Dear all,
There we go! 2026 has officially begun, and here at Zuiver HQ we’re very much looking forward to it. As January is a month of restraint, we will slow down in some respects, but as far as new wine goes, we won’t be slowing down much, as we’ll be releasing the Jura wines of Étienne Thiebaud (Domaine des Cavarodes) and the beautiful white and orange wines of Brigitte & Ewald Tscheppe (Weingut Werlitsch). Also, we received new releases from Natalino del Prete from Puglia, as well as the attractively priced cuvées (including white and orange BIBs!) from Domaine du Petit Oratoire mid-December. We’ve also restocked the vibrant orange wines from La Rural, Wilde Meute 2023 by 2Naturkinder has been declared stable (and has been declared the nicest German orange we have in stock now…), and we have received the very last shipment of sweet wines from Jolly Ferriol. Lastly, we’ll be pouring around twenty wines at Wine Professional 2026 at the RAI, for all of our professional clients and private enthousiasts who are keen to taste some in the first month of the new year.
Read on for all the latest wine news, including details on the release of the allocation wines and the Wine Professional information.
ALLOCATIONS PART 1: DOMAINE DES CAVARODES
As it’s January, we’re releasing a selection of our allocation wines. This time it’s the 2022s and 2023s from Étienne Thiebaud of Domaine des Cavarodes, and the 2021s, -22s and -23s from Brigitte & Ewald Tscheppe of Weingut Werlitsch. We’ve had the wines from both domaines resting in our warehouse for quite some time now, allowing them to settle, and we’re fully confident that they’re ready to show at their best. As quantities are minute, please take note of the order restrictions — one bottle per cuvée per person is allowed, and the wines by Cavarodes are available for pick-up in the shop only.
Étienne Thiebaud has been making crystal-clear, vibrant wines since the age of twenty-two in the northern part of the Jura, just north of Arbois, under the name Domaine des Cavarodes. Some of Étienne’s vineyards actually lie outside the Jura, in the département of Doubs, which means some of his wines don’t carry a Jura-appellation but are bottled as humble vins de pays. Interestingly, these ‘country wines’ come from some of his oldest vineyards, located around the village of Liesle, and are incredibly complex and long, whilst being refreshing and drinkable at the same time.
From this parcel in Liesle, we are currently releasing his 2023 VdP Franche-Comté Blanc, made predominantly from Chardonnay and Savagnin, which is brimming with mineral tension. Alongside it come the sapid, saline Chardonnay Les Lumachelles 2022, the broader Savagnin Cuvée 2023 (although only at 11.5% abv…), and the white pièce de résistance Ostrea Virgula 2022 — named after the oyster fossils found in this ancient vineyard, planted with Savagnin on Kimmeridgian limestone. The latter two are the ‘biggest’ wines in this release, though weight and warmth are always relative in Étienne’s wines. Even in warm years like 2022 and 2023, they tend to be far more digestible and refreshing than many of their Jura counterparts. This is partly explained by Étienne’s strong preference for large, neutral foudres rather than small(er) oak.
In addition to the ouillé-whites, we’ve miraculously received a few cases of his famed Vin Jaune from the 2017 vintage. In previous years we were often limited to a single case — and only in vintages where there was enough to go around — so we’re pleased to be able to include his long-aged, oxidative Jaune in this release as well. In the red realm, there’s one wine available: the expressive Rouge Les Lumachelles 2023. In strong vintages Étienne usually vinifies mono-cépage Poulsard, Pinot Noir and Trousseau separately from this vineyard, but in 2023 he chose to ferment and age everything together, resulting in a single red made from this classic Jura trio. Fruity, berried, mineral and forest-y, and exactly how the best Cavarodes reds tend to be.
PLEASE NOTE: Because of the limited availability of the Cavarodes-wines, the wines are available for pick-up only, and a maximum of one bottle per cuvée per person is available. Orders with higher quantities per cuvée or orders placed for delivery will be canceled.
ALLOCATIES PART 2: WEINGUT WERLITSCH
From Brigitte & Ewald of Weingut Werlitsch, based in the Südsteirischer wine village of Leutschach in the rolling hills of the ‘green heart of Austria’, we received a small allocation last year that becomes available as of this month.
