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We call it skin contact.
We drink a lot of wine over the course of the year.
There are always a few bottles that stick out among the other few hundred -- something about the right time + right place, and sometimes they're just once in a lifetime kinda bottles. We've set aside some of our most memorable bottles for to release over these last few days of the year.
The heartbeat of Domestique.
Actually, it never left.
He was a serious looking man with wild hair and dark, soulful eyes from the Languedoc-Roussillon. She had a kind face, and was from arguably one of the most prestigious wine regions in the world – Bordeaux. They met when he went there to study Oenology in 1988 and fell in love. In 1993, the couple decided to lay down roots and purchased a small parcel in Cantenac, and in 1994 the first vintage of Clos du Jaugueyron was born.
The story of Clos du Jaugueyron is simple: boy meets girl, boy loves girl, boy and girl team up and become a wine powercouple bucking all established norms in one of the most traditional and built up wine regions in the world. Needless to say, we’re rooting for them (it helps that they're also the best natural wine producer in the entire region, and one of the best anywhere).
Michel and Stéphanie Destruhaut have 7-hectares of vines in Arsac, Cantenac, and Margaux. These vines thrive in classic Médoc soils, which are a mixture of gravel and sand. Michel is a firm believer in biodynamic viticulture and officially converted the estate to these practices for their 2008 vintage. His belief is that all great wines are made in the vineyard as opposed to the cellar. The plots with finer soils yield mineral-driven wines, while the richer clay-based soils lend round and powerful fruit.
The vinification process is a fairly straightforward one, and the grapes go into the tanks whole cluster to promote gentle extraction. Native yeasts carry out the fermentations, and the wines are transferred to barrique, with only 25% of it being new. The resulting wines are the perfect blend of minerality and bright red fruit, yielding wines we thought Bordeaux no longer made. In a region where greed and commercialism run rampant, Clos du Jaugueyron is truly refreshing with their honestly-made, Cabernet-centric expressions of Left Bank Bordeaux.
One of the things that I love about East Coast wines is that they're so antithetical to the traditional East Coast vs. West Coast narrative: the West Coast is a hub of innovation and youthful imperfection; the East Coast is old and storied and stodgy. When it comes to wine, it's the reverse. The West Coast has the storied (by American standards, at least) terroir. The East Coast is the new frontier. Hybrids, co-ferments, and wines made in the suburbs—it all goes East.
One other thing that I love is that the wines reflect a sense of place that feels both difficult to communicate and intensely familiar to me. They're austere and steely—wines born of harsh winters, slightly cynical people, and the timeless battle between industry and nature. Their survival and resurgence is a beautiful story and one that tells itself through frenetic energy. The fact that all of that can be communicated through a glass of wine is, frankly, pretty fucking incredible.
One other thing that I love is that the wines reflect a sense of place that feels both difficult to communicate and intensely familiar to me. They're austere and steely—wines born of harsh winters, slightly cynical people, and the timeless battle between industry and nature. Their survival and resurgence is a beautiful story and one that tells itself through frenetic energy. The fact that all of that can be communicated through a glass of wine is, frankly, pretty fucking incredible.
-Jeff Segal
Vitalii Dascaliuc has been our Eastern European buyer for the past few years, keeping us stocked with the most interesting and exciting wines from places like Georgia, Serbia, Armenia, Slovenia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Hungary.
He's originally from northeastern Moldova, where his parents still live, alongside their centuries-old wine cellar and their beehives. It's about an hour's drive from Ukraine.
These are Vitalii's favorite wines.
The next best and brightest. The youth will save us all.
Ultra-drinkable, chug-worthy wine usually made with minimal intervention (f*ck off lab yeasts, sugar, and acids) and little to no additives (just a tad of SO2 if the bugger is volatile as shit). Usually at a lower alcohol percentage, glouglou wines make you want to keep drinking and not hurt.
A warm summer day demands glouglou wines. Low in tannins, high in acidity, a teeny bit fizzy (from that bomb carbonic maceration magick), it's grown-up Kool-Aid that won't kill you (quickly). Alllllllll JUICE.
A warm summer day demands glouglou wines. Low in tannins, high in acidity, a teeny bit fizzy (from that bomb carbonic maceration magick), it's grown-up Kool-Aid that won't kill you (quickly). Alllllllll JUICE.
I brought some glouglou 10.5% strawberry sunshine in a bottle, so let's love life and kill half a case.
-via Urban Dictionary
Anyone who's hung around the shop for long enough is well aware of our love for Lilian Duplessis and his immortal expressions of Chablis. It’s nothing new to talk about how the wines of Chablis are “alive” and “seductive,” but the different cuvees of Duplessis are a masterclass in those concepts, at perhaps the best quality-to-price ratio in the region. They’re wines you can sit with for hours, watching them shape-shift and bloom. Time seems to stop with these wines, or at least slow way down.
