In this second part of my article on the inaugural Clay Wine Fair (16 February 2025, organised by Isobel Salamon of Slonk Wines and hosted at Sotto Trattoria in Stockbridge, Edinburgh) I will cover a similar number of wines as in Part One, but from a few more importers.

As with Part One, the breadth of countries and regions which are represented is wonderfully wide, although there are still many parts of the world making wines in clay or terracotta vessels, from qvevri to talha and many variations in between that were not represented (including North and South America). But as I said at the end of Part One, none of the wines on show tasted at all like those early tannic examples of orange wine that we first discovered fifteen or twenty years ago.

Everything listed here I would be happy to recommend, although I have tried to suggest those wines which particularly stood out. As I also said in that first part of this article, the quality went from good to outstanding. If you missed Part 1 you can click on the link in the list of articles to the right, or type “Clay” in the search box. I hope that means the Clay Wine Fair was as much of a success as it appeared to be, and will be repeated again.

L’ART DU VIN/CLARK FOYSTER

Clark Foyster you will know, L’Art du Vin is a small agent stocking organic and biodynamic wines, I think based in Dunfirmline. This was a small table showing just four wines, two from Georgia and two from Portugal.

Orgo is the winery of Gogi Dakishvili in Telavi, Khaketi. Gogi is a well-known consultant but this is his “passion project”. The vines are on both banks of the Alazani River in the warmest part of Georgia, the Caucasus to the north acting as a rain shadow, but water is plentiful because of the mountain streams.

The Orgo Rkatsiteli is a 100% varietal wine both fermented and aged in buried qvevri for six months, all on skins. The bouquet has whisps of honey and yellow plum. The palate is smooth and gently textured, mirroring the bouquet in its flavours.

Orgo Saperavi (also 100% varietal) is a deep red full of freshness and gentle grip. Blackcurrant and dark chocolate dominate, and you can tell these are old (80-y-o) vines by the concentration.

Both wines retail around £25.

Na Talha Branco and Tinto from Gerações da Talha are a pair of Portuguese wines from the former talha stronghold of the Alentejo, where the art of making wine in these tall terracotta pots is being revived. The region’s clay soils mean the material to produce these vessels is right on hand. These are both organic wines, aged on lees with only the natural filtration provided by the “mother”, the solids sinking to the bottom of the talha.

The Branco is a light-bodied wine redolent of apricot and peach with a soft texture from the talhas. The Tinto is, like the white, a field blend, in this case of ten varieties, including Alfrocheiro, Trincadeira and Aragones (aka Tempranillo). Almost like the Georgian red above it majors on dark fruits with a chocolate note on the finish. The red is ready for sale on Saint Martin’s Day, November 11^th, so treat it like a “Nouveau” (with the proviso that there’s no hurry to drink this up).

Both retail around £25.

PARCHED (formerly NATTY BOY WINES)

Natty Boy Wines say they grew up, so changed into Parched. I think they felt that producers would take them more seriously. They are still focusing on the same very natural wines (and other beverages) though. They still also have the shop and bar, Dan’s, on Tottenham Road, London N1.

First up, Domaine Gross from Alsace. Vincent Gross and his father, Rémy, work ten hectares around Gueberschwiller, in the warmer south of the region (Haut-Rhin). They follow biodynamics and for almost all of their wines now they are experimenting with longer macerations and, since 2021, using qvevri.

Domaine Gross “Tryo” 2022 blends Pinot Gris, Riesling and Sylvaner into a soft orange wine with a deceptive 13% abv. There’s a gentle pink colour from the PG skins and the wine is saline, mineral and savoury with notes of both oranges and tropical fruits. Delicious, especially at £23. My kind of skin contact Alsace, and the wine at this table I’d be tempted to buy first.

“Sonate” 2022 is a varietal Pinot Gris. I’m guessing this is slightly darker (tasting from the clay cup we had the interesting option to use it was hard to tell). There are more red fruits here, and a slightly earthy texture. It’s altogether more serious, possibly a wine to age, but impressive. It retails for £32.50. A friend in the region says Vincent is a nice guy, always a consideration.

