Kopke Fine Tawny Port

La Clef du Recit Menetou Salon

While the estate has been around for decades, Le Clef du Recit is newly helmed by Anthony Girard, whose family are well-known as Loire Valley vintners. His brother runs the family biz and young Anthony had a chance to buy some sweet, sweet soil. What is sweet soil in Sancerre? Think Terres Blanches, meaning white earth, or a lot of fractured limestone. The fancy wine people call it Kimmeridgian marl, which maybe you’ve heard about. If not, no worries. It’s near the town of Récy, so the “key” (clef) to the “story” (Récit) is that the land and exposure are ideal for unlocking the character of nervy, mineral laden Sauvignon Blanc, happy to be in such a special place.

La Croix des Orbinieres Sauvignon Blanc

This sweet little vineyard is located in the Loire Valley, halfway between the famous mansions, Chateau Chambord and Chateau Chenonceaux. Most of the vines are a quarter-century old, on clay and silt soils, locally called “sables de Sologne”; Sologne used to be Louis XIII’s hunting grounds, but Sauvignon Blanc is more planted in the region than hunting blinds today.

La Culottee Rose

This 100% Caladoc wine is barrel-fermented, though it is still recognizably rosé in style. Needless to say, barrel-fermented rosé is anomalous anywhere, much less in southern France. The barrels are over-sized, and the wine has no added sulfur or added yeast. Dry, clean and rather full for a rosé, you can nonetheless drink it chilly on a sunny day, just like you would the rest of the rosés you’re slamming this summer.

La Hermandad De La Uva Cabernet Franc

La Hermandad De La Uva Garnacha

La Hermandad De La Uva Syrah

La Petite Gargotte

The Comte Tolosan region encompasses famed wine regions: Jurancon, Cahors and Armagnac. Typically, the white wines are based upon neutral grapes like Ugni Blanc, Colombard, and Folle Blanche, or more aromatic grapes like Petit Manseng or Gros Manseng. While few of these grapes have distinctive personalities, if you put them into a harmonious blend, they can be pretty charming.

Ladron del Palacio

The powers behind Bodegas Lo Nuevo are crucial to the modern success of Spanish wine, especially wines from the Levante, the Africa-facing south. Here the Almansa region grows Garnacha, among other traditional Spanish red grapes, but unlike the oxidized, alcoholic wines of yore, the new wines are bright and sunny with all the original fruits from the grape preserved. Bodegas Lo Nuevo would be the first to insist that their success is conditioned upon old vines grown at high altitudes. Here the Garnacha is at nearly 3500 feet, where the otherwise relentlessly warm temperatures see nighttime cooling into the 40s.

Larme en Rose

If you stick around the wine business long enough, you’ll have seen it all. Where once wine coolers were cooler than Liebfraumilch, now hard seltzer is hot (served cold). White Zin was once de rigeur, though it was never French; it was from the good ol’ US of A. But then that became too sweet and the category died. Or seemed to. Because then rosé rose up like a zombie eager for fresh meat, though the current iteration of the pink stuff is more often French than not. Provence is the epicenter of it and the French have figured out how we like it: dry, pale pink, light and refreshing.