June is always my favourite month on account of it containing the longest day and the Summer Solstice. It has a habit of throwing up some wine surprises too. Not the big names, but rather wines which would surprise most wine lovers with how good they are. I can already see an impossible choice for “wine of the month” looming in my end of year review, between the Galician wine here in Part 1 and the Savoie in Part 2, but any adventurous palate would almost certainly enjoy all of these.

Our six bottles in Part 1 begin with a Crémant Rosé from the Jura, followed by another wine of roughly the same hue from Alsace. Ringing a change next, a Scottish cider, then a white from Italy’s smallest region, Aosta. Then there’s a new wine from Czechia, before we end with that Galician I mentioned.

Crémant du Jura Rosé Brut Nature [2020], Domaine Overnoy (Jura, France)

This is not, of course, the famous Pupillin Domaine, but that of Guillaume Overnoy, down in the south of the region. Guillaume is at Beaufort-Orbagna, in the Sud-Revermont, where he farms a little over six hectares. Pierre Overnoy is his great-uncle. He did his apprenticeship at Domaine des Marnes Blanches, and when he returned to his family domaine he immediately set about implementing natural winemaking and input-free viticulture. As a result, Guillaume’s wines are beginning to get noticed.

He grows all of the Jura varieties, both the autochthonous varieties and those international varieties common in the region, and this pink sparkling wine is 80% Chardonnay and 20% Pinot Noir. It sees 18 months on lees before disgorging, and there is zero dosage. However, some still Pinot Noir is added for colour, a lovely salmon-pink, and the wine has a slightly lower pressure of 5.5 bar.

It strikes you first as fruity, but there’s a very attractive savoury twist. The finish is almost tart with red fruit. The lower pressure makes it attractive with food, though it is equally good as an aperitif. I like this kind of versatility because you can have a glass before dinner and then continue the same wine through the meal. That’s good in this case because it really is “moreish”. You want to drain the bottle.

This cost £32 from Communiqué Wines (Stockbridge, Edinburgh), via importer Vine Trail. To buy a pink Champagne this good you’d have to pay much more than double the price. I hope to buy some more for that very reason.

Pink Pong Macération 2022, JM Dreyer (Alsace, France)

Jean-Marc Dreyer is based at Rosheim. We are getting into that thrilling wine frontier of Northern Alsace here, north of Barr and Obernai but south of Molsheim, for those who haven’t perhaps ventured this far from the tourist trail. Jean-Marc is a natural winemaker, but is also often described as a holistic winemaker. He does have a philosophy which goes far deeper into nature and the natural environment than most.

It is worth reading Camilla Gjerde’s Natural Trailblazers to understand that philosophy, and that of his friends, Yannick Meckert and Florian Beck-Hartweg. That chapter in Camilla’s 2024 book explains pretty much, by focussing on just these three growers, why I always argue that Alsace is the most exciting place for natural wine in France right now, taking over the baton from The Loire and The Jura.

Pink Pong is a skin contact wine (JM is a skin contact man, for sure) made with that new classic blend of natural Alsace, Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris. Is it a light red or a Rosé? Who cares? Fruit is what it’s all about: cherry, strawberry and cranberry, mostly. The label states that the wine is made “SAINS”. That’s “Sans Aucun Intrants ni Sulfites Ajoutés”.

It’s another glass drainer of a wine, 12.5% alcohol but tasting like fruit juice. I think this is quite sought after and not always easy to find. Gergovie Wines is the UK importer and I bought this from their shop/restaurant at 40 Maltby Street (London). They are currently out of this cuvée, but do still have a couple of Jean-Marc’s wines listed. Pink Pong will cost between £30-£40 in the UK if you can find any. Quite feral, though for me, very pleasantly so.

Overture, Naughton Cider Company (Fife, Scotland)

You might have seen that I wrote about the Naughton Cider Company in the second part of my focus on the Cork & Cask Summer Fair, the previous article on this site. This bottle, which I didn’t really talk about much there, was drunk a week before the Fair. It is, as the name suggests, the entry into Peter Crawford’s world of “Champagne Method”, bottle-fermented ciders.

You’ll know, if you read that article, that Peter has orchards on the family farm at Balmerino, in Fife, close to the Tay. This is a blend of both cider and culinary apple varieties, vinified in oak using Champagne yeasts. After bottling it gets two years on lees for its second fermentation.

