dinner at our house.
release 29. september 2024.
dinner at our house.
release 29, september 2024.
dinner at our house. release 29, september 2024
late, early, or right on time. bring a bottle, or a dish.
We are here for you.
Bring your laughter. Bring your jokes. Bring your goss and your tea.
We are here for you.
Bring your identity. Bring your past. Bring your pain.
We are here for you.
Bring your cancer. Bring your strokes. Bring your seizures.
We are here for you.
Bring your hurt. Bring your love. Bring your truest self.
We are here for you.
This release, "dinner at our house," is about the wines we love to share with friends, around a firepit or a dinner table. They're chosen for crowd-pleasing yumminess, flavor diversity, and food pairing ability. We hope you enjoy this release, thanks for coming to dinner!
Jean-François Merieau "Arpent des Vaudons" Sauvignon Blanc 2022
—————————————————————
Grapes: 100% Sauvignon Blanc
ABV: 12.6%
Region: Loire, France
Winemaker: Thierry and Sophie Chardon
Viniculture: Organic (ECOCERT)
Winemaking: wild yeast fermentation, aging in neutral barrel
—————————————————————
“bright citrus fruit, but with a richer, apricot-tinged palate”
Jackson’s Notes:
AH! Here we are, come back full circle again. This wine featured in our very first release. Since then we’ve done a lot of different whites. But this Jean-François Merieau is a case in point of how our wine releases function, and how we pick winners.
We are on the hunt for interesting, tasty, refreshing things and this still hits the spot. Made by a small winemaker who farms organically, with very little manipulation in the winery and a clean, straightforward result. This Touraine Sauvignon Blanc gives wonderful bright citrus fruit, but with a richer, apricot-tinged palate. Pair this with the classic local Chêvre pairing, or with any tart, refreshing salads!
Food Pairings: Arugula Salad with Goat Cheese and Peaches from NYT Cooking
Music: “An Image Moving” by the Stingrays
Description: peppy, bright, and lively.
Sandhi Santa Rita Hills Chardonnay 2020
—————————————————————
Grapes: 100% Chardonnay
ABV: 12.8%
Region: Santa Barbara, CA
Winemaker: Sashi Moorman and Raj Parr
Viniculture: sustainably and organically farmed Santa Rita hills vineyards
Winemaking: Fermented with wild yeasts, aged 10 months in 500L puncheon and 9 months in tank
—————————————————————
“Meyer lemon, Kumamoto oyster and golden apple.”
Jackson’s Notes:
I used to pour Sandhi’s Chardonnay and Pinot Noir on the Canlis wine list. I used to taste across from winemaker Raj Parr at late-night round table tastings at RN74. With one of the greatest palates in the whole wine biz, Raj has been behind many successful wines in the US–either by instagramming them, or by actually making them. His work with Sashi Moorman in Santa Barbara is truly special.
This snark about Raj making a wine popular (and then, all of a sudden, impossible to get for wine shops and restaurants across the US) is real. He’s got that way of shifting the market for interesting, dynamic wines because everyone trusts his palate and he’s rarely off-beat. Which is why when Raj makes a wine, it’s worth paying attention to.
Sandhi started as a fun project with Raj, winemaker/vineyard expert Sashi Moorman and a small team, but is now a recognized and beloved brand doing some of the best work in the Santa Barbara area. The focus is always on tensioned, gorgeous wines with lots of balance and push-pull between fruit, earth and acid.
This Sandhi Chardonnay is planted on limestone, and really brings that balanced, tart, fresh quality that the grape is capable of. This Santa Rita Hills Cuvée gives notes of Meyer lemon, Kumamoto oyster and golden apple. Its brightness is undergirded by luscious, textured tree fruit that makes it a scrumptious drink by itself or with food.
Food Pairing: Lemony Smoked Salmon Tartine by Fishwife Tinned Seafood Co.
Music: “Flowers in my Hair, Demons in My Head” by The Mystery Lights
Description: A wine that makes me think of soil, terroir and southern California also makes me think of neo-hippie psychedelia. Just fun, shifty, swirly music for a wine with lots of cred and rizz.
Sonder “Pet-Cat” Petillant Naturel Rosé 2023
—————————————————————
Grape: 100% Counoise
ABV: 11%
Region: Columbia Valley, WA
Winemaker: Riley Miller
Viniculture: Sonder farms their vineyards organically
Winemaking: this pét-nat is produced from a single fermentation, halted in bottle and then disgorged to limit sediment.
—————————————————————
“stewed cranberries, raspberry compote, tarragon, mint and fresh rain”
Jackson’s Notes:
Riley Miller keeps kicking out the jams at Sonder. Fun wines with serious intrigue capped off by hilarious lables. This Pét-Cat was a no-brainer for us. It’s already sold out at the winery, and we were thankful to get the last several cases of it!
We have been putting a lot of Pétillant-Naturel wines in Crunchy Red Fruit releases. We seriously can’t get enough of them. Champagne is sometimes out of reach for daily drinking, but having a beautiful, bright pét-nat with red fruit and coarse, piquant bubbles is a joy all its own!
This Pét-Cat is made from Counoise grown in the Columbia Valley and vinified in the classic single-fermentation “ancestrale” method. It’s bubbly, dry, refreshing, and full of lively flavors. Strawberry (obvious I know), stewed cranberries, raspberry compote, tarragon, mint and fresh rain, finishing with a brisk stoniness. This wine is about as scrumptious as a bubbly wine can be!
