distance, and diurnal swings create hang time for full ripening without losing spine. Grapes arrive with concentrated flavor and color but high acidity and moderate alcohol. Concrete preserves clarity, used barrels add complexity without masking site. A Tannat in tailoring rather than armor. Powerful but controlled, dense but lifted.

NERD ALERT - Ok…ok… what is this weird grape?? - Tannat's name comes from French tanin. Known for massive structure and decades-long aging, it's traditionally from Madiran and Uruguay. In California it's still rare. Most plantings are in warm regions where it becomes overripe. Alder Springs' elevation and cool climate let it ripen fully while keeping acidity and freshness, creating more elegant expression than typical.

Grape(s) - 100% Tannat

Flavors - Deep inky purple. Blackberry, plum skin, violets, cedar, leather, cocoa, graphite, crushed rock. Dense yet lifted, black fruit in firm but polished tannins, vivid acidity carrying into a long, savory, mineral finish.

Serving - Ribeye, lamb chops, short ribs, wild mushrooms, aged alpine cheese. Fireside wine for short days and long nights with candlelight and slower conversation.

** AUDIOPHILE LP OF THE MONTH CLUB VINYL**

Album Pairing - RAY CHARLES – ‘Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music’ - 1962 * One of American music's most important albums. Ray reimagines country standards through soul, R&B, and gospel, transforming "I Can't Stop Loving You" into transcendence. His voice moves between tenderness and force, vulnerability and power, the same way this Tannat moves between density and polish. Monumental but not heavy-handed. Ray understands restraint, knows when to hold back and when to let rip. The wine operates the same: powerful but controlled, deep without overwhelming. Both feel like hard-won wisdom, mastery from time and experience. Music for adults at peak powers, pairing perfectly with wine that doesn't shout to be heard.

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.