Featured Explorer Club Wines:

2017 MAS GRAND PLAGNIOL | "TRADITION" | COSTIERES DE NIMES, LANGUEDOC, FRANCE

From the Importer: "I first met Cyril Marès when he was a teenager, and his father Roger was still in charge of the estate and presiding over the appellation. He took over in 1998, married the girl next door (Nathalie Blanc of Mas Carlot) and took the domaine to ever higher heights. The wines always show exceptional aromatic appeal, supple texture and uncannily intelligent balance between fruit and oak. We never seem to buy enough of them, mainly because they have little to sell. Wines like these offer incontrovertible proof that not much money can buy you a lot of love. In a market now brimming with Nimois wines, these remain at the top of the pile. Since 2017, the estate has been in conversion to Organic viticulture. Starting with the 2020 vintage, the wines will be certified Organic."

The great ones do their best work in the lesser vintages (not that 2017 falls into that category), as proved by Cyril in years like 2008 and 2002. We challenge you to find a wine that better combines aromatic flair, suave texture and sheer delicious spicy Rhône fruit at such a silly price. (Importer)

2020 COLLI DI CATONE | FRASCATI SUPERIORE | LAZIO, ITALY

Italy’s list of transcendent white wines is short, compelling and idiosyncratic. It begins with three growers famed for their obsessive commitment to the indigenous grapes of their region, as well as to their individuality in expressing them. These men are Valentini, Gravner, and Miani. But over the past 30 years, a fourth, far more obscure producer, Antonio Pulcini, has quietly been turning out white wines of similarly mind-bending complexity. The obscurity of Pulcini’s wines is in part due to his reclusiveness and how he chooses to sell his wines, exclusively from the cellar door of his estate, Colli di Catone. (He has long eschewed importers and critics.)

Pulcini works in an ancient villa overlooking Rome, whose 2000-year-old, catacomb-like cellar features a 300 A.D. Christian altar. The villa itself once belonged to the sister of Trajan—the Roman Emperor in the century after Christ’s death. More relevantly, the villa is surrounded by vineyards planted on southwest-facing slopes of volcanic tufa soils; sites rich in minerals and prized by the ancient Romans.

Pulcini makes an array of wines, but the best introduction to his style is his rendition of Frascati Superiore. He incorporates 40% Malvasia del Lazio into the conventional blend of Malvasia Candia and Trebbiano, and even these latter two varieties gain added character through his fastidious viticulture and famously low yields—less than half the legal limit. In his hands, this DOCG of often frivolous whites offers superb character and minerality. (Importer)

CYRIL MARES OF GRAND MAS PLAGNIOL
VINEYARDS OF COSTIERES DE NIMES
ANTONIO PULCINI OF COLLI DI CATONE
VINEYARDS OF LAZIO

Explorer Club $34.95/month

Two bottles each month for $34.95. Explore the world of wine while developing your palate by enjoying a monthly delivery of wines that represent value and authenticity, hand-selected by the experts at Mission Wines!