Food Pairing: Crispy Dominican Chicharrones de Pollo by ChefZeeCooks
Music: “Have a Dream on Me”
Description: I don’t know, but pairing a sad bastard country song with this confused little kitty felt like the right play
Angelo Negro Langhe Nebbiolo
—————————————————————
Grapes: 100% Nebbiolo
ABV: 13%
Region: Langhe, Piedmont, Italy
Winemaker: Angelo Negro
Viniculture: sustainably-farmed Nebbiolo, picked by hand into small bins
Winemaking: 15-18 day maceration in open tanks with floating cap, 12 months aging in neutral barrels
—————————————————————
“This leads with lovely dried red fruit, violets and cured meat notes”
Jackson’s Notes:
If you’re having dinner at my house, chances are you’ll be served something Italian, whether in wine or food form. My family goes back a long ways in Italy–my dad was raised in Naples and returned to the US when he was 18.
Langhe Nebbiolo is one of my sure bets for delicious weeknight drinking. It’s a category that nearly always delivers the goods and provides a drinkable wine at 20, 30 or 50 bucks a bottle. We make a good amount of homemade red sauce and pizza at our house and this is a perfect wine for dinner nights!
This Angelo Negro “Angelin” is an accessible and super-drinkable Nebbiolo in its youth. Barolo and Barbaresco need more time but this one is ready to go! This leads with lovely dried red fruit, violets and cured meat notes, and finishes with classic Nebbiolo tannin and acid–it’s a grippy, powerful little wine!
Food Pairing: Spinach and Ricotta Agnolotti in Sage Butter by BurntButterKitchen - can’t go wrong with a classic semi-regional pairing! Soft and pillowy dish with a lovely, tart and tangy wine to pair.
Music: “New Yesterdays” by Akida
Description: this is the type of music we play while cooking and during dinner–laid back, easy.
Devium x Fruit “Generous Fruit” 2022
—————————————————————
Grapes: 55% Mourvèdre, 45% Graciano
ABV: 12.5%
Region: Weathereye Vineyard above Red Mountain, Columbia Valley, WA
Winemaker: Keith Johnson
Viniculture: organically-farmed, high-altitude vineyards above Red Mountain
Winemaking: all wild-yeast fermentation. partially foot-trodden, partially pressed, aged in large puncheon and concrete tank. many whole clusters included.
—————————————————————
“Tangy, spicy blue fruit with pink peppercorn, violet and sagebrush”
Jackson’s Notes:
This wine is the product of two years of Walla Walla trips and tasting barrel samples. We’ve been staunch supporters of the work Keith Johnson is doing at Devium for a long time now. His wines have shown the world what the new wave in Washington is capable of–rather than copying the success formulas of Bordeaux, Napa or Tuscany, we can chart our own path.
We are loving getting the chance to do these collaborations. This is the most involved one we’ve done so far! The first taste of this was last summer in 2023, after we had discussed what vineyard we might use and set aside for this project. Gretchen and I were blown away by the spicy, lively fruitiness of this wine and how much it expressed right out of the barrel at barely ten months of age. This year we tasted samples twice more and settled on a final blend. I drove out to bottle this in early August with the Sleight of Hand/Devium crew. This wine heard lots of good music while in elevage and during bottling.
This is from WeatherEye, one of Washington’s most extreme sites above Red Mountain. It’s farmed fully sustainably and low-impact, and the Mourvèdre and Graciano show what Spanish grapes can really do in Washington’s high-desert climate. Just wow. We’re very proud of this. Tangy, spicy blue fruit with pink peppercorn, violet and sagebrush–so delish, and it will be good in a year or two as well!
Food Pairing: Chorizo Bocadillo with Sticky Red Wine Onions by Claire Aldous/Dish Magazine NZ
Music: “Wake Up” by the Still Brothers + Marina B
Description: this wine is pure vibe and silk and pepper, so the song had to carry that too!
Wallflower Project Blaufränkisch Pinot Noir 2022
—————————————————————
Grapes: 50% Blaufränkisch, 50% Pinot Noir
ABV: 12%
Region: Columbia Gorge, WA
Winemaker: Julia Bailey-Gulstine
Viniculture: organically-farmed, low-impact, regenerative agriculture.
Winemaking: fermented with wild yeast, tiny sulfur addition, bottled unfined + unfiltered.
—————————————————————
“violets, cumin, and strawberry tops.”
Jackson’s Notes:
Julia Bailey Gulstine is one of our favorite people and winemakers. She is thoughtful about her approach in everything from her vineyard management to her tasting room snacks to her low-input winemaking. We’ve featured many wines from her in the past, and this won’t be the last.
I’ve gotten to visit with Julia and enjoy some time walking through the vineyards. You can see cougar droppings, see hawks swooping in their gyres, and get a gorgeous vista of the Columbia River and Mt Hood from Loop de Loop’s perch on Underwood Mountain. It’s truly spectacular, and worth a visit!
This Blaufrankisch-Pinot Noir blend was a big surprise when we tasted it at the shop. Fresh, bright and glowing with intense fruit, it’s a super refreshing and delightful wine that actually has a long finish to match its lightness. Baked cranberry and blueberry with a touch of violets, cumin, and strawberry tops.
Food Pairing: Schwenkenbräten Pork Chops by Hey Grill Hey - this spicy, fruity, fun wine just wants to have some charcoal-grilled food to love.
Music: “Another Place” by Aron Radford
Description: this is a contemplative firepit song for a lovely firepit wine. let yourself be carried away.