Anders Frederik Steen "Should we just rely on luck?"
Regular price $45.00
Unit price per
Grapes: Cinsault, Chardonnay, Grenache Blanc, Grenache Noir, Syrah, Merlot
Region: Ardeche, France
Vintage: 2022
Viticulture: Organic + Biodynamic
Soils: Clay + Limestone
Vinification: direct press rosé, all juice blended during fermentation, a little RS, a little fizz
Aging: Fiberglass tank
Fining or Filtering: None
Sulfur: Minimal added
About the Producer: Anders states that "Should We Just Rely On Luck?" is a direct press of all the grapes. The main part of the grapes were pressed slowly in a vertical press, the rest in a mechanic press. All juice was blended during the fermentation. A fermentation that stopped when the wine had 30 grams of sugar left.
Therefore, a rosé with a little bit of sweetness. The 30 grams of sugar are still there, so are the carbonic gas from the fermentation. It adds a little fizz to the wine and for that reason it is bottled with crown cap.
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.
ANDERS FREDERIK STEEN & ANNE BRUUN
BLAUERT Valvignères, Ardèche
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.
Notes from the Importer: Anders Frederik Steen makes wine from “grapes and only grapes”. He’s been doing this since 2013 when he first started buying fruit from winemakers he admired and making wine alongside legendary Jura vigneron, Jean-Marc Brignot.
Anders and his family have now settled in the beautiful village of Valvignères in the Ardèche and he grows grapes and makes wine at his friends Jocelyne & Gérald Oustric’s farm, Le Mazel. It is a beautiful spot on the slope of a wide, open valley and the many varieties grown here thrive on a perfect mix of clay and limestone. The vineyards are full of life, having been tended organically for decades.
In his previous life, Anders was both a chef and sommelier, working at the best restaurants in his native Denmark. First as a sommelier at Noma, later opening Manfreds and Relae. This experience informs his winemaking in that he does not seek to follow rules and doesn’t feel the need to do the same thing every year. Instead, as he harvests he tastes the grapes and begins to imagine the kind of wine he might be able to make. It is a refreshingly logical, creative approach, and the results speak for themselves.
Anders’ wines are made from red grapes which are either pressed directly or destemmed by hand and white grapes pressed directly in a beautiful old wooden press. Any blending is done during the harvest and the different varieties always ferment together, spontaneously, outside under the open sky. The wines are bottled unfiltered, with no additions and are thoughtful, original expressions of this part of the Ardèche.