For the second part of September’s wines, we have all wines. No cider or perry, I’m afraid. What you do get are six wines from places other than those in Part 1, although there are a couple of albeit very different French ones here. We begin with yet another wine from a favourite Moravian winemaker, then blast through a Mosel red blend, Bugey Chardonnay, a Saint-Pourçain white, a meaty Piemontese red and, finally for September, a rather good Penedès white. Once again, these are the most interesting wines from last month, so all come highly recommended. But check out the price on these. They all represent excellent value, especially that last bottle.

“Lemonade” 2021, Petr Koráb (Moravia, Czechia)

The wizard of Boleradice has crafted here yet another of his amazing sparkling wines. Lemonade ranks among his most exciting, certainly at the moment (Dark Horse, his more recent red petnat is perhaps its closest rival, both being equal favourites right now). Welschriesling does remarkably well in Southern Moravia, and this is the variety Petr has chosen here.

This is first vinified in robinia casks before being transferred to bottle before fermentation has finished, so it takes on a soft and gentle sparkle. The name is so apt. You get lemon citrus freshness with yellow fruit softness, all carried on that gentle effervescence. It’s just a simple wine without complications, but how many times does such a description fail to do a wine justice?

It would be hard to suggest a more fun wine for a party or an impromptu celebration. Actually, I remember Petr popping one of these open in his cellar late into the night, when we visited him back in 2022. Petr Koráb, the petnat king. The man has built a new cellar so I wouldn’t be surprised if we see an even more diverse array of bottlings emerging in the future. So far, everything he makes is worth grabbing. Aside from his “more serious” cuvées, the others, especially the petnats, can just be around for one vintage only.

Imported by Basket Press Wines. Prost Wines may still have some left, £22.

Aquarius [2023], Landwein der Mosel, Jan-Philipp Bleeke (Mosel, Germany)

JPB is yet another example of the lure that winemaking has on people in the wine trade, taking the wine shop to wine producer route that seems a well-trodden path today. He gained experience with, among others, another Jan, Jan Mattias Klein, of Staffelter Hof, in whose Mosel cellars he borrowed space initially when he started out with his own wines. He has since moved and works under the banner of JPB Winemaking, and is now being mentored by the equally capable Thorsten Melsheimer.

I have written about this red blend before, but this 2023 version (no vintage as such because Jan-Philipp chooses to designate his wines as Landwein) is as good as any of his wines I’ve tasted. It comes from a couple of hectares he farms at Traben-Trabach, near the home of the Mosel’s greatest natural winemaker, Rudolf Trossen.

Jan-Philipp is very much a natural winemaker, but his philosophy goes way beyond that in terms of ecology and politics. The politics is firmly based in ideas of community and mutual support.

This current release of Aquarius blends Dornfelder with some Regent, the latter being an inter-specific hybrid crossing, bred in 1967 for fungal resistance. The parents of Regent are a Silvaner x Müller Thurgau cross and Chambourcin (a French-American hybrid of uncertain parentage). Regent is a variety which has long shown disease resistance in a UK setting. Some writers will look down their noses at it, but it has improved its standing since natural wine producers began to use it, for obvious reasons in a wet climate.

Both varieties are grown on blue and grey slate slopes. The grapes receive a ten-day maceration followed by five months ageing in older wood. It’s a totally natural wine with zero added sulphur, very much part of the JPB philosophy. It majors on fruitiness with brambles and bags of sappy dark fruit acidity. It has a luscious mouthfeel. In some ways it seems even juicier than the bottle I drank in March 2023 of the previous vintage. Only 1,278 bottles produced.

This was £25.50 from Cork & Cask in Edinburgh, imported by Sevslo. I’d previously purchased this at Sevslo’s sister wine shop in Glasgow, Made from Grapes.

Patchwork Chardonnay 2022, La Cuverie-Revonnas (Bugey, France)

I first tasted the range of wines being made by Aurélien Beyeklian at Real Wine 2024, and he’s a relatively new producer in Bugey. His cellar is located at Gravelles, in the Revermont, which is in the northern sector of this split appellation. The wines here are said to more resemble Jura, whereas those of the Southern sector are said to be more like Savoie wines. Although this is a lazy distinction, perhaps, based on geography and some of the grape varieties (Poulsard is sadly disappearing from the north but we are seeing a few more Mondeuse in the south), maybe this Chardonnay would fool many into identifying it blind as a Jura wine.

Aurélien is converting his vineyards from organics to biodynamics, but is also a devotee of permaculture. His background is not in wine at all, having worked around the world for the International Red Cross, but he has apprenticed at Bret Brothers in Macon.

At Real Wine I loved his Poulsard and his Bugey-Cerdon sparkling wine, as well as this Chardonnay, which was the only one available to purchase in Les Caves’s on-site shop. We have a whole bunch pressed Chardonnay fermented in stainless steel and matured in old oak. It underwent malo, which gives a certain softness, and no sulphur was added.

This is Chardonnay in very much a lighter style, and in fact the abv is just 11.5%. Refreshing and elegant, but there is also a degree of sophistication. There isn’t a lot of fat on the bone, but any leanness you find merely means you prefer a fat Chardonnay. Think of this as Chardonnay unplugged. For me, it is very appealing. There’s a nice touch of grapefruit and lemon.

