Description
KEEP, “Yount Mill Vineyard” Pinot Meunier
Today’s wine caught me off guard in the best possible way. I couldn’t figure out where to place it: It reminded me of a great Fleurie from a natural Beaujolais producer like Foillard, or one of my favorite Oregon Pinots, or a snappy red from Valle d’Aosta, the Jura, even Ribeira Sacra. The point is, my tasting notes took me almost everywhere except the Napa Valley, which is precisely where this Certified Organic Pinot Meunier is from.
This is an immensely refreshing departure from the opulent, mouth-coating reds I tend to expect from Napa, and that’s why I’m so glad I got to taste this wine “blind,” without any preconceived notions. As it turns out, it became one of the more exciting and eye-opening domestic reds in recent memory. It truly is rare to see Pinot Meunier as a varietal wine—even in Champagne—but the bright, wild, savory red fruit and beautiful earthy undertones in today’s red makes me want to experience it more. Like many of my favorite cooler-climate Pinots/Gamays/Mencías, this has the sort of energy and verve that gets you excited to pour yourself another glass, and a buoyant personality that lifts your spirit. This is a new, and very welcome, direction for Napa Valley wine—and that goes for the price, too!
This unexpected Napa delight is the creation of husband/wife team Johanna Jensen and Jack Roberts, both of whom have plenty of experience in capturing the more elegant side of California wine—Johanna is an alum of Scholium Project and Broc Cellars, and Jack was previously Assistant Winemaker at Matthiasson. Guided by principles of organic farming and low intervention, they aim to keep alcohol restrained, acidity bright, and prices affordable, all while working with some of the most intriguing fruit in the Napa Valley. An unexpected combination of variety and site is the rule, not the exception, for KEEP. The fruit for this one comes from the historic Yount Mill Vineyard, one of the first Certified Organic sites in Napa, farmed by the venerated Hoxley family for more than 105 years. At an average of 20 years, the Meunier plantings in this dry-farmed, windswept site are approaching full maturity, which really comes through in the complexity of the fruit.
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Things are pretty authentic and hands-off in the cellar, where ambient yeast kicks off 20% whole-cluster fermentation in stainless steel after gentle pressing. The wine then ages in neutral oak for six months before being bottled unfined and unfiltered. Sulfur additions are kept to a bare minimum.
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This is exactly the sort of red that you want to chill down around cellar temperature on a late summer afternoon. Vivid, translucent purple with a ruby core, this displays a forest full of wild, crunchy red fruit and dusty earthy in the glass. Aromas and flavors of just-ripe strawberry, sour cherry, snappy pomegranate, fermented raspberry, and tart cranberry are tinged with a satisfying herbal character. An ultra-pretty perfume of lavender, rosehip oil, and crushed violet is counterbalanced by a rustic but clean edge of damp moss, fallen leaves, and black pepper. There’s also a faint echo of white balsamic vinegar that adds a really appealing lift to the wine. The tannins are so soft and round in this medium-bodied wine—it goes down so, so easy, especially under 12% alcohol, with all of the savory freshness of my favorite lightweight reds. Serve this any time, but especially when the sun is out, at 55 degrees (10 minutes in the freezer will work wonders), in Burgundy stems after a quick 10 minute decant. So many delicious, easy pairings come to mind: burgers or salmon right off the grill, duck breast with cherries, pasta in a pork ragù—it’s almost impossible to go wrong.
