Two Bottles Grandbois
We are drinking a bottle of Chardonnay Unicorn Knight 2023 from the Mosel and a Saignée Heart PetNat M 2023 from Grandbois.
There are places that etch themselves into your memory. Those beautiful spots on Earth where you’re never quite sure if your recollection is playing tricks on you or if it truly was that stunning. To jog the memory, a quick glance at the photo archive often suffices, and yes, the swing in front of the Kabinett stand and the pastrami sandwich are just as marvelous as I remember. The picturesque path through sleepy Maring also holds up against the memory. It was a bit of a walk from the bus stop at Mythos Mosel 2023 to the courtyard with the tasting stations and the Kabinett stand right on the Maare-Mosel cycle path along the Lieser, but every step was worth it.
Philippe and Tanja Grandbois met in Canada in 2014 and landed in Maring-Noviand, in a side valley of the Moselle, in 2018. Their first harvest was in 2021, and in 2023 we literally stumbled upon their winery. They cultivate their vineyards organically, with plenty of manual labor on the steep slopes. All wines undergo spontaneous fermentation and are aged patiently. The Saignée Pinot Noir PetNat is now available in two versions: Variant N, from the Noviander Klosterberg, and Variant M, from the Maringer Sonnenuhr, which we’re tasting today. The grapes come from a small plot near the winery, are fermented in stainless steel, and then bottled with a bit of residual sugar to allow the yeast to finish its work. The wine then rests on its full lees in the bottle for another six months before being released. The Chardonnay grows in the Honigberg, just a little further away. It also comes from a small plot, yielding between 450 and 600 liters annually, depending on the vintage. It’s fermented and aged in small, used oak barrels. And when you look at the label, we all know exactly why this bottle made an appearance, a candidate for the beautiful-bottle shelf.
We start with the Unicorn. It smells of puffed grains and a hint of yellow fruit—actually more grain than puffed. It’s quite robust on the nose with a good dose of funk. With a really deep inhale, it becomes somewhat volatile for me, but you know I’m sensitive to that. The better half doesn’t detect anything in that direction. The Chardonnay is much more savory than fruity on the nose. Intriguing. It drinks very clean, clear, and not wild at all. There’s some fruit purée on the upper palate, structure on the tip of the tongue, and an acidity reminiscent of multivitamin juice at the back. I like it, though I’d like it even more without the impression of volatile acidity.
Luckily, that bit of funk disappears overnight. I can see how a little bit of that funk adds tension to the wine, but personally, I prefer it without. Across the table, it’s a different story. The popcorn note today is a bit less pronounced, the fruit a bit fruitier, everything feels more cohesive, harmonious, and softer. Spices and grains still dominate the aroma, but they’re washed over by juiciness and freshness. The multivitamin note is still present, leaning more towards orange than yellow in its acidity, and it’s quite smooth. It pairs wonderfully with food, especially a leek quiche.
The PetNat, I knew it the moment I popped the crown cap, wouldn’t last two days. It briefly smells almost exclusively of bright red cherry candies. Then it becomes increasingly spicy and herbal, and after half an hour of air, it’s exactly what many herbal-based non-alcoholic alternatives aspire to be. Bone-dry on the tongue, herbaceous, spicy, and the cherry note lands somewhere between fully ripe and artificial. It’s incredibly delightful to drink, with earthy notes, super fresh acidity, a bit of sherbet powder on the mid-palate, and a touch of herbal tea around it. Somewhere in between, there’s caramel and smoke. It’s crazy how this matches both my memory and notes from two years ago basically spot on. One undeniable drawback though: a leek quiche is no pastrami sandwich. And without a smoker outside my front door, it never will be. Yet, the PetNat tastes just as good as it did back on that vacation and that might be the highest accolade such a bubbly could wish for.