January 2026 Newsletter
A Fresh year, a fresh set of wines. Time to restock the cellar, closet or cabinet with these hearty everyday bottles. The newsletter comes in three sets: snappy wines with zest and vivid fruit, savory wines that will match any meal, and structured wines to ward off the winter chill.
Seehof Rheinhessen Riesling Kabinett Elektrisch 2024 $18
Have you ever been in a band with someone playing gigs at the neighborhood bar, and then that person turned out to be Taylor Swift? That’s roughly what happened to Florian Furth, a quiet winemaker in a once-quiet corner of the Rheinhessen whose brother-in-law turned out to be Peter Keller, whose monumental dry Rieslings rocketed to international fame in the early 2000s, some of the most important, expensive, and best wines in Germany. Florian, who farms many of the same now-hallowed vineyards Keller uses, has not changed his approach at all. He still makes the same sort of workaday Rieslings he always has – light, shimmering bright, and filled with energy and power. The Elektrisch Kabinett is sourced mostly from his own vines in Grand Cru vineyards, with additions from some friends in Westhofen, and it sings the nose electric with lemon and lime, peach and flint and slate. The palate is a live citrusy wire of acidity with lime and orange and a kiss of strawberry that lands on a taut, mouthwatering bright finish. Endlessly food-friendly, but start with lightly spicy Thai curry.
Il Vescovado Chianti 2024 $18
The village of Poggibonsi is in the heart of Chianti Classico, adjacent to San Gimignano, and home to an uncomplicated sort of Chianti. Il Vescovado Chianti is a second label of Borgo Pretale, a blue-collar Chianti house outside Sienna that has never strayed from the classico style of the region. For both their flagship wines and this everyday quaffer, the winemakers use strictly native varieties, in this case 80% Sangiovese, 10% Canaiolo, and 10% Ciliegiolo. The wine is raised in concrete and steel tanks, so the notes of pure fruit and savory earth are entirely unimpeded on their way through the nose and across the palate. The wine smells of red cherry, cranberry, and sandalwood, with dashes of cinnamon and fresh earth. The palate is perfectly medium, with classic notes of oregano, chewy cherry and leather, with earthy tannins building on the finish. This is not a wine to fuss and fret over, this is something to open over a pan of pizza, a plate of pasta, or a dish of bechamel macaroni.
Abazzia Novacella Alto Adige Schiava 2024 $23
The abbey at Novacella has been producing wine in and around the city of Bolzano for eight hundred and fifty years. The Augustinian monks who live there are rare among monastic orders in that they support themselves economically. In this case, they do so by making some of the finest wine in Alto Adige! Thanks to the cool, alpine climate and the raw granite hillsides in the region’s long, narrow valleys, Novacella’s wines are clear as bell, fresh, and bright – both to the eye and on the palate. Winemaker Celestino Lucin and the crew have been in the habit of organic farming without certification for generations. This easy-to-love Schiava is their everyday red, intended to be bright and refreshing with a nose of strawberry and cranberry, violets, fresh sage and rosemary. The palate is clean and crunchy, full of juicy red berries and citrus zest. The finish is snappy and mouthwatering, a perfect foil for charcuterie, raclette, and other appetizers.
Domaine Duseigneur Cotes du Rhône La Goutte du Seigneur 2023 $20
The Duseigneur family makes their Chateauneuf-du-Pape in an exceptional little corner of the appellation where patches of limestone soil peek out from underneath the rounded pebbles – galettes – that defines most of the region. This anomaly allows them to make a strikingly silky and elegant sort of Chateauneuf from their old vines along the western rim of the appellation. Vines struggle just a bit less for water in the middle of the summer, the fruit is therefore a degree less intensely roasted during the autumn harvest. Alongside their Chateauneuf, the family makes this hearty-yet-approachable Cotes du Rhone from their younger estate vines. Half Grenache, half Syrah, all farmed regeneratively, and aged in concrete tanks. The result is utterly charming. Intense aromas of boysenberry, blueberry and cherry pie, cinnamon and Herbs de Provence leads to a full yet buoyant palate with dusty tannins, warm spices, and jammy notes of raspberry and burnt orange peel. This is perfect wine for burgers, pastas, and polenta dishes on cold nights.
