Sans Liege Groundwork Counoise 2021

Fruchtigkeit meets Fleischigkeit. Angenehm, fast vornehm trocken. Duft nach Malven/Hibiskus, etwas Rose und Granatapfel. Am Gaumen stoffige Erdbeere, Cranberries und Sauerkirsche mit etwas Zitronenpfeffer. Ein Hauch Malz und ungesüßte Preiselbeeren im Abgang.
Nur 0,9 Gramm Restzucker und nur 11,5 Volumenprozente.
Ich glaube, der passt zu fast allem. So zaubert er uns feinstes Urlaubsfeeling mit ins Glas und ermöglicht uns gepflegtes Daydrinking ohne zu schwere Birne.

San Francisco Chronicle:

It’s a delightful wine, as electric in appearance as it is in taste. A persistent tart-cranberry flavor mixes with a hint of something sanguine and gamy. Don’t expect it to taste like a rosé; there is some tannin here, providing a welcome textural frame to the wine. Schalchlin recommends that people drink it chilled, and I agree, though it holds up well at room temperature too. Try throwing it in the fridge for just 20 minutes or so before you plan to pop the cork.

Flaschengröße (Liter): 0,75
Land: USA
Weingut: Groundwork
Rebsorten: 100% Cunoise
Region: USA, Kalifornien, Central Coast
Weinberg: organic and sustainably farmed grapes hand harvested from Pomar Junction (45%), Derby (30%), Coquina (25%)
Anbau: Sustainable & Organic angebaut, aber dieser Wein ist nicht bio-zertifiziert.
Verschluss: Kork
Barrique: Yes; 4 months in neutral French Oak
Alkohol % vol.: 11,5
Säure g/l: 5,7
Restzucker g/l: 0,9
pH: 3,55
Schwefel ppm frei(total): 24(80)
Winemakers comments:
Native fermantaion started in the vineyard. 100% carbonic maceration in closed topped tanks for 21 days. Bottled unfined and unfiltered with minimal SO2 added.
Tasting Notes: Agua de jamaica, cranberry, white pepper, violets, pomegrante, oakmoss. Best served chilled.
Your favourite recipe for this wine: White fish, salads. Or: have this with your turkey & thank us later. notes of cranberry & white pepper make it the perfect match. Serve slightly chilled.
Optimales Trinkfenster: now-2027
Allergene: Enthält Sulfite
Suitable for Vegans? Yes
Abfüller: Sans Liege Wines, 870 Price St, Pismo Beach, CA 93449, USA
Einführer und verantwortlicher Lebensmittelunternehmer: Apell Weine, Martin Apell, Ahnatalstraße 125, 34128 Kassel, Deutschland
Wilfred Wong of Wine.com: 91
COMMENTARY: The 2021 Groundwork Counoise takes a page out of the cellars in the Rhône Valley. TASTING NOTES: This red wine shines with aromas and flavors of pomegranate and dried earth. Try it with oven-roasted short ribs. (Tasted: August 15, 2022, San Francisco, CA)
By: Blake Conklin | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: 6/28/2020
Looking to change up your summer wine game with an outstanding valued wine that isn't white or rose? Then you gotta check out the counoise from Groundwork. This wine is a lighter bodied red, and ultimately the perfect chillable red to enjoy by the pool on a hot summer day. Packed with delicate notes of rhubarb and pomegranate, you'll want more sip after sip. This is a true summer treat.
SF Chronicle, 14.4.2021:
Groundwork’s Counoise is a thoroughly modern-tasting wine, expressing many of the features that have come into vogue in certain circles lately. It’s a limpid, gauzy red wine, the sort of color that almost bleeds into rosé territory.
It’s made using carbonic maceration, a process that imbues a wine with those super-fruity flavors that can sometimes recall berry-flavored bubble gum. It straddles a pleasing line between clean and funky, with sweet, earthy aromas that remind me of fresh potting soil. So it surprised me, when I spoke to Groundwork winemaker Curt Schalchlin, that he began making this Counoise in exactly this style back in 2011, several years before wines of this sort had found the loyal audience they have today.
“It was a tough sell to our following,” says Schalchlin, a Paso Robles winemaker who also runs the Sans Liege label. “Our customers were like, ‘What is this?’” A decade later, the Counoise is one of his most popular wines, he says. Counoise (COON-wahz) is a grape variety most closely associated with the Rhone Valley in southern France. It’s usually a minor component of a multi-grape blend, adding a little pop of acidity to a wine that’s mostly made of Grenache, Syrah or Mourvedre. Rarely does it get the varietal-wine treatment, but there are a handful of American bottlings that showcase Counoise from producers like Tablas Creek and Newfound.
Schalchlin gets his Counoise grapes from a vineyard in the Arroyo Grande Valley, in San Luis Obispo County, and he says the grapes themselves are massive, forming huge clusters as they ripen throughout the season. Larger berries tend to produce a lighter-bodied, less tannic wine: Most of a wine’s color and tannins come from the grape skins, and the larger a grape is, the lower its skin-to-juice ratio.
The first year Schalchlin worked with the vineyard, he watched in awe as the Counoise grapes just grew and grew and grew. “It got to a place where I realized I wasn’t going to make a serious wine without manipulation,” he says. By “serious,” he means a wine that has all the traditional markers of ageability: grippy tannins, deep color, heavy weight. Instead of pursuing a wine style like that, he figured, “maybe we’ll just honor what the grapes want to do on their own.”
That’s what led Schalchlin to perform carbonic maceration, a process that tends to complement lighter-bodied, lower-tannin styles and emphasize a wine’s fruitiness and tanginess.Ten years later, he pretty much hasn’t changed the winemaking regimen for the Counoise. And why would he?
It’s a delightful wine, as electric in appearance as it is in taste. A persistent tart-cranberry flavor mixes with a hint of something sanguine and gamy. Don’t expect it to taste like a rosé; there is some tannin here, providing a welcome textural frame to the wine. Schalchlin recommends that people drink it chilled, and I agree, though it holds up well at room temperature too. Try throwing it in the fridge for just 20 minutes or so before you plan to pop the cork.

theDELICIOUSlife.com (aus dem cheese-pairing guide):
What Wine Pairs Best with Semi-Firm Cheeses
Paso Robles Wine Pairing: Sans Liege 2020 Counoise

California Cheese Pairing: Stuyt Dairy Diamond Reserve, Gouda-style cheese

Counoise is a dark-skinned grape that is most often blended into red wines rather than made into its own wine, which is probably why you don't actually hear "counoise" very much. But adventurous California winemakers are exploring counoise for its own merits. Sans Liege's Groundwork label has a 100% counoise wine that is made by carbonic maceration, a process in which grapes are left whole and on their clusters during fermentation so that actual fermentation occurs inside each individual grape. Carbonic maceration gives wine a bright, fresh, and fruity drinkability. In France, gamay grapes undergo the same treatment to make Beaujolais Nouveau. Groundwork Counoise tastes like it looks: bright, vibrant pinkish-red cranberry, hibiscus, rhubarb, with subtle pepper. Counoise is naturally high in acid, which makes it a great wine to pair with food, and particularly cheese. Stuyt Dairy's Diamond Reserve is a raw cow's milk gouda-style cheese that is aged nine months. The aging gives the cheese a caramel, butterscotch flavor, and some texture with crystals.