Domaine Gérard Duplessis spans five generations and dates back to 1895. Lilian took over for his father in 1999; ever the tried and true Burgundy guy, he bleeds Chablis. Lilian had plenty of opportunities to travel the world and study different winemaking techniques, but as he puts it, “there was no point in making Sauvignon Blanc in New Zealand, I needed to know how to work Chardonnay in Burgundy.” After partnering with his father for several years, Lilian began to oversee the domaine in 2007, and converted to organics in 2010. The eight-hectare property is divided into 20 different plots, and all are tended to by Lilian.
Lilian operates in the vineyard with a light but determined touch. He’s singularly focused on showcasing the best raw material that his plots can offer. It makes sense; soils in Chablis are some of the most unique in the world, teeming with life and character. Here you’ll find Kimmeridgian Clay, a rare type of marl with elements of limestone, packed with fossilized Exogyra Virgula, a small comma-like oyster shell that litters the ground like jewels. It’s one of the primary sources for that famed Chablis knife-edge minerality.
The winemaking process at Domaine Gérard Duplessis is relatively hands off. Lilian uses barely any sulfur and in knockout vintages, none is used at all. Each plot is vinified separately in stainless steel and the Premiers Crus and Grand Cru spend six months in used barrels. Several of the Premier Crus vineyards bear fruit that punches well above their weight in terms of quality, and will have you asking why these wines don’t cost twice as much.
Whether it's a baller bottle to mic drop at the holiday party, or a teeny token to stuff a stocking, these are the singular wines, spirits and tchotchkes that are on our own personal wish lists this year.
In the dead of winter, we're taming our wanderlust by drinking the salty, sunny wines grown on islands.
Because sometimes you're just trying to keep your chill.
It would suffice to say that it can be pretty hard to find honestly made Bordeaux. We’re not looking for over-extracted, high alcohol wines made with expensive technology. We’re fans of old school Bordeaux. You know, the kind of stuff vigernons made back when people rode horses and plows through the vineyard because they had to – not because of marketing ploys. The wines of Maison Blanche take us back to that time.
The Despagnes have family roots in Saint-Émilion that go back for three centuries. The estate dates back to 1875, and the initial vines were planted by the Constant-Pineau family. Eventually, Gerard Despagnes planted the estate to its current size of 32 hectares of vines. Under Nicolas Despagnes, the property was converted over to biodynamic and organics, and Maison Blanche achieved the monumental task of obtaining its Demeter certification in 2013.
As is typical of the Right Bank, the soils are clay-based and planted with Merlot and Cabernet Franc rather than the more Cab Sauv-focused style of wines that come out of the Médoc. The vines on the estate are around 45 years old, and sit on the slopes of Montagne, Saint-Émilion, Pomerol, and Libourne. All harvesting is done by hand at the property.
The process in the vat room is simple, and no chemicals are added of any kind. The wines aren’t made with any crazy technology or fancy doodads either; just a simple vinification process with native yeasts, and aging in a combination of new and neutral oak barrels for up to a year and a half, depending on the blend. The Despagnes use as little sulfur as possible, resulting in a lively, age-worthy wine that can hang out in your cellar for years (/decades) to come.
Marie Thibault is one of our “near and dear” producers. She was one of the first to visit us during a wine dinner on a particularly snowy winter evening. Her personality is infectious, and she is a woman who forged her own path in the wine world. This is quite a feat, considering the wine industry - like many - can be insular.
Marie Thibault didn’t come from a family who owned parcels of vines or any fancy estates handed down from generation to generation. She became one of the Loire Valley’s rising stars entirely on her own merit, with a combination of grit and humility. With her pageboy hat, swath of cropped dark hair, and chunky scarves, Marie is humble and has a quiet, constant desire to improve her craft. Yet her wines have a life of their own.
Armed with degrees in Biology and Oenology, she started making wine in the early 2000s and worked for François Chidaine in Montlouis. Chidaine is one of the champions of Chenin Blanc, and Marie could not help but fall hard for the variety. She eventually started her eponymously-named label in 2004 and purchased her own estate in 2010.
Her parcel of vines is located in Azay le Rideau, an under-appreciated appellation within the Touraine AOC in the Loire Valley. The majority of her vines are 50ish years old, and she works with Côt, Gamay, Grolleau, Chenin Blanc, and Sauvignon Blanc. A mosaic of different soil types such as limestone, white clay, and flint add plenty of character to her wines. Her parcel is on the smaller side - about four hectares total - so she’s able to spend more time with her vines and prioritize careful, thoughtful farming. Her powerful wines speak volumes, and are punchy, energetic, and no-nonsense.
