Bunch Wine Bar | Postcards From Here and There

December at Bunch

The December tasting at Bunch Natural Wine Bar on Berry Street in Liverpool was a great way to end the year with some rather special bottles opened. The overall quality was high and these monthly tasting should be on the calendar of anon interested in low intervention wines which exhibit a true sense of place. Unfortunately I was unable to take photographs on the night so no bottle labels to accompany the notes. I’ll try better next time!

Magya Watt. Vinereuse. Gaillac. France. 2018. Marine Leys produces wines organically from five hectares in Gaillac. This is a rosé pet nat made from Gamay grapes which were hand harvested, destemmed and fermented in fibre glass. There was a short 2-3 day maceration on the skins. The wine was bottled without filtration before fermentation was completed. It has the gentlest of mousse with a lovely creamy texture and a nice touch of sweetness. Delicate strawberry fruit with just a hint of pear make this a very drinkable wine indeed.

Mad Dog. Madame Flock Wines. Mosel. Germany. 2018. Madame Flock wines is a joint venture of Robert Kane and Derek Labelle. Mad Dog is a single vineyard with vines of about 30 years old. Grapes were had picked and 30% fermented in old French oak and the remainder in stainless steel. The wine was aged for 10 months before bottling with no fining and minimum sulphur. a wine that really opens up given a few minutes in glass and a gentle swirling. Creamy and quite full with apple, apricot and a nice balance. A real grower, it got better and better.

Vita. Massa Vecchia. Tuscany. Italy. 2016. Massa Vecchia was founded in 1985 and has been certified organic since 1993. Vita is an orange wine made from 100% Malvasia di Candia.It spent two weeks on skins before being pressed into old oak barrels where it was left for a year before bottling. It then had a minimum six months before release. Golden in appearance, the wine is intense, powerful and complex with flavours of orange peel and candied fruits.The finish is incredibly long. A fantastic wine.

Rebela Rosa. Slobodne. Hlohovec. Slovakia. 2018. 50% Blauframkisch and 50% Cabernet Sauvignon which were vinified separately in old oak vats before blending and spending eight months in amphora. The aroma is quite floral with a nice touch of tarragon. The plate is round with a touch of sweetness.

Cette Main Légèrement Serrée M’a Laissé Perplexe. Anders Frederik Steen. Ardèche, France. 2018. Anders was formerly a sommelier and restaurateur in his native Denmark before his move into winemaking. He is now based in Valvignères in the Ardèche region of southern France where he makes a small range of highly individual wines. A blend of Carignan and Chardonnay aged for eight months in oak barrels then bottled without fining, filtration or the addition of sulphur. It is a medium bodied wine with lovely freshness and nice texture. Very drinkable and opens out really nicely in glass. The name translates as “the hand tightened a little too much left me perplexed”

En Remont. Julie Balagny. Beaujolais. France. 2018. Julie Balagny organically farms three hectares of vines in Fleurie from which she makes three wines; Cayenne, En Remont and Simone. She also has a small vineyard in Moulin-à-Vent. En Remont is made from old vines, hand picked, foot pressed before spending time in old oak barrels. This is serious stuff and a great expression go Gamay. Nice concentration, red fruits and hazelnuts in glorious harmony. An elegant wine with real character and a long, long finish. The wine of the evening for me.

Kokonut at Bunch

Yetti and the Kokonut are the nicknames of David Geyer and Koen Janssens who together make some fabulous wines in South Australia. I have previously written about their wines from the 2018 vintage, you can read it here. Last Sunday evening, at Bunch Natural Wine Bar in Liverpool Koen was showcasing some of the wines from the recent 2019 vintage.

Fruit Basket 2019, Eden Valley. Fruit comes from a 90 year old single block of vines in the Eden Valley which contains 13-15 different varieties. The relative proportion in the vineyard is unknown and the block is harvested and vinified all together. For the 2019 Fruit Basket they tried something different and vinified small batches separately in the hope of giving some personal identity to the wine. The wine saw 10 days skin contact and has a feint blush. It has lovely texture and balance. Peachy, floral, perfumed, with some dried herbs, there is an awful lot going on here and this is what I like about this wine, every sip brings something new. The finish is dry with a delightful floral perfume. As a result of the drought in South Australia production is 70% down on last year. Get it while you can.

Metro Savagnin 2019, McLaren Vale. The story of Savagnin in Australia in an interesting one. DNA tests conducted in 2009 on Albarino confirmed what had been suspected, it wasn’t Albarino at all but was Savagnin. So the Savagnin growing in Australia is there because of a mistake and what a beneficial one it has proved to be for Yetti & the Kokonut. They farm a vineyard of Savignan, harvest it all at the same time and then vinify in different ways. Metro is a new wine which was vinified in two separate batches, in one it was 100% whole bunch in the other 50% destemmed with 50% whole bunch on top. The resulting wine has a lovely freshness with lots of citrus, pear and stone fruit. It is well balanced and has a delightful delicate finish. It’s refreshing and very drinkable. A very versatile wine.

Mount Savagnin 2019, McLaren Vale. The same vineyard as Metro but this wine was made in a much larger wooden vat holding around 3000 litres. There is some delicacy here with lovely pear and lime and a texture that makes this very drinkable. The wine is not out there shouting about itself, it just quietly gets on with delivering a very nice glass. Very much in its youth and lovely for drinking now.

Mount Savagnin 2017, McLaren Vale. An interesting comparison with the recent release and a much more serious wine. It has the fruit of the 2019 but has also developed a nuttiness and complexity which makes it a wine for contemplative drinking. Great balance and a lovely freshness to the finish.

