Anders Frederik Steen & Anne Bruun Blauert2
About
Anders Frederik Steen and Anne Bruun Blauert make their thoughtful and highly original wines from “grapes and only grapes”. Anders began making wine in 2013 when he first started purchasing fruit from winemakers he admired and making wine alongside his friend, legendary Jura winemaker Jean-Marc Brignot. The couple and their young family have now settled in the beautiful village of Valvignères in the Ardèche. The many varieties grown here thrive on a perfect mix of clay and limestone and the vineyards are full of life, having been tended organically for decades. As well as their own vineyards, the two also harvest grapes with their friends Gérald and Jocelyne Oustric of La Mazel in Valvignères and further afield with the Bannwarth family in Obermorschwihr, Alsace. In his previous life Anders was both a chef and sommelier, working at the best restaurants in his native Denmark. This experience informs the couple’s winemaking, in that a little like a kitchen working with the seasons, they do not seek to follow rules or conventions and do not feel the need to make the same wines each year. Instead, as they harvest, they taste the grapes and begin to imagine the kind of wine they might be able to make. Layers of flavour and texture are brought about through slow presses, oxygen and canny blends. It is a refreshingly free, creative approach that yields thought-provoking, sometimes challenging wines that are truly one of a kind.
In store2
Flickering through my naked thoughts
Valvignères, Ardèche, France
Destemmed Grenache Noir macerated in the directly pressed juice of Cinsault from Le Mazel for a little more than 9 months, waiting for the cellar to regain temperature before pressing, then a further year in barriques before bottling in June 2025. Obvious complexity behind its light colour, with a structure more similar to a full-bodied wine, dressed up as a Ploussard of Jura.
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In the end all that we have left is what we give
Valvignères, Ardèche, France
Syrah and Viognier from Domaine du Mazel, pressed over 3 days. Assembled post press in an old foudre, fermented and aged sur lie over winter. Racked just before bottling the following June. A rosé with impressive aromatic complexity. The fruit gives way to bristling minerality and a hint of woody spice, with cherry stone bitterness giving this gastronomic class.
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