Madre Graciano

Uva de Vida

A singular wine experience. The Madre is a very limited edition 100% biodynamic Graciano fermented whole cluster in a single sealed amphora for nine months. The result is awesome — a many-layered wine that upends expectations. Enigmatically bottled under crown cap, this is the headiest tonic one could hope to display under the heading 100% Graciano. On the nose it is extremely intense and powerful with terrific complexity, the fruit profile chthonic and thrilling: blackberries, blueberries, and black plum—fresh, stewed, and dried—followed by wild boreal herbs like nettle, yarrow, and spruce tips, then unfolding with beguiling spices like licorice and star anise and medicinal aromatics of menthol and dried flowers and even cocoa (owing entirely to the fruit as there were no barrels involved here!). In the mouth, the wine is colossal. It is a BFG at a towering 15.5% alcohol, obtained entirely without embellishment or selected yeasts or enzymes or chaptalization or over-farming. Its clay-based muscle is beautifully scaffolded by a textured acidity that resounds in the wine, giving it amplitude rather than raw power. The finish is long and gives an almost candied quality like a fine port. And all this without a dose of SO2, so counterintuitive to the normal stylings of a natural wine in amphorae as to broaden your horizons in a single glass.

Try pairing this beauty with bbq pork, rich (but less piquant) curries, mushroom dishes, heavier gnocchis, freshly made pasta, or sharp creamy cheeses.