Holiday Wine Special ~ Who Doesn’t Love Sparkling?
The New Kitchen Holiday Wine Offering
Greg and Thomas’ Who Doesn’t Love Sparkling? Mixed Case
**To place an order, just email us at info@kitchenchapelhill.com by SATURDAY, DECEMBER 19th with your order, name, and phone number. We will call you to arrange the payment. Designed as a lovely six-pack take-home package for $125, but feel free to double up to make it a case.
Wine pickup will be available at Kitchen:
Tuesday, December 22nd from 3:30 – 6 pm
Wednesday, December 23rd from 12 – 2 pm
And December 29, 30, & 31.
We will confirm the pickup time with you when you order.
Here we are, back at it again, Kitchen Friends! Due to the success of our first two French tasting box offers we offered with our friends Thomas Meunier of house-favorite Importer, Authentique Vin, and his partner-in-crime from Empire Distributors, Greg Pfaender, we decided to offer another mixed box of our favorite thing to have pre-during-and-post holiday….BUBBLES!!
As you know from our previous introductions, Thomas is still in France with his family, and Greg is ever on the hunt for opportunities to get great wines in front of our customers at reasonable prices and in creative ways. Just like with the “Sud Ouest” and “Tour of Beaujolais” boxes, they’ve brought together a fantastic mixed 6pk, that could be easily doubled to a case if anyone saw fit! Another round of fun products and great variety is on display here.
As many of you may know, there are few things that we’d rather begin a meal with, or gather around the pre-dinner table for aperitif with, more that Sparkling wine. We’ve begun in the past, and will begin in the future, just about every wine dinner we conduct with a Sparkling (sometimes, we even close dinners with them). Sparkling wine has the acidity, effervescence, and crispness to awaken the palate in preparation for a meal or cut through even the fattiest of pre-dinner snacks and dinner table feasts. The variety of terroirs that can produce Sparkling wine contributes to a pretty stunning level of diversity and flavors, and we hope you’re able to find a couple new favorites in what’s been included here.
The Wines
“The Fancy One”: Champagne Lombard, 1er Cru Extra Brut, Epernay, Champagne, France, NV
– Maison Lombard is one of the newer additions to Thomas’ portfolio, but their arrival has been met with a rave review. Helmed by the very young, hard-working, and innovative Thomas Lombard, the estate has chosen to focus on the drier, more “terroir transparent” Extra Brut style in an effort to let the voice of their beautiful parcels speak their clearest and loudest. At only 4g/L of dosage (compared to 7-13g/L for traditional Brut recipes) this Champagne, composed from all Premier Cru vineyard sites in the Côte de Blanc and Montagne de Reims (40% Meunier, 40% Pinot Noir, 20% Chardonnay), offers laser-like cut and precision to your holiday table. Bright candied lemon and crisp green apple notes give way to toasted brioche and mineral complexity and a long, mouth-watering finish.
“The Seafood-y/Salty One”: Vigneron Jo Landron (Dom. de la Louvetrie), “Atmosphères” Méthode Traditionnelle Extra Brut, Loire Valley, France, NV
– A house-favorite and By-The-Glass-and-Bottle option here a Kitchen for years, “Atmosphères” is among the best values in French Sparkling wine. The wine is made by “the man, the myth, the moustache”, Jo Landron, a long-time friend of the restaurant. Composed of 80% old-vine Folle Blanche (a grape usually reserved for Brandy distillation, but particularly well-suited to the soils of the Muscadet region) and 20% Pinot Noir, “Atmo” as we call it, offers a pure expression of maritime influence in the microclimate and vineyard soils. Refermented in bottle and bottled Methode Champenoise/Traditionnelle, this wine has the fine bead and delicate carbonation of Champagne at a fraction of the cost. Incredibly crisp and bright, with an almost saline/salty edge to the aftertaste, this wine is about as perfect a pairing for oysters or other deep seafood flavors as ever existed.
“The Everyday One”: Château de la Durandière, Saumur Brut, Montreuil-Bellay, Loire Valley, France, NV
– This little everyday gem comes from a small family-owned-and-operated estate right in Thomas’ (French) back yard! Okay, well…maybe not in his backyard, but if you had a good arm, you could absolutely whip a baseball into the vineyard. The Bodet and Meunier families have been fast friends for generations, and it was a point of great pride for Thomas to add their wines to his selections. Composed of 100% old-vine (35+ year old) Chenin Blanc, from all sustainably farmed vineyards, and bottled Méthode Traditionnelle, this Saumur Brut, much like the “Atmosphères” above, offers about as good a value in Sparkling wine as we have access to in the Authentique Vin portfolio. Notes of white peach, pear and honeysuckle are supported by just enough “toasty/biscuit-y” complexity, and an ultra-refreshing, effervescent finish.
“The After Dinner One”: Mas de Daumas Gassac, “Rosé Frizant” Sparkling Rosé, IGP Pays d’Herault, Languedoc, France, 2019
– There are few better ways in the world to end a meal than Mas de Daumas Gassac Rosé Frizant! Originally created to celebrate Guibert family (Daumas Gassac ownership) milestones and celebrations, once the rest of the wine world got their hands on this tipple, there was no turning back and they had to make it a yearly offering. This “fun-in-a-bottle” is composed of 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, bled from the fermenting Cabernet tanks bound for their flagship “Mas” Red Blend, and rounded out with the inclusion of some Mourvèdre, Pinot Noir, and dry Muscat (for aromatics). The wine is then bottled with nothing more than the trapped gasses from a live fermentation, for a light and delicate spritz, and then the happiness is on its way to you. Juuuuuuust faintly sweet on the finish, but supported with lovely, refreshing acidity that balances the sugar perfectly, this wine is ready-made for berry (cranberry/cherry/raspberry) desserts or one heck of an after-dinner cheese plate.
“The Apple One”: Domaines Eric Bordelet, “Sidre Brut” Dry Apple Cider, Normandy, France, 2018
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“The Pear One”: Domaines Eric Bordelet, “Poiré Authentique” Off-Dry Pear Cider, Normandy, France, 2018
– It would really be a shame to overlook world-class Cider/Sidre/Poiré in the discussion of the great French Sparking “options”, so we won’t subject you to that shame! Eric Bordelet is, for those in the know, arguably the world’s finest producer of dry and off-dry, artisanal Normandy Cider. After spending decades as one of the most in-demand and big-deal Sommeliers in Paris (most famously putting the beverage program at Alain Passard’s 3-Michelin Starred “L’Arpège” on the map), Eric decided that he had tired of the Michelin spotlight, and wanted to “retire” to his family home in Charchigne, just over the border into Normandy from the Loire Valley, and begin the process of making true “gastronomic” ciders and poiré (cider from pears). By traveling around the countryside, and sourcing heritage, heirloom-breed apples and pears from small stands of 150–300-year-old trees (frequently spotted dropping their fruit to the ground, unused, in people’s backyards), Eric began to build a palate of sources for some of the finest, most complex fruit on the planet. Once he’s spotted those trees (and once the owners agree to sell him the fruit), he insists that they are tended using only organic and biodynamic principles while under his care. Choosing different varietals for different reasons (some sweetness, some tannin/bitterness, some acidity/tartness), Eric composes blends, sometimes using up to 15-20 different varietals, and ferments them completely naturally, without the addition of any sulfites, stabilizers, or preservatives. They are then naturally re-fermented in bottle for carbonation following strict adherence to the Mèthode Ancestral (no added or “dosing” sugar). As natural as it gets and as pure and unadulterated apple and pear flavor as we’ve tasted, these ciders are truly something to behold. You’ll be back for more….we promise.
