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Importer of fine wine from France and Italy. Established 1972 | Berkeley, CA
Featured Producer
Domaine Pierre Guillemot
Kermit says he has several great memories of visiting with the Guillemots, and his favorite happened about fifteen years ago when Robert Parker asked us to arrange a big tasting of our Burgundy selections. It took place in the cellar below our Beaune office, and Mr. Parker approved Kermit’s suggestion that we invite the winemakers to the tasting. The place was packed and there were over two hundred red and white Burgundies to taste. Pierre Guillemot was there with his big belly and bristly moustache. Everyone loved having him, because he wowed them with comparisons of certain wines with various characteristics of the male and female genders. Kermit noticed at some point in the morning that Pierre had quieted down. He looked over and saw that, as Pierre tasted, he did not avail himself of a spit bucket. Suddenly there was an “Alors, au revoir, à bientôt j’espère,” and up the stairs he went. Kermit followed and watched Pierre walk away, awfully close to a Charlie Chaplin pantomime of a drunken French vigneron weaving down the street, barely able to stand up.The Guillemot family has worked Savigny-lès-Beaune vines for eight generations (!) and produces wines with classic Burgundian finesse and balance, all while leaving us a reminder of Savigny’s rustic character. Guillemot is one of the quintessential KLWM producers, with wines that epitomize the local terroir and emphasize grace and elegance over power and structure. But do not be fooled into thinking that this means they lack aging potential; the Guillemots are very proud of their old wines and thankfully have the foresight to set aside a good supply and follow their wines’ development over the years. A recent tasting at the domaine included a 1989 and 1975 Savigny Blanc, as well as the ‘90, ‘88, ‘85, ‘82, ‘76, ’72, and ‘64 Rouge. There was not a single tired bottle in the bunch. We challenge anyone to find a better deal on Burgundies that are built to last like these!
Clos Canarelli
Near the remote village of Tarabucetta, outside of Figari on the southern tip of Corsica, Yves Canarelli has made quite an impact not only in Corsica, but on mainland France as well. Now it is our turn. As a former student of economics who turned to enology, Yves strikes a fascinating balance between thoughtful intellectual and ardent traditionalist. Since taking over the family domaine in 1993, he has championed the restoration of native Corsican varietals. The appellation Corse Figari lies along a plateau just inland from the coast, where grapes have been farmed since the 5th century B.C. Though Figari is regarded as the most ancient growing region of Corsica, it has still taken pioneers like Yves having the courage to rip out entire vineyards of foreign varietals before Corsican wines have finally received the recognition they deserve. While the INAO remains slow to approve bottlings of some of the oldest of these heirloom varietals, often reducing them to the inferior “Vin de France” appellation, Yves Canarelli defends the history of Figari’s terroir with passion, confidence, and conviction.Although sparse in quantity, the granite and red alluvial soil at Clos Canarelli is nonetheless rich in minerals. The ever-constant wind from the Gulf of Figari makes for challenging growing conditions: while it serves as a terrific natural antiseptic for the vines, it can also dry the soil out easily. Yves’s choice to convert the domaine to both organic and biodynamic viticulture has made it possible for his wines to display an unusual freshness, complexity, and aromatic intensity that others in Figari have been unable to achieve. In the cellar, Yves only uses indigenous yeasts, and prefers slow, deliberate, precise fermentations, and leaves his reds unfiltered. Ever the scholar, he also enjoys experimenting with egg-shaped cement tanks (modern-day amphorae) and whole cluster fermentations. After nearly ten years of watching and tasting Yves’s evolution, KLWM is proud to announce Clos Canarelli as the most recent addition to our portfolio of the cream of the crop Corsican domaines.
