Taste A World Beyond The Usual, With Natural Wines
The Good Wives restaurant shares their minimal-intervention wine recommendations
While the Chippewa Valley boasts a wide selection of wines from various regions in its restaurants, bars, and eateries (plus varieties from local wineries) — its natural wine selections offer a less conventional choice for consumers and wine enthusiasts.
Natural wine, also categorized as minimal-intervention or low-intervention wine, focuses on organic processes with limited intervention by the producers, Raw Wine writes. Natural winemaking starts with grapes grown on organic farms; the fermentation process relies on naturally occurring yeasts and avoids the use of synthetic chemicals.
After speaking with Ema Rieck, co-owner of The Good Wives (2161 Eastridge Center, Eau Claire), her passion for organic and sedimentary qualities quickly emerged — along with her desire to introduce customers to lesser-known wine regions.
“Wine can be such a cool way to experience another culture or region,” Rieck said. “It’s important to try new things and get out of our comfort zones — I encourage people to try the wine they’ve never heard of from far off places.”
The Good Wives restaurant currently features at least seven organic and natural wines on their rotating menu, Rieck said, continuing their emphasis on seasonal food trends and harvests.
Enjoy these three selections from the restaurant, each offering a contemporary taste while supporting a positive environmental future for winemaking and grape cultivation.
Balthasar-Ress: Riesling Pet Nat Trocken Perlwein 2021
This riesling presents a pear-yellow hue in both bottle and glass. Its aroma is both tangy and fruity, reminiscent of ripe red apples and apple cider, Bliss Wine Concierge writes. The grapes themselves come from many sites across the Rheingau wine region in Germany. Owing to the vineyard's river proximity, the Rheingau soils leave their mark in the wine in the form of fine melting and minerality. Pet Nat has been recognized as the oldest method to make sparkling wine — the fermentation is completed in the bottling process, Rieck noted. “People seem to (either) love Pet Nats or hate them because of their tendency to taste a little yeasty. Think brioche (bread),” Rieck said. “I think they are so interesting and fun – I wish more people would drink them.”
Pikasi: Zelen 2021
Don’t be intimidated by this wine's opaque gold color with a slight hazel; the naturally fermented wine has been created using wild yeasts, not commercial yeasts, according to Vinum USA. “The Pikasi Zelen is a Slovenian wine that is funky, hazy, and pretty wild,” Rieck shared. “The varietal is rare and unique to the region and definitely not something you’ll find anywhere (else).” Nestled in hilly landscapes, the wine region benefits from a unique climate — where the Alps' influence meets the gentle warmth of Mediterranean conditions. This wine's aromatic notes evoke lemon, honeysuckle, and white tea. These are accompanied by a flavor profile that offers a bitter almond taste with hints of caramel.
Martha Stoumen: Ricetti Vineyard Carignan 2021
Carignan, a standout – yet often underestimated – grape in California, has become a valued fixture on The Good Wives' rotating wine selection. "This is a woman-owned winery. I love (Martha Stoumen) — she’s always making crazy, crazy stuff. The Carignan is unfiltered and the vineyard is organic,” Rieck said. The 2021 Ricetti Carignan is a red wine crafted in Mendocino County's Redwood Valley using whole-cluster Carignan grapes from the Ricetti Vineyard. This natural wine undergoes a nine-month aging process in neutral oak barriques; the wine has been fermented naturally using native yeasts and bottled in an unfined and unfiltered stage. “Each time we sit down to drink this wine as a team we’re steeped in gratitude,” Stoumen noted on their website.
