Featured Producers

The Durantou family wines offer some of the best value in all Bordeaux. While their rightly lauded Pomerol, Château l’Eglise Clinet, can sell for nearly a thousand dollars a bottle, this range offers the same expertise and precision without breaking the bank.

Château Les Cruzelles lies 1km from the Pomerol plateau and shares the same soils as many of the most famous names from the appellation, but due to its location in the satellite Lalande de Pomerol, it is available for a fraction of the price. The 11ha property is planted primarily with Merlot, with a minority Cabernet Franc. A true grand vin, the wines made here are powerful and complex, worthy of ageing in bottle. The late Denis Durantou bought this property in 2000 and dedicated significant time and money in turning the wines made here into the best you can buy in the appellation. The second wine from this property – La Chenade – is terrific value for money, a soft and approachable wine.

Montlandrie, based in the Côtes de Castillon, has improved significantly since its first vintage in 2009. This powerful Saint Emillion lookalike is based on Merlot but typically has a significant proportion of Cabernet Franc. 

The modestly price Saintayme (or Saintem) completes the line up. From a 9ha plot of 35-year-old vines in Saint Emilion, it is 100% Merlot and like Chenade is a rounded, fleshy and approachable wine. Denis’ daughters Noémie and Constance are now in charge of these properties, and continue to champion the less fashionable appellations of the right bank.

I’ve always been one to wonder why things are the way that they are. Obsessed with mythology as a child, I started college studying microbiology, assisting in yeast genomics research that sought to better understand alcohol excretion pathways in the cell. My philosophical musings about yeast were somewhat out of place though, and I found the art history department more willing to indulge my questions. Art history concerns itself with asking “why does it look the way it does,” and “what does it mean.”

Like art, wine is a human product, the result of social and cultural movements, but it is also a product of nature, shaped by the weather and geography, and yeast turning grapes into wine.

Growing up in California, red table wine was a common fixture at dinner. It was utilitarian, mass-produced stuff and hardly inspired one to think about where exactly it had come from. As a 19 year old living in Paris, a bottle of white Burgundy raided from my boyfriend’s father’s cellar was my turning point. It wasn’t until I took that first sip of white Burgundy that I got it: that wine could speak to a place. That it could inspire aesthetic reverence and wonderment. It wasn’t until a few years later that I even considered that winemaking could be a vocation. A glass of Eric Texier’s Saint-Julien-en-Saint-Alban was the moment I decided that I wanted to make something beautiful too, to be the reason something magical existed.

I worked my first vintage in 2014 at Unti in Dry Creek, Sonoma, before moving to Rhys in the Santa Cruz Mountains for the 2015 harvest. In 2016, I started pruning at Mount Eden Vineyards, also in the Santa Cruz Mountains, before heading off to France to work with Éric Texier in the Rhône Valley. From 2016 through 2020, while launching my winery back home in California, I worked for Farm Wine Imports where I had the absolute honor to learn from my winemaking idols in France, Spain, Italy, Germany, and here in California.

I seek to make wines that have something interesting to say, from vineyard sites in California that are unique, historic, or simply magical. And I paint all of my labels to relate back to something about the site. Casa’s label shows redwood sorrel, a common sight in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Grist’s pomegranate references not just the trees that grow there, but also the tannic juiciness found in the wine itself. Del Barba’s olive branch relates back to the line of olive trees lining the front drive to the vineyard gate.

- Claire

It took a huge amount of foresight back in 1971 to choose an abandoned farmhouse in the unspoilt, rural Hérault setting of the Gassac valley - named after the brook that cuts through it - to plant a vineyard amidst 4 000 hectares of forest. Then to select the Médoc varietal Cabernet-Sauvignon because it best conveys the character of this unique terroir, echoing work by the Benedictine monks in Burgundy in the 6th century. And ultimately, to set about making a superlative Languedoc wine in this untamed valley, outside the boundaries of the appellations (AOC Coteaux du Languedoc did not emerge until 1985) in ‘Vin de Pays’ territory. Famous for its Grands Vins, the Mas de Daumas Gassac has been a family owned vineyard for more than 50 years and belongs to the Guibert family. It is set in a wild and enchanting valley, close the magnificent romanesque abbey of Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert. 50 hectares of a deep, well drained soil, free from any chemical fertilisers.

