By Helena Jensen

After months gallivanting from tiny French wine salon to tiny French wine salon, I felt excited on the Eurostar to taste wines from elsewhere. I was headed from Paris to the Real Wine Fair in London which is one of the two major natural wine fairs held regularly in the city. The Real Wine Fair was started in 2012 by Doug Wregg of Le Caves de Pyrene to platform winemakers from a select number of importers who focus on organic, biodynamic, regenerative farming, and low-intervention winemaking, featuring 185 producers from 20 countries.

Wine fairs of this scale are an incredible opportunity to taste wines from regions and locations that are hard to access. But I’ve learned they also require planning and intentionality to not leave the fair overwhelmed and with crushing palate fatigue. Over the course of two days, I tasted both familiar favorites and new prospects from grapes grown in countries all over the world. Here are five wines that I found particularly compelling.

Kelley Fox Vineyards

Willamette Valley, Oregon, USA

“Nerthus” 2022

Kelley Fox has been a star amongst the increasingly vibrant scene of small independent winemakers in the Willamette Valley in Oregon for almost twenty years now. Like other producers in this area, she makes lush and elegant wines from classic Burgundian varieties, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. However, it was unexpectedly her skin-contact blend of Alsatian aromatic grapes that really knocked my socks off. This blend of Muscat, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, and Riesling was a striking coral pink in my glass, like a sun beginning to set. It has an expressive and aromatic nose that turns into a mouth-watering palate of peaches, strawberries, and roses. A delicious and vibrant skin-contact wine for the spring and  summer.

Domaine Hugo

Wiltshire, England

“Single Vineyard Brut Nature” 2020

This blend of classic champagne grapes –Pinot Meunier, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, (along with a bit of Pinot Gris) – makes a case for the oft-discussed promise of English sparkling wines. Domaine Hugo is a relatively young addition to the growing consortium of English producers making champagne-style wines. A lifelong pig farmer, Hugo Stewart returned to his home country of England after nearly a decade spent learning about and working in the world of biodynamic wine in France. After planting his first grapes in 2015 on the chalky soils of his family farm, he released his first vintage in 2018 to great acclaim. The Single Vineyard Traditional method from 2020 is intensely perfumed on the nose – smells like a lightly toasted scone with just a smear of butter and red currant preserves. On the palate, cherries, lemon, honey, and a hint of vanilla bean swirl together.

Domaine Jeanne Germain

Saumur, France

Saumur-Champigny “La Foulée” 2021

When I saw that Domaine Jeanne Germain was going to be pouring at the Real Wine Fair, I knew it had to be a stop on my list of producers to taste. Jeanne’s father, Thierry, has been one of the leading voices of Saumur-Champigny appellation in the Loire Valley of France at Domaine des Roches Neuves. In 2019, Jeanne decided to break off on her own, buy a small 1.7 hectare plot of vines, and start making her own wines under her own label. The results have been astonishing. As can be typical of wines made of Cabernet Franc, this was green and vegetal on both the nose and palate. However, the roasted green bell pepper notes  were equally balanced by a delightful thread of concentrated black cherries and dark chocolate. Despite everything that was going on, including a deeply compelling earthy savoriness,the soft acidity and lush texture of the wine made it both accessible and fun.

Jauma

Adelaide Hills, Australia

“Somewhere on Another Hill” 2022

All wine-drinking Parisians know that it is difficult to find non-European wines in this city, and it is almost impossible to find anything from Australia or really most wine made in the southern hemisphere. So, I was thrilled to be able to taste wines from this area of the world. Jauma wines were immediately compelling. As one of the most important figures in the modern Australian wine movement, former sommelier (with an MS, no less) James Erskine has been making wine in Adelaide Hills since 2010. This Sauvignon Blanc was fresh and zippy in the way that the best expressions of this grape always are,but it had much more going on than just that.The wine smelled of mandarin skins and was ripe and textured on the palate. Drinking it was like tasting juicy ruby red grapefruit through a layer of bruleed sugar.

Domaine La Garagista

Barnard, Vermont

“Loups-Garoux Reserve” 2018

Deirdre Heekin is in a category of her own within the American wine scene. Over the past twenty years, she has been making a name for herself and the terroir of Vermont through her boundary-pushing work with American hybrid-grape varieties. Through her dedication to expressing the elegance and potential of often discounted American hybrid grapes, she has shown that a new future for winegrowers is possible. I’ve known and loved La Garagista’s wines for years, but this was the first time I was able to try some of her older vintages. And I was absolutely floored. With a few years of bottle age, this wine of Frontenac Noir, inspired by the Italian wine style known as Amarone, has completely grown into itself. A portion of the grapes used to make this wine were raisinated, lending the wine a warm cinnamon and clove spiciness and deep plummy round fruit concentration. It was unlike any wine I have ever tried before.