INDEX OF Releases:
- Mayzons Blonshes
- Cabane Beige
- Limestone Cowboy Savagnin
- Maison Salée
- CPG
- Tu Rigoles?
- Matosinhos
- Carafage Conseillé
- Oceanic Feeling
- El Pueblo más Feo
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Stockists
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©2025 Elf SOEhne Verlag
RUFETE
GARCIBUEY
SIERRA DE FRANCIA
2024
the ugliest village
In a scene that could only be witnessed in the ugliest village of the Sierra de Francia, the one and only bar in Garcibuey had run out of beer on the day of its own yearly festival. The owner hadn’t paid his suppliers, just as his predecessor hadn’t, and as will his successor (the bar seems to change hands every couple years). No one seemed bothered, and people piled into the bar with their own Estrella, Mahou, San Miguels. I usually meet Genio here, but there was no Genio and I didn’t have any beer. The town festival was on, which means the bulls were here; One of Genio’s neighbours handed me a botellín and told me I’d find him at the Plaza de Toros. I should say add that Garcibuey doesn’t really have a proper bullfight ring (the only town that doesn’t have a permenent one), but it didn’t matter, what this village lacks in charm and aesthetic appeal it makes up for in enthusiasm and plywood.
I eventually found Genio standing inside the bull ring behind a makeshift ply-sheet barrier about shoulder height with a few other gentlemen who’d been drinking since Tuesday. Trumpets signaled that the next bull was about to be released into the ring, and Genio waved me over. A moment later I was behind that barricade with my new friends and cup of someone’s homebrew, as a very angry 400Kg horned engineer started to do laps of the ring and evalvuate the structural integrity of the barricades at full tilt. Adrenaline renders your sweat cold and the mouth dry, so I asked for another cup of cold tinto. I came to drop a few bottles for Genio this was fast becoming the wildest wine delivery of my career.
My neighbour behind the barricade at one point decided to step out from our plywood safe space taunt the bull, who obliged and charged at us. He jumped back behind barricade at the last second narrowly avoiding a direct hit as the bull continually smashed at the wall. Feeling pleased with his escape the neighbour reached his arm over the barrier to give the bull a little smack, while he was distracted. In the process of spinning around to confront his agressor, the bull slammed into the wall and managed to catch the man’s arm, which unsurprising broke in a few places around the wrist. More importantly for the rest of us, the barrier held up, cushioned from full impact by our friend’s forearm.
Genio is Gracibuey’s oldest and loudest bachelor and he’s looked after this slatey vineyard for a decade. I wanted to give him a couple bottles of the 2024 vintage that I just finished bottling. He’s an exceptional vigneron, who, now in his 60’s still runs circles around me in the vines. Every year I give him a few bottles that I make from his vines, and he never really says anything about them, but I let him know that I thought this was an exceptional year. On paper it’s a warmer, drier vintage that in theory favours the more elevated granitic sites, rather than the slate strewn slopes of Garcibuey, but I’ve stopped trying to rationalize the resulting wine which turned out to be one of the joyfull bottlings I’ve produced from this site to date. Full of sweet, mature and bright, and dense red fruit at balanced alcohol levels. This is what great Beaujolais from say Brouilly used to be like. A affirmation of the resilience and and epigenetic wisdom of old bush vines in their native habitat. They’ve seen it all before.
548 bottles produced
Rufete (and friends)
Slate Country
Garcibuey (DOP Sierra de Slamanca)
700 masl
Forest Berry Jam, Sasparilla, Fennel, Amaro, Cool Slate
Viñas Serranas Villages Pack
I only believe in two requirements to producing meaningful wine. Really only one. Talent. Talented sites and Talented producers. There is no question in my mind thay the rugged slopes of the Sierra de Francia have talent (I dropped a job in Barolo 15 years ago to come work and live is this, most desolate corner of the Iberian Peninsula). The signal was there and apparently I wasn’t the only one to register it. One could say that Viñas Serranas is a team of lost boys, that like me, independently boarded a bus and stepped off at the very last stop. Miquel, an astrophysicist and climber from Catalonia, Alberto, a winemaker and researcher from Salamanca, César, a wine distributor and merchant from Madrid and Bossi, a wildly gifted viticulturalist, who happened to be born here (the bus driver?).