The Moulin de Gassac range was born in 1991, with the Mas de Daumas Gassac's hallmark and Guibert’ signature. For more than 34 years this authentic approach, with daily involvement, has inspired us in an ongoing quest to obtain the best possible quality from these vineyards. Now covering an area of 250 hectares, all the plots are subject to a rigorous set of specifications: terroir based plots selection, low yields, specific tanks for plots vinifications, 100% of the vineyard run with insect sexual confusion (a bio approach to stop all other treatments)... Two agronomists engineers from Mas de Daumas Gassac - in charge of the SAS Moulin de Gassac wines - are present on site throughout the year. They are the guarantee of the respect of the Gassac philosophy and savoir-faire.

This small winery is owned by Abel Mendoza (vine growing) and Maite Fernández (winemaking), a husband and wife team based in San Vicente de la Sonsierra. Their wines are among the most interesting, rare and sought-after in Rioja, in part due to their aversion to all things related to wine guides, events and media. They are the equivalent of those Burgundian vignerons who lovingly tend their vines to create personal wines which are faithful expressions of terroir.

Established in 1988, the winery owns 17 hectares of organic vines in San Vicente and adjoining villages. Jarrarte was the initial brand, but it is now reserved for the young wines. High end bottlings are sold under the Abel Mendoza name.

Their white wines are particularly interesting. They are all fermented and raised in French oak for five months. Abel Mendoza Malvasía has citrus and fine smoked notes, good volume in the palate and a pleasant combination of sweet and acid nuances. The Orange Malvasia adds extra aromatic intensity and some tannin. The Viura is among the best single-varietal bottlings of the grape.

Tempranillo forms the basis of most of Abel Mendoza's reds. Jarrarte Old Vines, aged in oak for 12 months, is all about fresh fruit and liveliness on the palate. The best Tempranillo plot is selected each vintage to make Abel Mendoza Selección Personal. A selection of grapes from different plots are destemmed by hand and used for Tempranillo Grano a Grano, a red wine with great depth, polished tannins and round texture. Graciano Grano a Grano brings on the vibrant acidity of this variety.

In 1971, Aldo Vajra, then still a university student, was one of the earliest to adopt organic farming in Piemonte. Vineyards have been nurtured, and soil preserved, by grassing and spontaneous cover crop for almost 50 years now. They are sustainable and organic certified. With an incredible ratio of manual work per 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.

These wines, from the Langhe Rosso and Moscato d'Asti, all the way up to the Barolo Ravera, are some of our favourite wines in Piedmont.

Bernard Baudry is unquestionably one of Chinon’s most outstanding producers. Not only does he have the talent to make delicious and consistent wines, vintage to vintage, but he is also fortunate enough to have vineyard land that showcases many of the varied soil types of the appellation. After completing his studies at the viticultural school in Beaune, Bernard returned to the Loire Valley to consult in Tours. By 1975, he had purchased his first two hectares of land in Cravant-les-Coteaux, a village from which almost half of the production of A.O.C. Chinon is sourced. Over the years, the domaine has grown to twenty-five hectares. Bernard’s son, Matthieu, joined the family domaine in 2000 after studying winemaking in the Mâconnais and Bordeaux, with internships both in Tasmania and California!

The Baudrys work vineyards composed of gravel, sand, limestone, silica, and clay. The variations of terroir and vinification methods make each of their cuvées unique and distinct. Bernard and Matthieu focus the lion’s share of their production on Chinon Rouge, five fine cuvées of Cabernet Franc, all aged in old and new barrels in their incredible cellars chiseled out of tuffeau behind the winery. They make a surprising Chinon Blanc, a rarity to find let alone to import, as well as a stunning Chinon Rosé.  The Baudrys are staunch traditionalists, and you would have a hard time finding a Chinon more classic than theirs.