Cabernet Franc, Loire Valley, France

An iconic wine from an iconic place in stock just once or twice a year if we’re very lucky. Taking over from their parents, brothers Sylvestre and Joseph are creating fun, experimental cuvées from their estate fruit as well as purchasing grapes through the family’s negociant. Like their other wines, this is pure, slightly effervescent glou glou if you’re simply throwing it back, but look more closely and the devil-emoji is clearly in the details: redcurrants, sour cherry and tobacco leaf, a whiff of savoury smoke and cocoa and finely-wrought tannins. A wine to stir the pot & cause drama and intrigue; invite yourself to someone’s house in upstate New York and call it your winter writer’s residency.