HAPPY NEW YEAR 🥂

We hope you had the most wonderful holiday season with those that mean the most to you! We are cheers-ing to the new year with gleeful hope of an exciting and fresh year ahead. 2/3 of this month's lineup are classics that will take you right to the country itself (travel planning, anyone?!). By their side, are two unique blends that will have you looking for more. Enjoy!

La Gerla Poggio gli Angeli

100% Sangiovese

Ripe black cherries, cranberry, earthiness, dried herbs and a hint of spice. Bright with soft tannins. An easy drinking wine perfect for any day!

This vineyard is in Castelnuovo dell'Abate in the southern part of Tuscany. The vines are 15 years old, so La Gerla prefers to make a younger, fresher wine from it. Fattoria La Gerla, named for the old-fashioned conical baskets that grape-harvesters used to carry on their backs, was founded in 1976 by the late Sergio Rossi. Mr. Rossi purchased the property in 1975, originally called Podere Colombaio Santi. Mr. Rossi renamed the property La Gerla and set about restoring the estate and replanting the vines using selection massale. His first vintage was 1976, making La Gerla one of the first 35 bottlers of Brunello di Montalcino; these days, there are 280. Sergio’s wife, Donatella Monforte, now leads a dedicated team to continue Mr. Rossi’s vision.

Sangiovese grosso is the only grape planted on the property. Poggio gli Angeli is made from organically grown young vines in Castelnuovo, in the Brunello zone but not registered as such. Following careful hand selection of the grapes, they arrive at the cellar in 20kg cases so that they are not crushed during transport. Fermented in stainless steel, aged in used Slavonian oak for 4 months. 

Clos Chanteduc Cotes du Rhone Rouge 2016

65% Grenache, 35% Syrah

Red fruits, pepper, and light floral aromas. On the palate it's rustic with a bit of earthiness and nice texture. This is your perfect everyday wine!

Owned by Patricia and Walter Wells, the Clos Chanteduc is situated above the historical district of Vaison la Romaine. Their Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvèdre grow from 60-plus-year-old vines on the hillside adjacent to their lovely home. The winemaker is Yves Gras of the famous Domaine Santa Duc in Gigondas. He also manages the vineyard for Patricia Wells, and provides attention to detail both in the vineyard and the cellar.

Patricia is the author of 11 books, the only woman and American to serve as restaurant critic for a major French publication, L’Express, between 1988–1991.

Harvesting of the grapes is done manually with all stalks and stems removed, with a gentle extraction done after sorting. The juice is aged for 12 months on the lees in old wood casks.

Organic and biodynamic.

Domaine Dupeuble Beaujolais Rouge

100% Gamay

Notes of cherry, strawberry, leather and earth. Palate pleasing and layered. Light and bright! A classic and yummy expression of Gamay.

In the hamlet of Le Breuil, deep in the southern Beaujolais, Domaine Dupeuble has been running almost continuously since 1512. The name of the domaine has changed just three times in its history, most recently when the last heir, Anna Asmaquer, married Jules Dupeuble in 1919. Anna’s son Paul, and her grandchildren Ghislaine and Stéphane Dupeuble, manage the domaine. Tradition runs deep in the family, but each generation has also managed to add something new, including increasing the property. Today it comprises 100 hectares, about forty percent of which is dedicated to vineyards. Advocates of the lutte raisonnée (French for “reasoned fight/struggle”) approach to vineyard work, they do not use chemicals or synthetic fertilizers. The wines of Dupeuble represent some of the best values in the Beaujolais today and are widely regarded for their very high quality and eminently reasonable price.

Vines are fertilized with natural compost The grapes are harvested manually and vinified completely without SO2. The wines are not chaptalized, filtered, or degassed and only natural yeasts are used for the fermentation. 

Libertine Roam Red

⅔ Tempranillo, ⅓ Lagrien

Dark juicy berries, dried raspberry, and hints of white pepper. Lively and rich yet elegant. This wine is cool, fun and ready to impress!

Alex Neely had a successful career running a high-end cheese and wine shop, however after some deep thought he decided to turn his focus toward wine-making. He just didn’t want to be the guy that smells like cheese on the bus anymore! Libertine Wine is now Alex and Veronica Neely, self proclaimed producers of neo-natural non-interventionist experimental wines from the Willamette Valley in Oregon. In 2019 they took over the Barncat Vineyard in the Willamette Valley. Between Veronica and Alex, they do 100% percent of the labor. They proudly create unique wines through fearless experimentation.

The meaning behind “Roam” you ask, here’s what the winemakers say: “We are all transient beings trapped within the workings of our immediate environment yearning for the romantic ideation of roaming the immense metaphorical plains without meaning or purpose simply free from the burdens of human existence”. Roam features art from Landon Sheely.

All the wines are fermented in neutral oak with native yeast. Not a single thing is added to the wines other than a fractional amount of sulfite as a preservative.Unfiltered, unfined, organic, sustainable, and LIVE certified.

Oudin Chablis 2018

100% Chardonnay

Bright and crisp. Citrus, green apple, and a bit of honey. Zippy with nice minerality. This wine is dynamic young and can age gracefully for a decade or more.

In 1988 Jean-Claude Oudin and his wife, Christiane relocated from the suburbs to Christiane’s father’s two-hectare vineyard located near the tiny village of Chichée, just south of Chablis. They have recently retired from making wine and their daughters Nathalie and Isabelle have taken over the winemaking reins. The Oudin sisters now farm 10 hectares of vines, where most of the vines have a south and southwest exposure and are located on the hilltops which surround the village of Chichée, including two premiers crus.

Vines are 65 years old. Hand harvested and gently pressed. Only natural yeasts are used and the wine is fermented in temperature controlled stainless steel tanks. The wine rests on lees for a year or more before it is bottled. Lightly filtered, minimal sulfites added, organic.

Mesquida Mora Sincronia Negre

Callet, Gorgollasa, Mantonegro, Monastrell, Cabernet, Merlot

Floral aromatics, fresh strawberry, plums and lots of minerality. Herbaceous with a hint of leather! Sincronia is juicy, soft and balanced. Get ready to be transported to beautiful Mallorca!

Bàrbara Mesquida Mora established the groundbreaking Mesquida Mora winery in Mallorca in 2012 near the town of Porreres, producing wines in the DO Plà i Llevant and VdlT Mallorca designations in the southern and eastern areas of the island. Starting the project from scratch with historic vineyards inherited from her mother. Bàrbara’s wines highlight indigenous grape varietals and are a representation of her wine-making family. For the Sincronia series, the labels are composed of small fragments of colored paper. The lighthouse serves as a reminder to always remember the port of exit and, perhaps, the port of return. 

Produced from biodynamically estate-farmed red grape varieties. Mesquida Mora also has introduced a regenerative agriculture approach, encouraging biodiversity within her estate vineyards. Following a manual harvest, each of the varieties undergoes a separate fermentation with indigenous yeasts in stainless steel. The wine is then blended and racked into two- and three-year-old French and American oak barrels for six months of aging. Vegan, low intervention and produced in limited quantities.