Equipo Navazos, Clos Jaugueyron

On June 5th we'll be hosting a very special sherry night with Joe
Briand of Uncorked wines. We'll be featuring some very rare sherries
from Equipo Navazos. Equipo Navazos was founded in 2005 by two sherry
lovers, wine writer Jesús Barquín, a professor of criminology and
Andalusian wine expert/ writer, and Eduardo Ojeda, the technical
director of Grupo Estévez, that makes Valdespino. While tasting at a
sherry producer in Sanlucar the two men stumbled across a barrel of
amontillado from a solera that was exceptional. They lamented that
such a special barrel would inevitably be blended into the larger
production and lost forever. So they decided to purchase the barrel
and bottle it and split it amongst a small group of sherry
connoisseurs in Spain. The next year they decided to do it again,
choosing two more barrels from different producers. It proved so
popular that after the sixth such bottling they decided to form a
company and start selling the wines to the general public. The wines
are numbered sequentially, so the first available one is 7, and they
are currently at 117. We'll be pouring a small selection of these,
alongside one of their other projects, which makes dry, unfortified
wines from sherry grapes. I'm letting this know because it's a true
rarity to get to try wines of this caliber. I'm not exaggerating when
I say that these are some of the finest wines being bottled anywhere,
and the fact that they are affordable is amazing. I'll do a full
rundown of the specific wines we'll be pouring next week.

And now a few wines we've received recently:

Clos du Jaugueyron 'The Risk Taker' 2020, Haut-Medoc 2019 and Margaux 2018

Perhaps no region of the wine world has been as slow as Bordeaux to
let in even the smallest influences from the burgeoning natural wine
world. I've complained about the problems with large historic
appellations and their domination by large corporate winemakers, but
nowhere is as bad as Bordeaux. The 1855 classification
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bordeaux_Wine_Official_Classification_of_1855
read that if you're interested, it's way to much detail to get into
here) that still rules Bordeaux was based not on quality, or even
perceived quality, but simply based on market prices. Wines are still
mostly bought as futures before bottling, the market is controlled by
third party traders known as negociants, most of the big names are
controlled or invested in by banks or insurance companies, and during
the 80s and 90s, in order to keep up with California Bordeaux largely
turned it;s back on restraint in winemaking, and adopted as much
techno winemaking as anywhere in the world. The result of all this has
been the creation of a luxury commodity, set in its ways, with little
incentive to change because people are typically seeking the brand
'Bordeaux" rather than the wines themselves. In the past few years
however there have been stirrings of something different. At the
forefront of this movement is Michel Theron of Clus du Jaugueyron in
Margaux. A transplant from the Roussillon, Michel is one of the first
people to start farming biodynamically (most vineyards in Bordeaux are
some of the most chemically bombed you can find anywhere) and using a
light touch in the cellar, eschewing heavy extraction, new barrels and
ripeness in favor of restraint, and letting the grapes show themself
instead of toasted barrels. The first wine, "The Risk Taker" is one of
the most unique wines I've ever had from Bordeaux. It's made from a
majority of petit verdot (there are six red varieties in Bordeaux with
Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot making up the vast majority of
plantings, with some cabernet franc, malbec, petit-verdot and a
minsicule amount of carmenere rounding it out, it's almost impossible
to find a bottling that isn't majority Cab-Sauv or Merlot). Making
this wine Michel was inspired by the wines of the Jura, very light
extraction, very little tannins and a tiny pleasant bitterness instead
of ripe fruit. This is absolutely for fans of light reds, and can be
served with a slight chill. The next two wines are more classically
Bordeaux. The Haut-Medoc is Michel's entry level wine, the one more
approachable right now. The Margaux is Michel's top wine, and is a
larger more structured wine. These are both incredibly elegant wines,
and maintain a freshness and lightness not seen often in the region.