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Fire & Flowers
wines
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Art
Sister Corita Kent
Corita Kent was an artist, educator, and advocate for social justice. She was also a Catholic nun for 32 years. Those two facts existed in her simultaneously and in full tension and that tension is exactly what made her work so alive. Born Frances Elizabeth Kent in 1918, she grew up in Los Angeles and entered the Immaculate Heart of Mary religious order at eighteen. It was a practical decision as much as a spiritual one. Joining the order gave her access to education and art training that wouldn't otherwise have been available to a young woman of limited means. She would go on to head the art department at Immaculate Heart College, where she built one of the most creatively radical classrooms in Los Angeles.
She was drawn to screenprinting as "a very democratic form" that "enables me to produce a quantity of original art for those who cannot afford to purchase high quality art." Bold colors. Text lifted from advertising slogans, song lyrics, cereal boxes, scripture. Pop art aesthetics in service of something far more urgent than commerce. Throughout the 1960s her work became increasingly political, addressing the Vietnam War, poverty, racism, and humanitarian crises. The Los Angeles archdiocese was not pleased. Cardinal McIntyre labeled the college "communist" and her work "blasphemous." She kept going.
In 1968 she left the order and moved to Boston. She was fifty years old and living alone for the first time in her life. She couldn't drive. She couldn't cook. She made nearly 800 screenprint editions anyway. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1974 and died in 1986 at sixty-seven and left her copyrights and unsold work to the Immaculate Heart Community — the same women she had spent her life alongside. Her work looks like a party. It feels like a fight. It is both of those things at once, which is why it belongs with a collection of wines called Fire & Flowers.
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Wines
Domaine Bonnet Huteau Clos Moulin
Chartrie 2024
Il Folicello Ancestrale Sparkling Rosato
Domaine Cotzé Transhumància Chassez le
Naturel 2023
Wavy Wines 'Sunshine 2024
Les Maisons Brûlées R2L0, 2023
Julien Peyras Ramonette Field Blend 2024
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Il Folicello Il ROsato Pet Nat
Tasting Notes
Winemaker
Return to Wines
Food Pairing
Domaine Bonnet Huteau Clos Moulin Chartrie 2024
Tasting Notes
Winemaker
Return to Wines
Food Pairing
Domaine Cotzé Transhumància Chassez le Naturel 2023
Tasting Notes
Winemaker
Return to Wines
Food Pairing
Wavy Wines 'Sunshine 2024
Tasting Notes
Winemaker
Return to Wines
Food Pairing
Julien Peyras Ramonette Field Blend 2024
Tasting Notes
Winemaker
Return to Wines
Food Pairing
Les Maisons Brûlées R2L0, 2023
Tasting Notes
Winemaker
Return to Wines
Food Pairing
Winemaker
Bonnet Huteau
Muscadet, France
About the Winemaker
Muscadet gets overlooked. It's been unfairly dismissed for decades as simple, cheap, the thing you order when you don't know what else to get. Jean-Jacques Bonnet and Vincent Pineau are quietly making the case that this is one of the most misunderstood appellations in France. Jean-Jacques and Vincent are passionate winemakers in the truest sense of that overused phrase. Two people who have spent their careers coaxing something extraordinary out of a grape and a place that the wine world regularly underestimates. Together they run a family estate that has been producing Muscadet for over 150 years, rooted in the ancient soils of the Sèvre et Maine appellation, 20 kilometers from Nantes. Their soils are a geologist's dream: gneiss, micaschist, amphibolite, and granite. Each parcel contributing something distinct and irreplaceable to the wines. Their commitment to the land is the real story. Certified organic since 2005. Certified biodynamic since 2010. Forty hectares farmed without chemicals, with biodynamic preparations applied by hand. Herbal teas, plant decoctions, horn manure, horn silica. All in service of soil that is alive and expressive rather than depleted and compliant. In the cellar they follow the same philosophy. Grapes harvested by hand, slowly pressed, naturally fermented with indigenous yeasts. Their Muscadet ages on the lees in underground cement vats, a traditional method that builds texture, depth, and the characteristic mineral brightness the appellation is known for. Some cuvées are aged in 700-liter terracotta eggs, allowing the wine to breathe and the terroir to express itself without interference. They even invite visitors to come see it all for themselves, including a room housing eight amphorae that they describe, with characteristic understatement, as sublime. The Clos Moulin Chartrie in this drop is Muscadet at its most expressive. Crisp, mineral, alive. The kind of white that makes you reconsider everything you thought you knew about an appellation.
