I have yet to dine at Timberyard’s new outpost in Edinburgh, Montrose, doubtless the cause being all our house moving escapades, but I did get to visit on Wednesday for a tasting with Peter Honegger from Newcomer Wines. I’ve known Peter for a long time, and in fact you might have seen me mention Newcomer’s early days in a recent article.

Back in the days when Newcomer’s shop was in a shipping container in Shoreditch Box Park, I was a monthly visitor. I initially wanted to try the wines of this new Austrian guy called Claus Preisinger. I never really stopped to think what a crazy idea opening a shop selling just Austrian Wines, even in East London, might be. I think half their customers in the early days misread the sign and thought they could buy Australian stuff (Peter’s joke, but probably true). For me, it served as an intro to Austrian Natural Wine, which had quite a profound effect, leading to many visits to the country and discovering a number of my all-time favourite producers. Thank you Newcomer.

Newcomer’s range has grown and widened since those days, as has their shop and bar, which is now at Dalston Junction, on Dalston Lane. This range is now not only confined to Austria, and that was mirrored in the wines Peter poured for the Montrose/Timberyard teams. I was a very lucky and happy interloper. The wines are still all effectively “natural wines”, but Peter isn’t really keen to use that term any more. He prefers to stick to “high quality wines”, arguing that this is what we should focus on. Fair point.

I should add, on this subject, that the people attending the tasting had some excellent insights on a wide range of hospitality-related subjects (Edinburgh is always a reality check for those of us used to seeing folks splash fifty quid on a bottle as a matter of course down in Metroland). One of those points was that people are still scared of the phrase “natural wine”. In fact, as inexplicable as it might sound, especially among the tourists, even “organic” can cause some worried looks.

I tasted nine wines from the Newcomer range, only one being made in Austria (though another was made just over the Hungarian border by an Austrian producer). I shall give you a note on each. Many more of Peter’s wines featured in a takeover in the evening, where one or two Austrians I love were going to be featured. But one can’t have everything.

Orthogneiss Muscadet, Domaine de L’Ecu (Loire, France)

Fred and Claire Niger are based in Le Landrau, in the Sèvre et Maine zone, and are considered now among the very top producers in Muscadet. They coax flavours almost unknown before from the Melon de Bourgogne variety, and they also grow Folle Blanche and Cabernet Franc on their own domaine. Biodynamic since the 1990s, the couple also follow a philosophy they call Cosmoculture (which they learnt from Philippe Viret).

Orthogneiss (one of the two major types of bedrock in the region, the other being granite) is very much a terroir wine and one not to serve over-chilled. The bouquet is expressively floral, citrus and spicy, especially ginger. The palate mixes lemon/lime citrus, salinity, a chalky texture and a very long finish. I didn’t get the vintage but this cuvée is an exceptional Muscadet which like the best from this region will be perfectly capable of long ageing.

Circa £30.

Manzoni Bianco “Fontanasanta” 2022, Foradori (Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy)

As the next generation have taken over at this wonderful estate in Northeastern Italy, it has undergone a transformation from standout natural wine producer to a wider farm based on permaculture, with cattle for their own cheese and market gardening getting equal emphasis with biodynamic viticulture.

Manzoni is a white Riesling/Pinot Blanc crossing from the early 1900s. It is grown closer to the city of Trento than the farm itself, on the same site as Foradori’s Nosiola. The soils here are limestone-based and the wine is floral, pure, clean tasting and vibrant, with nose and palate showing a wide range of experiences from floral to spice. I would say that it is very approachable and you will be hard pushed to hang onto any. The main reason, that purity. Thrilling. £34. That’s good value for the quality, for sure.

See blow for photo

Grüner Veltliner Federspiel 2022, Nikolaihof (Wachau, Austria)

It’s fascinating that Newcomer has finally ventured into Austria’s most traditional and conservative wine region, but obvious that when they eventually did it had to be for the wines of Nikolaihof. This ancient estate (the cellars could be Roman) sits at the eastern end of the Wachau Region, on the Danube, its vines around Mautern being just over the river from Krems.

Apparently, the refusal to use chemicals in the vineyard in the modern age came from a refusal to spend the money rather than principles, yet biodynamic conversion took place as long ago as 1971. For many years I was lucky enough to be able to source some very old wines from this estate, which were unadulterated gems of chemical-free winemaking.

