Postcards from Ardèche
As I assemble Issue #3 - coming late March - I thought I’d share a few in-betweener pieces. Call it Issue #2.5.
Greetings from Ardèche ! It always seems wrong to conflate scrappy, free-wheeling vibe of southern Ardèche with the hard-as-nails, high-stakes atmosphere of northern Ardèche. (In international wine media the latter is generally referred to as part of the northern Rhône Valley, whereas the former is rarely mentioned at all.) But I passed through both areas earlier this month and left very inspired. So here’s:
An interview with Paul Estève and Christelle Vareille of DOMAINE DES MIQUETTES, who since 2011 have become adepts of Georgia-inspired AMPHORA VINIFICATION in Saint Joseph.
An account of DISGORGING PETILLANT-NATUREL with my friends STEPHANA NICOLESCOU and ANDREA CALEK in Ardèche.
A short profile of SAINT-JOSEPH natural vigneron CHRISTIAN LERICQ, a paysan beekeeper - and longtime comrade of François Ribo, Jean Delobre, and Hervé Souhaut - who began commercializing his own wine in 2016.
The second installment of my series on BEAUNE VITICULTURAL SCHOOL, concerning the school’s REMEDIAL WINE TASTING COURSE. (No paywall on this one.)
In other news, I was obliged to slightly raise the price of Founding Member subscriptions (the subscription plan that comes with an *exclusive artist print*). This won’t affect existing Founding Member subscriptions. It just turned out to be drastically more expensive and time-consuming than I had foreseen to ship the *exclusive artist prints* internationally. To the point that the principal beneficiary of Founding Member subscriptions, until now, has been La Poste. Ha ha! Live and learn…
Many thanks for reading, as always, and take care out there!