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Winemaker
JUlien Peyras
Languedoc, France
About the Winemaker
Julien Peyras works near the village of Paulhan, a short drive northeast of Beziers in the Languedoc, on terraced vines strewn with rocks and ancient clay from the Villefranchian epoch, one of the most recent periods of the Tertiary era, just before the Quaternary began. The soils carry the memory of deep geological time. The wines carry it too. His vines are old. His practices are minimal. He is a member of S.A.I.N.S., a small but fiercely committed group of winemakers dedicated to using zero added sulfur throughout the entire winemaking process, from vineyard to bottle. No exceptions. He is also a member of the Association des Vins Naturels. These are not marketing affiliations. They are a statement of conviction. Julien has described his dream as making a product that looks like him, that follows his convictions, respecting nature and its ecosystem, working with natural products. He said of one of his wines that it was above his expectations. For someone generally described as a pessimist, that is quite a statement. He is a master of the grape varieties his region does best. His Cinsault comes from forty year old vines and produces something that defies expectation, bright and light and lively where you might anticipate something heavy and dark. His Grenache is grown biodynamically, treated with nettle and fenugreek sprays. His field blends reflect a deep understanding of how different grapes can speak together when grown in the same ancient soils. The Ramonette in this drop is Cinsault, Grenache, and Syrah from those same limestone and clay terraces. Juicy, chillable, alive. The kind of wine that makes the south of France feel like exactly where you want to be.
Return to Wine
Winemaker
Wavy Wines
California
About the Winemaker
Wavy Wines started exactly the way the best projects do. Two friends at a birthday party, drinking natural wines from around the world, asking each other the question that always gets people into trouble: what if we did this ourselves? That conversation between Eliot Kessel and Jude Zasadzki in 2019 led to a first vintage built around a simple idea. Easy, honest, summer wines. What the French call vin de soif, wine of thirst. The kind of bottle you open without thinking too hard and finish before you expected to. Their first wine came from an affordable source of Pinot Gris from an organic vineyard in Chico, California. They made a skin contact ramato style wine, co-fermented with a little Chardonnay from Scribe Estate Vineyard. Unfined, unfiltered, no added sulfites. Then, with the leftover grape solids still sitting in the tank, they added water and kept the fermentation going. The result was a Piquette they named California Wine Cooler, an unironic tribute to the low-ABV drinks of a different era, fully updated and, as they put it, not terrible. That commitment to recycling their grapes has stayed with them. Nothing goes to waste. Whatever they source in a given year gets used fully and completely, the wine and then the piquette and then whatever comes next. Wavy Wines is California natural wine without the pretension. Grown organically. Made honestly. Built for the kind of afternoon that doesn't need an occasion. The Sunshine orange in this drop is exactly that. Pour it cold and don't overthink it.
Return to Wine
Winemaker
Domaine Cotzé
Pyrénées-Orientales, Spain
About the Winemaker
Wilfried Garcia grew up in Enveitg, a small village in the Pyrénées-Orientales just a stone's throw from the Spanish border. He spent his early years outdoors and working in hospitality before a growing curiosity about wine led him somewhere unexpected. He joined winemaker Tom Lubbe at Domaine Matassa in Roussillon for two seasons, learning the craft at one of the most respected natural wine estates in the region. Then he came home. Home, in this case, is high. Enveitg sits at around 1300 meters elevation, a place where summer temperatures in the cellar never exceed 25 degrees and winter cold causes a natural settling process that leaves wines crystalline and still, quietly resting through the season. It is about as far from a conventional Roussillon winery as you can get while still being in the same general region of France. Wilfried has planted two hectares of vines on steep slopes near his village, co-planting Mondeuse, Gamay, Pinot Noir, Chasselas, Chardonnay, Jacquère, and Savagnin. While he waits for those vines to reach maturity, he sources fruit from friends farming organically in Roussillon, just a kilometer or so from the Mediterranean, on limestone and chalk soils. He picks earlier than his neighbors, favoring lower alcohol and leaner, more structured wines. Then he transports them back up to his mountain cellar where the cool temperatures transform them into something that feels decidedly more like the Alps than the south of France. The name Transhumància references the ancient practice of moving livestock between seasonal pastures, following the land through the year. It is a fitting name for a winemaker who carries fruit from the warm coast up into the cold mountains and lets the journey become part of the wine. Bracing acidity. Crystalline structure. A wine that tastes exactly like where it ended up.
