Goatboy Selections
Free tasting | Saturday, September 29, 2018 | 4-6PM
We’re so excited to taste you on Goatboy Selections' newest arrivals! Who makes the wine on your dinner table is essential, but who imports your wine, and sends it from abroad and delivers it to your dinner table, is also of utmost importance! Flip the wine bottle around and enter Goatboy Selections and the sketch of a cherubic goat slinging wine through the heavens. Passionate about real wine, with a focus on small production and natural winemaking methods, Byron Bates launched Goatboy Selections 20 years after getting into natural wines while working with Jonathan Nossiter at another New York based wine importing company. (Jonathan Nossiter is documentarian extraordinaire; curl up one autumn rainy weekend with a bottle of Gamay and watch Natural Resistance and Mondovino.) Byron aims to feature a portfolio of vins naturel reflecting the real wine culture in France. On Saturday, come try the below line-up of French wines, distributed in Massachusetts by the company Cafe Europa. Goatboy rocks! (Learn more about importer-based shopping in this helpful Bon Appetit article.)
The Goatboy Line-up!
2016 Manoir de la Tête Rouge, Tête d'Ange Saumur (Loire Valley, France) | Ah Chenin, let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach! Sorry, getting sidetracked by 19th century sonnets. Chenin really does strike a chord though. Its pleasant acidity, its touch of honeysuckle and white flowers on the finish, and its full-bodied, mineral mouthfeel just checks all the right boxes. The Reynouard family produces some of the most honest wines in Saumur where they grow Chenin Blanc, as well as Cabernet Franc and Pineau d’Aunis on their 13-hectare property. Vines are planted on clay limestone soil and all organic practices are used in and out of the cellar.
2016 Nathalie Banes ‘La Saoulée’ (Burgundy, France) | Nathalie Banes debuted her first vintage of ‘La Saoulée’ in 2015, and this year it’s as good as ever! Nathalie has worked with winemakers including southern Beaujolais vintner Julien Merle in Legny. Nathalie’s Gamay is from a high-altitude clay-limestone parcel in Oignt and her vines are farmed without chemical intervention. ‘La Saoulée’ is boldly aromatic, with notes of clove spice and lavender. Nathalie’s Gamay isn’t shy – it has bold tannins and a full-bodied mouthfeel.
2017 Sainte Croix La Serre White (Languedoc-Roussillon, France) | Domaine Sainte Croix was founded by a British couple, Jon and Elizabeth Bowen, in 2004. Located in the craggy limestone hills of Southern France, between the Languedoc and the Roussillon borders, Jon and Elizabeth’s 13-hectare property has been certified organic since 2008. This white blend of Grenache Blanc, Grenache Gris, and Terret Bourret, first caught my attention by its aromas of gingerbread and cloves and hooked me for life as I took a first sip. The taste of La Serre is voluptuous and crisp, quite like a gushing autumn breeze. It envelops you in a hug to leave you refreshed and comforted.
NV Xavier Benier Vieilles Vignes (Burgundy, France) | Xavier is the youngest in a small family of growers in southern Beaujolais. He hand-harvests his 6.5 hectares of vines atop soils of red sand and clay. His Gamay is so expressive! It speaks to you like one of your favorite holiday songs: full of cheer, warmth, and joy. It’s got the red fruit in the nose, finishing dry with ripe tannins that speak of Beaujolais terroir.