Domaine Le Sang des Cailloux
One glimpse of Serge Férigoule’s barbell moustache might be enough for one to be completely enamored with the wines of Le Sang des Cailloux, although they also speak remarkably well for themselves. This domaine’s name means “the blood of the stones,” and Serge Férigoule is most certainly the heart that links the two together. In 1974, Serge left winemaking school with a longing to return to the vineyards. He went to work for Monsieur Ricard’s family in 1979 to oversee the vineyards. Without anyone in his family to succeed him, Ricard decided to gamble by partnering with Serge in 1982. In 1990, after Monsieur Ricard’s retirement, Serge launched Le Sang des Cailloux. Vacqueyras had just been awarded an A.O.C. that same year, a timely twist of fate that helped Serge’s wines to become as celebrated as they deserve.All of Serge’s seventeen hectares rest on the great Plateau des Garrigues, where red clay, limestone, and the famous galets roulés, or rounded stones, impart a terrific intensity and depth to the wines. Given the aridity of the soil, the vines here are naturally prone to lower yields—this gives the wines their concentration and power. That Serge has been farming organically for years but has never sought certification says something about his philosophy. He is not looking to impress; only to make the best wines he possibly can. Serge is also sentimental—each year, the Cuvée Traditionnelle of Le Sang des Cailloux is named for one of his daughters, Floureto, Doucinello and Azalaïs. The “Vieilles Vignes” is also called “Lopy,” named for his hometown. His wines have everything we love about the Rhône – wild and chewy with great notes of leather, spicy garrigue, and smoky, black fruit.
Daniel Chotard
Daniel Chotard and his wife, Brigitte, live just outside Sancerre in the village of Reigny. The Chotard family has been making wine for well over two hundred years, though Daniel was initially reluctant to accept the family vocation and started as a teacher. Daniel is a bit of a Renaissance man. His enthusiasm and passion for learning extends beyond wine and into music; he is a gifted guitarist and accordion player. He organizes lively music and wine soirées that showcase wine as an equally compelling art form to jazz. He has also invited Kermit to bring his rootsy band to perform in Sancerre—stay tuned for concert dates!In recent years, Daniel has passed the reins of the domaine on to his son Simon. The terroir of Sancerre is widely regarded as producing one of the greatest expressions of the Sauvignon Blanc grape. Sancerre was once more celebrated for its red wine, a Parisian bistro favorite. Simon grows Pinot Noir as well, used to make both red wine and rosé. The hilltop town of Sancerre is surrounded by a commune of villages that collectively make up its eponymous appellation, and each village is blessed with varieties of a distinct limestone that imbues a lengthy mineral component to its wines. He farms the slopes of the village Crézancy-en-Sancerre, where flint meets clay and the famous Kimmeridgian limestone. Simon practices sustainable farming, and uses organic composts to treat the vines. Typically, he harvests his grapes later than his neighbors, resulting in full-bodied wines with a rich complexity. He has also transitioned away from using cultured yeasts, fermenting every wine naturally—a rare feat in an appellation where technical winemaking is still the norm. Simon’s quest for a more authentic expression of terroir has led him to isolate certain parcels on the basis of soil, experimenting with different aging vessels in the cellar (demi-muids, acacia, foudres...) to find the best match. Like his father’s music, Simon’s wines are luscious and complex with deep notes and long, satisfying finales.
CUNA di Federico Staderini
The wine route can often lead us to unsuspecting corners of France and Italy. Usually the promise of a great potential terroir is present, but often the potential of the land itself has been either misunderstood or simply misread, and even more commonly the vigneron in question is struggling to translate a great terroir into the glass. In the sparsely traveled hills of eastern Tuscany, we found a vigneron who had matched his talents to a great terroir and came, saw, and conquered, realizing his vision with inspiring results.One wishing to visit Cuna from the south would take a small two-lane road winding its way north from Arezzo through eastern Tuscan towns that you have probably never heard of—Rassina, Bibbiena, Poppi—until reaching your final destination in the hills above Pratovecchio. As the crow flies, this is one hour due east of Firenze in the foothills of the Apennine mountains.
Several decades of work as an agronomist and enologist, not to mention being a native of Tuscany and an avid student of history, gave Federico Staderini all the tools he needed to ferret out this forgotten limestone terroir high in the hills of eastern Tuscany, known to the Etruscans long before him. We had known Federico when we collaborated at Poggio di Sotto and his Pinot Nero project at Cuna left our minds running wild with anticipation.