Return to Wine
Winemaker
Il Folicello
Emilia, Italy
About the Winemaker
Il Folicello started the way the best things do. Not as a business plan, but as a simple desire to make honest wine for themselves and their friends. Antonella and Marco began their project in the early 1980s in the Emilian countryside, surrounded by the gentle autumn mists that roll through this part of northern Italy. What started almost as a hobby became a life's work in an organic farm where tradition, sustainability, and genuine care for the land shape everything they do. Today their two daughters, Federica and Irene, have grown up and grown into the winery alongside them. Federica manages the commercial side, the relationships, the direct connection with customers that she values deeply. Irene works closer to the land — supporting vineyard management, harvest organization, and the crucial stages of packaging and bottling. This is a family that doesn't just make wine together. They built a life around it. Il Folicello has been certified organic for decades (long before it was fashionable) and their commitment to the land shows in every bottle. Their Lambrusco is the real thing: lively, food-friendly, rooted in a region where sparkling red wine has been part of the table for centuries. The Ancestrale Sparkling Rosato in this month's drop is a pét nat made the old way. Bottled mid-fermentation, finished naturally in the bottle, no disgorgement, no additions. Pink, alive, and full of the kind of unpretentious joy that only comes from people who make wine because they genuinely love it.
Return to Wine
Winemaker
Maison Brûlées
Loire, France
About the Winemaker
The name translates to "the burnt houses." It sounds like a place with a history and it is. Les Maisons Brûlées is located in the Cher Valley in the Loire, on a property first cultivated by Michel and Beatrice Augé, two figures from the original generation of natural winemakers in France. When Michel decided to retire he passed the estate to Paul and Corinne Gillet, an Alsatian couple whose path to the Loire was anything but direct. Paul and Corinne spent a decade traveling and building things. They ran an epicerie in France full of specialty foods and wine. They moved to Argentina and did pop ups before opening a French bistro. When they came back to France it was with a clear intention to make wine. That led them to the Loire, where Paul began working under Michel to learn biodynamic farming. He left after a time to study further in Alsace under Bruno Schueller. Then Michel retired. And offered them the estate. They said yes and came back. What they inherited was more than a property. It was a set of traditions, a specific terrain, a way of working with the land that had already been established over decades. Paul and Corinne have honored that while making it their own, picking fruit at full maturity to highlight the dark red fruit the Loire is capable of, while preserving the bright underlying acidity that makes these wines so alive. During harvest they keep an open table, with charcuterie and meat dishes that carry the flavor of their Alsatian roots into their adopted Loire home. The R2L0 in this drop is Gamay, Pineau d'Aunis and Pinot Noir. Light, expressive, unmistakably Loire. A wine made by people who chose this place deliberately and never stopped choosing it.
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Music
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Tasting Notes
Region: Languedoc, FranceGrapes: Cinsault, Grenache, Syrah Deep ruby with a brightness that catches the light. The nose is expressive and sun-warmed, with fresh red cherry, wild strawberry, and a savory undercurrent of dried herbs and cracked black pepper that is unmistakably southern France. On the palate it is juicy and medium bodied, with soft tannins and a lively acidity that makes it dangerously easy to drink. Chill it slightly and pour it outside. That is the instruction. Think: red cherry, wild strawberry, herbes de Provence, a long lunch that becomes dinner.
Tasting Notes
Region: Emilia-Romagna, Italy Grapes: Salamino, Lambrusco di Sorbara, Lambrusco Grasparossa Fresh and festive with aromas of wild strawberry, dried rose petals, and a whisper of earth. The bubbles are lively and persistent, carrying bright red fruit across the palate with a touch of tart cherry and a clean, dry finish. This is pét nat the way it was always meant to be — unpretentious, alive, and made for sharing. Think: strawberries, dried roses, lively fizz, Sunday afternoon energy.
