Les Lunes Wine
There are two full moons in October this year: the first on October 1st and the second is on Halloween night! Halloween hasn’t seen a full moon in nineteen long years! To celebrate this rare occurrence tomorrow evening let’s learn a bit about the organic Californian winery Les Lunes (‘The Moons’).
Les Lunes Winery was founded in 2014 in Orinda, Californian by UC Davis graduates Shaunt Oungoulian, Diego Roig, Martha Stoumen, and Sam Baron. These friends created two unique wine projects: Populis and Les Lunes. Populis is a line of wines meant to be consumed when the wines are young. Grapes are leased from different vineyards that are owned by the group of friends. Les Lunes wines are meant to age and are made from grapes grown at 8 specific parcels of vineyards that they own. If they were music, Populis would be garage punk, and Les Lunes would be bossa nova.
Today Les Lunes and Populis are run by the unstoppable duo Shaunt and Diego-Marth; Sam and Martha moved on to start their own exciting projects. At the shop we currently sell Martha Stoumen’s Post Flirtation Red & White blends and Sam Baron’s wines from at Kivelstadt Cellars including the KC Labs Syrah and Pinot Blanc.
Les Lunes receives its namesake from how the team harvests and farms grapes - by the cycles of the moon. All grapes are farmed 100% organically without synthetic herbicides or insecticides. Natural sprays and harvesting are all timed in relation to the lunar calendar. Les Lunes also uses dry-farming techniques and compost and cover crops are used between the rows and throughout the vineyard site to increase the vitality of the soils.
The 2016 Les Lunes Red Blend is a classic Bordeaux inspired wine. Just as in Bordeaux, the grapes of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot in Californian are an inseparable duo, much alike to Dr. Frankenstein and Igor. The Cabernet Sauvignon grape brings the tannins, high acidity and the power while the Merlot softens the wine and gives fruity notes and roundness. The 2016 blend is 75% Merlot and 25% Cabernet Sauvignon; you could drink it now or age it for several more years.
These grapes hail from Los Carneros AVA, which straddles Napa Valley and Sonoma, grown atop wright loam soil, a type of clay that Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon particularly thrive in. Post harvest, the grapes were destemmed and underwent malolactic fermentation. Once blended, the wine was aged for two years in French oak barrels, bottled, and aged for an additional year before release.
Open Les Lunes under a full moon and enjoy the spicy notes of cherries, cranberries, and earth. For a spooky cheese pairing, enjoy Coolea, a cow’s milk cheese from County Cork, Ireland. Have a very Happy Halloween under the full moon with a glass of Les Lunes in hand!
Plus! Check out the Inside Winemaking podcast and hear more about Les Lunes Wine directly from winemakers Shaunt and Sam!