Ewald’s more-than-biodynamic wines — made by the self-proclaimed Opok Hulk — all come from a single, expansive vineyard that wraps itself around a very steep, south-west facing hillside. The vines — primarily Sauvignon Blanc, Morillon (regional name for Chardonnay) and Welschriesling — are planted on Opok soil, a region-specific mix of clay and calcareous marl. The Opok soil gives all the wines remarkable depth, minerals and salinity, and very distinctive notes of smoke and toast. Vinification is relatively straightforward for all the white wines: after a light maceration the grapes are pressed and fermented spontaneously, followed by a minimum of 18 months of aging in old wooden foudres and barrels.
Unfortunately, due to climatic conditions, very little wine was made in the 2022 and 2023 vintages, meaning the available quantities are even more limited than in previous years. We have just a few cases of each of the three mono-cépage wines — Welschriesling, Sauvignon Blanc and Morillon — from the 2023 vintage available, and only the Sauvignon is available online. Please send us a message to check if there’s still some Welschriesling or Morillon around.
The Ex Vero line, made from blends of Sauvignon and Morillon in varying proportions from the steepest parts of the vineyard and classified by altitude, is given at least two years to mature. In the 2021 and 2022 vintages, fermentations behaved somewhat unusually, leading Ewald to bottle Ex Vero I and Ex Vero II from 2021 and Ex Vero III from 2022 after nearly three years with a small amount of residual sugar — hence the return of the familiar ‘S’ suffix. These wines are by no means sweet; the tiny amount of residual sugar simply adds a slightly fruitier expression and a gentle prickle on the tongue, while the acidity and mineral backbone keep everything fresh, taut and energetic. Since the first releases of the ‘S’ versions, these slowly became our favorites and also grew to be the most sought-after wines of sommeliers and private fanatics alike. According to Ewald, the ‘S’ can be anything you want it to be: Süss, Super, Sweet, Superbe, Sommelierswein, Strange, and, nowadays, Sought-after…
Alongside these three ‘S’ Ex Vero’s, we also have a ‘regular’ Ex Vero I from 2022 available. Thanks to minimal intervention and long aging, both fruit and soil expression come through clearly: tropical fruit alternates with citrus, salinity and seaweed, alongside stone, smoke and mineral notes.
Lastly, two orange wines are available once again: Glück 2022 (from the Ex Vero II parcel) and Freude 2021 (from the Ex Vero III parcel). Glück is made from destemmed fruit and sees about a month of skin contact, while Freude is fermented and aged with whole bunches and macerates for several months. As a result, Freude is the more savory, spicy and profound wine, whereas Glück highlights the tropical and aromatic side of Werlitsch.
Thanks to their incredible energy, depth and outstanding price–quality ratio, these wines have become some of our absolute favorites — and they tend to sell out very quickly. All the wines are available online now, and will be sold on a first come, first serve basis. As opposed to the wines of Cavarodes, we will allow shipping orders for the Werlitsch wines, but only for delivery within The Netherlands.
PURE POWERHOUSES BY DOMAINE DU PETIT ORATOIRE
The alliteration doesn’t lie: the pure price–quality powerhouses from Domaine du Petit Oratoire of the young winemaker Lori Haon and his team, are back in stock — and they’re seriously delicious! Lori makes his wines in the southern part of the Rhône delta, about 6 kilometers west of Tavel, in the cooler microclimate around the small medieval town of Valliguières.
In this quiet, picturesque little valley, Lori is something of a last Mohican when it comes to (natural) winemaking, and in the wider reach of the southern Rhône, he’s very much part of a new generation of natural growers. In comparison to the wines of his peers, his wines stand out for their freshness, minerality and bright, lively aromatics. Even though Lori works with southern varieties such as Carignan, Grenache and Viognier, his wines are often times far more drinkable than those of many producers elsewhere in the southern Rhône — and certainly compared to Tavel — largely thanks to the cooling influence of the valley and natural amphitheatre around Valliguières. Even the difference between his wines from Valliguières and his own wines from his Tavel-parcels were striking. Valliguières provides lower alcohol percentages, less bitters, more acidity and brighter aromatics even if processed similarly. We understand Tavel is the big appellation of the south for the dark rosés/light reds the natural wine community has embraced, but we think Valliguières trumps Tavel easily, especially in hot vintages which are becoming more prevalent.
Due to drought in 2023 followed by cold and rain in 2024, the past few years haven’t been easy for Lori, but he did manage to get biodynamic certification for his entire domaine as of the 2024 vintage. Because of the climate, Lori’s white wines are always produced in smaller quantities, but luckily we still received some of the soft, elegant Gratte Conil 2023.