Bodegas Frontonio El Casetero Campo de Borja Garnacha 2021 $18
The Valdejalon has long been a blank spot on the wine map of Spain. The valley just south of Zaragoza was largely abandoned during the ructions of the 20th century, but ancient and untended vines remained behind, waiting to be rediscovered. In 2016, Fernando Mora and Mario Lopez founded Bodegas Frontonio around some of the oldest Macabeo and Garnacha vines in the valley. El Casetero are inexpensive wines purchased from a cooperative in neighboring Campo de Borja but made with the same organic principles and devotion to detail. This suave and hearty Garnacha has a nose of black cherry and plum, dusty earth, dried herbs and a hint of baker’s chocolate. The palate is a hearty mash of black fruits, wild herbs, and dried orange peel, delivered with a lush texture and velvety tannins. Serve with hearty stews and casseroles that feature saffron.
Olivier Coste Vin de France Mourvedre Illegal 2024 $16
Mourvedre is generally known as the unforgiving grape of the Rhone. Slow to ripen, slow to age, and densely tannic, most winemakers along France’s Mediterranean coast use it sparingly, a small proportion of any given blend to give structure and earthy flavors other grapes lack. It is in fact Illegal to label a pure Mourvedre wine under the generally-super-flexible Languedoc appellation. Olivier Coste, winemaker at Domaine Montrose, does it anyway, with grapes from a small hillside plot in Roquessels, a village nestled in the rugged country of Haut-Languedoc. The cooler nighttime temperatures help to keep the grapes fresh, and he ages the wine in steel to preserve the pure fruit aromas that often get lost among Mourvedre’s savory notes. Get ready for a wallop of blackberry pie, orange oil, tarragon and tarry earth. The palate continues the theme with intense black berry and cherry in a full bodied wine with tense tannins dusted with warm baking spices. Earth lingers on the finish. Calling all fans of full bodied reds, and especially fans of Bandol!
Chiussuma Erbaluce di Caluso Pajarin 2022 $22
Chiussuma is a waterfall near the mountain town of Carema, perched on the side of an Alp at the mouth of the Vallee d’Aosta. It is also a winery in Carema, the only new producer in this tiny wine region for a generation, and the source of some spectacularly interesting wine. This part of Piedmont is home to one of the most interesting white wines in Italy, the Erbaluce di Caluso. It is a relative rarity, spread over the foothills south of the extremely northern city of Ivrea. It’s a thick skinned variety that’s used to the relative cold of this part of Piedmont, so even relatively basic versions of Erbaluce have more structure and flavor than usual, but this is not a basic version, this is a master-class. Fermentation is slow, to maximize the interplay between those thick skins and the juice inside, before the wine is aged in stainless steel to preserve every note of the aromatic kaleidoscope. Lemon pepper, honey roasted pears, white strawberries, chamomile, while tea, tarragon and slate come through, before the palate comes up with Meyer lemon, candied ginger, orange zest and salty, slatey minerality. Full bodied the way Erbaluce often is, incredibly lively and crisp the way Erbaluce often isn’t. Oranges and salt-preserved lemons linger on the finish. Pair with hearty dishes made of pork or duck or raclette.
Slavček Vipavska Dolina Belo 2023 $20
Slavček is in the heart of Slovenia’s Vipavska Valley, a green country carpeted with vines. This area is very similar to Friuli right across the border, with similar winemaking traditions and native varieties. In fact, Slovenia has significantly more wineries per capita than Italy, and the entire country is made out of excellent vine growing terroir tucked between the Alps and the Adriatic sea. Frank and Alenka Vodopivec farm about 6 hectares of vines organically, and leave even this entry-level white blend on the skins for four days to give the wine more intense flavors. The blend is 40% Rebula (Ribolla Gialla), 40% Jakot (Friulano) and 20% Chardonnay, all aged in neutral oak barrels. Aromas range from orange and white plum and strawberry to flint and white pepper. The palate is full with acidity that’s plenty strong but never sharp giving life to flavors of orange and cherry. A good match for all sorts of briny seafood dishes like shrimp and scallops, dumplings, or milder curried dals.
