Here are a few more wine recommendations to get you through Vermont mud season. Check out our recent 25 for under $25 article for even more selections (see link below).
The snow has mostly melted, the sap is flowing and our roads are erupting or imploding. Spring is imminent. Just to underscore that eventuality, a quintet of red-winged black birds came by the feeders earlier this week. Welcome back harbingers of spring! But all of you humans who migrated somewhere south, you know better than to return during mud season.
February is Black History Month. We’ve included two wines among our recommendations that are made by black winemakers. The McBride Sisters genesis includes a wild story about two half-sisters, one raised in California, the other in New Zealand, who did not know the other existed. Finally at ages 16 and 25, they met. It’s worth a listen. Mouton Noir is a winery started by André Mack, who began his career at Citicorp Investment Services, then followed his wine passion to become a sommelier, including at Thomas Keller’s French Laundry before being tapped to be head sommelier at Per Se.
We will be partnering with Agricola Vermont for our virtual tasting with Alto Piemonte producer Gilberto Boniperti. Alessandra Rellini and Stefano Pinna, natives of Lombardy and Piemonte respectively, farm privileging soil health and animal welfare to produce traditional, authentic Italian products. They champion “intensive rotational grazing” that they maintain “favors the consumption of grass and legumes at their sweetest point, and the constant movement of muscles allows for healthier animals and more flavorful and healthy meat.”
