Devenish Wines, Portland, ME (2026)

02/24/2026

Conestabile della Staffa 'Case Sparse' Bianco 2024!

This recipe of Case Sparse white that we concocted is 50/50 Trebbiano and Grechetto. The grapes are destemmed and spend a night on the skins and then the juice is taken away from the skins. So it has some skin contact which gives it some color and a bit more savory depth, but no tannin as it’s only about 12 hours. As always fermentation is spontaneous and there is no sulfur, filtration, or fining.

02/21/2026

Collecapreta 'Lautizio' Ciliegiolo 2024! Beautiful, wild, vivid Ciliegiolo from central Umbria!

Available at Solo Italiano, Maine & Loire, Black Birch, and Sissle and Daughters

Lautizio is Collecapretta’s 100% Ciliegiolo! It’s ripe and developed but very fruit forward and fresh and playful. At 12.5% alcohol it’s a lighter medium bodied red wine.

02/16/2026

Oyster River 'Misty' Low ABV 355ml can 2025!

Look at this! Brian Smith from Oyster River has made a can! It’s 355ml of crisp, clean, dry Cayuga that comes from the Doyle family vineyard where he purchases fruit for Morphos white. Effectively this is fruit that could go into Morphos, but last year Brian bought extra so that he could press it, let it start fermenting naturally, but then add some water to dilute the wine before adding a bit of organic cane sugar and canning it so that it could do a gentle second ferment in the can and become fizzy without forced carbonation. I’m quite impressed! The can conditioning creates very small frothy persistent bubbles that last on your palate without being too much: they’re foamy like a bottle conditioned ale. This came out very well and is really excellent!

02/13/2026

Collecapretta 'Burbero' Rosso 2022! Big powerful beautiful hedonistic Samgiovese (and friends) from central Umbria. The Mattioli family makes very very good wine, but there's very very little of it. Only 24 bottles of this came to Maine!

Available at Black Birch, Anju, and the Wine Seller

Burbero is 80% Sangiovese that is let ripen a bit beyond the le Cese ripening point plus 10% Merlot and 10% Ciliegiolo. Hand harvested and native yeast fermentation with nothing added. This had 7 days of skin maceration. #

02/10/2026

Cantine Santa Barbera 'Ventresca' Salento Rosso 2022!

Available at First Fig, Oak Hill, John Edward's, Anju, Smalls, Blue Hill Wine Shop, Uncle Deans, and the Great Cranberry General Store.

This is an exciting wine just from a quality to price perspective, but as I learned more about the story behind it I became even more interested.

Ventresca comes from a family run co-op down in Puglia, in the province of Brindisi. The person responsible for this wine though is non other than Steve Berardi, an Italian American from outside of Boston who’s worked in the wine business since he was in college. Steve has carved out his own niche in the wine world finding small wineries, interesting wines, and great values and then facilitating direct importation of them into the US. He’s authentically driven by his passion for wine and has a great palate with an appreciation for balanced and integrated wines that have acidity to keep them energetic tasting: all things that match up with my own preferences in wine.

02/08/2026

Collecapretta Rosso da Tavola NV! Incredibly beautiful and vivid Sangiovese from Central Umbria!

Available at John Edward's, Maine and Loire, Black Birch, Bath Natural, Anju, Monte's Fine Foods, and Sissle and Daughters

The wine of the Mattioli family in central Umbria are very special. It's hard to think of winemakers more grounded in the land they work. They're exceptional winemakers working simply and making incredible natural wines.

Primarily Sangiovese with some other red gapes blended in. This is their traditional house table wine and is bottled non vintage, but generally is grapes from one vintage: in this case 2024. This is a short maceration red made with no wood aging. I opened one last night and it was gorgeous! This is so exuberant it’s shocking. This is my favorite of this years releases. #

02/07/2026

Atilia Montepulciano d'Abruzzo 2022! Deliciously big, juicy, and lovable rustic Montepulciano d'Abruzzo!

Back in the spring of 2024 I went on a wandering trip through southern Italy and at the last minute called up Donatello Jasci down in Vasto, a region of southern Abruzzo. I sure am glad I did! His operation was eye opening and the wines are really excellent: ripe and full while still being balanced and vibrant. These are exactly the type of wines I love. Donatello’s Montepulciano comes from 15-20 year old vines grown on clay rich hillsides and all trained on pergolas. Hand harvested and fermented with wild yeast in stainless steel for 2 weeks with the skins. This gets a light filtration before bottle and like the others is bottled with very low sulfur added. For the first time we just brought in a full pallet of this direct from the winery. It’s allowed us to bring the price down a bit and now we don’t have to worry about the importer unexpectedly running out of stock.

Aroma: dark, juicy, and vivid! It smells like juicy ripe freshly picked blackberries! The fruit is backed up by a whiff of oregano, a touch of the dry spicy aroma of pine trees in the sun. It smells a tiny bit smokey as well. Gosh, this smells like it would be perfect with anything cooked on a grill

Taste: juicy flavorful blackberry! Lip smacking and extroverted but not heavy, not too thick or dominating. The fruit is concentrated blackberry with some ripe red cherry and a bit of snappy wild blueberry as well, but it's fresh! There's a touch of sage, some oregano, then some dried cherry and in the finish there's a flavor like sauteed shiitake mushrooms. The finish tastes a tiny bit ashy, like something that was cooked on the grill and picked up some of that char. It's got just the right amount of tannin to stick on your palate and balance the fruit, but they're not aggressive. This is a delicious totally up front and approachable Montepulciano d’Abruzzo with just the right amount of gritty rustic character.