One bottle per cuvee per person, please!
Does minerality exist?
Scientists say no.
We say yes. So do these wines.
From trailblazers to young guns, these wines include current natural wine benchmarks to the adventurously avant garde.
Old vines, free spirits. Some of the most exciting wines in the world right now.
Bubbles make the world go round.
No hate on Champagne (like, at all), but given the shitshow that 2021 was, we'll be chugging pet nat out of the bottle this New Year's Eve.
We thought 2021 would be full of in-person events and a return of Pet Nat & Pupusas, but instead we'll be sitting on our couches (again).
To brighten the view, we commissioned an original poster commemorating the chaos of this year.
Add the 2021 poster to your cart and enter the promo code SHITSHOW at checkout to receive your poster for free with the purchase of any bubbly below.
A spirit that speaks to the expression of place.
It makes us think and laugh.
Team Domestique is always tasting and we love sharing our own favorite wines (and spirits, beers, ciders) of the moment with you. Look around the shop, you'll see baby photos of each of us hung on bottles that are individual favorites.
Ryan Stirm's path toward winemaking was a circuitous one, but the interest was always there. A Contra Costa country native, he spent the majority of his childhood outdoors exploring the foothills of Mt. Diablo, fishing in San Pablo Bay, and gardening with his grandmother. He participated on the high school wrestling team and caught the wine bug in response to the restrictive diet of being a competitive athlete – we always want what we can’t have, right? He attended Cal-Poly San Luis Obispo because of its wrestling team, and chose to study Wine and Viticulture. Shortly after, he was mentored by Justin Willett of Tyler Winery. After multiple harvest stints in the Margaret River and the Wachau in Western Austria, Ryan decided to start Stirm Wine Co. in Southern Santa Cruz county.
Riesling is the star of the show at Stirm Wines, and a lot of the reasoning has to do with California’s history and the relationship with this variety. Riesling was incredibly popular from the 1850s to the 1960s in the state, and folks at Stirm believe this drought tolerant, hardy, heat resistant grape is due for a massive resurgence. It’s not just his Riesling that has these hauntingly transparent, Old World qualities – it’s all Stirm's wines.
The ethos behind Stirm is all about crafting authentic wines that amplify their unique terroirs like a magnifying glass. It seems simple, but Ryan and his team spend the majority of their time working amongst the vines or sourcing fruit from some of the most unique vineyards in California. Stirm Wine also has a secondary label, Los Chuchaquis, which features more esoteric varietals and experimental vinification techniques. In a state dominated by robust, overtly hot expressions of Cab and Zin, Ryan Stirm’s wines are a refreshing anomaly, and we’re definitely here for them.
We gathered all of our favorite tiny things that you can put in a stocking, or tie a tiny bow onto.
These wines pair well with Farah Skeiky's Punk Postcard Pack II.
Bold, energetic, and sometimes brash.
Or just grilled things.
Delicious things with zero alcohol.
TWO BY TWO
In 2015, the Hamburger Bahnhof Museum in Berlin opened Two by Two, an exhibition featuring works by Mary Heilmann and David Reed, side by side, in conversation. Heilmann and Reed are both New York-based artists known for colorful pieces influenced by their California origins, and curator Udo Kittelmann’s decision to place the works in such close proximity (almost touching) forced a confrontation between the similarities and differences in their art.
The exhibition opened with two videos created specifically for it, placed slightly offset from the rest of the room. Reed responded to Heilmann's self-described “visual biography” by creating a slideshow of photographs from his childhood home, set to his father's favorite music. The entire piece drips of nostalgia and nuance. The photographs depict morning light filtering across empty rooms once used -- the echo of forgotten adventures is palpable. The home has long been sold and his father has passed, but the viewer knows there is a deep story in the space between empty and forgotten.
Inspired by the thoughtful exploration of comparison, we present DOMESTIQUE: Two by Two. For the last few years, we've been inspired by all the great wine caves in France to hold some bottles back. The tradition of large-perspective verticals is normally a luxury reserved for the upper echelons of the wine industry or lucky collectors. To break that barrier, we created packs that pair two wines for an approachable and subtle comparison, providing a way to engage in the study of nuance that makes the world of wine so fascinating.
Our foil to glou glou. Enjoy.
We decided to open up our cellar a bit. These are bottles we meant to drink ourselves, or were laying down for the right time. And a sweltering July afternoon seems as special of an occasion as any other time. Find some gems with a bit (or a lot) of bottle age here.
These are the bottles closest to our heart -- the ones we're taking home!