After we toured his vineyards, which seemed abundantly healthy despite the tiny Pinot Noir clusters clinging to each vine, Federico’s pipette began to dip and tour through his small cellar of old barrels, each taste revealing a wine of strong, confident character and surprising finesse. Afterward, a vertical sampling of six older vintages confirmed what had to be tasted to be believed: Federico had unearthed the Holy Grail for producing age-worthy Pinot Nero in Tuscany, and we would import it to the United States for all of our clients to experience.
Baldin
To say that the DOC of Bramaterra is in the northern area of Piedmont is an understatement. Bramaterra is about the same distance from Zermatt, Switzerland to the north as Barolo is from the Ligurian coast to the south, benefiting from more of a mountainous than a maritime climatic influence. It’s another world, another terroir, and another culture from what we now consider to be the traditional Nebbiolo country of Barolo and Barbaresco. One highlight of these differences is that in these northern parts, Nebbiolo is grown, but it’s referred to by its local name, Spanna.Enter Matteo Baldin, who in 1997 began making wine in a minuscule cellar he inherited from his maternal grandparents. Previous to the launch of his own estate, Matteo worked in nearby Gattinara. His calling, though, was always to return to his home village of Lozzolo to make Bramaterra DOC.
Matteo is a fierce advocate of the Bramaterra style. Unlike the many other Nebbiolo focused appellations of Piedmont, Bramaterra can have up to 20% Croatina. Though there is a trend away from using larger amounts of Croatina in his village, he believes that to make an elegant and typical Bramaterra, you need to stick with the traditional blend and work hard to achieve optimal maturity of each grape.
His plantings are modest with just 1.5 total hectares planted to vine, on slopes rich in clay and volcanic porphyry. The vines are densely planted, Guyot trained, and receive organic treatments. Matteo’s goal is to obtain high quality grapes with low yields.
Matteo is a focused and driven individual, carving out a living in a way that few choose to these days. His approach to wine and life are deeply intertwined:
“The terroir must emerge and balanced wines better speak my language of simplicity. Speaking through the wine, the aromas, and the flavor of my land, all makes me happy, satisfied. Balance, simplicity, terroir, instinct. These are my cardinal points. This is my little cellar.”
Château La Roque
The picturesque landscape surrounding the historic Château La Roque appears largely unchanged from how it must have been two thousand years ago. Ownership has changed hands many times since the Romans were first here, yet the soul of this special place remains in tact. Romans were said to have planted the first vines, and Benedictine Monks created the sturdy vaulted-ceiling cellars that still house the bottles today. Winegrowing resumed in the thirteenth century when the de la Roque brothers planted new vines. By the 15th century, another branch of the de la Roque family added glass blowing to the farm’s production. Today, Château La Roque is in the capable hands of Cyriaque Rozier, who converted the domaine to organic (certified in 2004) and now biodynamic (certified in 2011) viticulture, as planned by his mentor, previous owner, and Languedoc legend, Jack Boutin. Cyriaque makes the wine both here and at Château Fontanès. Though the property has responded to circumstance, its destiny seems irrevocably intertwined with its vines.Thirty-two of the Château’s eighty hectares are consecrated to terraced vineyard land with south-southeast sun exposure, on clay and limestone soils. This is unique terroir. Garrigue, the aromatic scrub brush that dominates the landscapes of the South, asserts its presence among these vines. Syrah, Grenache, and Mourvèdre, the noble varietals that Jack Boutin planted here years ago, make up the reds. The whites include Viognier, Rolle, Grenache Blanc, Roussane and Marsanne. In the wise words of KLWM salesperson and legend, Michael Butler, “Lay down a few cases of history.”
