August Wine Club: Hand-Picked
Welcome to August and our third story about wines that are good for the planet—and the people who live here, too! We’re here to help you discover all the ways in which the wine industry is changing for the better— from grape to glass—and how you can be a part of it.
We kicked off the club by looking at farming—first at organic farming (aka farming without chemicals)(June wine club here), and then at makers and growers who do more with less by reducing waste (July wine club here).
For August, we’re focusing on the end of the grapes’ days in the vineyard—the harvest. This month, we’ve got three wines that were made from hand-harvested grapes. These wines put people at the center of their craft, and careful harvesting by human hands rather than machines results in more deliberate care for the land and the environment around it. When people harvest, they can be selective, treat the vines and surrounding land with care, and reduce the non-grape material (MOG!) that goes into the fermentation process. Wine can’t be better than the grapes that go into it, and picking selectively is that first key step.
Questions? Wines or stories you’d like to see next month? Barbie movie spoilers, since we haven’t seen it yet? Send us a DM on Instagram (and don’t forget to give us a follow!) email at miki@getgoodwine.com, or stop into either UnWined location to talk to the UnWined crew!
Our wines this month put people at the center of the work.
The Wines
To start, we’ve got some bubbly—the Gregoletto Sui Lievti Prosecco from the Veneto region of Italy. This delightful sparkling wine has been made by the Gregoletto family since 1600 in the hills of Premaor di Miane, near Valdobbiadene. (Say THAT 7 times fast!) The family has been doing it all by hand—from the vines to the bottling process—for decades. This wine is one of two of the family’s specialities, and is called “sui lievti” because it sits on the lees (or dead yeast cells), adding to the complexity of the wine. Pretty cool, too, that the family is one of the last growers in the Veneto region to cultivate the indigenous Verdiso grape. As we talked about last month, indigenous grapes are more sustainable, as they’ve adapted nicely to their home turf.
— Gregoletto Sui Lievti Prosecco
Next you’ve got Plaimont Saint-Mont Les Cepages Preserves 2019 from South-west France. This is a unique blend of indigenous grapes Gros Manseng, Petit Courbu, and Arruflac. Plaimont is a co-operative, made up of 600 growers and promoting a vision of collective ownership since 1979. Putting people at the center of wine from grape to glass, paying them fairly, giving them a stake in the business—these are the values we’d like to pursue at GoodWine. What’s more, Plaimont’s goal is to have all of its growers certified in a French sustainable farming certification in 3 years. Do you think this wine could sub in for your usual go-to Chardonnay or fave white wine? Let us know what you think!
— Plaimont Saint-Mont Les Cepages Preserves 2019
The final wine we have for you is red, juicy, and kinda famous, too. The Domaine Lapierre Morgon 2022 is from Beaujolais in France and helps prove that when grapes are hand-picked and sorted with care, it shows. Mathieu and Camille Lapierre are the makers, and they are committed to continuing their father’s work to get the right fruit from the start to be able to be more hands-off throughout the process in all the best ways (like being able to keep other additives to a minimum). This is a serious wine, but still fun enough to have alongside your last BBQs of the summer.