Nice: January 2025

Welcome to the Dacha

Willamette Valley

Pinot Noir

Trained in Burgundy, Isabel works with small-lot vineyards in the Willamette and Umpqua Valleys. At a young age, Isabel traveled and lived one year in France with her family. A daughter of an academic, Isabel’s curiosity to learn led her back to France on several occasions. She earned her oenology and viticulture degree in Beaune and got to learn hands-on with Domaine Guillot-Broux. After working in wine retail and distribution in New York, Isabel escaped from the city to create Dacha in 2019 in Corvallis. Today you will find her working in small-lot vineyards, in the cellar, delivering wine, and designing her labels.

Pairing: Ukrainian Mushroom and Onion Dumplings

Fun fact: Throughout Eastern Europe, Dacha means ‘summer house.’ Practically, dachas are an escape from the city.

Francesco brigatti

Oltre il Bosco

Nebbiolo from Ghemme

Francesco Brigatti is an exemplary small wine grower in northern Piedmont. He makes small amounts of elegant, expressive wines based on Nebbiolo. Nebbiolo-based wines from this region (Alto Piemonte) are strikingly different from those from Barolo and Barbaresco, particularly in structure (they are usually less tannic and less alcoholic). The climate is somewhat cooler here, with breezes from Monte Rosa to the north giving excellent day/night temperature variation, and the soils are entirely different: acidic morainic clays rather than alkaline calcareous clays in the Langa.

This wine, aged in huge barrels for two years, then in bottle for three, allows us to enjoy Nebbiolo strait from the bottle, rather than after 20 years in the cellar.

Pairing: Caramelized Shallot Gravy with Steak

Fun fact: People of the village of Ghemme eat more beef per capita than anywhere else on earth, so drink it with a steak?

Ashes & diamonds

Santa Cruz Mountains

Cabernet Blend

Ashes & Diamonds, ‘a love letter to the Napa Valley of the 1960s,’ has set out to revive this storied era’s pioneering energy. Under the guidance of winemakers Steve Matthiasson and Diana Snowden-Seysses, A&D is sourcing fruit from some of Napa’s oldest vineyards and creating food-friendly, extremely agreeable wines. This wine is from the same vineyard that Ridge pulls its fruit from of Monte Bello, a $300 bottle of wine.

Here we have a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc from a four-generation-old vineyard site at the edge of the rugged Santa Cruz mountains. A medium-bodied cuvee that's made to be approachable, it's elegant and balanced yet still full of character.

Pairing: a good book