Pairing
Steamed Mussels with White Wine, Shallots, and Fresh Herbs Muscadet and mussels is one of the great pairings of the Loire Valley. The wine's saline minerality mirrors the briny sweetness of the mussels while its bright acidity cuts through the butter and white wine broth.
View Recipe
Pairing
Lamb Merguez with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes and Herbed Couscous The sun-warmed red fruit and herbes de Provence character of this Languedoc blend is a natural companion to spiced lamb merguez. The wine's bright acidity cuts through the richness of the meat while its savory depth echoes the harissa and cumin.
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Tasting Notes
Region: Muscadet Sèvre et Maine, Loire Valley, FranceGrapes: 100% Melon de Bourgogne Pale gold with a quiet intensity. The nose opens with lemon zest, white peach, and a cool minerality that recalls wet stone and sea air. On the palate it is lean and precise, with bright acidity and a saline edge that builds through the finish. This is Muscadet as it was always meant to be understood, not simple, not cheap, but deeply expressive of a specific place and a specific way of farming. Think: lemon zest, wet stone, sea salt, the Loire at low tide.
Tasting Notes
Region: California Grapes: Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Muscat, Grenache Blanc Golden and hazy with the kind of glow that looks exactly like its name. The nose is generous and aromatic, with ripe nectarine, orange blossom, and a honeyed floral note from the Muscat that drifts through everything. On the palate it is textured and bright, with stone fruit and citrus peel balanced by a lively acidity that keeps it from ever feeling heavy. The skin contact adds a gentle grip and warmth that makes this feel like a wine with something to say. Think: nectarine, orange blossom, golden hour, the first warm afternoon of the year.
Tasting Notes
Region: Cher Valley, Loire Valley, France Grapes: Gamay, Pineau d'Aunis, Pinot Noir Translucent ruby with a quiet elegance. The nose is lifted and precise, with fresh raspberry, wild blackberry, and a distinctive peppery, slightly smoky note from the Pineau d'Aunis that sets this apart from anything you have tasted before. On the palate it is light and silky, with a bright acidity that carries the fruit effortlessly through to a long, mineral finish. This is a Loire red that asks nothing of you except your full attention. Think: raspberry, wild blackberry, white pepper
Pairing
Grilled Peach and Prosciutto Flatbread with Honey and Arugula The stone fruit and orange blossom aromatics of Sunshine find a perfect counterpart in grilled peaches, while the prosciutto adds a savory saltiness that balances the wine's gentle sweetness. A flatbread made for golden hour.
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Pairing
Duck Breast with Chinese 5 Spice Cherry Reduction The silky texture and wild berry fruit of this Loire blend has a long tradition with duck. The Pineau d'Aunis brings a peppery lift that cuts through the richness of the duck while the cherry reduction echoes the wine's bright fruit and earthy depth.
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Pairing
Spring Pea and Ricotta Tart with Lemon Zest and Fresh Mint The delicate floral notes and gentle texture of this Grenache Gris find their match in the sweetness of spring peas and the creamy richness of ricotta. The lemon zest ties it all together with a brightness that echoes the wine's clean finish.
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Tasting Notes
Region: Roussillon, FranceGrapes: 100% Grenache Gris Pale and luminous with an almost rosé-like hue. The nose is delicate and floral, with white peach, apricot blossom, and a faint herbal note that speaks to the wild garrigue of the south. On the palate it is fresh and textured, with a gentle roundness from the Grenache Gris and a mineral backbone that betrays its limestone and chalk origins. The finish is clean and long, with just enough grip to make you reach for another glass. Think: white peach, apricot blossom, garrigue, mountain air carried down to the coast.
Pairing
Strawberry and Burrata Crostini with Aged Balsamic Lambrusco and fresh strawberries are a classic pairing of the Emilia-Romagna table. The wine's bright acidity and red fruit echo the sweetness of spring strawberries while the creamy burrata softens the fizz into something celebratory.
