MCF Rare Wine

Mimi's Improbable Rosé
 
My pal Mimi Casteel is a force.

She's got an intuition-level understanding of viticulture (especially the cultivation of Pinot Noir) that blew my mind the first time we met...so blown was my mind that I had to ask her to spell it all out in an email so that I could try to wrap my head around it.

Seriously, I had never heard anyone speak at such depth about the ripening stages of Pinot...

...and I've subsequently heard many a puff-chested contemporary of hers dismiss this knowledge...

...to which I only responded by asking if they've ever actually tasted her wines. 

(Silence ensued...)

On top of that, she's been leading the charge for Regenerative Agriculture in the US...something I believe we need incorporated into every level of our farming system, to one degree or the other.   

So, yeah, she's a force.

And, following the 2021 season, that force and intuition were needed.

For reasons I won't pretend to explain here, Mimi's original Hope Well site ceased to be Hope Well, and, for 2022, she was able to get her hands on a tiny site (her 'postage stamp', as she calls it) near her family's winery, but had been almost forgotten, due to the clones of Pinot it was planted with and their very low yields.

She knew what she needed to do - the entire stamp needed to be re-grafted.

This meant, however, that she'd almost certainly have no fruit and no wine for the 2022 vintage.

Long story, short, however, after a cycle that was behind by more than a month, her Pinot Noir and Chenin vines were, against all odds, bearing fruit.

Following the decision to throw all caution to the wind, and let the fruit hang well into NOVEMBER, she emerged with a tiny amount material...but rather stellar material it was.

In her words -

We had three boxes. Two red, one white. Two Pinot, one Chenin. Given how little we had, we tucked into one fermenter, layering the Chenin in between tiers of Pinot noir, lightly treaded. After four days, we went to the press and gently squeezed out four neutral barrels worth of currant-colored juice. The aromas were stunning from day one, and by February the most improbable union was ready, a love letter to the future of Hope Well, 930 bottles corked under the approving gaze of St. Valentine.

So, here we are, with out own small share of those 930 bottles, her 'love letter to the future of Hope Well'.

And...I love this letter...

80% Pinot Noir, 20% Chenin...elegant, yet serious...refreshing, yet profoundly complex...lifted, aromatic, bright, textured and full of savory/earthy depth.

If this was harvest #1, the Postage Stamp has a future we should all look forward to...but you don't want to miss out on this initial work of art from land and farmer...

...a most improbable chance to see something evolve from its inception.

HOPE WELL
Improbable Rosé Noir 2022

You may order by calling 212.255.8870.

Matt Franco
MCF Rare Wine, Ltd
249 West 13th Street NYC 10011
212.255.8870

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