Vincent Wengier Bourgogne Chardonnay 2023 $23
The Wengier family has made Chardonnay in and around the village of Prehy, in the southwestern quarter of Chablis since 1950. Most of their vines are on the Kimerridgian limestone soil that gives Chablis its trademark mineral cut, but when the vineyard is outside Chablis’ borders the wine carries the unadorned Bourgogne title. Vincent and Sophie Wengier took over the domaine in 2018, and have since achieved organic certification with the 2023 vintage. Everything they do in the cellar is intended to preserve the bright, clean-cut elements of great Chablis. The grapes are pressed quickly off the skins and the wine ages in stainless steel only, to lend a light flinty note to the nose of lemon, apple, and buttercream. The palate is delightfully creamy, with flavors of lemon curd and key lime pie – complete with crust. A dish of classic lemon roasted chicken, or a filet of white fish would both be appropriate.
Borgo dei Trulli Salento Rosato Primitivo 2024 $16
Nothing about the hot, crusty plains of Puglia, nor the leathery rich Primitivo grape immediately suggest themselves to rosé wine, but in the right places, where the wind blows constantly across the Salento plain, and with the right old vines that make for more evenly developed grapes, it can be done, and with panache! Borgo dei Trulli is named for the local conical stone huts built for shepherds and farmers in centuries past that pepper the landscape of Puglia, surprisingly elegant structures – just like this full bodied rosé. Aromas include juicy raspberry, cranberry, and mareschino cherry with a bit of basil and sage. The palate is full and velvety textured thanks to three months the wine spends sur lie, with a delicious pop of acidity and flavors of strawberry, peach, orange and pepper. This is the perfect rose for cold weather and a great choice for lentils, crusty seafood, or creamy vegetable soups.
Labranche Laffont Madiran 2021 $21
Madiran is one of those dependable wines that wine merchants like us love to have on hand. Whenever someone needs a deeply structured, full flavored red for their pot roast or steak night, there are very few wines in the world that offer as much substance on a budget as a proper Madiran. One of the very best is Christine Dupuy’s Labranche Laffont. When she took over the estate in 1993 she was the youngest woman winemaker in the appellation. It didn’t take long for her to replace those adjectives with “best”, with thoughtfully re-imagined wines. She improved farming and winemaking standards on her domaine, yielding grapes that had all the deep black fruit and earth of traditional Madiran, but with a much more elegance and restraint than the blocky, bruising wines of old. The 2021 offers aromas of blackberry pie, black soil and graphite, leading to flavors of vivid black berries and cherries, clay and herbs. The tannins are firm but velvety and balanced by food friendly acidity that lingers through the finish.
Mauro Molino Barbera d’Alba 2024 $22
The very best Barberas shine like the Dark Crystals of Jim Henson’s 1982 classic. Vibrant purple, bursting with power and black fruit and a core of acidity that resonates at a steady, irresistible frequency. Matteo Molino and his sister Martina took the reins from their father Mauro in 2004, and have continued their father’s work with Barolo, Langhe Nebbiolo, and this utterly charming Barbera. Their vines are not particularly famous but they’re very well tended according to organic principles. They do not have a long family history of winemaking, but they have oodles of talent, and there’s no end to the ways you can enjoy their versatile wine. Aromas of black rose, crushed black cherries, limestone clay and violets lead to a palate of succulent cherries, iron-rich soil, and orange peel. The texture is full bodied but clearly defined by silky tannins and burbling acidity. For food pairing, most hearty, oven roasted dishes will do, but there may be no better choice than Bolognese.