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Fire & Flowers
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explore
Fire & Flowers
wines
soundtrack
art
Art
Sister Corita Kent
Corita Kent was an artist, educator, and advocate for social justice. She was also a Catholic nun for 32 years. Those two facts existed in her simultaneously and in full tension and that tension is exactly what made her work so alive. Born Frances Elizabeth Kent in 1918, she grew up in Los Angeles and entered the Immaculate Heart of Mary religious order at eighteen. It was a practical decision as much as a spiritual one. Joining the order gave her access to education and art training that wouldn't otherwise have been available to a young woman of limited means. She would go on to head the art department at Immaculate Heart College, where she built one of the most creatively radical classrooms in Los Angeles.
She was drawn to screenprinting as "a very democratic form" that "enables me to produce a quantity of original art for those who cannot afford to purchase high quality art." Bold colors. Text lifted from advertising slogans, song lyrics, cereal boxes, scripture. Pop art aesthetics in service of something far more urgent than commerce. Throughout the 1960s her work became increasingly political, addressing the Vietnam War, poverty, racism, and humanitarian crises. The Los Angeles archdiocese was not pleased. Cardinal McIntyre labeled the college "communist" and her work "blasphemous." She kept going.
In 1968 she left the order and moved to Boston. She was fifty years old and living alone for the first time in her life. She couldn't drive. She couldn't cook. She made nearly 800 screenprint editions anyway. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1974 and died in 1986 at sixty-seven and left her copyrights and unsold work to the Immaculate Heart Community — the same women she had spent her life alongside. Her work looks like a party. It feels like a fight. It is both of those things at once, which is why it belongs with a collection of wines called Fire & Flowers.
return to main menu
Wines
Domaine Bonnet Huteau Clos Moulin Chartrie 2024
Il Folicello Ancestrale Sparkling Rosato
Domaine Cotzé Transhumància Chassez le Naturel 2023
Wavy Wines 'Sunshine 2024
Les Maisons Brûlées R2L0, 2023
Julien Peyras Ramonette Field Blend 2024
return to main menu
Il Folicello Il ROsato Pet Nat
Tasting Notes
Winemaker
Return to Wines
Food Pairing
Domaine Bonnet Huteau Clos Moulin Chartrie 2024
Tasting Notes
Winemaker
Return to Wines
Food Pairing
Domaine Cotzé Transhumància Chassez le Naturel 2023
Tasting Notes
Winemaker
Return to Wines
Food Pairing
Wavy Wines 'Sunshine 2024
Tasting Notes
Winemaker
Return to Wines
Food Pairing
Julien Peyras Ramonette Field Blend 2024
Tasting Notes
Winemaker
Return to Wines
Food Pairing
Les Maisons Brûlées R2L0, 2023
Tasting Notes
Winemaker
Return to Wines
Food Pairing
Winemaker
Bonnet Huteau
Muscadet, France
About the Winemaker
Muscadet gets overlooked. It's been unfairly dismissed for decades as simple, cheap, the thing you order when you don't know what else to get. Jean-Jacques Bonnet and Vincent Pineau are quietly making the case that this is one of the most misunderstood appellations in France. Jean-Jacques and Vincent are passionate winemakers in the truest sense of that overused phrase. Two people who have spent their careers coaxing something extraordinary out of a grape and a place that the wine world regularly underestimates. Together they run a family estate that has been producing Muscadet for over 150 years, rooted in the ancient soils of the Sèvre et Maine appellation, 20 kilometers from Nantes. Their soils are a geologist's dream: gneiss, micaschist, amphibolite, and granite. Each parcel contributing something distinct and irreplaceable to the wines. Their commitment to the land is the real story. Certified organic since 2005. Certified biodynamic since 2010. Forty hectares farmed without chemicals, with biodynamic preparations applied by hand. Herbal teas, plant decoctions, horn manure, horn silica. All in service of soil that is alive and expressive rather than depleted and compliant. In the cellar they follow the same philosophy. Grapes harvested by hand, slowly pressed, naturally fermented with indigenous yeasts. Their Muscadet ages on the lees in underground cement vats, a traditional method that builds texture, depth, and the characteristic mineral brightness the appellation is known for. Some cuvées are aged in 700-liter terracotta eggs, allowing the wine to breathe and the terroir to express itself without interference. They even invite visitors to come see it all for themselves, including a room housing eight amphorae that they describe, with characteristic understatement, as sublime. The Clos Moulin Chartrie in this drop is Muscadet at its most expressive. Crisp, mineral, alive. The kind of white that makes you reconsider everything you thought you knew about an appellation.
