It’s a funny thing wine – it can be easily understood as a simple and straightforward entity, if you so choose; and yet that simple thing, as old as civilization, has resisted human attempts at its complete understanding for millennia. That being said, if there’s one incontrovertible truth about wine, it must be that it is an inexhaustible subject. It encompasses so many areas of inquiry; there’s a multitude of topics woven within it, and such an immense number of questions. And of course, to the frustration of many, very few of these questions have a straight answer.
The two wines in this May 2020 release have not happened before and each 750ml bottle contains a universe of answers waiting to be touched within. Yes, the 2019 Roselana has a predecessor in 2016, but it was made with slightly different grapes and in a different way. The 2019 Primesautier, on the other hand, is a brand new cuvée. They are the first two wines from last year’s vintage to jump out into the world - with a boisterous spirit and a slightly impatient attitude. To be honest, we don’t blame them. Highly doubt that you will, once you taste them yourself. They are wines of youth and energy (the latter being one of these unknowable and rarely discussed topics in wine, but more on it later); beholden to no one but themselves, and drunk on their own beauty. Completely different in character, they nonetheless share the same highly-charged DNA of the 2019 growing season – there are electric currents running through each, yet both are gentle souls full of nuance and delicacy.
The 2019 Roselana is a powerful charmer and works in mysterious ways. It’s a game of hide and seek, it flows and glides, it caresses and tickles with unobtrusive elegance. Its unique character is unmistakeable, but it doesn’t make you stand up and notice it. It bewitches quietly until in one moment you realize it’s enslaved you with its purity and beauty, and you’re way past the point of redemption.
The 2019 Primesautier is on the exact opposite end of the register – rambunctious and riotous, a wine not afraid to flaunt its ungovernable character. It delivers pleasure in spades and it’s hard to drink A bottle only. You can forget about drinking A glass - not possible, at least in our experience. Its fruit is glossy and sleek, yet rustic at heart - a savage beauty wrapped in plush velvet. It’s explosive and pulsates with vibrancy that we have not encountered before.
Both of the 2019 Roselana and the 2019 Primesautier are wonderful summer wines – invigorating, playful and stimulating, but capable of long and lulling embraces as well. You can think of them as the two faces of Janus – the Roman god of beginnings, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages and endings. Yet, their core beats to the same rhythm of irrepressible energy that electrifies the receiver. And that, in and of itself, is a mystery, because energy in wine is one of those unanswered questions.
How and why did these wines happen? Where does the one thing that unites them come from? What is energy in wine and where is its source? If you want to hear our thoughts on it, and what we’ve learned so far, tune in here to our talk on Thursday, June 4th.
Now, we may not have all the answers. Yet, what we hope to inspire is a different approach towards the unknown – one of revelry and wonderment, and if you choose to get serious about it (but you don’t need to) – one of patient and steady deduction through keeping our minds and palates open. This is how we work at our winery; this is what all Pearl Morissette wines are a direct result of: always, always paying attention to the micro and the macro; steering clear from any bias (positive or negative) to the best of our abilities; questioning everything and accepting the harmonies that each vessel and each wine leads us to on their own merit, regardless of how familiar or how utterly foreign they are to us.
