Jenny & Francois at the Smith's

This is my fourth year of attending Jenny’s events and I am happy to have been a part of her tasting from the beginning as I have seen her portfolio grow from a group of largely eclectic and funky wine to a collection of some of the most interesting wines on the market.

Jenny’s portfolio focuses on natural and organic wines, mostly from France where she had spent a lot of time and where her partner is from and France is where the natural wine movement is strongest, particularly the Loire and southern France.

The first Jenny tasting that I attended was made up mostly of funky, off-tasting wines. Clearly many in her group had not yet perfected the art of working with natural wines. But it has gotten progressively better with each event.

One of my favorites from this tasting was the new label from Vincent Careme in Vouvray, a chenin blanc village in the Loire Valley. These were some of the most interesting Vouvray’s I’ve ever had. Highly aromatic with lemon curd, beeswax and mineral with a mouthfilling, mellow texture and long finish.

Another exciting newcomer was a sparkling wine from Burgundy by Catherine and Dominique Derain. Dominique Derain is a barrelmaker and decided to try his hand in winemaking. He met his wife in winemaking school in Beaune. Normally, sparkling Burgundy would be made from the locally renowned grapes chardonnay and pinot noir. Derain uses the locally accepted, but obscure aligote which is associated with cheap wine bar whites often mixed with cassis to make a Kir Royale cocktail. This is just another example of what can happen when a lowly grape is lovingly attended to.

This had a really unique and mellow mousse with flavors of treefruits, light spice and a tangy, lemony finish. Despite Dominique’s background as a barrelmaker (cooper), he uses no new oak. The production is so small that his may become hard to get is a New York restaurant takes a stand on this. Hope not.