Take Us Where The Wind Blows! Harvest Club (Jan 2022)
Harvest Club Wines:
Happy New Year Mission Wine Fans! This month we travel the four cardinal directions! Starting in South Africa we visit husband and wife Mick and Jeanine Craven of Craven Wines in beautiful Stellenbosch! .
Then we head North to Naoussa, Greece, and meet Apostolos Thymiopoulos, the man behind Thymiopoulos Vineyards.
Next, we head West to the mountains in Bierzo, Spain, to meet Mario Rovira and his project Akilia Wines.
Lastly we head East, to Slovenia and visit Marinko Rodica and his Rodica Winery.
Featured Wines:
90 points Wine Enthusiast: "Bright aromas of ripe, mashed strawberry, cherry and raspberry leap from the glass. The palate is light and smooth at first, with the tannins kicking in and lending some satiny support on the midpalate and through the medium-length finish. It's precise and focused, with superb verve and freshness through the mouthwatering close."
Try it with: Grilled artichokes, Burgers, Pasta Carbonara, or Ribeye Steak!
Craven Wines | 2019 "Karabib Vineyard" Chenin Blanc | Stellenbosch, South Africa | Organic Farming Practices, Natural Winemaking
It has a clean, quite pure bouquet of well-defined stone fruit, melted wax and dandelion scents. The palate is well balanced, with a saline entry and perfectly judged acidity. I like the focus here, as well as the waxy texture toward a finish that lingers in the mouth. Superb. (Importer)
Try it with: Brie and other soft cheeses, Scallops, Steamed Crab Legs, and Veal Chops!
Bright and high toned, with Asian pear, and a wonderful saline complexity.
Try it with: Roasted Veggies, Cod Fish Tacos, and Pork Chili Verde!
Elegant aromatic character of fresh black fruits and herbs. Complex and balanced. Vibrant acidity and round tannic structure. The finiah is long.
Try it with: Mediterranean Food!! Lamb, meat stew, sausages, or Coq Au Vin!
Medium weight with bright and spiced red fruits. Slight tannins, and a gentle earthy finish.
Try it with: Carne asada tacos, cedar plank salmon, and Cajun shrimp!
Plenty of fruit aromas of white flowers, peach cobbler and baked apples. The palate is only slightly tannic thus making this wine quite approachable and versatile with food. Also, best served slightly chilled, not ice cold.
Try it with: Pasta with truffles (an Istrian specialty!), calamari, and roasted chicken with rosemary!
AKILIA WINES 
MARINKO RODICA 
THYMIOPOULOS VINEYARDS 
MICK & JEANINE CRAVEN 
THE FIRS VINEYARD, STELLENBOSCH, SOUTH AFRICA
About the Producers:
Craven Wines | Stellenbosch, South Africa | @cravenwines
Craven Wines is a winemaking collaboration between husband-and-wife team Mick and Jeanine Craven. Mick is an Aussie currently working as lead winemaker at Mulderbosch during the day; Jeanine is South African, and they met in California dragging hoses in Sonoma for harvest in 2007. After both having taken to the textbooks at their respective universities, they decided to hit the road, see lots of things, work in lots of places and try and learn as much as possible from this massive wine world. After traveling across the world together for four years and learning about wines in Australia, Europe, the States and South America, the couple returned to South Africa in late 2011. They feel Stellenbosch has such an amazing array of sites and terroir, and that it is perfect for what they want to do, which is making site-specific, honest wines.
“We chose South Africa, as we think there is a lot of potential here to make amazing wines. We live in Stellenbosch and our hearts are here in this town, which is why we only make wines from the Stellenbosch region as we want to be within a heartbeat of the vines. We want to make wines which are interesting, both stylistically and by variety, but also wines which have a sense of place and express where they come from. We have isolated particular vineyard sites, for their unique soils and micro-climates, where we work with the growers to ensure that we get the best results from the particular sites. All our wines will come from single vineyards around Stellenbosch,” said Mick Craven. In the vineyard the ‘less is more’ attitude is implemented. They work with their farmers to rely more on cover crops to improve water retention rather than relying on irrigation. Furthermore, smart, year-round farming provides the nitrogen and other nutrients that the vines need, and the by-product is the uselessness of herbicides.
