Flatiron Wines & Spirits SF

Italian wine nerds have long considered Taurasi to be the absolute greatest red wine of the south, often calling it the Barolo of Campania. It relies on Aglianico, a grape that, much like Nebbiolo, packs a stunning punch of power, finesse, and a crazy ability to transmit the terroir that it's grown in. When you plant it on the high-altitude slopes of Irpinia, buried deep in ancient volcanic ash from Mount Vesuvius, Aglianico pumps out wines with incredible structure that can easily age for decades.

That was ten years ago and since then Brovia has only gotten better and better under the 4th generation leadership of Elena Brovia and her husband, Alex Sanchez. You can see it in the scores of their 2021 single-vineyard Barolo Crus, with wines like Villero, Brea and Garblet Sue getting 97-99 points, pretty much across the board. But those wines are very expensive and very hard to get. And great as they are, they don’t tell the whole Brovia story. For that, we want to look at Brovia’s “baby” wines – the less expensive wines we have on offer for you today. 

In a fair world, Nicole Deriaux's sparkling wine would be discussed in the same breath as the great grower Champagnes. But in the real world, her address is the Jura rather than the Marne, which happily keeps her remarkable Crémant an under-the-radar gem at a fraction of the price. She produces it from her own vines in the tiny village of l'Étoile, a place whose name literally translates to "the star." Local legend says the village earned this title either from the five hills that surround it, or the tiny, star-shaped marine fossils scattered throughout its vineyards.