October 2026 Wine Club
Vinicola Nulles Parabolic White 2024
The vibe: Happy October! I don’t know about y’all but we are leaning heavy into the fall vibes here at Petite. We have another killer seasonal lineup in this month’s club picks featuring bottles we’ve never had in the shop before! Last month’s focus was Spain and we honestly couldn’t get enough of that, but we’re branching out to include the entire Iberian peninsula including a couple bottles from one of our favorite Portuguese producers, Bojo do Luar. This first bottle though is from a really cool cooperative in Catalonia, housed within a cathedral built out of the clay and lime terroir. The name of this cuvée, ‘Parabolic’ is a nod to the parabolic arches in the ceilings of the cathedral. The wine features two prominent cava varieties, Xarel-lo and Macabeu, which tend to fill the palate and finish a bit heavier and rounder. In contrast, this wine has a lively, fresh quality that balances its weight beautifully, and finishes with fruity, green apple, lemon pear and notes of mediterranean herbs.
The winemaker: Vinicola Nulles is a wine co-operative that brings together 90 growers from the town of Nulles in a huge 'Catherdral' winery built to symbolise the "union of a people to overcome the crisis of phylloxera". Over a hundred years later they still use the original fermentation vats and a network of underground cellars. Although they are steeped in history they are always looking to the future and constantly updating their processes.
The geeky details: 70% Macabeu, 30% Xarel-lo from organically cultivated vines in Tarragona, Catalonia. Grapes are hand-harvested, directly pressed and spontaneously ferment and age in stainless steel before bottling unfined, unfiltered, minimal added SO2.
Serve: With a chill.
Food pairing: Go with dishes with citrusy, herby notes here. Salmon would go great with this! Or any seafood dishes or tapas for that matter.
Album pairing: Karate Boogaloo - Access All Areas
Bojo do Luar ‘P’tchin’ 2025
The vibe: Ah, Vinho Verde! One of our favorite regions for wine and an obvious choice during the summer months, but perhaps less considered in the off-season. However, this region produces some of our favorite orange and red wines - wines that are less prominent than their white counterparts. Bojo do Luar is a producer we’ve worked with for many years and one we admire for embracing traditional, expressive and inventive winemaking methods over contemporary trends. This wine features a grape called Azal, native to Vinho Verde, and is the result of an exceptionally warm growing season lending ripeness and balance to this single varietal wine. Aged on its skins for three months in terra cotta, this wine shows its structure and grippy texture in the glass and on the palate and is kind of the perfect food wine for this time of year. It also features one of our favorite natural winemaking party tricks - these guys add ground chestnut flowers as a natural stabilizer rather than sulfites. Crazy stuff here. P’tchin! Cheers!
The winemaker: Bojo do Luar is a collaborative project between Savio Soares and Fernando Paiva, a biodynamic producer who has been experimenting with adding ground chestnut flowers to the grapes and must prior to fermentation as an alternative to using sulfites. Savio saw this as an opportunity to use the traditional autochthonous varietals of Northern Portugal, with natural high levels of acidity, and apply his knowledge and experience of many decades working with French producers. Together with two local young men, with experience and knowledge of regional viticulture, who were open to experiment new methods in the vineyard and cellar, the Bojo do Luar project started to take shape. The soils are fertilized with self-made organic compost, blended with chicken and cow’s manure. In the middle of the rows, a variety of beneficial herbs, recommended by Mr. Paiva, were sewn to further enrich the soils at the beginning of springtime and autumn.
The geeky details: 100% Azal, fermented in terra cotta amphora with 500g chestnut flower powder added to the must. Macerated on skins for 3 months, racked to stainless for 3 months then bottled with minimal sulfur additions.
Serve: With a chill.
Food pairing: This is a crazy one on paper but in practice this reminds us of our favorite fuller-bodied white wines with lots of grip and texture, reminiscent of our favorite southern Italian biancos. Pair this with tinned fish, Portuguese salted cod and fresh autumnal salads with pomegranate and sweet potato.
Album pairing: Àbáse - Gondolatook / Budapest Juke - EP
Ronsel do Sil Veluveyra Mencia 2024
The vibe: Ronsel do Sil is situated in one of the most extreme wine growing regions in the world, the Ribeira Sacra of northwestern Spain. Because the vines are on steeply sloped terraces (built by the Romans, by the way), all pruning, maintenance and harvest is carried out by hand, a necessity when working land on the side of a cliff. The winemaker, Maria José Yravedra is a visionary for the region, and practices what she calls “heroic” viticulture, working with rather than against nature. This Mencia is a testament to the hard work required to create wines from this natural environment, and as a result is one of the most deliciously fresh, complex and nuanced Spanish reds we’ve had in a long while!