Return to Wine
Winemaker
JUlien Peyras
Languedoc, France
About the Winemaker
Julien Peyras works near the village of Paulhan, a short drive northeast of Beziers in the Languedoc, on terraced vines strewn with rocks and ancient clay from the Villefranchian epoch, one of the most recent periods of the Tertiary era, just before the Quaternary began. The soils carry the memory of deep geological time. The wines carry it too. His vines are old. His practices are minimal. He is a member of S.A.I.N.S., a small but fiercely committed group of winemakers dedicated to using zero added sulfur throughout the entire winemaking process, from vineyard to bottle. No exceptions. He is also a member of the Association des Vins Naturels. These are not marketing affiliations. They are a statement of conviction. Julien has described his dream as making a product that looks like him, that follows his convictions, respecting nature and its ecosystem, working with natural products. He said of one of his wines that it was above his expectations. For someone generally described as a pessimist, that is quite a statement. He is a master of the grape varieties his region does best. His Cinsault comes from forty year old vines and produces something that defies expectation, bright and light and lively where you might anticipate something heavy and dark. His Grenache is grown biodynamically, treated with nettle and fenugreek sprays. His field blends reflect a deep understanding of how different grapes can speak together when grown in the same ancient soils. The Ramonette in this drop is Cinsault, Grenache, and Syrah from those same limestone and clay terraces. Juicy, chillable, alive. The kind of wine that makes the south of France feel like exactly where you want to be.
Return to Wine
Winemaker
Wavy Wines
California
About the Winemaker
Wavy Wines started exactly the way the best projects do. Two friends at a birthday party, drinking natural wines from around the world, asking each other the question that always gets people into trouble: what if we did this ourselves? That conversation between Eliot Kessel and Jude Zasadzki in 2019 led to a first vintage built around a simple idea. Easy, honest, summer wines. What the French call vin de soif, wine of thirst. The kind of bottle you open without thinking too hard and finish before you expected to. Their first wine came from an affordable source of Pinot Gris from an organic vineyard in Chico, California. They made a skin contact ramato style wine, co-fermented with a little Chardonnay from Scribe Estate Vineyard. Unfined, unfiltered, no added sulfites. Then, with the leftover grape solids still sitting in the tank, they added water and kept the fermentation going. The result was a Piquette they named California Wine Cooler, an unironic tribute to the low-ABV drinks of a different era, fully updated and, as they put it, not terrible. That commitment to recycling their grapes has stayed with them. Nothing goes to waste. Whatever they source in a given year gets used fully and completely, the wine and then the piquette and then whatever comes next. Wavy Wines is California natural wine without the pretension. Grown organically. Made honestly. Built for the kind of afternoon that doesn't need an occasion. The Sunshine orange in this drop is exactly that. Pour it cold and don't overthink it.
Return to Wine
Winemaker
Domaine Cotzé
Pyrénées-Orientales, Spain
About the Winemaker
Wilfried Garcia grew up in Enveitg, a small village in the Pyrénées-Orientales just a stone's throw from the Spanish border. He spent his early years outdoors and working in hospitality before a growing curiosity about wine led him somewhere unexpected. He joined winemaker Tom Lubbe at Domaine Matassa in Roussillon for two seasons, learning the craft at one of the most respected natural wine estates in the region. Then he came home. Home, in this case, is high. Enveitg sits at around 1300 meters elevation, a place where summer temperatures in the cellar never exceed 25 degrees and winter cold causes a natural settling process that leaves wines crystalline and still, quietly resting through the season. It is about as far from a conventional Roussillon winery as you can get while still being in the same general region of France. Wilfried has planted two hectares of vines on steep slopes near his village, co-planting Mondeuse, Gamay, Pinot Noir, Chasselas, Chardonnay, Jacquère, and Savagnin. While he waits for those vines to reach maturity, he sources fruit from friends farming organically in Roussillon, just a kilometer or so from the Mediterranean, on limestone and chalk soils. He picks earlier than his neighbors, favoring lower alcohol and leaner, more structured wines. Then he transports them back up to his mountain cellar where the cool temperatures transform them into something that feels decidedly more like the Alps than the south of France. The name Transhumància references the ancient practice of moving livestock between seasonal pastures, following the land through the year. It is a fitting name for a winemaker who carries fruit from the warm coast up into the cold mountains and lets the journey become part of the wine. Bracing acidity. Crystalline structure. A wine that tastes exactly like where it ended up.