In the cellar, Mick and Jeanine like to keep things as simple as possible as well. They seek ripe flavors but at lower alcohols and with plenty of acidity. To accomplish this the Cravens work very hands-on but without manual manipulation. There is no use of cultured yeasts, enzymes, fining agents, etc. throughout the winemaking process. The white wines are about seeking the ideal texture for the site/vintage/variety, with the lees and aging vessels playing a huge role. The reds are all about stems. The Cinsault highlights the granitic site and fruit purity. The rosé? Well, it’s not a rosé but a true ramato of skin-contact Pinot Gris and is an amalgamation of both red and white winemaking techniques.
Thymiopoulos Vineyards | Naoussa, Greece | @apostolos_thymiopoulos
Thymiopoulos family has been in agriculture and grape-growing in the village of Trilofos for generations. Apostolos Thymiopoulos was the first to vinify the family vineyards while studying oenology.
In 2005, he produced his first wine named “Earth and sky”. He truly believes in sustainable viticulture and minimum intervention during the whole winemaking process.
Apostolos applies this philosophy to produce ten different expressions of Xinomavro, the renowned variety of Northern Greece, trying to reveal every aspect of its potential.
Thymiopoulos winery is located in Trilofos, a village on the foothills of Vermio mountain. A place in perfect harmony with nature, offering wines that reflect their origin.
Akilia Wines | Bierzo, Spain | @mr_akilia
Mario Rovira is a young Catalan grower who is taking Spain by storm with his beautiful and elegant wines. He had the opportunity to work at La Fleur Petrus with Jean Claude Berrouet, where he says he learned one of the most important aspects of his winemaking style: balance. He also worked in Sancerre, New Zealand and California, in a biodynamic winery in Napa. When he returned to Spain in 2010, with the help of his family, he started his own winery in Bierzo (in northwestern Spain). From the start he was searching for altitude, slopes, good soils, native varieties and old bush vines. He began his production in Bierzo renting two 70-year-old parcels, and in 2013 started buying vineyards he carefullt chose. They now own 4.5 HA of parcels ranging from 96 to 118 years.
When the Romans arrived in Bierzo, they were fascinated by the sheer magnitude of the mountains they found. Flying above, they saw a vast number of "Aquilias" (eagles), and this is how the name for the mountains was born: Aquilianos Mountains . Mario's vineyards are on the slopes of these mountains, with soils of quartz, slate, and loamy clay. He works with Palomino Fino (white) and Mencía (red). All of his precious grapes are hand picked and handled with care to bring you fresh, mineral, elegant, and balanced wines.
Mario was born in Barcelona and always dreamed of making Mediterranean wines. In 2017 he got the chance to rent a seafront 3.5 HA parcel in the town of Tiana (province of Barcelona), a slope planted with 35-year-old bush vines on granitic soils in the Serralada de Marina natural park. In 2018, together with his lovely wife Maria, they made their first vintage, looking for a more fresh Mediterranean style, with salinity, flowers and less concentration, and aging in old manzanilla (sherry) barrels. This is how La Flamenca was born!
Rodica Winery | Istria, Slovenia | @rodicawines
In 1998, Marinko Rodica, a car mechanic by trade, decided to start a new chapter in his life and became a winemaker. 10 years later, in 2008 Rodica family winery had sixty thousand vines and was certified organic. The brand new environmentally friendly and energy efficient wine cellar was completed in 2012. None of this would be possible without Marinko’s vision and passion and the support of his entire family. Today, Rodica estate organically farms 15 hectars of vineyards, with most of them planted with Malvasia and Refošk.
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