The winemaker: Maria José Yravedra is an absolute visionary for the region, producing wines that not only show incredible varietal integrity, but she accomplishes this through natural farming and biodynamic principles, making around 45,000 bottles a year from their 10 hectare estate. Her philosophy is based on what she calls 'heroic' viticulture, reflecting a sincere balance with nature, though love and compromise with the land. Aside from composting each year with gorse (the last harvest's pruning and remains), sheep graze the vineyards once a year to add their natural flare and keep excess plants at bay. In the cellar, an absolutely minimal approach is the secret to each perfect bottling, with a gravity flow system instead of pumps, all old wood and concrete use for aging, and very little sulfur additions, letting the native grapes of the area tell their individual story.
The geeky details: A blend of predominately Mencia, along with some Garnacha, the grapes are hand harvested and brought into the cellar for a cold (pre-fermentation) soaking, before entering into large 5,000-liter oak foudres for natural fermentation, and then 8 months of aging in 500L oak barrels.
Serve: Cellar temp.
Food pairing: Pair this with heartier dishes! Chorizo, ham, sausages, gamey meats and wild mushrooms!
Album pairing: Mac Miller - The Divine Feminine (10th Anniversary)
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WHAT THE FUNK?!
Bojo do Luar ‘Alpondras’ Tinto
The vibe: Back to our friends in Vinho Verde for this fun and expressive light red! The crazy geniuses at Bojo do Luar again add ground chestnut flower to their wines to stabilize, a practice they inherited from monastic winemaking traditions. The grapes are sourced from a centenary vineyard located right on the banks of the Tâmega river. Here there are remnants of centuries-old kingdoms and the vines reflect these traditions, with twenty to thirty different grape varieties panted together, a common practice before vine diseases were treated to preserve the harvest. This wine is a blend of four rare varieties native to vinho verde with the highest acidity and lightest profiles in the region. This is a chiller, throw it in the fridge for a few and crack it open with dinner (or lunch, we won’t judge!).
The winemaker: Bojo do Luar is a collaborative project between Savio Soares and Fernando Paiva, a biodynamic producer who has been experimenting with adding ground chestnut flowers to the grapes and must prior to fermentation as an alternative to using sulfites. Savio saw this as an opportunity to use the traditional autochthonous varietals of Northern Portugal, with natural high levels of acidity, and apply his knowledge and experience of many decades working with French producers. Together with two local young men, with experience and knowledge of regional viticulture, who were open to experiment new methods in the vineyard and cellar, the Bojo do Luar project started to take shape. The soils are fertilized with self-made organic compost, blended with chicken and cow’s manure. In the middle of the rows, a variety of beneficial herbs, recommended by Mr. Paiva, were sewn to further enrich the soils at the beginning of springtime and autumn.
The geeky details: Blend of Bastardo, Syrah, Tinta Gorda and Mourisco. Fermented and aged in amphora before bottling unfined and unfiltered.
Serve: With a light chill.
Food pairing: Pizza, burgers, anything cheesy and greasy or fried! This chillable red has tons of acid to cut through those heavier flavors, so go ahead and throw a mid-fall BBQ!
Album pairing: Resavoir - Above the Clouds
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EASYYYY
Susana Esteban "Procura" Tinto 2015
The vibe: In Portuguese, “Procura” translates to “search,” something that winemaker Susana Esteban is always practicing when producing her wines. This 2015 Tinto was a result of blending two unique sites planted to the grape Alicante Bouschet, sites that Susana finally found in 2011 after searching all over Alentjo for the perfect vineyard. One of the blocks has very low yields and is planted to schistous soils, the other is in a much cooler part of Alentejo, a traditional mixed vineyard of extremely low yields that adds unusual complexity and freshness to the wine. This combination (and the years of aging in bottle!) results in an intensely fruity and intriguing profile without any traces of maturation. It is powerful but sharp, and delicate on tannins, and incredibly fresh even after all these years of aging. It is showing beautifully and we’re delighted to have it in the club this month.
The winemaker: Susana Esteban may have been born in Spain, but in her relatively short career she has already established herself as one of Portugal's greatest winemakers. She started working as a winemaker at Quinta do Côtto, Douro, in 1999. In 2002 she moved to the highly regarded Quinta do Crasto, also in the Douro valley, where she worked as winemaker until 2007, when she moved to Alentejo to search for vineyards to begin her own project. It wasn’t until 2011 that she found what she was looking for, a clutch of old vineyards on the granitic slopes of the Serra de São Mamede in Portalegre. The project, which highlights the potential of this nearly forgotten terroir and its treasure of old vines, won immediate acclaim. In 2012 she was the first woman to ever be awarded “Best winemaker of the Year” by Revista de Vinhos, the country’s premier wine publication.
The geeky details: 100% Alicante Bouschet from two parcels in Alentejano. Manual harvest followed by aging 16 months in French oak barrels, 30% new and 70% second year. Bottled April 2018.
Serve: Cellar temp.
Food pairing: This is a pretty hefty red albeit with a ton of lively, fresh fruit notes! If it were us, we’d pair this with traditional Portuguese sandwiches like Bifana or Francesinha! Or for dinner, a Bitoque steak or Piri Piri chicken would make an absolutely insane pairing.
Album pairing: M83 - I Wrote You A Letter