Return to Wine
Winemaker
Il Folicello
Emilia, Italy
About the Winemaker
Il Folicello started the way the best things do. Not as a business plan, but as a simple desire to make honest wine for themselves and their friends. Antonella and Marco began their project in the early 1980s in the Emilian countryside, surrounded by the gentle autumn mists that roll through this part of northern Italy. What started almost as a hobby became a life's work in an organic farm where tradition, sustainability, and genuine care for the land shape everything they do. Today their two daughters, Federica and Irene, have grown up and grown into the winery alongside them. Federica manages the commercial side, the relationships, the direct connection with customers that she values deeply. Irene works closer to the land — supporting vineyard management, harvest organization, and the crucial stages of packaging and bottling. This is a family that doesn't just make wine together. They built a life around it. Il Folicello has been certified organic for decades (long before it was fashionable) and their commitment to the land shows in every bottle. Their Lambrusco is the real thing: lively, food-friendly, rooted in a region where sparkling red wine has been part of the table for centuries. The Ancestrale Sparkling Rosato in this month's drop is a pét nat made the old way. Bottled mid-fermentation, finished naturally in the bottle, no disgorgement, no additions. Pink, alive, and full of the kind of unpretentious joy that only comes from people who make wine because they genuinely love it.
Return to Wine
Winemaker
Maison Brûlées
Loire, France
About the Winemaker
The name translates to "the burnt houses." It sounds like a place with a history and it is. Les Maisons Brûlées is located in the Cher Valley in the Loire, on a property first cultivated by Michel and Beatrice Augé, two figures from the original generation of natural winemakers in France. When Michel decided to retire he passed the estate to Paul and Corinne Gillet, an Alsatian couple whose path to the Loire was anything but direct. Paul and Corinne spent a decade traveling and building things. They ran an epicerie in France full of specialty foods and wine. They moved to Argentina and did pop ups before opening a French bistro. When they came back to France it was with a clear intention to make wine. That led them to the Loire, where Paul began working under Michel to learn biodynamic farming. He left after a time to study further in Alsace under Bruno Schueller. Then Michel retired. And offered them the estate. They said yes and came back. What they inherited was more than a property. It was a set of traditions, a specific terrain, a way of working with the land that had already been established over decades. Paul and Corinne have honored that while making it their own, picking fruit at full maturity to highlight the dark red fruit the Loire is capable of, while preserving the bright underlying acidity that makes these wines so alive. During harvest they keep an open table, with charcuterie and meat dishes that carry the flavor of their Alsatian roots into their adopted Loire home. The R2L0 in this drop is Gamay, Pineau d'Aunis and Pinot Noir. Light, expressive, unmistakably Loire. A wine made by people who chose this place deliberately and never stopped choosing it.
Return to Wine
Music
return to main menu
Tasting Notes
Region: Languedoc, FranceGrapes: Cinsault, Grenache, Syrah Deep ruby with a brightness that catches the light. The nose is expressive and sun-warmed, with fresh red cherry, wild strawberry, and a savory undercurrent of dried herbs and cracked black pepper that is unmistakably southern France. On the palate it is juicy and medium bodied, with soft tannins and a lively acidity that makes it dangerously easy to drink. Chill it slightly and pour it outside. That is the instruction. Think: red cherry, wild strawberry, herbes de Provence, a long lunch that becomes dinner.
