Wine 7 min

Napa Gamay

On Valdiguié, the importance of keeping your eyes open, and the first tasting note

This week we have something a bit different — a wine from California. I've wanted to write about Valdiguié for a long time now because it illustrates something important: compelling wine can be made anywhere, and dismissing a whole region is not only unhelpful, it's close minded.

The farmer who owned these old Valdiguié vines called up a winemaker and offered the grapes to him for free. When he asked why, he was told that up until then these grapes were being sold to Kendall Jackson and were destined for their Pinot Noir. A newly hired button pusher somewhere in the vast corporate halls realized that this contract was for a grape other than Pinot Noir and cancelled it.

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