Library
The Wine Library
Profiles, guides, and field notes on the producers, regions, grapes, and places that shape our work — including many we admire but don’t import.
Producers
Winemakers we’ve visited, tasted with, and admire
Regions
Wine regions and appellations, from our notes in the field
Grapes
Grape varieties and how they express themselves
Glossary
Wine terminology explained from an importer’s perspective
Places
Shops, restaurants, and bars where we love to drink
Recent Additions
Koshu
Koshu is a pink-skinned grape variety cultivated in Japan for over a thousand years. DNA analysis has confirmed its Vitis vinifera origins — likely arriving via the Silk Road from the Caucasus. It makes transparent, mineral white wines uniquely suited to Japanese cuisine.
Champagne Augustin
Marc Augustin farms nine and a half hectares of Premier Cru vineyard in Avenay-Val-d’Or with Demeter-certified biodynamic methods inherited from his father Jean. His practice extends to peppering, aromatherapy, quartz crystal placements, and vinification in Georgian clay amphorae.
Champagne
Champagne is both the most industrial and potentially the most natural of wine regions. Six atmospheres of pressure, heavy glass, and high acidity create ideal conditions for minimal intervention — a paradox that a new generation of grower-producers is exploiting to extraordinary effect.
Frenchette
Frenchette is a French restaurant in TriBeCa, New York, known for its serious wine program and inventive bistro cooking. It is where we first encountered Legrand-Latour’s champagne on a New York wine list — and a perennial anniversary destination.
Peppering
Peppering is a biodynamic pest management practice drawn from Rudolf Steiner’s 1924 agricultural lectures. Dead pest insects are burned to ash, diluted in water, and sprayed on vines. It sounds like folklore until you watch someone devote their livelihood to it.
Pinot Meunier
Pinot Meunier accounts for roughly a third of Champagne’s plantings and has long been dismissed as the region’s third grape. A new generation of grower-producers — particularly in the Vallée de la Marne — is proving it deserves far more respect.
Yamanashi
Yamanashi Prefecture, centered around the town of Katsunuma at the foot of Mount Fuji, is Japan’s most important wine-producing region. It is home to the Koshu grape, over eighty wineries, and Japan’s first Geographical Indication for wine.
Hokkaido
Hokkaido is Japan’s most exciting emerging wine region. Lower humidity, cooler temperatures, and volcanic soils produce wines of startling freshness — from Austrian-rooted Kerner and Zweigelt to increasingly serious Pinot Noir.