Julian Haart, that is - the prodigious German winemaker who somehow already has a decade of vintages under his belt after working beneath two behemoths: the living legends Egon Müller and Klaus-Peter Keller.

Julian Haart

Training in any profession is important. Just like we sommeliers and former hospitality pros were poked and prodded for "star hunting", or shipping around to different Michelin-starred restaurants in lieu of a longstanding career at one of them, the future rockstars of the wine world seem determined to seek out differing beliefs and methods to learn from while they hone their own eventual vinous vision. So it is that Julian Haart spent time with two luminaries of Germany in Egon Müller and KP Keller - producers of many of the most sought-after (and pricy!) wines in the world!

Verget

VITICULTURE | VERGET

Before being able to spend significant time in the Maconnais, Jean-Marie was a believer, like many others, that great chardonnay comes from the more serious appellations. He didn't have enough money to acquire vineyards at the time, so he started buying fruit and created Verget in 1990.Verget follows the same ideals as the Domaine wines " the best wine is made using the best grapes" they have always only bought grapes in a very meticulous manner. Since 2006, Julien Desplans joined Jean-Marie and oversees all of the vineyards and purchases, while JeanMarie is still supporting with the vilification. By its original approach, Verget is a laboratory of terroirs and a creator of climates which reveals all the aspects, all the nuances and the subtleties of the same appellation. The relationships with the growers are most important, as Verget determines the vineyard management and is often doing the picking.

VINIFICATION | VERGET

As with the domaine wines, the press is a crucial part of the Verget process. Each plot is pressed and vinified separately. During pressing, the person in charge is carefully watching and tasting along the way. The wines are aged on the lees and stirred depending on each cuvee and vintage. Aging is in cement tanks, stainless vats, or barrels and often the final product is a combination. There are unique cement tanks that have an egg shape and are horizontal rather than vertical which allows for natural circulation of the lees

Eduardo Torres Acosta, a young winemaker from the Canary Islands, began working with vines on his father’s small lot of land in Tenerife. . In 2012, Eduardo relocated to Sicily, becoming an intern at Azienda Arianna Occhipinti. Soon afterward, he got a job as the enologist at Azienda Passopisciaro, one of the pioneers of Etna's new wave of producers.

Eduardo Torres Acosta

Despite Eduardo’s "outsider" status, he rented several prime parcels on Etna from locals. Until the 2017 vintage, he would harvest the grapes, then truck them to Arianna Occhipinti’s estate in Vittoria. Since the winemaking facility was not on Etna, the wines were not allowed DOC status and simply carried the IGT Terre Siciliane designation. In 2018, Eduardo converted a small Etna garage into a winery but has opted to keep the wines IGT.

Today, Eduardo farms eight small parcels, 4.5 hectares in total. The primary volume of production is a wine called Versante Nord, produced in both white and red. Both wines are sourced from six parcels totaling less than two hectares on the cooler, north-facing side of Mt. Etna at elevations ranging from 750 to 950 meters. In traditional style, the vineyards are mixed plantings of various local varieties. The red grapes include mainly Nerello Mascalese with Nerello Cappuccio, Alicante, Garnacha, and others; the whites include Minella, Catarratto, Grecanico, Carricante, and Inzolia. He trains the vines primarily in alberello, in some cases growing as bushes and in some training on wires.

Eduardo Torres Acosta produces two single vineyard wines, Pirrera and Quota N, the latter from a Germana vineyard. Pirrera comes from a single contrada located at an elevation of 850 meters. The vineyard's name, Pirrera, references the presence of volcanic stones extracted from a quarry during a lava flow in 1614. Eduardo has acquired this abandoned vineyard and is bringing it back to life. Lighter and fresher than the Versante Nord due to the higher altitude, this is a blend of 90% Nerello Mascalese and 10% local varieties from vines of 50-plus years.

Quota N was first bottled in the 2018 vintage. Eduardo acquired this flat, half-hectare, west-exposed parcel of ungrafted 80-100-year-old, co-planted bush vines.The vineyard is surrounded by stone walls and sits on very rocky, sandy volcanic soils at a high elevation of 1070 meters in the Contrada. The parcel is named Germana for its historical family owner. Still, Eduardo was not allowed to use this or the Nave contrada name because the site is too high to fall within DOC Etna Rosso rules. The local road is called “Strada Quota Nave,” from this phrase, Eduardo pulled the name "Quota N" for the wine.

The production is unavoidably minuscule, smaller even than the parcel size would suggest, due to the naturally low yields of these old-timers and to holes where they have died or stopped producing.