This Grüner Veltliner is designated “Federspiel”. Traditionally in Wachau (the only Austrian Region to use the term) Federspiel wines are less rich and ripe than the “Smaragd” wines, and traditionalists have considered them inferior. However, with modern ripeness levels within this river valley reaching ridiculous levels for white wines, Federspiel is now the way to go for you and me. 11.5% abv here. This is achieved even at low yields.

Another wine of great purity, it has a crisp palate with a nice, direct, spine of acid freshness. A hint of spice enlivens the palate further. Physiological ripeness at low alcohol is still possible here with thoughtful viticulture.

As an aside, I know many readers wouldn’t necessarily consider visiting the Wachau, but the Danube Valley here, going west from Krems, is spectacularly beautiful. There’s a brilliant Wachau Cycle Trail, well-marked and pretty flat. You can hire bikes for the day in Krems, very close to the station, which is a relatively short train ride from Vienna. Maybe cycle to Spitz for lunch. It has a great wine shop by the ferry jetty, on the river, and one of Wachau’s great castle ruins, from where the views are worth the short hike uphill.

Cuvée Marguerite 2023, Matassa (Roussillon, France)

For wine administration purposes Roussillon is these days lumped in with Languedoc, which is a shame because this region, on the Spanish/Catalan border and in the foothills of the Pyrenees, has its own distinct personality and culture.

Matassa is run by Tom Lubbe, the South African winemaker for whom the Rennersistas were usually “waiting”. The vines are in the rough scrub of the Agly Valley, a unique terrain making some spectacular wines, and they are sandwiched more or less between the old vineyards of Domaine Gauby and Roc des Anges.

Of all the wines tasted on Wednesday, this is perhaps the one most easily identifiable as a “natural wine”, but only because it is so obviously a skin contact cuvée. The colour for starters is very much amber. The scents are predominantly stone fruits, but there’s a floral element, especially on the bouquet, because the skin-macerated variety here is Muscat.

The purity of the nose combined with the textured depth of the palate is what makes this wine so interesting. You begin to notice plums, apricots and a lot going on. The skin contact helps complete a clean fermentation when not using sulphur in a warm climate. This wine is undoubtedly stable, with no volatility. Impressive. £43.

Hautes-Côtes de Beaune 2022, Le Grappin (Burgundy, France)

Andrew and Emma recently moved from the cellars they rented within the old walls of Beaune and took over an old building in Meloisey in the Hautes Côtes. As Andrew said, after moving up into the hills they thought they ought to make a wine from there.

The hills above the two Côtes in Burgundy are wooded in part and have always been very much on the fringes of viticulture at Burgundy’s heart. But even in the 1990s a few names cropped up as more than solid. As overall climate has got warmer (putting aside frost and hail), the vineyards here are more viable (ie ripening is more reliable), and the vine stock is often old too.

This Chardonnay, grown near Baubigny I think, is pristinely clean on both its bouquet and attack on the palate, but it finishes with roundness and weight. Its body grows in the glass. In parallel there’s a lovely minerality so often the trademark of Le Grappin. It sees twelve months in used oak.

For me, this is beautiful already. Balance is just perfect. The vines are over forty years old so you get complexity not usually associated with this appellation, but whether to keep it…it really is drinking so well now. Le Grappin, and the Nielsens’ Du Grappin label, are both new to Newcomer and I can’t find a price. I know this is available up here in Scotland for £47 at one retailer. That’s quite steep, more than I’d hoped, but it is rather good. I don’t see it listed on Le Grappin’s own online shop.

Du Grappin Côte de Brouilly 2022 (Beaujolais, France)

Emma and Andrew source this wine, for their Du Grappin label, which features wines from outside the Côte d’Or, from a farmer on the lower slopes of the hill at the southern end of the Beaujolais Crus known as Mont Brouilly. It’s a lovely garnet and cherry red, fruity yet with a stony texture like the best wines from this mini-appellation within the somewhat larger Brouilly. They make very high-quality wines from Beaujolais and this is no exception.