Domaine de la Prébende
Domaine de la Prébende produces a deeply mineral Beaujolais from a predominantly clay and limestone terroir, a rarity in a region dominated by granite soils. “Une prébende” essentially means “a tax,” and the domaine sits on the location where monks used to collect taxes from the villagers. As Ghislaine Dupeuble puts it, “Monks didn't like to own low end vineyards!”The Prébende Beaujolais cuvée, “Anna Asmaquer,” is named for Ghislaine's great grandmother, who married Jules Dupeuble in 1919. The family wanted to add her name to the label because it was Anna who managed the vineyards and winemaking—she is the true source of inspiration for what has become Domaine de la Prébende today.
The Anna Asmaquer Beaujolais is an old vines blend with profound minerality, a bright wild berry nose, and possesses typique Beaujolais finesse. The grapes are harvested manually and vinified completely without SO2. The wines are not chaptalized, filtered, or degassed and only natural yeasts are used for the fermentation. La Prébende crafts one of the best Beaujolais AOC values available today.
Prieuré de Saint-Céols
Located just to the southwest of Sancerre, Menetou-Salon is home to over 600 hectares of gently sloping vineyards planted to Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir. This historic appellation is one of several lucky AOCs in the Central Loire to sit on prized land, with soils of Kimmeridgian marl known to yield fresh, mineral-driven wines in all three colors. And while little Menetou is exported relative to Sancerre, its vineyards enjoy the same distinguished soil and climate. In other words, as far as terroir is concerned, Menetou-Salon has nothing to envy its neighbor to the east.Having grown up in the region, Joseph de Maistre was well aware of the appellation’s potential. While he was not raised in a winery, his grandfather, a Cognac producer in the Charente region, inspired his trajectory into the wine world. He became fascinated with the idea of transforming an agricultural product, managing the process from start to finish, and went on to pursue internships with wineries in the Loire, Bordeaux, Provence, and South Africa. When he learned that Prieuré de Saint-Céols, a domaine with vineyards in some of the appellation’s most esteemed sites, was going up for sale, he pounced at the chance to realize his dream of finally running his own domaine. In 2020, he and his wife, Marie, began their journey.
Joseph and Marie farm twelve hectares of which nine are planted to Sauvignon Blanc. Their first step in taking over this exceptional terrain was to initiate an organic conversion, and the wines are certified organic as of 2023. Today, the vineyards enjoy a natural grass cover to prevent erosion and promote biodiversity; they do not use chemical herbicides and work the soil beneath the vine rows as needed to manage weeds. Their cellar practices are intended to let the Kimmeridgian terroir shine through, so they ferment their wines naturally, with most cuvées aging in stainless steel to capture vibrant fruit and a crisp freshness. Joseph’s wines are elegant and lively with excellent minerality, showcasing the qualities that certainly led Menetou to grace noble tables throughout centuries past. We are thrilled to have the wines of Prieuré de Saint-Céols as the first Menetou-Salon we have ever imported.
Grottafumata
We introduced our clients in California to Grottafumata last year in 2017. At that time we only had olive oil to propose, and what an oil! Grottafumata’s olive grove is located on the west side of Mount Etna, near the town of Bronte, famous for its pistachios. Mauro Cutuli and Mariangela Prestifilippo inherited their ten-hectare olive grove from Mauro’s grandfather and began working the grove organically, producing their first olio in 2015. The dry-farmed grove is planted to Nocellera Etnea, an indigenous variety to the volcano, in a soil of lava, limestone, sandstone, and clay. In addition to olive trees they grow mandarancio, a cross between oranges and mandarins, used to produce marmalade. The remaining hectare is dedicated to the natural flora of wild fennel, capers, liquirizia, fig, cactus, mulberry trees, and nepitella (wild mint). They also produce their own herb salt and honey.Grottafumata means “smoky caves,” named for the caves formed by a nearby river that has eaten through the lava and the smoke from naturally occurring sulfur in the lava that steams up from the caves. Mauro and Mariangela have won many awards for their olive oil in Italy and we can now see why—the 500ml tins are available in Berkeley. It is an incredible all-around oil—herbaceous and savory with a light touch and it tends to go well with everything. On our last visit to Mount Etna in 2018, we were overjoyed to discover that the talents of Mauro and Mariangela had been applied to the vine as well.
