If you love focused, terroir-driven white Burgundy, you shouldn't hesitate – Pico’s wines – and Bois d’Yver in particular – exemplify why Chablis stands among the world's great wine regions. 

At this point, we’ve written about Arianna Occhipinti so many times that coming up with something new feels like a challenge. We’ve talked about her commitment to organic farming, her influence on Sicily’s natural wine movement, and how her wines—today we have SP68 Rosso, SP68 Bianco, and Il Frappato—offer some of the purest expressions of the Vittoria region.

We just wrote about Mario Fontana’s winery in November. But now that Gambero Rosso has named him “winemaker of the year”, we think it’s important to write an article about his winery every time we get a new release of his wines. Last time, we had only his top-end Barolo. This time we have a few more accessible options to throw into the mix.

The wonderfully briney, complex whites of Muscadet remain some of the most underappreciated wines in the world. We’re not complaining, though — this lack of hype keeps first-rate examples insanely affordable even when they come from the best names in the region.

Spain is starting to look more and more like the wine scene in Italy, with lesser-known regions surging forward to show off their own native varieties and traditions. These offer great opportunities to seek out wine adventure and value! 

Provençal rosé is often crisp, light, and easygoing, but Domaine du Bagnol’s Cassis Rosé 2023 offers something more. Cassis, a tiny appellation between limestone cliffs and the Mediterranean, produces wines with real depth and character. While roses from nearby Côtes de Provence are simple and refreshing and nearby Bandol’s rosés are deep and structured, Bagnol’s rosé strikes a balance: mineral, bright, and complex, yet effortlessly drinkable.

Brad Friedman is making wines with Italian varieties and the wines have true varietal character. The Sagrantino has the traditional darkness, a note that might remind you of a Paulo Bea wine. But Brad’s aren’t Italian wines and his Sagrantino also has California joy, a coastal freshness, a new world sense of delight. 

What makes Moulin-à-Vent special is the presence of manganese in the soils. This has a tendency to deepen Gamay and to give it more structure. It’s no wonder that for centuries Moulin-à-Vent has been considered a grand vin, comparable to a great Burgundy. And indeed, it’s a Cru Beaujolais that can age incredibly well, often tasting more and more like Premier Cru Burgundy as it develops.

The wine name, "No Es Pituko," is Chilean slang for "it ain't fancy" – and that tells you exactly what these wines are about.

Sure, they're made from rare, ungrafted, pre-phylloxera vines that the Echeverria family has farmed since 1923. And yes, the farming is biodynamic and the winemaking is natural. But there's nothing pretentious here. Just pure, natural wine from hand-harvested fruit, fermented with wild yeasts and bottled without fining or filtration. Even the price is as far as you can get from snob appeal.

It’s tempting to keep this article short because people will buy this wine almost no matter what we say here. But we are here to educate as well as to sell, so we thought it would make sense to take a couple of paragraphs to remind everyone why it is that Gonon is so well loved.

For years we’ve heard your complaints, and we’ve done plenty of the same sort of grumbling ourselves. Yes, we love California artisanry, and we think it is a huge improvement over industrial production that has long dominated – and still dominates – our state’s wine industry. But those artisanal wines are so expensive! Yes, most of us are happy to spend $30, or even far more, for a great bottle of wine. But what about something simple and inexpensive? Do we really have to turn to industrial concerns to provide them?

No we don’t. There is just starting to emerge a new class of wine in California that may be the most exciting of recent trends.  New wineries with true artisanal spirits are making everyday, affordable wines. One of the best we’ve come across is Valravn.

Why aren’t there more Valravns out there? Probably, it’s because producing wine this good for such a low price is really hard. It takes a force of nature. Someone like proprietor Baron Ziegler, the kind of guy who bought Bordeaux futures when he was 15 and then flipped them for enough profit to make his first real estate purchase. Baron already had several wine projects behind him (he started Banshee for example) before he founded Valravn.

Their 2023 Sonoma Pinot Noir is a shockingly good under $20 value. It delivers juicy fruity freshness with an undertone of Pinot “earth”. It’s the kind of simple, joyful wine that makes up a big part of day-to-day life in European wine regions (think Dolcetto) but that is just not a big enough part of our culture here. 

We are so happy that, just maybe, it’s becoming a thing:

Valravn Sonoma County Pinot Noir 2023 - $19.99