2023 Frog's Leap Flycatcher
John Williams arrived in Napa on a Greyhound bus in 1974 with essentially nothing — no vineyard, no winery, no money — and proceeded to become the first person in the Valley to earn certified organic status for his vines, build 200 acres of dry-farmed estate fruit, and develop a reputation for producing some of California's most thoughtful, terroir-driven wines. His whole philosophy is rooted in place: these specific soils, this specific appellation, these specific vines. So naturally, the Flycatcher is a seven-variety blend pulled from old-vine Zinfandel in Lodi, steep-slope Petite Sirah, high-elevation Merlot from Yorkville Highlands, and Syrah grown in volcanic tufa in Carneros. Williams calls himself a California winemaker — not just a Napa winemaker — and this is what that distinction looks like in a glass. It is not an afterthought or a second wine. It is a deliberate argument about what California can do when you're not trying to impress anyone.
The facts
36% Zinfandel, 15% Cinsault, 13% Petite Sirah, 13% Carignane, 10% Tempranillo, 9% Merlot, 4% Syrah
Organically farmed fruit sourced from diverse California sites including Lodi (old-vine Zinfandel), Yorkville Highlands (Merlot), and Carneros (Syrah on volcanic tufa soils)
2023: late start due to wet/cold winter, followed by mild summer; moderate, even growing season
Fermented and aged in neutral vessels; no new oak
Best served at a cool 55°F; drink now through 2027
In the glass
Bright and honest in the glass, the 2023 opens with crushed red berry, blood orange, cinnamon, and a lift of violet that is doing most of the work before you even swallow. The palate is the point: the Zinfandel brings exuberant, up-tempo fruit while the Tempranillo and Petite Sirah anchor it with savory backbone and structure, keeping the whole thing from getting too pleased with itself. The Cinsault is the peacekeeper — softening edges, adding freshness, making sure the stronger personalities stay in conversation rather than fighting for the podium. Spicy, floral Syrah closes the finish, which is where the whole eclectic California sprawl of the thing ties into something that feels, somehow, coherent and intentional. Serve it slightly cool. Pair with tacos, grilled sausages, a great pizza, smash burgers, barbecue of basically any regional tradition, or any dinner where the wine list is being taken too seriously and this is a useful corrective.
2024 Ciacci Piccolomini d'Aragona Fabivs
In 1672, Fabivs de' Vecchis — Bishop of Montalcino, a man with serious opinions about architecture — commissioned the construction of a palace in Castelnuovo dell'Abate that would eventually become the seat of one of Tuscany's most celebrated Brunello estates. Three and a half centuries later, the Bianchini family named their pure Syrah after him. This is either a historically appropriate tribute or an excellent joke, depending on how you feel about a Brunello producer growing Rhône varietals in the Sant'Antimo appellation just outside their famous zone. It is not a joke. The Vigna del Conte — the single vineyard that produces every bottle of Fabivs — sits in Eocene marl soils at 240 to 360 meters of elevation, and the microclimate there turns out to be particularly well-suited to Syrah in ways that critics have found simultaneously obvious and slightly strange: the wine is unmistakably ripe and structured in the way great Syrah tends to be, and simultaneously linear and compact in a way that has everything to do with Montalcino and very little to do with the Rhône. The Tuscan identity tends to win. Apparently the Bishop would not have it any other way.
The facts
100% Syrah from Vigna del Conte, Castelnuovo dell'Abate
Eocene marl soils, medium grain; 240–360 meters above sea level; organically farmed
Fermented in stainless steel and glass concrete vats with temperature control
Aged in small 300-liter oak barrels
Best drinking window: 2026 through 2034
Open an hour before serving; serve at 18°C / 64°F
In the glass
Intense ruby with purple hues, the 2024 opens with blackberry, plum, and dark cherry — the classic Syrah calling card — before a note of sweet tobacco and smoked meat arrives to remind you where you are. The palate is full and structured, with a density of fruit that feels contained rather than exuberant, wrapped in tannins that are genuinely velvety rather than the kind that merely advertise themselves as such. There is freshness here, and tension underneath the richness, and a savory persistence on the finish that reads distinctly Italian rather than distinctly French — which is the thing critics keep noting about this wine and cannot quite explain, and which is probably the most interesting thing about it. The Bishop's vineyard, it turns out, makes Syrah on its own terms. Pair with wild boar ragù, braised lamb, roasted game birds, aged pecorino, anything with truffles, or a dinner where you want to serve something that prompts the question "wait, is this Syrah?" and then enjoy the conversation that follows.
2023 Musar Jeune White
Château Musar releases its flagship wines approximately seven years after harvest. The cellar holds vintages through decades of patient development; the wines are aged three years in barrel, then years more in bottle before they're considered ready. This is an estate whose philosophy — inherited from founder Gaston Hochar in 1930, perfected by his son Serge through a fifteen-year civil war, and carried forward now by the third generation — involves a fundamental trust that wine will become what it wants to become if you give it enough time and don't interfere. The Musar Jeune range is what happens when that same family decides to make something you should drink this year. It is not a compromise. It is a completely different argument — organically farmed Viognier, Vermentino, and Chardonnay planted in 2001 at 1,000 meters in the Bekaa Valley, in a place where grapes have been grown for six thousand years, fermented clean and cold in stainless steel to preserve everything the varieties brought with them from the vineyard. The house that taught the world to wait is also, when it wants to be, very good at now.
The facts
34% Viognier, 33% Vermentino, 33% Chardonnay
Organically certified vineyards planted 2001; 1,000 meters elevation, Bekaa Valley, Lebanon
Vermentino and Chardonnay on limestone soils; Viognier on silty soils
Fermented in stainless steel at 18–22°C; cold stabilized; bottled spring 2024
12.5% alcohol; best drinking window: now through 2027–28
In the glass
Pale lemon with a luminous clarity, the 2023 opens with peach and apricot — the Viognier announcing itself with the confidence it always has — followed by pineapple, white flowers, and a thread of tropical fruit that the altitude keeps from becoming heavy. The palate is smooth and balanced, with citrus freshness running underneath the riper stone fruit character like a current, keeping everything alive and honest. The Vermentino is doing important structural work here, providing body and a subtle herbal note that keeps the Viognier's natural lushness in check; the Chardonnay holds the center together without calling attention to itself. The result is simultaneously generous and vivid — a wine with Mediterranean warmth and mountain freshness in the same sip, from a valley that has been producing this combination for longer than most appellations have had names. Pair with spaghetti alle vongole, grilled sea bass, fried zucchini, hummus and warm flatbread, grilled shrimp with chermoula, any mezze spread that deserves something better than whatever is currently open on the table, or a summer evening that needs to feel ancient and immediate at exactly the same time.