2019 TreSomm Camille

Region: Valle de Guadalupe < Baja < Mexico

Grapes: 50% Cortese/ 30% Grillo/ 20% Fiano

Vineyard/Cellar Stats: Organic farming; sandy soils; whole cluster pressed to stainless steel where it underwent spontaneous fermentation and spends 6 month on the lees, with no additions or oak to allow for a pure expression of the terroir; bottled unfined/unfiltered with no added So2; zero-zero; 13% ABV; 125 cases

Winemaker: Camillo Magoni

Ever since discovering the wild wines of Bichi, we've been fascinated
by the emerging Mexican natural wine scene, which now has some new
kids on the block: TreSomm, founded in 2017 by a trio of wine-crazy
sommeliers.  It started when the three amigos Taylor Grant, Conner
Mitchell, and Christopher Miller, M.S. took a trip down to the Valle
to visit wineries and were overwhelmed by how connected they felt to
the region.  On the last visit of the day, they stopped by Bodegas
Magoni and tasted the wines with winemaker Camillo Magoni’s son in
law, Julio.  After many laughs (and many glasses), they arranged to
come back to meet Camillo.

Originally from Valtellina, Italy, Camillo is a pioneer of the Baja
wine industry.  He moved to the Valle in 1965 and over the years has
planted his vineyards with indigenous European varietals, and has
since been farming organically and making the kind of restrained wine
these three somms loved, so they formed a partnership with Camillo to
the very unique (for Mexico) but authentic expressions of grapes like
Grignoliño, Aligoté, and Touriga Nacional from Baja's terroir.

We asked Taylor to tell us about this wine: “Camillie” is an ode to Camillo, the founder of our winery partner, Magoni, and Chris’ daughter ‘Millie’ who was born as we were blending the wine!  It’s a crazy blend of some of my favorite Italian white varietals originally from all over the country– Cortese, Fiano, and Grillo. All from the ‘Manaz’ vineyard which sits on sandy soils right beside the winery on the valley floor.  The Cortese lays the base with great acidity, the Fiano adds a beautiful texture and the Grillo lifts up the aromatics - a unique combination that ended up working wonderfully!

We couldn't agree more! Camille is voluptuous and dry, and it smells (and tastes) like a silky elixir or Meyer lemon, pineapple, almond, and honeysuckle.  Broad and rich on the palate, but with that salty finish that is trademark Baja - sort of like unoaked Chardonnay or Chablis goes to Mexico.