Flatiron Wines & Spirits SF

Sometimes we forget that before the judgement of Paris, before the cult Cabernets of Napa, and before the modern California wine boom, there was Hanzell. Founded in 1953 by Ambassador James Zellerbach after a transformative stint in Europe, this estate was built with a singular, audacious goal: to produce Burgundian-style wines on the slopes of Sonoma that could rival the finest Grand Crus of the Côte d'Or. Walking through the vineyard today, you are walking through living history, past the oldest continuously producing Chardonnay vines in the Western Hemisphere.

If you drive a few minutes west of Givry into the rolling hills of the Côte Chalonnaise, you’ll find yourself in the tiny, sleepy village of Jambles. This is the home of Domaine Danjean-Berthoux, a family estate now in its fourth generation that quietly produces some of the most over-performing white Burgundy in our cellars. While their neighbors in the Côte de Beaune are grappling with global fame and the soaring prices that come with it, Pascal Danjean and his son Charles-Antoine are still working their steep, limestone slopes with the focused, unhurried intensity of true artisans.

Josep Grau spent nearly twenty years in the high-frequency world of Barcelona finance before he realized he was looking for something that numbers couldn't provide. In 2003, he walked away from the spreadsheets to find a different kind of precision in the rugged hills of Montsant. If you met him today, you might still see the former accountant in his neatly pressed shirts, but his hands are now firmly in the dirt of his organic vineyards. He didn't come to the Langhe-like hills of Catalunya to make "big" wines; he came to find the silence and transparency he felt was missing from city life.