Tasting Notes
Region: Emilia-Romagna, Italy Grapes: Salamino, Lambrusco di Sorbara, Lambrusco Grasparossa Fresh and festive with aromas of wild strawberry, dried rose petals, and a whisper of earth. The bubbles are lively and persistent, carrying bright red fruit across the palate with a touch of tart cherry and a clean, dry finish. This is pét nat the way it was always meant to be — unpretentious, alive, and made for sharing. Think: strawberries, dried roses, lively fizz, Sunday afternoon energy.
Pairing
Steamed Mussels with White Wine, Shallots, and Fresh Herbs Muscadet and mussels is one of the great pairings of the Loire Valley. The wine's saline minerality mirrors the briny sweetness of the mussels while its bright acidity cuts through the butter and white wine broth.
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Pairing
Lamb Merguez with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes and Herbed Couscous The sun-warmed red fruit and herbes de Provence character of this Languedoc blend is a natural companion to spiced lamb merguez. The wine's bright acidity cuts through the richness of the meat while its savory depth echoes the harissa and cumin.
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Tasting Notes
Region: Muscadet Sèvre et Maine, Loire Valley, FranceGrapes: 100% Melon de Bourgogne Pale gold with a quiet intensity. The nose opens with lemon zest, white peach, and a cool minerality that recalls wet stone and sea air. On the palate it is lean and precise, with bright acidity and a saline edge that builds through the finish. This is Muscadet as it was always meant to be understood, not simple, not cheap, but deeply expressive of a specific place and a specific way of farming. Think: lemon zest, wet stone, sea salt, the Loire at low tide.
Tasting Notes
Region: California Grapes: Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Muscat, Grenache Blanc Golden and hazy with the kind of glow that looks exactly like its name. The nose is generous and aromatic, with ripe nectarine, orange blossom, and a honeyed floral note from the Muscat that drifts through everything. On the palate it is textured and bright, with stone fruit and citrus peel balanced by a lively acidity that keeps it from ever feeling heavy. The skin contact adds a gentle grip and warmth that makes this feel like a wine with something to say. Think: nectarine, orange blossom, golden hour, the first warm afternoon of the year.
Tasting Notes
Region: Cher Valley, Loire Valley, France Grapes: Gamay, Pineau d'Aunis, Pinot Noir Translucent ruby with a quiet elegance. The nose is lifted and precise, with fresh raspberry, wild blackberry, and a distinctive peppery, slightly smoky note from the Pineau d'Aunis that sets this apart from anything you have tasted before. On the palate it is light and silky, with a bright acidity that carries the fruit effortlessly through to a long, mineral finish. This is a Loire red that asks nothing of you except your full attention. Think: raspberry, wild blackberry, white pepper
Pairing
Grilled Peach and Prosciutto Flatbread with Honey and Arugula The stone fruit and orange blossom aromatics of Sunshine find a perfect counterpart in grilled peaches, while the prosciutto adds a savory saltiness that balances the wine's gentle sweetness. A flatbread made for golden hour.
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Pairing
Duck Breast with Chinese 5 Spice Cherry Reduction The silky texture and wild berry fruit of this Loire blend has a long tradition with duck. The Pineau d'Aunis brings a peppery lift that cuts through the richness of the duck while the cherry reduction echoes the wine's bright fruit and earthy depth.
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Pairing
Spring Pea and Ricotta Tart with Lemon Zest and Fresh Mint The delicate floral notes and gentle texture of this Grenache Gris find their match in the sweetness of spring peas and the creamy richness of ricotta. The lemon zest ties it all together with a brightness that echoes the wine's clean finish.
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Tasting Notes
Region: Roussillon, FranceGrapes: 100% Grenache Gris Pale and luminous with an almost rosé-like hue. The nose is delicate and floral, with white peach, apricot blossom, and a faint herbal note that speaks to the wild garrigue of the south. On the palate it is fresh and textured, with a gentle roundness from the Grenache Gris and a mineral backbone that betrays its limestone and chalk origins. The finish is clean and long, with just enough grip to make you reach for another glass. Think: white peach, apricot blossom, garrigue, mountain air carried down to the coast.
Pairing
Strawberry and Burrata Crostini with Aged Balsamic Lambrusco and fresh strawberries are a classic pairing of the Emilia-Romagna table. The wine's bright acidity and red fruit echo the sweetness of spring strawberries while the creamy burrata softens the fizz into something celebratory.
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