LPO Wine Store

One of the many delights of importing natural wine is that we get to meet so many fascinating people. First there are the producers in France. It isn’t easy managing natural vineyards, the work is intense – most of our producers are in their vineyards most days of the year. And then when they go to make the wine they rely on the yeasts that have come in on the grapes to do the fermentation and on and on it goes.

Then there are the people who sell the wines once they arrive in Australia. At the close of last year we met up with the people from LPO Wine Store in Tarragindi which is a suburb of the sprawling city of Brisbane, who had organised a tasting of some of our wines in their store.

The evening was a pure delight. Lots of their customers turned up to meet us and to try the wines on offer. It was a most enjoyable evening.

The evening at LPO Wine Store had been designed around a representative sample of the wines that we import. As you can see from the photo below the staff at LPO Wine Store had chosen an excellent cross-section of the wines, from different producers and different locations.

So, they offered two wines from La Cadette who maintain their vineyards in the north of Burgundy around the town of Saint-Père which crouches under the mount which is crowned by the ancient fortress of Vézelay. One was made from the grape Melon de Bourgogne which is now quite rare in Burgundy and the other was made from Pinot Noir.

Another wine from the same area was the Bourgogne Chitry from Alice and Olivier de Moor who make stunning white wines from both Chablis and Chitry in the very north of the Burgundy region.

They also had a lovely wine from the Mosse family – Le Rouchefer which is a crisp wine made from the Loire Valley favourite white of Chenin Blanc.

The next wine that was on offer was from the talented Jean-Pierre Robinot who lives and works in the Loire Valley about half an hour north of the city of Tours. This is where the grape Pineau d’Aunis is found and which he has turned into an international sensation. In this case the wine was his amazing Lumiere de Silex.

Next on the list was the La Petite Empreinte wine called Mas à Tierra which is made from 100% Pinot Noir and is quite delicious. It is made from a vineyard in the north of Burgundy in a commune called Vincelottes.

And the last one on the list is from a relatively new producer of ours called Mataburro which was set up by Melissa Ingrand and Laurent Roger just inland from the interesting town of Perpignan in Roussillon which is not too far from the Spanish border. It is a lovely wine.

So, we thoroughly enjoyed the night answering questions about these wines and explaoining what the life of a natural wine importer is like!

This location is well-worth a visit. The staff know a lot about wine and they have an excellent selection of interesting and well-priced options.

100 Windmill St, Tarragindi, QLD, 4121

You can get more information at the LPO Wine Store web site here.

We have mentioned this venue in our story about Natural Wine Shops in Australia here.