ANDERS FREDERIK STEEN & ANNE BRUUN BLAUERT
Hold me closer 2022 [1.5 L]
Ardèche, France
A blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Marsanne harvested from the organic vineyards of Le Mazel in Valvignères. The Sauvignon and Chardonnay were pressed slowly, over four days, before being blended with a little Marsanne from the previous year. The wine rested in an old Alsatian foudre until the following spring, and the result is a rugged expression of the Ardéche that offers raw energy via a heady mix of ripe stone fruits, citrus and wildflowers. Delicious now, it will reward careful cellaring for years to come.
Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Marsanne
ABOUT THE PRODUCER
Anders Frederik Steen and Anne Bruun Blauert make their thoughtful and highly original wines from “grapes and only grapes”.
Anders began making wine in 2013 when he first started purchasing fruit from winemakers he admired and making wine alongside his friend, legendary Jura winemaker, Jean-Marc Brignot. The couple and their young family have now settled in the beautiful village of Valvignères in the Ardèche. The many varieties grown here thrive on a perfect mix of clay and limestone and the vineyards are full of life, having been tended organically for decades.
As well as their own vineyards, the two also harvest grapes with their friends Gérald and Jocelyne Oustric of La Mazel in Valvignères and further afield with the Bannwarth family in Obermorschwihr, Alsace.
In his previous life Anders was both a chef and sommelier, working at the best restaurants in his native Denmark. This experience informs the couple’s winemaking, in that a little like a kitchen working with the seasons, they do not seek to follow rules or conventions and do not feel the need to make the same wines each year. Instead, as they harvest, they taste the grapes and begin to imagine the kind of wine they might be able to make. Layers of flavour and texture are brought about through slow presses, oxygen and canny blends.
It is a refreshingly free, creative approach that yields thought provoking, sometimes challenging wines that are truly one of a kind.