FRANCE
ANNE-LAURE LAENGEL // ALSACE
A hidden gem nestled in the village of Bernardswiller, the wine of Anne-Laure Laengel has arrived quietly on the scene yet is poised to make waves for generations to come. Now in her early thirties, Anne-Laure came into winemaking in 2019 after inheriting a hectare of beautiful vines from her late father…
L’ALEZAN // ARDÈCHE
We understand, dear reader, that perhaps you’re growing a bit tired with our constant waxing poetic about the magic of the Ardèche. And yet, we simply can’t help ourselves. The beauty, biophysical and human, that runs rampant! The distinct identities, each pocket a different swath of energy, of personality, of character! The refusal to capitulate to chemical farming! The romance, the multiplicity, the defiance of the norm…
LES BOIS PERDUS // ARDÈCHE
In the quiet, mythic reaches of the Ardèche lives a couple plucked straight from the hamster wheel of twenty-first century life: Léna Perdu and Alexis Robin. After a decade spent working long hours in the film industry, they decided to leave it all behind and respond to the call of the wild…
DOMAINE DES CHOPINS // BEAUJOLAIS
“There are wines to be drunk sitting down and there are wines to be drunk standing up,” Germain Santailler is telling us. “I want to make wines you can drink standing up” — that’s to say, wines that aren’t so costaud they knock you over, but rather, wines that are light, fresh and full of nuance…
COMBRILLAC // DORDOGNE
Presiding over the vines of Combrillac, perched on a hill overlooking the Dordogne valley, at the gates of the city of Bergerac in the heart of the Périgord Pourpre just east of Bordeaux, is a couple whose names you need to know: Thien Uyen Do and Florent Girou. A winemaking duo unlike any we've met before…
CLOS DE L’EPINAY // VOUVRAY
Nestled on the premières côtes of Vouvray, within a landscape entirely carved from the moving body of the Loire, is Clos de L’Epinay. Neighbored by a cluster of grand, historic estates and situated directly on the Vouvray ridgeline, the vineyards sprawl across several microclimates, each with its own distinct slope, orientation and degree of exposure…
FAMILLE PERCHER // CHEVERNY
It’s a typically brisk winter morning en route to Cheverny. We’ve traversed the length of France in roughly three days, and are aiming to do it width-wise in two. It makes the Loire Valley’s lushness seem even more stark; gentle, rolling green hills layered under a thin, silken blanket of fog…
FOND CYPRÈS // LANGUEDOC
Our favorite bons vivants of the Languedoc, Laetitia Ouliac and Rodolphe Gianesini, harness the spirit of Corbières into their soulful, luscious lineup of Carignan, Syrah, Grenache, Grenache Blanc, Roussanne, Viognier, Muscat and blends thereof…
CIDRERIE DU GOLFE // BRETAGNE
After working in Paris for twenty years as a photographer for the likes of Libé, Le Monde, Cartier, Kenzo and Hermès, Marc Abel shifted his focus to farmhouse beverages at the turn of the twenty-first century. It was through a chance encounter with natural wine via Patrick Desplats (Pat) and Sébastien Dervieux (Babass) in 1998 that he was initiated into the magical world of spontaneous fermentation…
LA VRILLE ET LE PAPILLON // ARDÈCHE
We first met Géraldine at La Tour Cassée, the legendary haunt in Valvignères and meeting place for the winemakers who call the Ardèche home. The village of Valvignères (literally, ‘valley of the vines’) is steeped in history, the last few decades being catalysts for an unprecedented identity shift, thanks largely to Gérald Oustric and his sister Jocelyne of the domaine Le Mazel…
LELARGE-PUGEOT // CHAMPAGNE
An eighth-generation winery in Vrigny, on the rolling slopes of the Montagne de Reims, Champagne Lelarge-Pugeot is a real family operation, helmed by the two parents Dominique + Dominique and supported by their kids, one of whom is our good friend Clémence…
LES SALICAIRES // ROUSSILLON
We’ve found ourselves just east of our adopted home of Fond Cypres in Corbières, in the idyllic Canet en Roussillon. We’re just outside of town, which sits starkly on the Mediterranean coastline. Here, though, while the salty ocean air still reaches far enough to kiss our cheeks, we’re far enough from any hustle or bustle to feel totally removed…
LINDENLAUB // ALSACE
The Lindenlaub wines smack of so much life they might have you believe the domaine is fresh on the scene. Yet their roots speak to a long lineage of Alsatian farming, spanning all the way back to 1759. In the 70s, Christophe Lindenlaub’s father Jacques…
LES MAOÙ // PROVENCE
In the heart of Gordes, an area better known for breezy vacationers than for soulful wines, Vincent and Aurélie Garreta are producing some of the most earnest, balanced, super glou glou we’ve ever tasted...