Parched also showed a pair of Saint-Joseph wines from Domaine de L’Iserand, both very good indeed. Jean-François Malsert (another “Jef” like M.Coutelou) replanted his grandfather’s vines and released his first vintage in 2017. He has five hectares, all worked by two mules. He aims for freshness, so is a proponent of carbonic fermentation, but most wines are aged in either amphora or concrete (both here are amphora-aged). Definitely a producer to watch closely.

The white was a 2023 cuvée called “Rodeo”. It’s 100% Roussanne (or maybe not, sources differ as is often the case), aged 12 months in a mix of amphora and old oak. Quite floral with nice tension, just over £42. Beautiful. Loved it. The St-Jo Rouge “Viola” 2023 is a pure Syrah, spicy and herbal, very juicy and approachable. Just eight months in amphora here, young vines and carbonic or whole berry fermentation, showing nicely. Around £25.

Finally, a shout for Clos des Mourres “665 Jours” 2022, a white Côtes du Rhône Villages Roaix. Grenache Blanc, Clairette and Bourboulenc create a deliciously zippy, lemony white retailing for £28.50. The name is very obscure though. Apparently, it is the number of days between composting the vineyard and bottling, which I guess seems less random to the producer than it does to me. But as I said, quite delicious.

SEVSLO

Sevslo was founded by Séverine Sloboda, and the wines below, from one domaine in Beaujolais, were shown by her business partner, Liam Hanlon. I can’t believe it is two years since I met Liam and Séverine at their sister company, Made from Grapes, what is surely Glasgow’s most exciting wine shop.

The single producer they were showing was Domaine de la Sorbière. Jacques Juillard runs a domaine which has been in the family for several generations. His mother still makes her own wine today, in her nineties! Jacques took over six-hectares owned by the family of Bernard Pivot (president of the Goncourt Academy, and the man behind the “Apostrophe” talk show, for those who know French literature) in 2000.

Viticulture is organic, and vinification is in Tuscan amphorae, and sulphur additions are minimal or, in some cases, zero. Jacques is also on occasion a secret grape supplier to some, ahem, famous Jura names for their negoce wines. The domaine is in Quincié (outside of the Cru area, on the D9 southwest of Regnié). These are natural wines, so indigenous yeasts, no filtration etc.

Beaujolais-Villages Blanc 2023 is exactly what you want from Chardonnay grown in the Beaujolais region. Despite there being a fair bit of this famous Burgundian variety in the Beaujolais hills, not enough is usually made of its potential (J-P Brun excepted back in the 90s). This version sees 70% amphora and 30% new (yes, new) oak. Lightish but a touch of oak on the palate, very much classic Chardie on the nose, bit of texture but soft. Excellent for £24.50.

Terre de Roche 2023 is more dark-fruited than most Bojo. The Gamay fruit is de-stemmed and fermented in concrete before being aged in 5-hectolitre (the notes say “litre”, very small, maybe meant to be hectolitre?) terracotta barrels for four months, zero added sulphur. Nice, light, seems quite old school, and you can only just tell there’s no added sulphur. Circa £22.

The Gamaret is a 2022/2021 blend, also dark-fruited with chocolate notes, liquorice and violets, aged in amphora. I really wanted to try this crossing of Gamay and Reichensteiner which I only usually see in Switzerland, where it does quite well in the Geneva Canton. I would buy this for sure, for further research, although I would say that there was a touch of volatility on this bottle not present in any of the other wines.

The top wines were the Crus of Brouilly and Morgon. The Brouilly is a blend of three vintages, 2018, ‘19 and ‘20. Ten days on skins then ten months in different sizes of amphora depending on vintage. Dark berries, floral, and a serious side. £27 is a pretty decent price for the quality.