The wines: The Sierra de Francia (formally D.O. Sierra de Salamanca) is a mountain range that forms the western flank of the Cordillera Central. the continuation of the Sierra de Bejar and Gredos just to its south east. Its lean, granitic and occasionally slatey slopes between 500 and 1000 masl have been terraced into vineyards for at least two milleniae (read more here). The collection of villages that dot the slopes all have a unique character, altitude and soil composition all perfectly articulated by the gamay-esque local variety Rufete. Over the past 10 years, Viñas Serranas have set about preserving this unique viticultural heritage and capturing the personae of these villages in bottle to share with the outside world. The closest thing to boarding a bus to end of Spain.
Miranda (del Castañar) | Rufete on Granitic Sand | 650 masl
Molinillo | Rufete, Calabrès (Grenache), Palomino, Rufete Blanca on Feldspar & Slate | 820 m
El Canchorral (Monforte) | Rufete, Rufete Blanca, Calabrès (Grenache), Trousseau | 900 m
The Purple Spice Pack
The three wines here share neither and address, nor a flavour profile.
They aren’t even from the same vintage. They have all, however, been called purple.
Syrah, Touriga and Dolcetto are all wildly flavourful, spicy and aramotic in their own ways
and for some reason they alll look quite violet in the glass.
2022 Matosinhos | touriga nacional | Plums, potpourri and white pepper | purple
2023 Carafage Conseillé | syrah | Figs, Olive Brine, Blackberry | purple
2025 Carafage Conseillé | dolcetto | violets, mint, white pepper, almond | purple
$105
tHE oceaNIC fEEling
Grüner Veltliner grown withing earshot
of the Souther Ocean
on Limestone
in Mount Benson.
Whole bunches gently macerated
in the juice of the same.
Candied Fennel. White Pepper. White Tea. Orange Blossom.
Two or Three Pack
($85/$125)
Free Shipping
Two Whites and a Red
Three Pack.
Free Shipping (Australia).
$105
Maison Salée
Chardonnay
Padthaway 2024
Chardonnay from John and Julie’s Vineyard on the limestone-laden undualations of Padthaway. 20 Months eleveage and fermentation in 500L seasoned Tonneaux. Distinclty saline and textured. Green Pears, Lemon Cream, Seat Salt. Padthaway-Fuissé ...
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Cabane Beige
Semillon
Mount Gambier (Kongorong) 2024
Semillon from the Limestone flints west of Mount Gambier and 13km from the Southern Ocean. Direct pressed to seasoned oak for 18 months and left untopped for the last 9. Snow Peas, Crushed Oyster Shells, Candle Wax.
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Carafage Conseillé
Dolcetto
Limestone Coast 2025
From the lonely Northern end of the Limestone Shelf. One of my dessert Island grapes. Meticulously picked whole bunches, fermented carbonically for 12 days followed by progressive pigeage then basket pressing. Raised in Stainless steel to preserve fragrance and freshness. Violets, Marzipan and briary fruit perfume.
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Mount Gambier Three
About 20 KM west of Mount Gambier and about 13KM from the Southern Ocean sits one of the Country’s most unique extraodinary terroirs. On a shelf of compacted limestone, locally referred to as flints, the Ellis family have been growing electric fruit that I’ve had the priviledge to guide into wine for the last 5 years. It’s cold here and rains often. Volume is a feature of the local dialect due to the incessant wind buffeting from the Ocean and it often smells like low-tide.
It almost doesn’t seem to matter what wine is made from this site, as they seem to speak more of the sea mist, the cold wind and chalk dust than any grape in particular, and particularly so in the long and cool growing season of 2023. Below a trio that interprets this enigmatic site through the lens of gentle handling and a thoughtful approach.
Mayzons Blonshes: Chardonnay direct pressed to Clayver Ceramic Eggs and seasoned oak for 15 Months.
Cabane Beige: Semillon direct pressed to Clayver Ceramic Eggs and seasoned oak for 15 Months.
CPG: (Chardonnay/Pinot Noir and Gris): Hand-destemmed Pinots infused in Chardonnay juice picked on the Same day. Predominantly Chardonnay . Consumer Packaged Goods.
Calcareous Three. Mount Gambier Pack.
$111 AUD
Free Shipping