Top Values
by Tom Wolf
2021 Beaujolais
France | Beaujolais
We receive two shipments from Dupeuble every year, and it’s hard to say whether there’s more excitement in the staff tasting room when their fresh and perfumed Nouveau arrives in the fall or when their fresh and perfumed Beaujolais lands in our shop the following spring. Every year, I’m blown away by the balance the Dupeubles achieve in this wine. They are able to get the most out of Gamay’s prevailing joyousness while simultaneously preserving some complexity and earthiness that make this cuvée so easy to turn to again and again.
2021 Vino Bianco
Italy | Piedmont
If you ever need a white wine for a wedding, reunion, or any large gathering, look no further than this Piemontese white blend from Marco Tintero, a specialist of festive, unpretentious, and hedonistic bottlings from the gorgeous hills of Piedmont. Not only does it deliver flat-out deliciousness and exceptional value, but more importantly—and more fun—it bears a slight effervescence that dials its “festive factor” up to 10. With pure, bright, and fresh notes of citrus and orchard fruit, this bianco proves once again that Piedmont is not just about lofty Barolo and Barbaresco, but is home also to some of the country’s great weeknight table—and weekend celebration—wines.
2020 Languedoc Cabrières Rouge
France | Languedoc-Roussillon
Lower your nose into a glass of this inky rouge, redolent of dark fruit, black olive, and garrigue, and you know immediately where you are: the south of France. More specifically, you are in Cabrières, one of the great, underrated communes of the Languedoc, situated an hour due west of Montpellier and several hundred meters above sea level. Here, in the high-elevation hills, where the days are warm and the nights are cool, Jean-Claude Zabalia crafts this red that displays a sneaky amount of minerality and finesse despite its rustic quaffing soul.
More from the November 2024 Newsletter