The Morgon, which costs the same, is a blend of 2020, ’21 and ’22. It’s a bit more tannic, concentrated, a bit of graphite in there, perhaps all due to the 50-year-old vines, the younger vintages in the blend and a longer (by a few days) maceration. This just needs more ageing. Many would go Morgon because of the name, I might plump for the Brouilly with that bit more age.

So, only one producer shown here by Sevslo, but worth exploring. A few Edinburgh retailers have some of these wines, and Winekraft also still lists their Beaujolais Nouveau 2024, very probably still going strong as natural wine Nouveau tends to (£22).

HALLGARTEN and NOVUM WINES

A good variety of wines on this table. I will highlight bottles from Languedoc-Roussillon in France, Greece, Tuscany and Portugal.

Château de L’Ou « L’Orange de L’Ou » is a Muscat Blanc from the Côtes Catalanes in Roussillon’s Pyrenean foothills. As I mentioned in Part One, this, and Catalonia/Catalunya over the border, are classic Muscat territories, and the amphora style is becoming very popular. The bouquet is orange-scented, the palate complex, with lemon, orange peel, ginger and stone fruit, the finish is textured and taut. Available from various retail sources for around £30.

Best-coloured wine of the day (which admittedly I could appraise properly only as it comes in a clear glass bottle) was Villa Noria’s “Amfòra” from the Coteaux de Bessilles (Hérault). Organic viticulture, and a natural wine with no added sulphur, this really smells very clearly of fresh orange. It’s quite fruity, quince and apple seeming to be mentioned in most people’s notes. I thought it was very nice, but I’m never drawn to wines which have a neck tag (here attached with string) rather than a bottle label. I guess I see it as a gimmick. However, it both looks and tastes lovely.

I know Gaia Wines’s “Assyrtiko Clay”. This is the version I would look for. 70-to-80-year-old pre-phylloxera-planted bush vines (trained low, in kind of nests, you’ve doubtless seen the photos). Vinification and ageing are in clay, as close as possible to the amphorae used in ancient times. Lots going on, with lemon citrus, honey, raisins and vanilla pod. A wine to age, for sure. £42/43. Crossed fingers for the people of Santorini.

Castello Vicchiomaggio is a well-known Tuscan estate where the Matta family makes fine Chianti in the Classico DOCG, at Greve in Chianti. “Amphiarao” is quite different, made from a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot and Sangiovese in the Maremma, to the southwest.

Vinification starts in small stainless-steel vats, but ageing is 12 months in 500-litre amphorae. It’s a wine of genuine intensity, dark and herbal with generous spice. I’d suggest this 2018 needs ageing further, but it is impressive. It costs just over £42.

Many readers will know Herdade do Rocim as the producer of the popular “Nat Cool” natural wines. Their base lies not far from Lisbon in the Lower Alentejo. It’s a big estate, 70-ha of vines with olive trees adding a second string. Big as they are, they are still pioneers of a return to using the traditional terracotta Talhas, said to have been brought to the region by the Romans.

Amphora White 2022 is a natural wine made from Antão Vaz (40%) with 20% each of Perrum, Rabo de Ovelha and Manteúdo (for obscure grape hunters). It has a bit more body than you’d expect for just 11.5% abv. Nothing added, no sulphur added. Definitely a very good, (relatively) inexpensive, orange(-ish) wine (about £27). There’s a red at the same price, but the white just did it for me. The “Nat Cool” red was also on show, £25 for a litre. Again, excellent value, but you probably know this wine already.

That concludes the second part of my article on the inaugural Clay Wine Fair. I certainly tasted no more than half the wines on show. Perhaps in a bigger venue I might have got to try more. However, those listed in both parts do represent a broad spectrum of clay/amphora wines available in the UK in terms of their geographical origin, and the overall quality is very high.

On a final note, I thought there are a few folks out there who would like to see this – Emidio Pepe pasta. Who knew? Cheaper than the wine, for sure. Locals can buy it from the deli shelves at Sotto Trattoria in Stockbridge. I wonder whether the UK agent for Emidio Pepe, Dynamic Vines, imports it?