Lou

Wine list

We pour by the 2oz "taste," 5oz "glass," and by the bottle. Our wine list changes several times a week; here's a sample of what we do.

Beer & hard cider

St Peter’s English Ale organic

Bison Brewing Organic Golden Bock organic

Reinaert Flemish “wild ale” 750ml
w/wild yeast; barnyardy & complex

Dupont brut cider Normandy organic  

Sparkly          

Rosé di Valmonte raboso, pinot noir
Italy/Veneto Col di Luna

Montlouis sur Loire Brut chenin blanc
France/Loire – Chidaine NV biodynamic

Kir Royale above w/Chermette organic crème de cassis (is this the most fabulous cassis? yes, it is)

Refreshing whites

Quincy sauvignon blanc
France/Loire · Sorbe ’05 · fresh, grassy, in yer face sauvignon

Riesling
WA/Columbia Valley Charles Smith “Kungfu Girl” ‘06

Pinot Blanc
France/Alsace Marcel Deiss “Bergheim” ’03 biodynamic

Thermenregion zierfandler, rotgipfler
Austria Spaetrot Gebeshuber "Klassik" '05  

Colli Toronesi timorasso
Italy/Piemonte Massa '05

Schoffit
France/Alsace Schoffit '"Vielles Vignes" '05 organic

Oddball whites

Priorat grenache blanc
Spain/Mas Igneus “FA 104”  — First Priorat winegrower to grow organically; soulful, soft, slightly nutty

Cour-Cheverny romorantin
France/Loire Tessier "La Porte Doree" 

Full-bodied, luscious whites

Cairanne roussanne, marsanne
France/Rhône Alary “La Font d’Estévenas” ‘05 licorice-y notes

Burgundy chardonnay
France Dupont-Fahn '06 declassified Mersault

Juicy, medium bodied reds

Rioja Maturana Tinta
Spain Ijalba '03 hierloom grape variety organic

Côtes du Rhône grenache, syrah
France/Rhône Les Aphillanthes ’04 biodynamic

Ribeira Sacra mencia
Spain Ventura "Vina Canerio" '06 80 yr old vines, zero oak

Le Telquel gamay, pineau d'aunis, grolleau
France/Loire Puzelat '05 organic

Alto Adige lagrein
Italy/Hofstätter ’05 minerality +, restrained, chocolate finish

Côteaux du Languedoc syrah & cinsault
France/Christophe Beau “Danse des Ceps” ’03 biodynamic

Rheinhessen st. laurent
Germany Becker Landgraf "Luca" '05

Cotes du Rousillon carignan grenache
France/Roussillon Gauby "Vielles Vignes" '03 biodynamic

Oddball red

Langhe freisa
Italy/Piemonte Boschis ’05 – country cousin of nebbiolo & not for everyone; light bodied, refreshing, unassuming, lightly fizzy; dusty raspberries & a dash of bitterness. Great with charcuterie.

Full-bodied reds, some meaty, some funky

Pinot Noir
CA/Marin Pey-Marin "Les Trois Filles" ’05 organic

Empordà old vines grenache, carignan, & etc. Spain/Martí Fabra “Selecció Vinyes Velles” ’03 ripe; quite a mouthful of wine

Zinfandel
Sonoma · Bucklin Old Hill Ranch ’05 dry farmed on the oldest vineyard in Sonoma; ultra-old vine field blend, organic

Saint-Joseph syrah
France/Rhône Les Vins de Vienne
“L’Arzelle” ’05

Carignan 
CA/Mendocino Coturri "Testa Vineyards" 70 yr old vines ’05 organic

Cabernet Franc
CA/Carneros Sinskey '04 organic

Veronese corvina, cabernet franc
Italy Lonardi "Privelegia" '02

Sweeties

Sauternes sauvignon blanc, semillon, muscadelle
France/Bordeaux · des Ormes ‘00

Tawny Port
Casal dos Jordões organic

Banyuls grenache
France/Roussillon · Pietri-Geraud ’98

Malaga muscat
Spain Ordonez “1”  ’05 organic

Old vines? 

Grape vines can be quite long-lived, even after they've been sadly neglected for years in abandoned vineyards. In parts of Spain (e.g., Jumilla) and France, it is not uncommon to find vines that are just coming into their own at 80 years of age. Indeed, Bruno Ribiere's "Empreinte Du Temps," which we serve at Lou, is made from pre-phylloxera carignan vines that are over 128 years old.

Sagranantino vine over 150 years old growing outside the walls of Montefalco.

There is no consensus among winegrowers as to what constitutes an old vine—is it 15 years of age (probably not), thirty years (getting warmer), or fifty years (definitely)? In any event, we go out of our way to locate and offer old vine wines because old vines often produce exceptional wines. 

Old vines are interesting to wine drinkers for a number of reasons. Here are a few:

As vines age they begin to devote their productive energy to grape production rather than vegetative growth. The grapes themselves become smaller and fewer in number, and smaller grapes = more flavorful wine (because the skin to pulp ratio is higher, and a lot of a wine's character originates in grape skins).

Some grape varieties, carignan from Roussillon, in particular, switch gears as they get older: a carignan vine that produces useful but unexciting wine for the first fifty years of its life will only began to come into its own when its in its eighties.

Sometimes an isolated patch of old vines is the last living remnant of a lovely old  heirloom grape variety that fell out of favor for no good reason. The viognier grape, for example, was nearly extinct until George Vernay revived it during the 1940s.