Tag: Oz Wines

For Our July 2022 Toast We Raise a Glass of Guy Larmandier, Cramant Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs to Great Importers!

Today we will toast all the great wine importers whose work and skill have introduced us to great wines with a glass of Guy Larmandier, Cramant Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs from Neal Rosenthal Wine Merchant.

This is one of the few Blanc de Blanc or all Chardonnay Champagnes we like. We would normally select a Pinot Noir forward Champagne. However, the very fact that this one was from Neal Rosenthal made us try it.

Neal Rosenthal describes it, "From this renowned grand cru in the southern tier of the Cote des Blancs, Larmandier’s Cramant is textbook stuff: beautifully brioche-y, yet with a driving floral elegance and an effortlessly pungent minerality characteristic of Chardonnay grown in a place where it’s truly at home."

When you find a wine you love, turn the bottle around and look at the back label. A few of our favorite importers like Neal Rosenthall, Kermit Lynch, and Oz Wines make it easy by proudly displaying their identification in an easy-to-find fashion.

Sometimes you'll have to hunt for the information. To find great importers you can also ask your local wine mentors. For us, a wine mentor is someone who adds to our ongoing education in all things wine and wine-related.

If someone has a great wine list, they probably have a few importers that they depend on to provide a dependable selection of wines that fit their palate.

We've also enjoyed half bottles of this lovely Champagne at Select Oyster Bar over the years. It's not always on their list but when it is, we recommend you give it a try.

Trying wines from different places, made with different grapes, and produced by different methods adds spice to our monthly ritual. Since 2007 we have raised a glass of sparkling wine to greet each new month!

We purchased our half bottle at Urban Grape for $42.00

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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2022 Penny & Ed Cherubino

July 1, 2022
Filipa Pato’s 3B Sparkling Rosé is Our August Sparkler

We're saying "Happy New Month" to August with a bottle of 3B Sparkling Rosé created by winemaker Filipa Pato and imported and distributed by Andrew Bishop, owner of Oz Wine Company in Haverhill, MA. We begin each month by popping the cork on a sparkling wine and will be very happy to have you join our sparkling resolution!

It's our first sparkler from Portugal, but it won't be the last. We intend to enjoy more vinho from this famous family of winemakers. (Thanks to Howie Rubin from Bauer Wine & Spirits for recommending another winner!)

Andrew told us a bit about this wine and how it fits into his collection of Oz wines.

"Filipa Pato comes from a very long line of winemakers in her family, and her father Luis Pato is probably the most famous sparkling producer in Portugal. So, she has grown up making sparkling wine with her father on a grand scale. But, what makes her "Oz" material is that she isn't making huge quantities, and she is using all natural yeasts and farming 100% organically from smaller vineyard plots."

He went on to explain, "This is not necessary to make it into our portfolio, but we tend to taste the difference in smaller production wines that you simply cannot in more industrialized. The result is 100% baga sparkling that has personality."

Like most rosés, this in NOT a sweet wine.

"There is no residual sugar (or very little) in Filipa's sparkling Baga, so what you taste is fresh, clean, pure fruit with racy acidity," Andrew said. "This is what makes her wine compatible with everything from shellfish to pork."

Winemaker's Tasting Notes

Filipa Pato describes this wine as, "Raspberries and strawberries on the nose, the palate has the freshness and body of the Baga grape and the creaminess of Bical." She says, "I believe that Baga and Bical in Bairrada are like the Chardonnay and the Pinot in Champagne. They need each other to make a balance…"

What makes this Portuguese wine special?

Andrew detailed what distinguishes these wines from this Portuguese winemaker. "It's pretty rare when you find someone like Filipa who does everything from watching her buds break to putting the labels on her finished bottles. I think this wine shows the "New Portugal," or at least, a new wine movement that is going more 'old school traditional (meaning less technology and more hands off methods)' in that she is using grapes that she tends to rather than purchasing, and the winemaking is letting the fruit from the vineyards come through more than masking."

Here's a look at the Wines We’ve Been Tasting

And, more about Our Sparkling Resolution

Thanks to everyone who begins their Amazon shopping from one of the links or products on our site. It doesn't cost you any more but Amazon puts some coins in our tip jar for everything you buy.

Details:
Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2012 Penny Cherubino

August 1, 2012
Filipa Pato’s 3B Sparkling Rosé is Our August Sparkler

We're saying "Happy New Month" to August with a bottle of 3B Sparkling Rosé created by winemaker Filipa Pato and imported and distributed by Andrew Bishop, owner of Oz Wine Company in Haverhill, MA. We begin each month by popping the cork on a sparkling wine and will be very happy to have you join our sparkling resolution!

It's our first sparkler from Portugal, but it won't be the last. We intend to enjoy more vinho from this famous family of winemakers. (Thanks to Howie Rubin from Bauer Wine & Spirits for recommending another winner!)

Andrew told us a bit about this wine and how it fits into his collection of Oz wines.

"Filipa Pato comes from a very long line of winemakers in her family, and her father Luis Pato is probably the most famous sparkling producer in Portugal. So, she has grown up making sparkling wine with her father on a grand scale. But, what makes her "Oz" material is that she isn't making huge quantities, and she is using all natural yeasts and farming 100% organically from smaller vineyard plots."

He went on to explain, "This is not necessary to make it into our portfolio, but we tend to taste the difference in smaller production wines that you simply cannot in more industrialized. The result is 100% baga sparkling that has personality."

Like most rosés, this in NOT a sweet wine.

"There is no residual sugar (or very little) in Filipa's sparkling Baga, so what you taste is fresh, clean, pure fruit with racy acidity," Andrew said. "This is what makes her wine compatible with everything from shellfish to pork."

Winemaker's Tasting Notes

Filipa Pato describes this wine as, "Raspberries and strawberries on the nose, the palate has the freshness and body of the Baga grape and the creaminess of Bical." She says, "I believe that Baga and Bical in Bairrada are like the Chardonnay and the Pinot in Champagne. They need each other to make a balance…"

What makes this Portuguese wine special?

Andrew detailed what distinguishes these wines from this Portuguese winemaker. "It's pretty rare when you find someone like Filipa who does everything from watching her buds break to putting the labels on her finished bottles. I think this wine shows the "New Portugal," or at least, a new wine movement that is going more 'old school traditional (meaning less technology and more hands off methods)' in that she is using grapes that she tends to rather than purchasing, and the winemaking is letting the fruit from the vineyards come through more than masking."

Here's a look at the Wines We’ve Been Tasting

And, more about Our Sparkling Resolution

Thanks to everyone who begins their Amazon shopping from one of the links or products on our site. It doesn't cost you any more but Amazon puts some coins in our tip jar for everything you buy.

Details:
Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2012 Penny Cherubino

August 1, 2012