B’rosé 2019, McLaren Vale. This years wine is a blend of Cabernet Franc, red Semillon and Verdello. Noticeably absent is Gewurtztraminer which has added real fragrance and spice to previous vintages. Unfortunately the Gewurtz wine picked up an infection and was spoiled hence its absence. Despite the problems this is still very good. A fruit forward wine with masses of red berry fruit, a great texture and real character. This is a wine that demands some serious attention, preferably sat in the warm sunshine. As winter approaches perhaps we could drink it to bring a little sunshine into our lives. I really hope so.

Bunch Winemakers Tasting

The August tasting at Bunch Natural Wine Bar in Liverpool was given over to three visiting winemakers from Swartland in South Africa. Each presented two wines, (one white, one red) from their portfolios and talked through their experiences making wine in the Swartland today. Living in the north west of the United Kingdom it is a rare opportunity to attend such an event without having to travel to London. This was an absolutely fascinating evening and I learnt so much. The wines on show were all excellent and choosing a favourite proved to be very difficult indeed.

The Blacksmith.

While working as an assistant winemaker in The Swartland Tremayne Smith began to make his own handcrafted wines under The Blacksmith label. This was in 2014 and his initial production that year was only four barrels. Things have moved on in the following five years and he now produces a range of wines using fruit grown in the Western Cape. His philosophy is simple, to make wines with minimalistic intervention, that exhibit a true sense of place and are delicious to drink.

The Kings Spirit Chenin Blanc. 2018. Darling. The Darling region is coastal with a warm Mediterranean climate with cooling sea breezes across the vineyards in the afternoon which help to cool the grapes and preserve freshness. The Chenin Blanc is from old bush vines planted in the 1960s. Bush vines are well suited to the dry, poor quality soils found here as they grow deep roots and so are more resistant to drought. Two barrels were made in 2018 representing only 580 bottles. Drought in the region has seen this fall by half in 2019!

Whole bunch pressed into barrel and a natural fermentation before a ten month maturation in old oak barrels. This has produced a fresh, aromatic wine with apple, pear and peachy stone fruit. It is complex with lovely texture and is perfectly balanced. It has a captivating almondy notes on the finish. Excellent stuff. The label is pretty good too.

The Basilisk. 2018. Paarl. Petite Sirah, also known as Durif, grown in the Paarl region of the Western Cape. 100% whole bunch with a cold natural ferment at 18 degrees Celsius. It spent ten days on the skins with pumping over every day. The fruit really does shine through here, it is a big, brooding, robust wine with blackcurrants in abundance along with an underlying raspberry freshness. It has lovely texture and is is savoury and meaty on the palate with a gentle touch of warming spice on the finish.

Swerwer Wines.

Swerwer was started by Jasper Wickens and is now into its seventh vintage. Swerwer means drifter or vagabond in Afrikaans and represents the notion of moving from place to place and gaining something from the experiences you have at each location. Jasper has worked at several wineries in South Africa as well spending time in Europe. His experiences have seen him move from a conventional style of wine making to one which is more hands off, allowing the terroir to shine through. His wines are generally unfined and unfiltered with the addition of only a minimum addition of sulphur required to keep the wine stable.

Rooigroen Semillon. 2018. Swartland. Semillon were some of the first vines planted in South Africa at the end of the seventeenth century and became the most dominant variety. However it fell out of favour following Phylloxera and only small pockets now exist. Rooi groen means red green in Afrikaans and this gives a clue to the origins of this rare Semillon Gris. Random mutation in the vineyard produces Sémillon vines with red bunches, these have then been cloned by cuttings to produce this varietal.

The wine has seen some skin contact with three different regimes in operation, 3 days, 5 days and 12 days. The wine is golden in appearance with good concentration, nice balance and hints of orange and almond on the palate. The finish has a distinct savouriness which is very appealing.

Red Blend. 2018. Swartland. A blend of 50% Cinsault, 40% Grenache and 10% Tinta Barocca. This blend works so well, the wine is well made and so good it demands your attention.Masses of dark cherry fruit with dried herbs, medium bodied and with a serious grip on the finish. Excellent stuff.

Silwervis Wines.

Winemaker Ryan Mostert is the driving force behind Silwervis. He loves to experiment and sees the Swartland as the perfect place to make his wines. It’s a dynamic region, full of like minded winemakers who are independent and innovative. Ryans approach may be seen by some as radical, he takes risks in his unconventional, experimental methods. It is an approach that large scale commercial wineries would never risk taking. For Ryan it has yielded some intriguing and fascinating wines that many people enjoy. Deliberately encouraging oxidation in a wine may well create some flaws but to Ryan you simply have to look for personality in the flaws themselves.

Smiley. NV. Swartland. This wine perfectly sums up the methodologies used at Silwervis to produce an innovative and distinctive wine. The Smiley is a blend of five different vintages of Chenin Blanc which have been made in different ways including skin contact, kept under flor and leaving barrels outside the cellar in the sun. The resulting wine walks a tightrope and does it perfectly. It has peach and apricot stone fruit with a pleasant salinity and great balance. There is some reduction but it adds and doesn’t distract. This wine breaks the rules and is a good example of it just might be a good idea from time to time.

Cinsault. 2017. Swartland. Perfumed red fruits, dried herbs and warm spice sit perfectly alongside a delicately savoury core. Medium bodied, round and with nice texture. The finish is lovely with herby red fruits. A beautiful expression of the grape.