Our selection process – how do we pick the wines?
Our selection process
In a recent interview we were asked about the criteria behind our Wine Club selection and the mix within each shipment. Usually, we divide the process in 3 steps: obviously, quality always comes first, if we don’t like the wine, then it’s not good enough for our Wine Club members. At the same time, we select the people behind the wine: their family history, the way they approach farming, winemaking and their lifestyle as a whole. The mix has to be creative: old-school, world-renowned, young and innovative, we want a bottle from the classic producer with several centuries of history and the 30 years old winemaker’s funky (but promising) experiment to sit in the same box. We believe it’s all part of the same narrative which most of the times gets lost in the distribution process.
I was doing some research and ended up chatting with Marco from Cantine Garrone, in the northernmost area of Alto Piemonte, about 2 hours from Alba. Their Nebbiolo is from an old clone named Prunent, most of their vines are ungrafted and incredibly close to the Alps. Their values and their history sounded ideal for our Wine Club selection. On a normal year, we would drive up to visit the cellar and meet them, but with a lockdown in place we decided to postpone the trip. Less than 24 hours after the chat, Marco’s dad showed up at our door with a case of their wines to try. Call it dedication, passion, or just being very professional, but it definitely shows how much they care about what they do.
We still haven’t tried any of them but everything looks extremely good so far. Do you think we should include them in Wine Club shipment?
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