In 2024 there was virtually no white or orange wine at all, but the yields in 2025 were more abundant, luckily. Therefore, the very attractively priced Jajatoès Blanc 2025 has made its return, and is even available in a 5L bag-in-box (!) too. Alongside this white crowd favorite, we also received his orange Blanc de Macération made from Grenache Blanc and Viognier in 3L bag-in-box format from the abundant 2025 vintage. Lastly, as icing on the cake, the orange cuvée Sacha 2025 is back as well, made from Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. Sacha is soft and saline, with a good dose of pepperiness and a floral Sauvignon bouquet — perfect for everyone who loves pouring and drinking orange wine in somewhat bigger quantities...
On the red side, we’ve topped up our stock of bottles of Lori’s lively, everyday red named T’As Pousse…, and have the 5L bag-in-box available for our horeca clients too. Next to this everyday drinker, his refreshing, light red ‘house wine’ Copains 2024, made from both red and white grapes, is also back in stock in 75cl bottles as well as 20L KeyKegs, for the thirsty among us. A new addition to the line-up is Lori’s primeur-wine called Supercinq 2025, bottled in the year of harvest. Supercinq is made from Lori’s top five red varieties — Carignan, Cinsault, Grenache, Mourvèdre and Syrah — and is all about joyful drinking. It makes sense that the blend drinks like old-school Bojo Gamay…
Next to the wide range of vins de soif, Lori shows what natural southern Rhône is really about with the serious yet drinkable cuvées Suzette 2024 (Grenache, Carignan) and the aged Lauzes Blanches 2020 (Grenache, Syrah, Carignan, Mourvèdre). Both wines come from 100-year-old vines: Suzette is fresher and more floral, whilst Lauzes Blanches has a dark-berried, more typical GSM-like profile and depth. Together these are wines which are textbook examples of how the (natural!) southern Rhône should taste: full of dark fruit, with floral perfumes, mineral depth and warm elegance.
Finally, we also received his new Loratoire: a brilliant wine made from old-vine Cinsault with a touch of Grenache, planted on pink marnes. These pink marls are the same soil type that makes many red Jura wines so compelling, and Lori proves that Cinsault excels on these soils too. Cinsault isn’t called the ‘Pinot Noir of the south’ for nothing, and with this wine Lori more than makes his case. Energy, tension, acidity, suppleness — the superlatives speak for themselves.
SOUTHERN ITALIAN CHARM BY NATALINO DEL PRETE
From the south of France we move on to the south of Italy — to the heel, to be precise. The Del Prete family has been making pure, characterful wines since the 1970s, working with southern powerhouses such as Primitivo, Negroamaro, Malvasia Nera, Aleatico and the lesser-known but locally loved Susumaniello. Natalino’s wines are made almost exclusively in concrete tanks, preserving the light, vibrant core of the wines. And although the cuvée Natali, made from 100% Primitivo, once again clocks in at its familiar 14%, the drinkability and freshness is as high as ever.
The powerful line-up also includes the rose petal-like, raisiny Sorso Antico, made from 100% Aleatico — secretly one of our favorite southern red varieties thanks to its aromatic profile — as well as Il Pioniere, a blend of floral Malvasia Nera and earthy Negroamaro. We’ve also received a fresh allocation of their 100% Susumaniello, known in the region for its bright cherry fruit and atypically light character, alongside the orange wine Moina 2024, made from Malvasia Bianca.
These wines are amongst the most honest wines from Puglia, as they are wines with real identity, personality and structure, all whilst being cost-friendly — exactly what we appreciate, especially after the busy festive season.
MACERATED CATALAN FIREWORKS BY LA RURAL
Besides French and Italian wines, we also received several pallets of wines from brothers Xavi and Andreù of La Rural, who are based in the south of Catalonia, about an hour west of Tarragona. The wines we received were mainly wines we tasted at the domaine during our visit last March, and we have been looking forward to the shipment ever since. As opposed to many winemakers in warmer, southern regions, the brothers focus mainly on lightly macerated orange wines and dark rosés made from aromatic grape varieties, and they have become a solid and much-loved fixture in our range, not only for the quality and purity of their output, but also for their honest pricing.
