Les PervenchesPinot / Zweigelt 2020 (750ml)

Mike and Véronique of Les Pervenches have been growing grapes and making wines outside of Montreal – a most serious boundary region of viticulture – for over 20 years. They are the OGs of the Montreal wine scene; their wines are coveted and poured at the best restaurants of this amazing city: Joe Beef, Nora Gray, Le Vin Papillon, etc. Les Pervenches has, more or less singularly, led the group of young winemakers who are experimenting with both hybrid and vinifera vines, including Pinard et Filles and Domaine du Nival. Yet Les Pervenches is different; these wines are some of the most quietly, subtly complex wines I have ever had: intricate puzzles etched on the head of a pin. The wines seem to me able to have a dialogue with any of the great wines of the ‘old world,’ relating most obviously to the cooler climates of Europe. The best of them feel as if they were made in an ancient European winemaking tradition that doesn’t exist: Chablis dropped in the coolest vineyards of the Saar? From where or why or how this unique-ness comes about, I don’t know, but I do feel it, profoundly.

The 2020 Pinot Noir / Zweigelt blend, clocking in at 11.2%, is a wine of perfume and soil; it smells of warm, dark fertile earth, dried hay and flowers. The feel of the wine is very fine, not silken exactly, but delicate. The Zweigelt fruit blends with the Pinot Noir, becoming both purple-ish, tart and gripping, as well as more red-fruited, lifted, sweet and floral. A vibrant, citrus-driven acid gives the wine energy and bounce.