I really like this, and can recommend any of Aurélien’s wines. £26 from Les Caves de Pyrene.

Pourçain « Instan T » 2022, Les Terres d’Ocre (Loire, France)

I once visited the co-operative at St-Pourçain-sur-Sioule, largely because I was passing through and had quite enjoyed their wines, sold at the time (and probably still sold) by Yapp Brothers, who I think have recently left their iconic “Old Brewery” premises in Mere for something less soulful but probably more practical in Somerset. The co-operative visit was enjoyable, but the town and surroundings, so far up in the northern reaches of the Loire Region, on that river’s tributary, the Allier, that I’m guessing few will have passed through like I did, were even better.

Florent Barichard is one of the few individual winemakers to bottle their own wines up here. He won his spurs making wine in New Zealand and South Africa, but on coming home his aunt and uncle, Valérie and Eric Nesson, split their farm so that Florent could make wine locally. He has around five hectares planted to Chardonnay, Tressallier, Pinot Noir and Gamay, all grown either on granite at Meillard, or on sand at Châtel-de-Neuve.

This white wine is comprised 80% Chardonnay and 20% Tressallier, made in a mix of concrete tank and oak. Tressallier is a very old variety, some grown in the Allier and some being found in the Yonne (around Chablis, where it can be called Sacy). Some suggest the wines made from Tressallier/Sacy were served at the Capetian Court in the Middle Ages, and to the Avignon Popes.

Well, it’s not often that I delve into speculative history, but I do have a soft spot for grape varieties which were once much more widely known and grown than in today’s shrivelled viticultural world. It is estimated that of the tiny 650 hectares of grapes planted in Saint-Pourçain, around 100 ha are Tressallier.

The question is, does 20% Tressallier have an impact on this wine? You’d think so. The bouquet blends lemon citrus with a touch of peach and honey, very pure. It’s aromatic, balanced by a good medium weight on the palate (12.5% abv). Okay, this is a cheapish wine with no pretentions towards greatness, yet it is very well made, has its own personality, and is really nice, with decent length persisting longer than you might expect.

Solent Cellar sold me this, and it cost just £18. I’m always looking for interesting wines under £20. They are not always easy to find, but this is one.

Lamilla” [2016], Cascina Borgatta (Piemonte, Italy)

Piemonte is full of flashy, expensive, red wines, usually made from Nebbiolo, but we should not forget that before the region became saturated with international stars, feted by those who moved onto Barolo after collecting Burgundy for years, there are a decreasing number of old-time artisans making special wines from other varieties.

Emilio Oliveri and Maria Luisa Barizzone have farmed grapes at Tagliolo Monferrato since the 1960s and this elderly couple, who are now in their eighties, farm just as they did fifty years ago. The vines here were planted by Maria-Luisa’s father in the 1940s, 50s and 60s, so they are seriously old as well. This couple have only made one concession to age, and that is they have cut back their holding to two hectares (from 4 ha), but otherwise they do all the work themselves. This is artisan winemaking at its most real, and natural winemaking too. The vines pre-date synthetic vineyard chemicals, so the soils are “clean”.

Lamilla is an aged Dolcetto. Fermented in concrete, where 20-30 mg/l of sulphur is added (depending on vintage), the must is then racked into stainless steel where it spends one year on lees. Then it is bottled. It is released when deemed ready, and sold as a table wine with no DO.

A tasting note here is pretty much redundant. It is rich and smooth, relatively high in alcohol (14%) without it overwhelming the palate, I could go on with the clichés of concentrated and dark-fruited. It is neither polished, nor rustic. It just moves in a different time and space. Massively recommended, as is their Barbera (a wine which shows just how good that variety is in the region when given pride of place).

£29 from Cork & Cask (Edinburgh), who also list their “La Borgatta” Barbera for £24. Both are imported by Modal Wines.

Oníric Blanc 2022, Celler Entre Vinyes (Penedès, Catalonia/Spain)

Celler Entre Vinyes is run by Maria Barrena and Pep Tort, who began making wine just over a decade ago, back in 2012. They took on some very old vines in the Foix National Park in Baix Penedès, and in 2017 they took over an old chicken farm near the town of L’Arboç. Now they have 6 hectares under vine.

I recently drank the couple’s skin contact wine, Sotaterra, back in July on the recommendation of fellow blogger Alan March, but I had completely forgotten how much I liked a Cava made by the same people at a tasting back in September 2019 (“Five Go Mad in Islington”).

This wine is 100% biodynamically-farmed Xarel-lo. It underwent a spontaneous fermentation using indigenous yeasts, and was aged in stainless steel, the only addition being a low dose of sulphur. If at first it seems a simple wine, you soon marvel at its lovely, refreshing, salinity. With time to open out, softer fruits come to the fore by way of juicy peach, not at all tart grapefruit, and melon.

This producer is making some exceptionally tasty wines, and for me it’s not going too far to call this one “thrilling”. And what a price? Hate to say this, but you might not be shocked were it £10 more expensive. As it is, £17.50 suggests some boot filling should be considered. Imported by Modal Wines, my bottle (and the Sotaterra I mentioned) came from Smith & Gertrude (Portobello branch). I would respectfully suggest a few more retailers get in on the act here!