At the domaine, the ‘white’ Macabeu (made with very short maceration) showed beautifully waxy and with a bunch of tropical, peppery notes, while the indigenous Vinyater 2024 impressed with very clear mineral depth. Amongst others, their spicy Parellada 2024 was delicious too, but things really started to buzz once we put our nose into a glass of Moscatell 2024. Together with the brothers, we visited the vineyard where this wine comes from and drank a glass of this hyper-aromatic orange showstopper in the afternoon sun, which made us dream of the souks of Marrakech. Cardamom, coriander seed, white smoke, elderflower, peach, oregano and freshly cut grass were spilling from the bottle in HD, so to say.
Furthermore, we received their Malvasia de Sitges too. This light orange made of the queen of Catalan grapes was also impossible to resist. It’s slightly richer and more savory than the Moscatell, with an equally beautiful but somewhat more subtle perfume, it’s easy to see why the Catalans cherish this variety so deeply.
On the light red side, the new vintage of the much-loved pink Claret is in again, as well as the new vintage of the earthy but fresh Sumoll.
Lastly, in 2024 the brothers created a brand-new cuvée, which is a macerated blend of a few different grape varieties like Moscatell, Macabeu and Xarel·lo. Because the colour turned out more lightbulb-yellow rather than orange, they gave it the simple, clear and effective name Yellow. This cuvée is bottled in one-liter bottles and therefore, is even more sharply priced per milliliter than the rest of the range. Again, nice after the holidays…
2NATURKINDER’S WILDE MEUTE 2023
A small 2Naturkinder update: their Wilde Meute 2023 has been declared ready for business! When it first arrived it was a little wobbly, so we held this one back for a while, as we thought it would benefit from some rest. Recently, we opened a bottle in the shop and we were all smiling with excitement immediately. Usually, Wilde Meute is our favorite orange of their range, reminiscing the best aromatic Matassa’s, and by extent it might even be our favorite orange German wine we have available.
It’s smoky, as all 2Naturkinder wines tend to be, but also showing the delicate aromatic peach and citrus fruit of Bacchus, warm and gentle notes from long aging in old foudres, and beautifully precise acidity thanks to Michael and Melanie’s more-than-biodynamic vineyard management. After a full day open the wine was even better, so we’re happy to say that this stunner made from the Drei Freunde Bacchus, Silvaner and Pinot Gris — is now ready to be opened.
THE VERY LAST SWEET WINE FROM JOLLY FERRIOL
This summer, Isabelle and Jean-Luc emailed us to ask whether we would be interested in the very, very last pallet of Passe Temps Hors d’Age from their now-closed estate Jolly Ferriol in the Roussillon. Now that their Rivesaltes Ambré 2006 is fully sold out, this truly special wine is the perfect successor, so we asked Isabelle and Jean-Luc to send us the wines to be able to offer some of the historically super interesting wines by the couple for a while longer.
The wine itself is a so-called Hors d’Age: an old wine made from multiple vintages. Passe Temps is produced from Grenache Gris and Macabeu, which are fortified with pure alcohol during fermentation, keeping the wine sweet while raising the alcohol level. Each year, just over half a pallet of bottles was drawn from the cask and bottled, making room for the ‘fresh’ wine, while the base wine — the very origin of the blend — is now more than a hundred years old. In both aroma and flavor, it recalls long-aged, high-quality rum: notes of coconut, banana and caramel form a large part of the wine’s character, yet nothing feels artificial. The finish is astonishingly long, and the wine drinks with remarkable softness. Piece of liquid history…
WINE PROFESSIONAL 2026
It’s January, which means it’s time for Wine Professional, the annual wine fair at the RAI organized by The Wine & Food Association. On 12, 13 and 14 January, we have the honor of presenting our pure Zuiver wines (among a sea of less natural offerings…), and also are organizing a Zuiver wine & Choux pairing session on Tuesday 13 January.
At theWine Professional, we usually showcase a broad selection of wines that define our imports and that we believe belong in (top) gastronomy, across all price ranges — and we’ll be doing just that again this year. The Wine Professional is aimed at horeca professionals, but if you feel the inclination to join the tasting, please reach out via tom@zuiverwijnen.nl, as we’ll have a number of tickets are available for our loyal customers.
That’s it for this month! We’re looking forward to an energetic and vibrant 2026, and wish you all the very best — hopefully with a flying start to the year.
For now, Job is enjoying a well-deserved holiday this month, but Dick, Figo, Olivier and Tom are, as usual, available to assist. We hope to see you soon!
Warm regards,
Dick, Figo, Job, Merijn, Olivier & Tom
