Saison Wines, an exciting new UK importer of organic French wine
Website: https://saisonwines.carrd.co/
Daphne Teremetz was previously a wine buyer at Waitrose where she worked for 8 years, before setting out on her own to form a new import/agency business called Saison Wines.
The business started a year ago, and she began bringing stock in September. Everything is organic and it’s aimed at independent wine merchants. ‘I just wanted to work with growers, with nice wines, to help indies have a good offer at a good price,’ she says. She also does a little bit of agency work too, but these wines tasted are all in the UK now. ‘It was important that everyone was certified organic,’ she said, ‘and also not represented in th UK.’
I met up with Daphne to taste through these wines from her portfolio, at the excellent Dvine Cellars in Clapham (who have an amazing wine list, btw).
Famille Héraud
Two brothers, Roman and Gwenael, who have taken over from their parents. One does the viticulture, and the other does winemaking and admin. They are next to Hell Fest, a heavy metal festival, and so sell a lot of wine there. Pricing is very reasonable with retail around £20 for these.
Famille Héraud Clos des Perrières Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Sur Lie 2024
12% alcohol. Lovely weight and concentration here with some nice warm spiciness and rich texture. Pear, peach, melon and mineral notes, finishing fresh. Tapering and fine with lovely salty minerality. This has real precision. I tried the Coravin sample and a fresh sample, and the Coravin does change the wine a little. 93/100
Famille Héraud Mellarium Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Sur Lie 2023
12% alcohol. This is on gabbro terroir, aged 12 months on lees. Complex and layered with apple, pear and lively minerals, with some herby character. This is really mineral and quite salty, with lots of personality. There’s a very subtle creaminess here. 93/100
Famille Héraud Clos des Chofardières Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Sur Lie 2022 Loire
This is suberb. Layered, complex and fine with a salty minerality and great acidity. Such a lovely acid line here, too. Melted minerals with a lively citrus twist, but it’s not really about the fruit, more about the liquid minerals. Such a lovely wine. 95/100
François Chapuis Mâcon-Mancey 2023 Bourgogne, France
He has 10 hectares, including a hectare of Aligoté. Supple, bright and fruity with pear and melon as well as some citrus. Nice concentration of fruit here with some creamy depth. This is textured and generous. 92/100 (retail £26)
Domaine de L’Accent
Konrad Pixner is Italian, but comes from German-speaking Tyrol, and he’s established from scratch an impressive domaine in the Terrasses du Larzac in the Languedoc, Konrad now has 25 hectares of vines now. He left notes on wines that looked abandoned and has accumulated vines in interesting spots quite high up. This is a real find by Daphne!
Domaine de L’Accent Accentur 2024 Saint Guilem Le Desert, France
Carignan Blanc, Carignan Gris, Bourboulenc and Marsanne. 50% was aged in 500 litre barrels, stirred just twice. This is exceptional: taut and lively, but not lacking flavour. Stony and mineral with taut citrus, dried herbs, and lovely taut intensity. Real presence on the finish, too. 95/100 (£25)
Domaine de L’Accent Accent du Sud Rosé 2024 Saint Guilem Le Desert IGP, France
12% alcohol. From Terrasses du Larzac, but labelled as IGP. Cinsault. This is fresh and energetic with lovely precision to the cherry and pear fruit, with a touch of grapefruit on the finish. Great precision here. 93/100
Domaine de L’Accent Una Notte Le’Vin de Une Notte 2023 Vin de France
12% alcohol. This is Grenache with one night’s skin contact. Relatively light in colour, this is supple and bright with nice juicy cherry and redcurrant fruit. Has lovely brightness and good acidity. So fresh, linear and pure with real elegance. Joyful, but with a hint of seriousness. 94/100
Domaine de L’Accent Cuvée Elliot 2023 Terrasses du Larzac, France
Syrah, Mourvèdre, Carignan. This is concentrated but fresh with lovely cherry and berry fruits, some generosity, but also floral detail. It’s very pure and expressive with lovely fruit quality. Such finesse and purity. 94/100
Domaine de Montorge Montagny Premier Cru Les Chaniots 2023 Bourgogne
Yann Flandre has vineyards just in Montagny. Old vine (30 years), unoaked. This is taut, linear and focused with textured pear and citrus fruit. There’s some depth here and a warm spiciness. Such a textural expression of Chardonnay showing real appeal. Finishes long and finely spiced. Serious effort. 94/100
Domaine Caihol Gautran Esparandieu 2024 Minervois, France
They have 70 hectares in Minervois and are the biggest producer Daphne works with. Bright and very fruity with crisp lemon and mandarin, showing nice purity and good acidity. This has a nice salinity to it, too. Very bright and fruit driven, and quite grown up with it: Albariño style. 93/100
Domaine Caihol Gautran Gamin 2023 Minervois, France
14.5% alcohol. Syrah/Grenache. Appealing ripe, warm, sweet cherry and berry fruits with softness and generosity, but staying pure and has just enough fruitiness. There’s good concentration here with a slight saltiness on the finish. Really good. 92/100 (£17 retail)
Domaine Caihol Gautran Sine Qua No Carignan 2024 Minervois
13.5% alcohol. No added sulfites. This is a beautiful expression of Carignan. It’s fruity and generous but there’s also a slight saltiness and some dried herbs and pepper. There’s a brightness and juiciness to this wine with drinkability and freshness. 94/100 (£19.50)
Jean Claude & Fils Raspail Crémant de Die Brut NV France
This is Clairette, Aligoté and a bit of Muscat. Lovely fruity style here, but very fresh and linear. Juicy and exotic with a bit of herbiness and some table grape richness. 90/100
Château Vieux-Rivière
This has been organic since 2005. In the 1980s it used to be called Rivière, the family name, but a Fronsac producer of the same name made them change in 1983. Olivier, the current incumbent, arrived in 2000 and converted to organics in 2002.
Château Vieux-Rivière Lalande-de-Pomerol 2022 Bordeaux
80% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. Lalande is shared between two villages and most of the vines are in Néac, with limestone soils. Wild ferment, 400 litre oak for ageing, 18 months. This is very fine, fresh and supple, showing ripe, restrained, elegant black cherry and plum fruit with a touch of blackcurrant. Good concentration, some taut, spicy structure, and lots of freshness and drinkability. Fresh and fine. 93/100 (£28)
Château Beau Soleil Pomerol La Promesse 2019 Bordeaux
14.5% alcohol. These are rented vines (fermage), and he took over in 2019, and began organic conversion in 2020. 4 hectares, with 95% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Franc. Ripe, rich and concentrated with nice depth and intensity, showing a slight saltiness on the finish, but with ripe blackberry and blackcurrant fruit, with some lively, chalky minerality. A substantial, concentrated with real depth. 93/100 (£45)
Château La Croix Taillefer Romulus 2003 Pomerol, Bordeaux
This is a special cuvée that Romain makes with stems. They use 20% whole cluster, and they smash the clusters by hand, where they find ripe stems on the sorting table. They want a gentle crushing so it is done by hand. Aged three years in oak, with no racking. Concentrated and dense with lovely mellow blackcurrant and blackberry fruit with some chalky minerality. Broad but nicely focused with good concentration of fruit and some nice tannins. This has aged really well. 94/100
