Autumn Pairings
Autumn Wines for a Retro TV Rewatch: Six Shows, Six Bottles
Darker evenings, a blanket on the sofa and a boxset you have already seen. Here is what to pour alongside it.
01 / Gilmore Girls
Gilmore Girls: Di Filippo 'Malafemmena' Pet Nat, Umbria
Lorelai and Rory talk at a hundred miles an hour and live on pizza, takeaway and Luke's burgers. They need a wine with the same energy, and one with a bit of cheek.
Pet nat is short for pétillant naturel, the oldest way of making sparkling wine. Instead of adding a second fermentation like Champagne, the wine is bottled before its first fermentation has finished, so the last of the sugar turns into bubbles inside the bottle. The result is lightly fizzy, often a little cloudy, and usually sealed with a crown cap like a beer. It's playful, low-fuss and brilliant with salty, greasy food.
The Di Filippo family farm organically and biodynamically in Umbria, in the green heart of Italy, and this one takes its name from a classic Neapolitan song. Roberto Di Filippo's vineyards sit around Cannara, in the plain below Assisi, and much of the work between the vines is done by draught horses instead of tractors, which keeps the soil loose and full of life. Serve it cold with a takeaway pizza and don't overthink it. Lorelai wouldn't.
02 / Dawson's Creek
Dawson's Creek: Mas de Janiny 'Tibo' Orange
Nobody in Capeside could ever make up their mind. Joey, Dawson or Pacey? Stay or leave? The perfect wine for that is one that can't decide whether it's white or red.
Orange wine is white wine made the way red wine is made. Instead of pressing the grapes straight away, the winemaker leaves the juice in contact with the skins for days, weeks or even months. The skins give the wine an amber colour, a gentle grip of tannin and flavours of dried apricot, orange peel, tea and herbs. It's an ancient method that goes back thousands of years in Georgia, where wine is still fermented in clay pots buried in the ground.
Because it has the freshness of a white and the structure of a red, orange wine is one of the most food-friendly styles there is. Try it with roast squash, a curry, or a cheeseboard, and serve it cool rather than cold.
Mas de Janiny is a family estate in the Languedoc, in the sun-soaked south of France, farmed organically, and Tibo is named for its winemaker, Thibault Julien. He blends Grenache Blanc, Muscat, Viognier and Roussanne, four grapes of the French south, into a creamy, expressive glass of candied citrus, apricot and pear with a faintly salty finish. Much like Joey, it keeps you guessing.
03 / Friends
Friends: Metamorfosi Merlot, Slovenia
The Thanksgiving episodes are the reason a lot of Irish people now host a "Friendsgiving" in November. A big table, a big bird and too many people calls for a wine that's easy to share and interesting enough to start a conversation. The name on the label helps: Metamorfosi means metamorphosis, which suits six friends who spend ten seasons slowly growing up.
Slovenia sits where Italy, Austria, Hungary and Croatia meet, and its wines borrow a little from all of them. Forget the heavy, oaky Merlot you might remember from the nineties. This one is lively and youthful, light to medium-bodied, with silky tannins and plenty of fresh red fruit. It's organic, biodynamic and vegan, and it's soft enough to please everyone at the table while staying fresh enough to cut through turkey, ham, stuffing and cranberry sauce.
Korenika & Moškon is a small family estate on Slovenia's slice of the Istrian peninsula, in the hills above the Adriatic coast, where winemaking goes back to the Romans. Matej Korenika runs it as a working biodynamic farm, with vines, olive trees and animals side by side. He suggests serving this one at 10–12°C, so give it a little longer in the fridge than most reds. It's the Monica of the table: it keeps everyone fed and happy.
04 / Frasier
Frasier: Les Pieds sur Terre Savagnin 'En Boutasse', Côtes du Jura
The Crane brothers were rarely without a glass of sherry, and they'd have loved nothing more than a wine obscure enough to lord over their friends. This is it.
The Jura is a small, hilly region in eastern France, between Burgundy and the Swiss border, and Savagnin is its signature white grape. It's best known for vin jaune, the region's "yellow wine", which ages for more than six years in barrel under a thin film of yeast, much like fino sherry. That connection makes Jura wines a natural next step for anyone who enjoys sherry. Expect a wine with serious texture and savoury, nutty depth.
This is a bottle to open slowly, in a proper glass, with Comté cheese, roast chicken or wild mushrooms. Niles would insist on decanting it. You don't have to.
Les Pieds sur Terre is the small organic domaine of winemaker Valentin Morel, and the name means "feet on the ground", which is more than can be said for either Crane brother. His Savagnin brings green apple, citrus and a nutty, earthy edge over bright, mouth-watering acidity. It's complex and structured, keeps changing in the glass, and has plenty of ageing ahead of it. It even comes under a screwcap, which Frasier would find scandalous and you'll find handy.
05 / Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks: La Sapata Băbească Neagră, Romania
Douglas firs, fog, damn fine coffee, cherry pie and a lot of things that don't quite make sense. Twin Peaks needs a wine that's a little bit strange and a little bit wonderful.
Băbească Neagră is a native Romanian red grape, and its name roughly translates as "black grandmother". It makes light, pale reds with bright cherry and red berry fruit, a touch of spice and very soft tannins, closer in spirit to a Beaujolais than to anything big and heavy. Romania has one of the longest winemaking histories in Europe, and small organic producers like La Sapata are bringing its native grapes back into the spotlight.
Give it twenty minutes in the fridge and pour it with cherry pie, a charcuterie board, or roast pork. The Log Lady would approve.
Fittingly for a show full of doubles, La Sapata has a twin of its own: it's made by the Di Filippo family, the same organic growers from Umbria behind our Gilmore Girls pet nat. Their Romanian vines grow at Sarica Niculițel in Dobrogea, not far from the Danube Delta, and this garnet-coloured red opens with cherry, wild strawberry and a floral hint of violet. Coffee is optional. The pie is not.
06 / Father Ted
Father Ted: Domaines Landron 'La Louvetrie' Muscadet
Craggy Island is windswept, Atlantic and surrounded by sea, so the wine should be too. And September is when Irish oyster season opens, with the festivals in Galway and beyond.
Muscadet comes from the western end of the Loire Valley, near Nantes, where the river meets the Atlantic. It's made from a grape called Melon de Bourgogne and is often aged sur lie, meaning it rests on its lees (the spent yeast) for months before bottling, which adds texture and a slightly savoury, bready note. The best Muscadets are bone dry, salty and mineral, and age far better than their reputation suggests. Jo Landron has farmed organically and biodynamically for decades and is one of the growers who changed how people see the region.
La Louvetrie is his fresh, sea-breeze Muscadet: lemon, green apple and a saline, flinty edge with a crisp finish. Leslie Williams of the Irish Examiner called it "zingy and fresh with a touch of ozone and flint" and "a fine match for oysters", and we couldn't have put it better. At 11.5% it's light enough for a second glass, and it comes under a screwcap, so there's no need to hunt for a corkscrew around the parochial house.
Pour it with oysters, mussels or a bowl of seafood chowder on a stormy night. And when Mrs Doyle offers you another glass, you won't need to be asked twice. Go on, go on.
Over to you
Your turn
Is there a show we missed? The X-Files, Buffy, Glenroe? Or a wine question you've always wanted to ask, like what "sur lie" means on a label, or why some orange wines are cloudy? Tell us in the comments, send us a message, or ask our team next time you're in our Mullingar or Athlone shop. We'll answer the best ones in a future post.
What's your autumn rewatch, and what's in your glass?