PIERRE ARNOLD // ALSACE
The phrase "it's in the family" could begin to describe the wines of Suzanne and Pierre Arnold but it wouldn't fully do them justice. Their roots are deep — three centuries deep — in the medieval town of Dambach-la-Ville, which teeters culturally on the edge of France…
SAGESSE DES SOLS // ANJOU
The road to Sagesse des Sols is dotted with small townships, intermittently spread amongst large swaths of emerald green farmland. This winter season has been a wet one, so the grasses (and in the case of Cathy and Fred, the cover crop that lines their rows of vines) are especially bright and vibrant today.
SYLVAIN BOCK // ARDÈCHE
Pensive, introspective, yet prone to sudden bursts of enthusiasm, Sylvain Bock the person is much like the wines he makes. His wines project a careful complexity that is belied by their playful labels and Sylvain’s propensity to experiment…
GERMANY
COLLECTIVE Z // PFALZ
Leistadt is the kind of place where the people are their own terroir. Twenty years ago, no one wanted to come here to make wine. ‘Leistadt?! You can’t get ripe there,’ people would say. Christoph and his partner Marie moved to their house in Leistadt in 2014 with their gaggle of kids…
HOLGER KOCH // BADEN
Holger’s wines are grandpa chic — they are how Burgundy used to taste when grandpa was just a fresh young lad: pre-global warming. It used to be that you’d struggle for ripeness in the Kaiserstuhl, even though it’s the warmest climate in Germany. But with rising temperatures…
LEON GOLD // WÜRTTEMBERG
According to the motto "quality arises in the vineyard and not just in the cellar,” a healthy dose of idealism and perseverance is needed to produce a special quality of wine instead of "Goldgräberstimmung" (digging for gold). In taking a step back and letting nature run its course, Leon has found his own gold…
DOLDE // WÜRTTEMBERG
In the shadow of a fairytale castle, at elevations up to 1,000 meters above sea level, Helmut and Hedwig Dolde grow a variety of grapes to produce wines that are pure and alpine, from parcels barely larger than a postage stamp peppered throughout the Swabian Jura…
IDLER // WÜRTTEMBERG
Marcel Idler is driving the vanguard of Swabian winemaking along with the likes of Andy Knauß and Jochen Beurer. They are the new generation exploding quietly onto the scene, upending norms and turning the traditional way of doing things inside out. Their approach is light touch...
SCHEUERMANN // PFALZ
"We don't make German wine. We make Pfalz wine. In a Loire style,” says Gabriel Scheuermann, who knew in kindergarten he wanted to be a winemaker and told his teacher as much. He jokes that his older brother Simon was the one who liked the tractor so he’d be the one in the vines...
ITALY
CONTROCORRENTE // ETNA
Mount Etna, to many, has become synonymous with extreme winemaking and unmistakably volcanic wines (also The White Lotus, but that’s for another bio). And yet, there are still fledgling winemakers here, beginning to work small pockets of this biophysical Colossus, to make their own mark on such a storied history and winemaking landscape…
ALESSANDRA DIVELLA // LOMBARDY
At twenty-nine-years old, Alessandra Divella is the Italian answer to grower Champagne, on track to upend the industrial farming practices rampant in Franciacorta. Her vines have been organic from the start and her two hectares teem with life, including rosehips and praying mantises…
AGRICOLA ESTROVERSA // ABRUZZO
It’s no secret that Abruzzo, though sometimes unfairly associated with an over-abundance of Trader Joe’s-style factory-farmed wines, has cemented itself as one of Italy’s great wine regions when it comes to natural winemaking. Legendary producers adorn the calf of the “boot” flanked by the Adriatic on one side and marked by the towering Montagne del Marrone towards the center.
KALMA // CHIARAMONTE GULFI
Meet Nikolas and Waiata, two non-Italians making wine in Sicily—with some serious experience under their belts. Nikolas, originally from Germany, has been something of a globetrotter, making wine in Germany, South Africa, Chianti, Priorat, and later Sicily, where he became the manager of COS Winery, led by Giusto Occhipinti in Vittoria. It’s here that he and Waiata met, during her own tenure there…
ZANOTTO // VENETO
Perched on the hills over Coneglianco, in the historic area of Prosecco, Riccardo Zanotto works his magic in his old family winery. Organic since their inception in 1984, Zanotto strives to make wines that act as a counterpoint to the mass-produced, recipe-style wines that have dominated for so many decades….
