ANDERS FREDERIK STEEN & ANNE BRUUN BLAUERT
It’s a Bit Like Saying, I Like You 2023
Ardèche, France
Sparkling Viognier made with the grapes from our vines at Valgrand, a soil of Marne Bleue south of the village – first fermentation in a fiber cuve, a fermentation that was very fast, therefore quickly after the wine was bottled, left to finish the fermentation and age for two and a half years in the bottles. We wanted to keep this white sparkling wine on the yeast in bottles for as long as possible, to be able to bring the bitter and autolytic notes more in place, and at the same time have smaller and more delicate bubbles. It means that this pétillant natural has a character more like a blanc de blancs sparkling from Northern France, and a less pronounced fruit and sweetness compared to what pét nat normally represents.
Viognier
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.