Petite Sirah, Ardeche, France 

A big-ass bottle of juicy & playful zero-zero little sirah! Before making from a patchwork of small plots across 6 hectares in mystical Ardeche – and before he was joined there by his partner, Anne Bruun Blauert – winemaker Anders Frederik Steen was a chef and sommelier in Copenhagen with stints at the hippest of places like Noma and Manfreds. But he ran for the hills (of France) to take a seriously held GRAPES-ONLY approach to making some of the most idiosyncratic & bardic wines in the whole world. The pair’s cuvees today leave us momentarily speechless then with a flurry of poetry to describe them. Here, floral, inky petite sirah grows on young vines planted in blue marl. About half of the stems stuck around for maceration, giving it a woodsy character and a bark-bite grip. FUN FACT! Anders & Anne only make this wine in a magnum AND they’ve gone on record to say this is the best vintage they’ve ever made of it. So invite nine of your nearest and dearest over for a glass each and ‘Les Vignes des Enfants’ will prompt you to ask questions full of childlike wonder. Get ready for whiffs of black pudding fruit, açai smoothie bowl, blackberry fool, obsidian salt, new sauna smell, sun-dried olive tapenade, jazz sax brow sweat & occult shop lavender – all wrapped in black velveteen. Syrah is burger wine, so by that logic you should serve this party-sized petite sirah with many petite burgers.