It has a very fine bead, a fresh apple nose and crisp “lemon zest” acidity on the palate. It has a cider freshness but the method used to make it helps give a very refined cider, even though Peter has described this as “our prologue…”. Only around 1,200 bottles made and at 7.7% abv it has a slightly lower alcohol content than the next two ciders in the range.

My bottle came from Aeble Cider (£21) in Anstruther, a shop and cider bar which I never fail to pop into when I’m over on the other side of the Forth. However, as you may have guessed, it can be currently found in Cork & Cask (Marchmont, Edinburgh or online) as well, for just £20.

Petite Arvine 2021, Lo Triolet (Vallée d’Aoste, Italy)

It’s worth repeating, as people still find it confusing, that the province and wine region of Aosta/Aoste is officially bilingual, so that you will often (more often than not) see the anomaly on labels of Vallée d’Aoste coupled with DOC. Being Italy’s smallest region, having just under 500-ha planted to vines, I’m often surprised, considering how little is exported, and how risk-averse many UK wine retailers have become, that we do see a few Aostan wines here. Lo Triolet is perhaps the producer I’m now seeing most of.

Lo Triolet is to be found at Introd, in the western part of the valley, quite close to the Mont Blanc Tunnel. We are just five kilometres from the Gran Paradiso National Park, and Marco Martin does make genuine mountain wines. Petite Arvine is certainly a mountain grape, better known in the Swiss Valais region, which is just over the Grand Saint-Bernard Pass. Aosta makes plenty of excellent Petite Arvine wines from several producers, and they are almost all somewhat cheaper than any good Swiss versions.

This one sees eight months in stainless steel after a brief maceration/fermentation. It is straw-yellow in colour and the bouquet has savoury notes plus stone fruit and a hint of white flowers. The palate is textured and waxy, with decent body (14% abv here) but a glorious freshness to balance that alcohol. I do like this and if Solent Cellar (Lymington, Hants) had any left I’d be putting another bottle in a pending order. Sadly it has all gone. Highbury Vintners might have some? My bottle cost £26.

Na Zdravi 2023, Krasna Hora Winery (Moravia, Czechia)

I visited this winery in Stary Podvorov in Southern Moravia back in 2022. They make a wide range of excellent value wines, although this is very much a family operation, using low intervention methods in the vineyard and winery. Nothing they make is overpriced. None of the wines represent anything less than excellent value.

This red wine, and a matching white, are brand new cuvées. They are a collaborative venture with their importer (see below). Na Zdravi means “cheers” in Czech, a good choice for an intensely fruity blend of, in this case, Zweigelt and St-Laurent. The vines are cultivated biodynamically on a long, sloping hillside up behind the winery. Winemaker Ondrej Dubas has created a juicy wine, with a lovely cherry bouquet, and which tastes of super-refreshing crunchy fruit with just a little grounding texture. It really is mouth-filling…smashable as they say.

Best served chilled, this 12.5% abv guzzler is just in time for summer. We drank it with fish & chips (of course we did). £20 from Basket Press Wines. I first saw this at The Sourcing Table, so they might still have some too.

Sal da Terra “Vino do Salnès” 2023 (Rias Baixas, Spain)

This wine is a collaboration (the name translates as salt of the earth) between Daniel Primack (our UK Zalto importer), Jamie Goode (presumably no introduction needed), and Ben Henshaw (Indigo Wines and The Sourcing Table), with Eulogio Pomares (winemaker at Bodegas Zarate). Zarate is located in the famous Salnès Valley in Galicia.

The wine is 100% Albariño, 60% coming from a site called Carballoso, in Xil, at 250 masl, 37-year-old vines 6km from the Atlantic Ocean on ferrous sand and granite. Those grapes were fermented and aged in 1,200-litre chestnut casks. The other 40% of the fruit is from Cambados, specifically the Francón vineyard, where 32-year-old vines grow on granite and red clay at sea level next to the ocean. This fruit is both fermented and aged in 1,500-litre concrete vat.

I last tasted the shockingly good 2018 vintage but it has been suggested that this 2023 is the best yet. It is simply stunning. I think Jancis Robinson may have called it the wine to get her back interested in Albariño (or words to that effect). I never got out of the variety, but this would for sure have that effect on most people. It has a smooth palate, broad, with peach and lime, and a lot of salinity. The nose is floral with more peach. The salinity gives it life, and it has genuinely great length. It is so worth the money. £30 from The Sourcing Table (Peckham Rye) in my case, via Indigo Wines. I might even call this, certainly the 2023, under the radar greatness.