Cheers to the many expressions of love! Calling all love birds: create your own tale with this blastoff group of wines. Not only are they LOVELy and delicious, we think their labels tell a little story together. What story do you see?

This month, celebrate your dear friends and dear lovers. Reminisce on the phases and growth of your beloveds as you sip sip away together. Buy that bouquet of flowers for someone you're thinking of, dream of {and plan!} that trip to Italy together, gather your pals, offer tender loving care to the ones that matter most, celebrate love YOUR way. 

Les Equilibristes Babil 

100% Pineau d’Aunis

Wonderfully light and crushable! Bright big cherry, classic white pepper notes with a pleasantly dry finish. Will do well slightly chilled!

Les Equilibristes (the “Tightrope Walkers”) is a collective of passionate winegrowers who joined together in order to exchange knowledge, ideas and experiences. Founded by François, a restaurateur and wine wholesaler and Florent, a winemaker in hopes of pushing other winemakers to shake up their habits and to wander down roads less traveled in their respective regions. Their collective’s set of ‘golden rules’ are the following: indigenous grape varieties, organic winegrowing, minimal tillage, indigenous yeasts, minimal sulfur rates and absolutely no additives or corrections. This wine was brought to you by seventh generation winemaker, Benoît Brazilier. Benoît and his father Jean Brazilier work together to farm 25 hectares of vines located in the heart of appellation Coteaux du Vendômois in the Loire Valley. Jean, the father, is still involved but his son Benoit is making the wines. All of their wine is produced in caves carved out of the limestone hillsides during the 12th century.

This selection of Pineau d'Aunis is from the vineyard's 60 old vines. Manual harvest. Semi-carbonic maceration in whole bunches for 6 days. Use of indigenous yeasts. Aging in vats on fine lees. Biodynamic and organic practicing.

Vietti Dolcetto Tre Vigne

100% Dolcetto d’Alba

Alluringly bright and with notes of juicy berries. Rich blackberry and raspberry aromas. Medium-body, soft tannins, nice minerality, structured and balanced.

The Vietti winery, located in the heart of the Langhe, on the top of the municipality of Castiglione Falletto, was founded at the end of the 1800s by Carlo Vietti. The properties have gradually expanded over time. The soil in this area is sandy and calcareous, and gives unique properties to the wines. Dolcetto is a grape variety that is deeply tied to Piedmont in the northwest of Italy and has earned a reputation of being able to consistently express the terroir of Piedmont, making it a great value. Dolcetto means "little sweet one" in Italian but worry not, it is not a sweet wine at all! This very food friendly wine that will hold up to richer food and won’t overwhelm light fare.

The grapes are selected from vineyards located in the Langhe region with clay & limestone soil. The wine is fermented in stainless steel for about one week and aged in stainless steel tanks. Malolactic takes place in steel vats. 

La Nave Casa Aurora

90% Mencia, 10% Garnacha Tintorera & Palomino

Smooth medium bodied wine with notes of cherry, dark fruits and chocolate. Hints of smoke and earth. Rich in flavor and balanced!

Winemaker Germán R. Blanco created Casa Aurora as a tribute to his great-grandmother, Aurora Garcia. It is also an indirect tribute to his village, Villa de Albares, to Bierzo Alto (high Bierzo) and to its people. Germán feels that Casa Aurora “is the bottling of landscapes and stories''. He believes in the rescue and recovery of old vines and ways of working, hoping to inspire others with the sight of the hillsides being worked by a younger generation. La Nave (“ship” or even “spaceship” in Spanish) is a newer wine from the Casa Aurora project and is meant to be an “everyday drinking wine” from the Bierzo region.

All wines are aged in their small cellar in Villa de Albares and made with grapes that have been farmed organically and sustainably. Nine months aging in different vessels from oaks to concrete. Unfined, unfiltered, old bush vines, and hand harvested.

CD Vajra Barbera d’Alba

100% Barbera

Simply fantastic! Plush and vibrant with soft tannins and fresh fruit. Tart cherry, blackberries and hints of tobacco carry through this lush palate.

In 1968 Aldo Vajra, then a fifteen-year-old high school student, found his passion was farming. He left the comfort of a city life in Torino, to pursue the adventure of reviving his family legacy. He was taken in by the old guard of farmers of his village, who soon started to show him the traditions and tricks of tending vines and growing grapes. Today, G.D. Vajra is one of the most creative wineries of Barolo, keeping the pioneering spirit of Aldo very much alive. A team of young talents, led by second-generation Giuseppe, Francesca and Isidoro Vajra, is enthusiastically at work to craft some of the most compelling wines of the Langhe. An incredible ratio of manual work goes into tending every hectare. Farming at Vajra is a labor of love and “recipe-free” attention. Intense research is also placed into monitoring and improving the biodiversity of both flora and fauna not just in the vineyards, but also in the winery fields and forests.

Hand harvested then individually fermented for an average time of 20 days. Malolactic fermentation in stainless steel, followed by raking. Sustainable and organic certified.

Planeta Rose

50% Nero d’Avola, 50% Syrah

Perfectly pink and just delightful with notes of strawberry, pomegranate, hints of hibiscus and a touch of citrus. Packed with fresh fruity aromas that will make you feel like it’s like it is summertime. Juicy, tart, and delicious!

Planeta is located in beautiful Sicily in the province of Agrigento. Hidden within the Menfi hills you’ll find Planeta’s Dispense estate. For five centuries and through seventeen generations, the family has been involved with the course of agricultural evolution in Sicily. Planeta has gone from a small family winery to a large co-operative winery to a collective property and a model of local development. There is a library on site that holds hundreds of books, from 1700 to the present day, all dedicated to wine. It also houses a collection of wine from all over the world and all of Planeta’s vintages. The company’s activities are very focused on environmental sustainability. Through the use of solar panels and biomass production, principally pruning residues to produce energy, through the re-use and recycling of all materials used in the production cycle and the exclusive use of recycled paper for packing and printed materials. 

Vinification is similar to that of a white wine: destalking and sent to soft pressing for a brief maceration of one to two hours to achieve a perfect extraction of color. Fermented in stainless steel vats. Certified sustainable in Sicily by SOStain.

Ancarani Centesimino

100% Savignon Rosso (Centesimino)

Rustic and earthy but with some solid fruit notes. Blackberry, currant, balsamic, leather and a little bit of orange peel. Interesting and captivating with a lingering aftertaste.

Located in the hills of Faenza (Emilia-Romagna), Claudio Ancarani strives to make wines that are truly representative of the terroir found there. Ancarani produces minimal intervention wine utilizing only indigenous varietals. Sauvignon Rosso, colloquially known as penny pincher or cheapskate, was thought to be a lost varietal. Some time around 1960 vines were discovered in the walled off garden of a gardener named Pietro Pianori. He had saved it during phylloxera and is now thought to be one of the few ungrafted vinifera vines left on this planet. All Centesimino vines are descended from the cuttings in that walled garden. 

Hand harvested organic grapes, use of native yeast, no manipulation of any kind, no new oak barrels - Ancarani uses stainless or cement instead.