At the age of 16, Brianne Day’s family moved to the gorgeous Willamette Valley, and although the fertile region offers the chance to fall in love with everything from apples to hops to dairy cows, it was the rows of vineyards that piqued her curiosity the most. Several years later, as a young adult, she saved her pennies and began a journey that has since taken her to 80+ wine regions.
Read MoreCathy and Daniel Fournié organically farm 74 acres of nothing but Malbec vines in the grape's ancestral home of Cahors. Throughout the Middle Ages, it was the black wine from here that was revered most in the western part of France. In fact, it was even added to Bordeaux to bump up its body and presentation. Cathy inherited the vines from her father, who spent years selling to negociants, and enlisted the help of dynamic winemaker Pascal Verhaeghe to work towards a modern revival of a forgotten about corner of French winemaking.
Read MoreAtop Monte Pigna, the snow falls in the winter, melts and picks up trace minerals on its journey through the earth. It returns to the surface in the form of springs. As the legend goes, long ago a miner swung a pickaxe against a rocky wall here, discovering a spring that produced this “magic” water, able to heal wounds in a surprisingly fast amount of time. The Lurisia Spa was established in the 1940s, eventually adding a production facility to bottle their pure, healthy water.
Read MoreTo approach the soul of a wine, Maria and Sepp Muster believe one must sidestep laboratory analysis, and to make good wine, one must approach the project with honesty and courage. Biodynamically farming 10 hectares of family plots, the Musters have been making very good wine since 2000 in the soils of southern Styria, filled with a clay silt known colloquially as Opok.
Read MoreGrowing up, winemaker Jean-Philippe Bouchet would gather the wild greens, the mourres, with his grandfather to make humble meals with other treats from the family farm. That spirit guides his current tie to the land, the 15 hectares he farms with his wife Ingrid in the Cotes du Rhone and Vaucluse.
Read MoreIn 1986, Cristina Menicocci was just three years old when her father Claudio decided to transition their farm to organic practices. 22 years later, she took it a step further by converting the farm to biodynamics. At the foot of the Cimini Mountains in Lazio, Azienda Menicocci grows grapes, olives and hazelnuts, but their farm fosters so much more life than that.
Read MoreErcole Alagna represents the third generation to lead the family estate in western Sicily, continuing his grandfather Guiseppe’s quest to make wines, Vermouth, and Marsala. Each generation has been committed to growing and modernizing the business, and today they sustainably farm over 50 hectares of grapes suited to the area, a mix of Zibibo, Nero D’Avola, Grillo, etc.
Read MoreWhen the brigantine Tres Hombres set sail from Brest to Copenhagen, it carried an astounding 10 tons of wine for the world renowned restaurant NOMA, including some bottles made by British ex-pat Tony Bainbridge and his American wife Julie Cathcart.
Read MoreAlthough their domain was brand new when they started in 2005, fortunately for brothers Marc and Alex Bachelet, their vineyards were a mix of family owned and long-term leased, and their hard work garnered international acclaim for their very first Puligny vintage.
Read MoreIn the village of Prepotto, just 10km from the Slovenian border, Silvana Forte and Flavio Basilicata make just four precise and focused wines every vintage. Their grapes are a mix of modern and indigenous, but what they share in common is an affinity for the unique mix of soils around Prepotto, a blend of clay and marl known locally as "ponca."
Read MoreFranck Balthazar is a wine purist with a smooth sensibility and third-generation feel for crafting fine wine. His Cornas are as old school as it gets: plowed by horse, hand picked, fermented whole cluster, and aged in very large neutral barriques, the same way his father René and grandfather Casimir did it.
Read MoreThird generation winemaker Natalino Crognaletti chooses to honor the biodiversity that is a hallmark of his family farm by adorning his labels with the animals that freely roam the estate. Elegant geese bedeck bottles of elegant white. Playful kittens invite you to try youthful reds, and mini-hares suggest tannin as rich as a fur coat.
Read MoreIl Cancelliere honors the "peasant art of wine," and they showcase these harmonious and humble winemaking methods exclusively through one grape, a grape that was once revered as a Grand Cru of ancient Roman times.
Read MoreCosimo Maria Masini is passionate about biodynamics. In fact, their motto is "passione biodinamica" which obviously doesn't need a translation. Through grapes and olives, Cosimo aims to comprehensively know their terroir, and each year they bring a deeper sensitivity to the rhythms and energies of nature.
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