Translation missing: en.Oria Riff + Domaine Guffens Heynen 2024 Allocation + Domaine de la Mordoree Tasting this Saturday 3-6PM: Oria Riff + Domaine Guffens Heynen 2024 Allocation + Domaine de la Mordoree Tasting this Saturday 3-6PM
Oria-Riff
Oria-Riff is the project of Cooper Davis-Draper, an Aussie-born, Canadian-raised winemaker whose label came together about as spontaneously as these things can. Back in 2022 he was making his way home from Mexico with barely six hundred dollars to his name and a bottle of mezcal in his backpack when he pulled up to see some mates in the Barossa, accidentally made a few barrels of wine, and Oria-Riff was born. The timing might have been an accident but the idea wasn't, he'd been turning a label of his own over in his head for years, hooked on wine since his first vintage in Heathcote at eighteen and having since chased harvests across Australia, Canada, New Zealand and France. The name was collected along the way: 'Riff' nods to the Rif Mountains in Morocco, where the plan first took shape during a few contemplative months in north Africa after a stint in Burgundy, and 'Oria' he landed on later in Florence, loosely meaning golden, or rising sun.
Ahead of the '24 vintage Cooper shifted across to McLaren Vale, where by his own admission the surf was a fair bit better, and now works with fruit from the celebrated organic grower Fiona Wood, who he rates as the finest organic farmer he's ever met. The Dry Red comes off old Grenache planted in the 1960s on the deep sandy soils at the edge of Blewitt Springs, and the Dry White is 100% Semillon from a pristine block in the same vineyard.
Cooper came by the shop a couple of weeks ago to walk us through the range and it was the first time I'd had them all in front of me at once, a genuinely exciting tasting. What he's doing with Semillon is exactly what I wish more people would do with the variety. The Hunter has long struggled to win new punters over to Semillon, and wines like this are the easiest possible conversion, all breadth, texture and energy rather than the lean, narrow thing the grape so often gets reduced to. A lot of that comes down to technique, especially on the 'La Petite Soif' white, which is built from a blend of different ferments, oxidative handling and a range of vessels to layer in real texture and depth, while the 'Old Vine' Semillon is the truly captivating one, waxy and saline with a savoury umami streak, fine and linear yet deeply flavoured. The reds are no afterthought either. Both the 'La Petite Soif' and the 'Old Vine' Grenache embody the exciting new direction the variety is taking in this country, showing all the delicacy, elegance and nuance that beautifully grown Grenache can offer when it's handled with care rather than might and extraction, gentle yet generous and full of supple red berries, soft spice and a little flick of salinity. I've had a lot of Semillon lately and tasted alongside some of the better known Grenache names, and not only do these hold their own, I reckon they nudge past a fair few of them. Spend less, get more and walk away happier, I genuinely can't recommend them enough, so get your hands on these while you can!
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Domaine Guffens-Heynen
Domaine Guffens-Heynen is, by pretty broad agreement, one of the great white wine domaines not just of the Mâcon but of Burgundy full stop. This is a tiny operation that many rate as one of the genuine pinnacles for Chardonnay anywhere in the world, and the critics have long run out of superlatives, routinely placing these wines as the equal of, and very often a clear step beyond, the celebrated grand crus of Burgundy. As the line goes, before Guffens nobody really believed a Mâcon-Pierreclos or a Pouilly-Fuissé could stand alongside a Corton-Charlemagne or a Bâtard-Montrachet. He proved that they could, and the region has been chasing him ever since.
Jean-Marie Guffens is one of wine's true freethinkers, a straight talker who has ruffled plenty of feathers over the decades, and that refusal to play along is a big part of why he became such an influential figure. He looked at the humble, overlooked terroirs of the Mâconnais, decided there was no good reason they couldn't produce something genuinely great if you simply worked to the very highest standard, and set about proving it. The wines are made in minuscule, strictly allocated quantities from tiny yields of only flawless fruit, the vineyards picked over several passes across a number of days so that only perfect berries ever reach the press. That press is his pride and joy, a little hydraulic Champagne press built by Coquard in 1930 that he had rebuilt by hand, letting him gently work tiny batches one at a time. Stylistically these sit a world apart from his Verget label, far more powerful, opulent and layered, wines you come to for expansiveness, waves of fruit and rocky, stony minerality rather than anything lean or reductive, and which uncannily gain finesse and minerality with age while lesser wines just put on weight.
2024 is the smallest vintage here since 2021, and once again Guffens has excelled, holding his nerve to pick a good three weeks later than most of his neighbours in the chase for full ripeness. The result is a set of intense, deep, rocky whites carrying his trademark depth of fruit alongside a vibrant, stony freshness. The 'Bourgogne Jeunes Vignes et Derniers Jus' is the entry into the range and over-delivers to a frankly silly degree, a concrete-raised blend off younger and older vines across Chavigne, Saint-Véran and Pouilly-Fuissé that comes up deep and fleshy with superb structure and drive. The 'Mâcon-Pierreclos Chavigne' is drawn from only the first, gentle pressings of his iconic Le Chavigne vineyard, the finest and most famous parcel in all of Mâcon-Pierreclos, and it lands hedonistic yet mineral, saline and impossibly long. The 'Saint-Véran Cuvée Unique' is the only St-Véran he makes, a blend of all his parcels in the appellation including the steep, limestone-rich Clos de Poncetys that he likes to call the Chevalier-Montrachet of Davayé, giving a ripe, fleshy and powerful wine with plenty of chewy structure. Finally the 'Pouilly-Fuissé Les Trois C' draws three old vine parcels together on the steep belly of the Roche de Vergisson, a classic Guffens wine of concentrated richness held in check by vibrant acidity and a chalky mineral drive. These come into the country in tiny volumes and are allocated tightly, so get in quick before they're gone!
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Domaine de la Mordorée Tasting
Saturday 13th
3pm-6pm
Join us this Saturday as we taste through the wines of Domaine de la Mordorée from the southern Rhône.
Mordorée are a genuine superstar of modern France, built on truly sustainable farming, certified organic since 2013 and Demeter biodynamic since 2020. They work 143 acres across Lirac, Tavel, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Condrieu, Côtes du Rhône and a few Vins de France, everything hand harvested, yields kept low and intervention only ever when necessary. These are modern styled Rhônes that lean on a subtle touch of French oak for the top wines, while the unoaked 'La Dame Rousse' range delivers some of the best value to be found anywhere in the wine world. The estate is named for the woodcock, the local game bird once hunted by Ambre's grandfather François, a bird that carries a quiet symbolism of resilience and adaptability that feels apt given everything growers are up against today. The domaine was set up by Christophe Delorme, who sadly passed away suddenly in 2015 at just 52, and his vision lives on in the very capable hands of his daughter Ambre, his wife Madeline and longtime winemaker Rémy Chauvet.
I got to taste back through the range with the importer last week and top to bottom these wines capture everything that's great about the region across a real spread of price points. The rosés in particular are some of the best value going around in the shop right now, and as you move up into the 'La Dame Rousse' and 'Reine des Bois' wines you start to see real precision, power and depth, the kind of bottles you can happily drink on release or tuck away for a good while.
These are the wines that we'll be pouring on the day:
Domaine de la Mordorée Côtes du Rhône Rosé 2022
Domaine de la Mordorée Tavel Rosé 2022
Domaine de la Mordorée 'La Dame Rousse' Côtes du Rhône Rouge 2022
Domaine de la Mordorée 'La Dame Rousse' Lirac 2022
Domaine de la Mordorée 'La Reine des Bois' Lirac 2020
Come down to the store this Saturday and try these for yourself. See you there!