02/06/2026

Montesecondo Chianti Classico 2024! Excellent lovely and elegant Tuscany in a bottle!

Available at Carousel Wine and Cheese, Maine and Loire, The Norumbega, and Monte's Fine Foods

Sangiovese with some Canaiolo and Colorino blended in, all from 25 year old vines on Silvio’s property. The grapes are destemmed and then the juice and skins macerate for 12 days in concrete vats. 40% then goes into 15 hectolitre oak vats while the rest ages in concrete. Silvio adds 20 mg of sulfur per hectolitre at bottling.

Interestingly, Silvio’s vineyards are north and northeast and northwest facing. This is a bit unusual, many vineyards face west or south to get more sun. By happy accident the hillsides on the property faced more northerly and it helps Silvio maintain a bit more acidity and freshness.

02/04/2026

Occhipinti 'Siccagno' Nero d'Avola 2023

Available at Monte's Fine Foods, Maine and Loire, Pulling Corks, Black Birch, FriendsXFamily, Phoenix Fine Wines, Wine Seller, Maine and Vine, Vinolio, Browne Trading Co, Anju, Sissle and Daughters

The Siccagno comes from 35 year old Nero d’Avola vines growing in the nutrient poor sand and chalk over limestone that you can see in the picture below. The grapes are hand harvested, destemmed but carefully to not break the skins. Then they ferment on the skins for about 30 days before spending 22 months in large old oak casks. That’s a rather long maceration and aging process! The 2023 is very good. I liked 2022 but 2023 has the same precision and vivacity but with more fruit. This vintage reminds me of shockingly elegant Burgundies a la Fixin or Volnay … or ethereal high toned and elegant northern Rhone Syrah. This is effortlessly enjoyable right now but it has a layered depth and exceptional balance.

02/01/2026

Atilia Montepulciano d'Abruzzo 2022 1 Litre

Available at Rosemont Market, Bow St, Kennebec Meat Co, Monte's Fine Foods, Barber Brothers, and the Blue Hill Co op

Back in the spring of 2024 I went on a wandering trip through southern Italy and at the last minute called up Donatello Jasci down in Vasto, a region of southern Abruzzo. I sure am glad I did! His operation was eye opening and the wines are really excellent: ripe and full while still being balanced and vibrant. These are exactly the type of wines I love. More about Donatello at the bottom of the email.

Donatello’s Montepulciano comes from 15-20 year old vines grown on clay rich hillsides and all trained on pergolas. Hand harvested and fermented with wild yeast in stainless steel for 2 weeks with the skins. This gets a light filtration before bottle and like the others is bottled with very low sulfur added. For the first time we just brought in a full pallet of this direct from the winery. It’s allowed us to bring the price down a bit and now we don’t have to worry about the importer unexpectedly running out of stock.

01/28/2026

Tabarka 'Giancu' Vermentino di Sardegna 2022

I do love good salty Mediterranean Vermentino! I’m also always interested in wines from Sardinia, and this is a particularly weird one. So I was excited when I saw this in Matchvino’s portfolio. The culture here is unusual. The local population originally came from Liguria and were coral fisherman down of the coast of Tunisia, but then relocated here to the Island of San Pietro. They still speak a dialect from Liguria and maintain close ties with coastal Liguria. The Tabarka winery was founded by a pair of friends: Umberto Zamaroni and Carlo Perfetti back in 2000 on the island of San Pietro off the coast of Sardinia. They were moved by a drive to hold on to some of the traditional culture here and started the winery as a way to do so. This Vermentino comes from 20 year old vines planted in volcanic sand on the nearby Isle of Nuraghi. Organically farmed, hand harvested, native yeast fermentation, and then aged in stainless steel for 6 months

01/24/2026

Daino 'Ilex' Sicilia Rosso 2019!

Available at the Blue Hill Wine Shop

Gianfranco Daino began this small personal wine making project in 2006 on his property bordering the protected Bosco di Santo Pietro 20km southeast of Caltagirone in Sicily. Gianfranco is working with Salvo Foti, the iconic wine maker from Etna. Gianfranco is part of I Vigneri: an organization lead by Salvo Foti to preserve and spread traditional farming and wine making wine techniques. The farming here is organic with biodynamic principles incorporated. The point of I Vigneri is to have all the vineyard work done by hand; no tractors to cut weeds, instead they use hoes. It’s much harder work and the I Vigneri wines are always impressive and special. This wine seems like an impressive value. This, the Ilex is made from 100% Nero D’Avola.

Aroma: the aroma is complex, heady, and interesting. There's some dried lavender, candied orange peel, a little bit of dried cherry, a touch of cocoa powder, and a whiff of dry hay. It smells rich and a tiny bit smoky, a bit savory in a beautiful way. This is 2019 and with the barrel aging it's developed a lovely and complex nose.

Taste: medium bodied, bright fresh fun dark raspberry with dynamic acidity backing it up. The mid palate has some weight to it and turns more savory and serious and substantial. There's a bit of burnt orange peel, and then a hint of cinnamon. The finish goes back to candied orange and lingers with these sticky toothy really enjoyable tannins. This is cool; this is a complex, interesting, layered old school wine that has character and is quite well made and integrated. There's just no replacement for aging a well made wine if you're looking for complexity.

Devenish Wines

02/24/2026

02/21/2026

02/16/2026

02/13/2026

02/10/2026

02/08/2026

02/07/2026

02/06/2026

02/04/2026

02/01/2026

01/28/2026

01/24/2026

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