It is a deep pleasure to share the Canadian royalty that is Pinard et Filles. We have followed these wines for years and previously snuck them back in our suitcases from New York or Montreal if we were *very* lucky. It is hard to over-state how famous and coveted these wines are: one sip and we think you’ll know why. Wine from Quebec?! We know. It’s cold (!), but magical things are happening with hybrid grapes and a small group of crazy, passionate makers. Very top of the heap are the wines of Pinard et Filles. This is the mixed pack: four different cuvées. One sparkling rosé, one wildly savoury & interesting still rosé, a vibrant, electric red and a textured skin-contact white.

One or three bottles each Verre de Gris, Frangin & Frangine, all 2020, alongside the Bambultiements bubbles (2019), all bottled without fining or filtration and no added sulphur. Find full wine descriptions below.

Pinard & Filles, ‘Verre de Gris,’ 100% Frontenac Gris, Magog, QC 

Literal Gen-Z white grape Frontenac Gris emerged as a naturally-occuring mutation of Frontenac Blanc in 2003; it is an extremely hardy hybrid grape & winter baby, ideally suited to the frigid Quebecois climate. Hybrid grapes are a huge trend in wine right now— they are the winter sports enthusiasts of wine grapes, enthusiastically heading out for a mid-January hike while the rest of us huddle blanketed indoors, sipping at the fruits of their labours.This magenta-hued beauty, macerated on its skins for 48 hours and aged on lees in amphorae, is so romantic, but in a slightly off-kilter way. Its subverted rom-com energy is like going to the ballet in Moscow a hundred years ago, then meeting the love of your life when a gust of wind blows your hat off your head and it lands on your soulmate’s dog. Unfined, unfiltered, and with no added sulfur, a lucid mineral backbone balances the soft, almost brie-y nose, driving the luscious & charismatic palate of bright strawberry, cooked rhubarb, spicy Pulparindo, & juniper berry. Dress up in your finest silks & chiffons and take a million selfies while drinking. 

Pinard & Filles, ‘Frangine,’ 100% La Crescent, Magog, QC La Crescent is yet another winter-loving hybrid grape brought to us by genius Minnesotan wine scientists! Known for its expressive aromatics and ironically tropical flavours, this particular expression of the grape undergoes a whopping 120 days of maceration on the skins followed by an equally complex aging process in oak barrels and fibreglass vats. The resulting Frangine is rich, dense and opaquely amber-hued. It has the same emotionally-nourishing and legitimately soul-warming property as tucking into a piping hot bowl of steel-cut oats and honey on a chilly winter morning. The nose is cozy and herbaceous, reminiscent of one of those little pillows stuffed with dried herbs your grandmother used to keep in her drawers, accented by just the slightest, cutest hint of Love’s Baby Soft perfume. On the palate it’s like eating sneaky spoonfuls of homemade apricot preserves out of a mason jar while standing up in the kitchen. You’ve heard of comfort food— well, this is a Comfort Wine.

Pinard & Filles, ‘Frangin,’ Marquette, Petite Perle & Frontenac Noir, Magog, QC Pinard’s Frangin is the platonic ideal of a crunchy light red, the easy kind of chillable summer red we spend our whole lives looking for, frighteningly smashable but not without a secret complexity, like meeting a person with a crazy and unknowable backstory that they never make a big deal out of, they’ll just occasionally drop an “this one time I was hitchhiking through Sweden and I learned how to cast a love spell using deer fur & a chicken bone” into casual conversation and you’re like “oh cool— wait WHAT?” Frangin is naturally fermented in whole-bunches using semi-carbonic maceration, giving it lifted & concentrated skinny red fruit energy, raspberry seed & hibiscus juice. Aged for six months in barrel, undergoing malolactic fermentation, then bottled without fining, filtration, or added sulphur. Frangin is the perfect accompaniment to getting into some low-key trouble in the style of your Swedish hitchhiker friend, grab a bottle and leave your phone at home. Scrappy and kinetic, with zingy acidity and flavours of English cherry Coke (which has more of a currant-y vibe than North American), tart cranberry, & wood shop in the middle of nowhere. Pairs perfectly with blood red lipstick, Hawaiian pizza & a cool lake dip. 

Pinard & Filles, ‘Balbutiements’ Frontenac Blanc & Frontenac Gris, Magog, QC Balbutiements is the kind of wine that sticks with you— it has a nostalgic quality that comes across at first sip, and as soon as the bottle’s finished, you begin to wonder if you’ll spend the rest of your life trying to recapture it. And the truth is, you probably will, but that’s just part of the fun of it. Made using the traditional method AKA undergoing a secondary fermentation in bottle, this is round & (literally) explosive (open over a sink!) sparkler, as round as it is citrusy, like a very earthy Creamsicle. The nose is a soothing caramel haze leading straight into the fresh firecracker surprise of the palate: bright & acid-driven, perfectly ripe apricot, lemon oil, whiff of tomato leaf. Macerated on the skins for twenty-four hours, unfiltered, with zero dosage (meaning no added sugar, resulting in the bone dry bubbles of your dreams). Pair with something entirely unexpected, foodwise OR vibes-wise: Balbutiements adores spontaneity, and is always game for a curveball.