The Producers Table
This is a series built around the growers, families, and estates behind the bottles. Each edition features a producer Ian Mendelsohn knows personally, has visited, or has worked alongside across a twenty-five year career in wine and spirits. These are not names on a label or bottles on a shelf. They are friends and colleagues earned through harvests, meals, and decades of shared work. What follows is not a tasting room experience. It is access built on trust.
Domaine Jean-Louis Chave
Domaine Jean-Louis Chave traces its roots to 1481 and has farmed the hill of Hermitage since 1865. Jean-Louis, the sixteenth generation, and his wife Erin farm fourteen parcels on the hill and see themselves as master blenders. However, Hermitage aren’t the only wines they make.
Paolo Scavino
Paolo Scavino has owned Bric dël Fiasc in Castiglione Falletto since 1921 and works with over 20 crus. Enrico's daughters, Enrica and Elisa, run the estate now. Every Barolo is made the same way, so each cru speaks for its very specific terroir.
Au Bon Climat
Au Bon Climat, founded by Jim Clendenen in 1982 and made on Bien Nacido Vineyard since 1990. His longtime team and his children, Isabelle and Knox, keep his Burgundian methods. Cool Santa Maria Valley fruit, picked for balance and freshness, but aging beautifully
Avignonesi
Twenty years of enjoying Vino Nobile and a day at Avignonesi, the largest certified biodynamic estate in Italy. Avignonesi was founded in Montepulciano in 1974. Virginie Saverys bought it in 2009 and converted 175 hectares to organic and then biodynamic farming, the largest such estate in Italy. Her daughter Eline's Ventisei comes off the same ground.
Feudo Montoni
Feudo Montoni has farmed Sicily's high interior since 1469, three generations of the Sireci family joined by Sicilian American chef Melissa Muller of New York's Eolo. Altitude and iron-rich sand turn Catarratto into something singular. Access through Vineyard Confidential.
The Slopes Sancerre Forgot: Coteaux de Giennois
Make the beautiful drive south from Paris and about twenty minutes before Sancerre you pass through a small appellation called Coteaux du Giennois. Most people drive right through on their way to the famous name but they miss meeting a family that has farmed the land since the early 1920's. Marc & Yves make wine from the same Sauvignon Blanc grape and flint soils that have made Sancerre the go to summer wine.