Bottes Rouges by Ivan Omelchenko

Couldn't miss this event! Just think about it - a winemaker I love, new shipments finally arriving in Kyiv (finally! Usually I'm hunting through European shops and waiting ages for delivery). And here's a tasting of the whole lineup.

Short version: the wines are brilliant but painfully young. From my experience (accounting for vintage differences), Bottes Rouges wines really sing after at least five years. Before that, they bring too much pain. The prices bite, sure, but if you've got the patience to wait them out, there are absolutely sensible purchases among new arrivals.

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About Producer

Meet Jean-Baptiste Menigoz, a former teacher in Arbois working with special needs children. At some point, he became fixated on low-intervention wines and decided to devote all his free time away from school to work in the vines. Under the tutelage of Stéphane Tissot, Jean-Baptiste learned the ins and outs of the wine world. In 2012 committed fully to trading his classroom for his vineyards.

Being a music lover, Jean-Baptiste named Domaine after a French song (The Red Boots). Musical references continue to pop up in the names of his cuvées. For example, Tôt ou Tard (Sooner or later) is the name of an independent French record label.

Now meet Florien Kleine Snuverink, a former owner of the famed Café Schiller in Amsterdam (Netherlands). She moved to Jura to learn winemaking. Initially, Florien planned to purchase some vines for herself but ultimately decided to join Jean-Baptiste.

So this is Domaine Les Bottes Rouges and two friends that started with different careers in different countries but decided to take the life-changing decision to work full-time as winemakers.