Their wine project is on the opposite eastern slope of Mount Etna, the historic principal zone of wine production on Mount Etna. Zafferana is the name of this area, named after the abundant yellow ginestra flowers that grow here (“zaffro” is yellow in Arabic). This area of Etna is close to Catania and also the closest part of Etna to the Mediterranean Sea. The contrada where their vines are located is called Monte Ilice, situated between the towns of Trecastagni and Zafferana Etnea. Monte Ilice is an absolutely incredible slope, due east, that rises at least at a 45-degree angle, high on the slopes of Etna at 700 to 840 meters above sea level. Grottafumata works 1.4 hectares here, along with the help of the landowner who is in his eighties and still works the vines with his brother. Many of the vines are franchi di piede (planted on their own rootstock) and up to 100 years old.
Grottafumata currently makes one white and one red from the Monte Ilice contrada. Though their wines could take the Etna Bianco and Rosso DOC, Mauro and Mariangela have not sought the designation so as to work as naturally, dynamically, and independently as possible outside of the complex Italian wine bureaucracy. The Bianco is fermented for three days on the skins, then aged in stainless steel until bottling with full malolactic fermentation. It is principally a Carricante, Catarratto, and Minella blend. The Rosso is Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio (also called Nerello Mantellato locally). Both Cappuccio and Mantellato, which mean hat and cape respectively, refer to the large size of the leaves that shield the grapes from the sun. The soil here is incredibly loose, sandy, volcanic ash and the vines literally cling to the slopes. The low pH in this soil gives a white that is very round and honeyed, with its freshness driven more by an intense volcanic minerality than acidity. The influence of the sea and the ginestra flowers can also be felt. The red is very smoky and soil-driven, with great aromatics, delicious fruit, and a silky texture of wonderful touch and finesse. These wines are a fitting tribute to Etna's viticultural history and respectfully showcase its unique terroir without artifice.
From the Blog
Elena Lapini’s Ribollita Recipe
Earlier this month, Elena Lapini of Podere Campriano shared her recipe for ribollita with us. She explained, “Usually, every family in the Florence area (ribollita is typical only in Florence, Arezzo, and the plain of Pisa) has its own recipe that was passed down from generation to generation, and I have my own recipe that came from my grandmother. Here is that recipe, translated into English because we occasionally make it in our cooking classes and I offer it to my English-speaking guests.
“As you might know, it was traditionally a peasant recipe, made of bread, vegetables, and broth. It was usually done on Friday, because the Catholic religion says that meat should not be eaten on Friday, but then it was also heated in the following days and this is why the name ribollita (re-boiled) was born. It seems the name was born around 1910, but already in the Middle Ages, a similar bread soup was cooked that was simply called by another name. Today, it is eaten during winter because of our abundance of winter vegetables.”
Click here to view our 6-bottle sampler of Tuscan reds to pair with ribollita.
Posted on January 29, 2020, 4:11PM, by Tom Wolf
Earlier this month, Elena Lapini of Podere Campriano shared her recipe for ribollita with us. She explained, “Usually, every family in the Florence area (ribollita is typical only in Florence, Arezzo, and the plain of Pisa) has its own recipe that was passed down from generation to generation, and I have my own recipe that came from my grandmother. Here is that recipe, translated into English because we occasionally make it in our cooking classes and I offer it to my English-speaking guests.
“As you might know, it was traditionally a peasant recipe, made of bread, vegetables, and broth. It was usually done on Friday, because the Catholic religion says that meat should not be eaten on Friday, but then it was also heated in the following days and this is why the name ribollita (re-boiled) was born. It seems the name was born around 1910, but already in the Middle Ages, a similar bread soup was cooked that was simply called by another name. Today, it is eaten during winter because of our abundance of winter vegetables.”
Click here to view our 6-bottle sampler of Tuscan reds to pair with ribollita.