Anders Frederik Steen and Anne Bruun Blauert make wine from “grapes and only grapes”. They have been doing this since 2013 when they first started buying fruit from winemakers they admired and making wine alongside legendary Jura vigneron, Jean-Marc Brignot. Anders and Anne have now settled with their family in the beautiful village of Valvignères in the Ardèche and they grow grapes and make wine at their friends Jocelyne & Gérald Oustric’s farm, Le Mazel. It is a beautiful spot on the slope of a wide, open valley and the many varieties grown here thrive on a perfect mix of clay and limestone. The vineyards are full of life, having been tended organically for decades. In a previous life, Anne was a social worker working in prisons and caring for victims of sexual assault. Anders was both a chef and sommelier, working at the best restaurants in his native Denmark opening Manfreds and Relae. First as a sommelier at Noma, This experience informs his winemaking in that he does not seek to follow rules and doesn’t feel the need to do the same thing every year. Instead, as he harvests he tastes the grapes and begins to imagine the kind of wine he might be able to make. It is a refreshingly logical, creative approach, and the results speak for themselves. Since the move to Ardèche, Anne has become fully implicated in the winemaking. Their wines are made from red grapes which are either pressed directly or destemmed by hand and white grapes pressed directly in a beautiful old wooden press. Any blending is done during the harvest and the different varieties always ferment together, spontaneously, outside under the open sky. The wines are bottled unfiltered, with no additions and are thoughtful, original expressions of this part of the Ardèche. It is an honour to have these wines in our portfolio, and we are overjoyed to share them with you.
As with all of our producers, we will be donating part of the proceeds from sales to a non-profit close to our heart. For Anders Frederik Steen and Anne Bruun Blauert wines, we have chosen to donate to the Canadian Mental Health Association. Please check them out.
C'ÉTAIT LE PREMIER JOUR DES VACANCES D'ÉTÉ. J'AVAIS SEIZE ANS
Viognier, Chardonnay & Grenache Noir
13.75% ABV
A blend of Chardonnay, Viognier and the very first juice from a direct press of Grenache Noir, all co-fermented- first in a fiber cuve, and very fast after the wine was bottled, left to finish the fermentation for a year. We wanted to keep this white sparkling wine on the yeast in bottle for a year, to be able to bring the bitter notes more in place and at the same time have smaller and more delicate bubbles. It means that this pétillant natural has a character more like a blanc de blanc sparkling wine, and a less pronounced fruit and sweetness compared to what pét.nat normally represents. We made dégorgement in the end of September 2022.
SKU: 886255 | 6 to a case | 750ml, glass, wax over the cork
I FALL IN LOVE AT LEAST THREE TIMES/ DAY
Grenache noir
15.5% ABV
A wine that was intended as an experiment. In 2020 we wanted to press some red grapes like we do with our white grapes. Therefore, we made a press direct of Grenache Noir. We did this for 5 days. Every day we separated the juice. The juice of day one and five became another wine. Day two, three and four we blended and left it to ferment, age and find its balance in barriques. Because of a late harvest the alcohol became strong, and we decided for that reason to keep the wine in barriques for close to two years. We’re very happy for that decision. It gave us this slightly oxidative rosé. Something we haven’t seen before here in Valvignères.
SKU: 886252 | 6 to a case | 750ml, glass, wax over the cork
I GUESS THIS IS WHAT I WOULD HAVE SAID
Viognier & Chardonnay
13.5% ABV
The very end of a 10-day long press, stating with Sauvignon, then Chardonnay and finally the Viognier, that represents 80% of this wine. The grapes were harvested faster than we could press them, so we decided simply to add more and new grapes to the pressoir every third/fourth day. The Sauvignon and the first part of the Chardonnay went into another cuvée. The last part of the Chardonnay and all Viognier is what this wine is built of. We aged it in old barrels, that normally have been used for red wine. This and the way we pressed gives the wine at bitter tannic structure, not in a macerated or “orange wine” style. It’s very light and delicate and are expressed more as salty notes than notes of maceration and tannins.
SKU: 886253 | 6 to a case | 750ml, glass, wax over the cork
WE FORGET TOO EASILY
Carignan, Chardonnay & Sauvignon Blanc
13.75% ABV
This blend of Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc was meant to be a white wine, but in search of balance and freshness, we added some juice from Carignan and later also destemmed grapes of Carignan. This slowly turned our white wine into a red. 2019 was one of the greatest, but also warmest, vintages since a long time here in Valvignères. We started the harvest very early compared to other years and even though the grapes fast reached a high level of sugar and therefor also strong in alcohol, we didn’t find the grapes ripped in the way we liked them to be. By adding Carignan and letting the grapes macerate for 6 weeks in the white juice, helped us find the balance we were looking for. It left us with a red wine with very dominant tannins. We kept the wine in barrels for about 3 years. The time in demi-muid has helped to soften up the tannins as well as the rich structure of the wine. Without forgetting about the warm vintage of 2019, we finally found the light and approachable balance that we like so much.
SKU: 886251 | 6 to a case | 750ml, glass, wax over the cork
THE BRIGHTER CIDER OF LIFE
Apples & Viognier
6.5% ABV
The base of this cider is 100% juice of apples, the variety Red Winter. We made a quick direct press in October. This first part of the fermentation took place in fiber tanks in our little cellar in Valvignères. But the cider was fermenting very fast and already shortly after it was ready to be bottled and left to finish the fermentation in bottles in matter to create bubbles. It fermented in bottles close to six months until it was to be disgorged in April 2022. We took out and away the lees and sediments from the fermentation, but instead of topping up with the same cider, we topped up with a 2021 wine of Viognier. The Viognier improves the expression of the acidity, helps to balance the flavors of the apples, make the cider less cider-like and more vinous. We’re very happy for this decision, that gives our cider a brighter, fresher and drier expression than what you normally find in a French cider.
SKU: 886256 | 6 to a case | 750ml, glass, wax over the cork
LOVERS DANCE ON CARING FEET
Carignan
11.75% ABV
This is absolutely the last grapes from the harvest of 2021. Carignan from Jocelyne and Gerald Oustric. Grapes, they generously offered us to compensate for our lost harvest in our vines at Valgrand. We wanted to make a rosé, but a rosé a little bit of edge. We wanted to macerate and make a kind of rosé de saignée, but because of the hailstorm the grapes were not the most beautiful we’ve seen. Therefor we crunched the grapes, left them to macerate for 6-8 hours in the pressoir, just to do a fast pressing of the juice overnight. It gave us a very interesting rosé juice, with a (for us) new unseen aromatic profile and an unusual long salty finish. Since harvest the wine have been ageing in demi-muid.
SKU: 886254 | 6 to a case | 750ml, glass, wax over the cork
I WEAR BLUE, IF I DON'T KNOW WHAT ELSE TO DO
Gewürztraminer
14.5% ABV
This wine has been started in the same way as we have been doing with almost all the whites in Alsace since 2015. Two nights of oxidation of the juice before it was moved to a fiber cuve and a period of 4 months to ferment outside, soutirage in the early spring to be followed by close to 5 years of fermentation and aging in old barriques.
Gewürztraminer has become one of our favorite grapes in Alsace. When bottled young it can in our opinion be too much, too much exotic fruit etc. But with age something unexpected apears. Oxidation starts to mark the wine and it's changing the wine. It gives the wine a whole new direction and many new layers of flavors and a whole other elegance. Oxidation helps the wine to create a new structure and a new balance.
SKU: 886250 | 6 to a case | 750ml, glass, wax over the cork