The parcel is small, and the Nielsens pay more for the grapes to be grown organically and with minimal intervention. I understand in this case that the grape grower has been so impressed with the results that he is converting all of his 16 hectares to organics. As Peter commented as we tasted, this is a real and genuine impact of what the Nielsens are doing, leading by example and results. A lovely approachable wine but far from a simple one. I can’t see a price but the similar Saint-Amour retails around £27.

Pinot Noir “Nature” 2020, Lucas Rieffel (Alsace, France)

Lucas is the third generation to run this key estate in Mittelbergheim, the village which has in many ways become natural wine central in the north of the Alsace region. Peter made much of Lucas’s time at Domaine Ostertag, but today Lucas is part of a group of winemakers in and around the village, including Jean-Pierre Rietsch and Cathérine Riss, who by tasting together regularly have helped each other make some of the best natural wines in France.

Lucas farms (he considers himself first a farmer and only second a winemaker) ten hectares, but this Pinot Noir comes of two individual parcels. Winemaking is very simple, including ageing in large oak and, in this “Nature” cuvée, zero added sulphur.

You get astonishingly balanced zippy fruit from the carbonic maceration, very pure without the cloud that sulphur can add to such bright sunshine in the glass. It is the wine here most deserving of the Jamie Goode patented term, “smashable”. Delicious. Although the price has crept up since Brexit/Liz Truss, it’s still good value at £31.

Teroldego Vigneti delle Dolomiti 2021, Foradori (Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy)

The second offering from Foradori is made from a grape worth getting to know. Teroldego is a relation of the French mountain variety, Mondeuse. Grown semi-industrially on the flat Campo Rotaliano it can produce nondescript wines, but treated properly, like any variety, it can shine.

Sustainable, biodynamic, farming creates healthy grapes. It has a deep darkness within it, but a vibrancy too, almost visible to the eye, and certainly perceptible on nose and palate. Red and dark grippy fruit (plenty of plum) combines with a little pencil lead texture and a savoury finish that makes this both easy to guzzle, but also a wine with an individual personality. £32.

Steiner 2017, Weninger (Sopron, Hungary)

Weninger is an Austrian producer, but Franz Weninger makes this wine from Kékfrankos fruit (aka Blaufränkisch) grown over the border from Burgenland in the Hungarian region of Sopron, close enough to reach quickly by bicycle from Burgenland’s southern village, Morbisch, just south of Rust.  The Steiner vineyard lies at the very southern tip of the Neusiedlersee, rising to 185 masl on weathered gneiss and mica schist. The stony soils are good at absorbing heat during the day, and the vines here exceed 50 years old.

The bouquet of this dark-hued wine is classic “Blaufränkisch”, with dark fruits and a perceptible mineral note even on the nose. The palate is still tightly wound, but the tannins are supple and the palate overall has a velvet texture. Like all cracking Kékfrankos/Frankovka/Blaufränkisch, it has a freshness which elevates the fruit. That said, the savoury undertones which lie beneath make it a fabulous gastronomic wine, suitable for any fine dish deserving of a serious red.

Steiner used to be one of the most famous single sites in Hungary before the post-war border cut off Hungary’s western vineyards from those on the western side of the lake to the north (remember, Rust was once Hungarian in the days of Empire). Franz Weninger has been instrumental in helping to revive this and other Sopron sites, and this is, make no mistake, a fine wine which will age well for several years. It hasn’t peaked but it is ready to go today if paired with demanding dishes, perhaps with paprika or cayenne. £34-35.

Perhaps this last wine demonstrates best why Peter Honneger feels we should call these quality wines rather than natural wines. This is simply a well-priced, ageworthy, fine wine with no sense of volatility, no funky side, nothing to scare anyone. Indeed, it tastes like a classic Blaufränkisch, a variety I think is very much under-rated on several levels. It was nice to get back to the Newcomer heartland, so to speak, the wines which made their name. Yet it was equally good to see how far Newcomer Wines has come since those distant Box Park days. They have unquestionably evolved into one of a handful of London and the United Kingdom’s most innovative and important wine import businesses.

Below are a selection of wines that were available last Wednesday evening…

Montrose Restaurant is at 1 Montrose Terrace, Edinburgh EH7 5DJ, around 20-25 minutes’ walk from Waverley Station.

Tel 0131 605 008; eat@montroserestaurant.co

See it perhaps as a less formal version of sister restaurant Timberyard.

Check web site opening hours, closed Monday & Tuesday.