Weingut Schauer is an historic farm and winery nestled in the Sausal mountains, in the southeast of Austria close to the border with Slovenia. This is an historically poor region, with pervasive subsistence farming predating international recognition for its wine. Sauvignon blanc was planted here in the 18th century and has become the region’s most prized variety, though wines made from welschriesling, morillon (chardonnay), grauburgunder (pinot gris), and gelber muskateller (muscat) are also of significance here. There’s an extraordinary gravity and concentration to the sauvignons from this part of the world, no doubt a result of the steep slopes of slate- and schist-rich soils. Schauer’s is an excellent example, and one that would dazzle when paired with fava beans, complex salads, and full-flavored cheese.

Pomalo is the story of two distant cousins, one from Croatia's Dalmatian Coast and the other from the hills of northeastern Slovenia, who reunited in their ancestral home village of Kozice, Croatia just south of the Hungarian border in Slavonia, eastern Croatia. Their reunion sparked the creation of a new project that incorporates wine from Dalmatia and Slavonia, where old slavic grape varieties like we have here are used exclusively. We've somehow avoided including any rosé in the Monthly Pass until now, when this summer crush forced our hand. There's a Croatian state of mind they call fjaka (roughly, the sweetness of doing nothing) which this wine may help you achieve. 

This is the inaugural vintage from Les Cardinaux, a project started by a few old friends who found a really nice vineyard on the north-facing slope of Mont Brouilly. Their first effort came in the difficult 2021 vintage, which presented challenges for even the most established producers, let alone this fledgling winery. Thus, they’ve indicated with the word “Preface” at the bottom of the label that this is only a first step on the way to their true vision of the wine. That said: what a great first effort! A third of the wine spent some time in old oak barrels, the rest in small cement tanks, and the resulting blend has a lively and quite polished expression of fruit and earth. About 500 cases were produced, making this a very special inclusion to the Pass and our shelf. Like any good Beaujolais, this is best served with a slight chill and some good snacks.