Uphill -- Wines from mountains, slopes and terraces

Explore the impact that mountains and hills have on wine. We try four wines and enjoy each with a dish from our kitchen. Uphill -- Wines from mountains, slopes and terraces Our Sunday tasting looks at what mountains do to wine. Four wines from places where nobody would plant a vine if there were easier ground nearby. Steep sites ripen slowly, and the people farming them do most of the work by hand, often on ground a tractor cannot reach. These vineyards exist because the good flat land was already growing something else, or feeding someone, and wine got what was left. Height brings cold nights, which slow the ripening right down and stretch the season. The wine stays fresh, carries less alcohol, and finishes firmer than the same grape grown on a flat field twenty kilometres away. A long ripening on thin ground also gives small berries with lots of flavour. Whether that is worth the trouble is the question of the afternoon. Marcel Cabelier, l'Etoile Chardonnay 2023. Jura, between Burgundy and Switzerland. With croquettes and mushroom béchamel. Suertes del Marqués, La Solana 2023. A single site on the slopes below Teide, Tenerife, old vines braided along the ground in the local style. With marinated zucchini and stracciatella. Lagala, Nero degli Orsini 2018. Aglianico grown on an extinct volcano in Basilicata, and eight years old now. With bresaola and caciocavallo. Domaine Brusset, Gigondas Le Grand Montmirail 2024. Grenache from the foot of the Dentelles de Montmirail. With albóndigas. Two hours, four glasses, four plates. 24 seats, prepaid. $99 per person, tax and gratuity included.