nut wine | a true French-country tradition
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What is Nut Wine?
Nut wine is a sweet and pleasant traditional drink. It consists of red wine, nuts, alcohol, and sugar. Nut wine is often called the "French Port," as it is 16.5% alcohol and conserved similarily.
Serving
Aperitif or Digestif, dessert wine
Traditionally served as an aperitif in France, it complements a flavorful meal, but… our adult-children (and international customers) also like to drink it as a digestif, or delicious dessert wine.
Our verdict : any time of the day, for health, pleasure, or consolation.
Our nut wine pairs well with fois gras, and strong cheeses, such as: Munster, Pont-Lévêque, a well-ripened Camembert, aged Maroilles, or well-matured Picodon ...
Shelf Life
Opened: 6-12 months
Unopened: 10+ years (Stored horizontally)
Aging
It is drinkable at one year, good at two years, better after four years. This walnut wine ages well. With our premium corks, Le Santenaire Nut Wines can be kept for several years and will gain in flavor.
Unlike natural sweet wines and other common aperitifs, walnut wine is consumed like a good old wine. A deposit is natural and normal. The bottle must therefore be handled with care, because the dispersion of the deposit in the contents of the bottle affects its taste quality.
Like any noble wine, with a vintage of two+ years, it is best served after a 1 week of "rest." (For its natural deposits move during traveling (i.e., car trip), and it's always best to give one week of rest for the deposits to settle.)
La Tradition
Nut wine is very little known internationally, for it is truly a French tradition.
Nut wine is traditionally made at “grandma’s” house in the country during the summer. French people who know this wine, often have only had it at "grandma's," as it has never been commercialized and sold on the market. We wanted to preserve this 600+ year old French tradition and share it to you.
Vintages
Our Santenaire nut wines are vintage, that is, they carry the year of picking of the nut.
Each year and each vintage has its own personality and title around 16.5% (or 16.5 °), three to four degrees more than a table wine. So watch out for moderation! We do not serve more than 1/4 of wine glass.
Le Santenaire pays particular attention to the conditions for rearing its vintages, with a long-term research and development program, accompanied by the Oenolysis Oenology Laboratory in Aix en Provence, France.
Our research and innovation work leads us to propose a range of nut wines that plays on the terroir of the nut, the variety of the nut, the origin and the grape variety of the wine used, the sugar level, the conditions breeding, and of course the vintage.
"Tempus inexorabile fugit",
time runs away inexorably.
1886 Albert Seibel cross-bread pollinisation be
1957 : Making nut wine with family at the Pelican House. The tradition begins.
1961: My mother passed-away
1980 Development by Aunt Marie-Therese and Aunt Marie-Anne.
1999 We add to this heritage by starting a research and development program.
2013 The Centennial sarl was created in Marseille, a family structure. RCS Marseille 799209325, authorized warehouse keeper FR 014889N1223.
2014 Our research and development program refines thanks to working with the Oenological Laboratory in Aix-en-Provence.
With our family and shareholders we refine the recipe, especially towards a range of less sweet walnut wines, and towards new products & derivatives.
2016 We produce two different wines, the traditional and a less sweet semi-dry vintage.
2017 : First year of selling (Marketing started in December 2016 in Marseille and South Vaucluse.)
In the summer, I did what my parents would have done with me, if they had still been alive. They were alive in the wine - and luckily, it was delicious!
We bring every day the greatest care in the production of a past production of our family to an organized production. We want to provide you with the pleasure that we have known for at least two generations with a "homemade" appetizer and quality.
I was one year old when I lost my father. I am the youngest of 10 children. My great childhood memory was making our family nut wine with my mother and my siblings. It connected me to my father. Then, when I was 10 years old, I tragically lost my dear mother.
Making the family nut wine was more than the convivial pass-times and delicious drink, it united me to my late-parents. With my amazing sisters, they carried on mom and dad's tradition with me so that I wouldn't miss out on this delightful family tradition...
When I became a father, it was my turn to pass down the tradition. I wanted to give everything to my children that I had received: our faith...and the nut wine!
I continued on this summer tradition with my beautiful wife and six children... following our family recipe, of course! We loved to taste it with our family, cousins, nieces, and nephews.
When I retired, I wanted to make more… but alcohol is reserved to professionals in France. We simply created a business so we could carry on this tradition to our children and our future grandchildren. As we shared it with their friends, we saw that, many people today, to not all know this traditional nut wine: so, we wanted to share it with you!
Ecocert Certified
Our Patrons
Saints Louis & Zélie Martin : They are not our ancestors, but we chose them as patrons of our society. Role models that we admire, they are a strong family that had an admirative unity of family and work. Professionally, they used their know-how to serve others and help their employees. They did not make a fortune but lived appropriately. They raised a exceptional children; the notable Saint Thérèse of Lisieux (Little Flower). They were canonized in 2015.