Located between Angers and Nantes, this family-run estate in the petite village of La Pommeraye enjoys a particularly warm microclimate, which helps to push grapes to perfect ripeness, even in cooler years. This family estate on the banks of the Loire River was founded in 1994, bringing together three generations of “savoir faire” and honoring Anjou’s native grapes.
Representing the third generation of her family to have answered the siren call of northern Rhône Syrah, Christelle Betton’s vision is one of pure and refined fruit, inspired by the cool northern mistral winds and stony personality of her family’s vineyards in La Roche de Glun.
To the northeast, the towering Alps; to the south, the placid Adriatic Sea. The Maccan family couldn’t have found a more charmed spot to cultivate Friuli’s native grapes. Here along the banks of the Livenza river in the foothills of the Alps, the classic stones of Grave mix with limestone, giving a Burgundian finesse to Friulano and Refosco.
Verduno, the northern corner of the Barolo appellation, is experiencing a renaissance, and it is the “brothers” Alessandria who are guiding the wines of this region back to the heights they once held. What Verduno gives is exactly what we crave in our Barolo wines: complexity without heaviness, structure with finesse.
From the heady perfume of pine trees in the heat of the summer to the cry of seabirds that remind that the Camargue delta is just minutes away, Domaine de Moulines embodies the soul and seduction of France’s winemaking south. This generations-old family estate was an abbey in the Middle Ages.
Raised biodynamically, with yields that often dip lower than the lowest at Yquem, Grande Maison offers an elegant expression of Monbazillac botrytized wines. All of the estate’s vineyards surround the “grande maison,” a fortified manor house originally built in the thirteenth century.
We went looking for a taste of Syrah d’antan—flavors pulled from the earth with no makeup or modern frills—and found it at Domaine de Gouye. Peppery spice, blackcurrant leaf, fresh and tangy black fruit as taut as a bow string: this is the essence of high-altitude, northern Rhône Syrah.
From its perch seemingly at the top of the world, Dama del Rovere sets itself apart from the Soave masses with high-altitude vineyards, strict attention to yields and vibrant, character-rich white wines that have become the true benchmarks of quality for the Soave Classico appellation.
Italy’s modern-day Garden of Paradise is found just outside the gates of Verona at Azienda Agricola Musella. Encompassing more than 1,000 acres of forestland where olive and fruit trees share space with grape vines and ancient churches and cozy cottages dot the banks of a meandering river, this inspiring biodynamic estate is a regional treasure.
The Portaz family since the early 1980s have cared for Jacquère vines in their native Chapareillan in Savoie, a mountainous region not far from the Italian border. Their top wine is ‘Apremont,’ a tribute to the raw power of nature that dominates this breathtakingly beautiful corner of France. The combination of cheese fondue and white Jacquère wine is a Savoyard specialty.