CATALUNYA
NORD
DOMAINE LES CONQUES // CÔTES DU ROUSSILLON
To understand the wines of François Douville, it is helpful to imagine flying through the clouds and peering down at the patchwork of peaks and valleys that constitute the Pyrénées-Orientales. Train your lens on the magnificent Mount Canigou (Canigó in Catalan) and follow the long shadow it casts on the vines of Les Conques, nine hectares of grapes sprawled across twenty hectares of wilderness…
DOMAINE DE MENA // PAZIOLS
The rugged Côtes Catalanes, in the shadow of the mighty Pyrenees to the south, is dotted with small villages scattered amongst the rocky hills and wild vegetation, like oases in an almost martian landscape. Many of these villages—for instance, Calce, brimming with natural winemakers—are steeped in long histories of grape-growing and winemaking. We find ourselves in one such of these villages, Paziols, wherein red-roofed buildings line the “bustling” city center…
JEAN-PHILIPPE PADIÉ // CALCE
« Je peux pas vivre sans musique [I cannot live without music] » muses Jean-Philippe, splashing a blend of Grenache Noir, Syrah and Cinsault into our glasses as Jeanne Moreau croons in the background. The song is Le tourbillon de la vie, the title track of Jules et Jim — François Truffaut’s classic of the French New Wave — and the wine is Le Tourbillon de la Vie Rouge, Jean-Philippe Padié’s classic of the Roussillon’s new wave…
LA NOUVELLE DON(N)E // CALCE
Col de la Dona, located in the foothills where France disappears into the majestic Pyrenees, is far cry from the ample vines of Burgundy. The almost-Martian landscape, at its most fertile, is dotted with garrigue and shrubs grown on a variety of ancient soils. Though at only a few hundred meters of elevation, the climatic shifts here are stark; brutal, cold and windy nights allow what few grapes do grow here to preserve benchmark levels of acidity for this latitude, for those who are brave enough to attempt it…
L’ÂME BLEUE // CALCE
If you're looking for joie de vivre in your glass, look no further than the wines of Perrine Loeuilleux. Perrine's generosity of spirit shines through each release from L'âme Bleue, a pursuit which began when she settled in Calce in 2020. She instantly felt at home among this vibrant community of natural winemakers and now vinifies two hectares of vines. Her wines are lively, balanced and gourmand, sure to put a pep in your step….
NADA // CALCE
NADA is a collaboration between Raph Baissas de Chastenet and Oscar Mancillas, two friends who, through a chance encounter, decided they had something important to say about Calce. It is a project dreamed up over several bottles at their local watering hole, Native in Perpignan—the same bar where they met…
OLIVIER PITHON // CALCE
Calce is something of a natural wine-drinker’s fairy tale. We’ve woven our way through the immense Pyrénées, up and over the Catalan/French border and through the rugged Côtes Catalanes terrain. Old, gnarled Grenache vines dot the rocky valleys which encircle us…
CATALUNYA
SUD
SERPS SIDRA // GIRONA
The sun cuts through the clouds. A breeze carries the lush smell of many fruits ripening at a maddening pace under the Catalan sun. We are wading through Joanetes in La Vall d’en Bas, an orchard now under the care of Marc Fuyà and home to Serps, a trove of Catalan ciders as charismatic as their maker…
COMALATS // SEGARRA
In the Far West of Catalunya lies the province of Lleida, a place so sprawling and remote that a traveling American might expect to see the Tetons rising in the distance. In the dead center of Lleida sits the comarca of Segarra. Perched high on a plain, above waves of grain dotted with pine trees and evergreens, there is a village named for an almond and also shaped like one: L’Ametlla de Segarra…
CAL XURRIU // SANT SADURNÌ D’ANOIA
Nestled in the hilltops just over an hour from the propulsive beat of Barcelona is Sant Sadurnì d’Anoia. It is ten train stops west and worlds away, settled firmly in the oasis that is Alt Penedès…
VINS DESANTESOS // TARRAGONA
There are few people more salt of the earth than Ariadna Servello, a demure woman in her late 20s who calls the Ribera d'Ebre home. Winemaker by day and shepherd by dusk and dawn, Ari tends to her grapes with the same tender love and care she shows her flock of sheep and herd of goats…
CHILE
ALAI CIDER / L’ENTREMETTEUSE // COLCHAGUA VALLEY
Laurence Réal and Pablo Bastias hail from opposite corners of the world but have come together to fashion some of the most exciting ciders, wines and blends thereof we have ever tasted from the Southern Hemisphere. A native of the Basque country in France, Laurence wound her way to the Colchagua Valley in Chile and, subsequently, into Pablo’s orchards…
SWEDEN
BRUTES CIDER // STOCKHOLM
Bonded over a mutual love of natural wine, this small group of friends has set out to create their own expression of terroir in the predominantly grape-less—but fruit-rich—land of Sweden. With seemingly more apple trees than people and a cultural history of foraging wild fruit, Sweden is ripe for the picking. Brutes has fused the bounty surrounding them with their admiration of winemaking to produce a range of ciders and fruit pet’nats that will excite and delight, leading you to re-evaluate your own idea of “wine.”
UNITED STATES
ROCKY GROUND // MAINE
Meet Angus and Abbey Deighan of Rocky Ground Cider. They are some of the most buoyant, free-spirited people we've ever met—and enormously talented cider makers to boot. All their ciders are fermented dry with wild yeasts, evoking the rocky ground from which they came…