Hi folks,

I’m taking a breather from more meaty newsletter writing to focus on prep for this coming week — and there’s a lot of it. My dining room table is a nightmare.

For example: have you been looking for an unlabeled map of the stretch of the Loire between Savennières and Vouvray? I made one for tomorrow’s class at Vine Wine, for people to fill in with colored pencils while they taste, idk, decade-old Saumur-Champigny. It’s the part that’s still warm enough to ripen chenin and cab franc (warm water from the Gulf Stream pushed into central France by the river has not yet petered out) but not so close to the Atlantic that autumn weather and disease pressure shred them. You can print a hi-res version for your own coloring / studying / personal use here. See if you can find the Coulée de Serrant:

Also on my to-do list:

a) figure out how I’m cooking the regeneratively grown food Darek from Old World Winery sent me along with some back-vintage bottles for Tuesday

b) update the map of the vineyards he farms that I painted five years ago to account for losses (to fire, family) and gains (including 10 acres of centenarian zinfandel he called me from the middle of last week)

c) finish transcribing phone interviews and turn them into a zine about Italian wine

d) scan and print a foot and a half tall map of Italy (also finish painting it)

e) score some muscadine for Friday

f) draw Bratislava

If you’re in town and looking to learn and taste some things, I’d love to see you at one of these.

(And if you had to pick just one — come taste with Darek. He’s a fascinating person to talk to about, say, mulch. And I make it my business when growers who are deeply rooted in one particular place come to town to open things from around the world I think they might be interested in that they wouldn’t normally have access to. I don’t mind as much if I throw a party and nobody comes but if I throw a part for someone else I want to make sure the room is full.)

If you’re not in town … do you want to join a wine club?

Five spots left in this shipment. Apart from the zine I’m making, and the map, I’ve attached the bottle lineup I painted below to give you a preview of what’s in the box. Shipping is included anywhere in the country. I’ve learned a lot putting this one together, and I can’t wait to see a couple dozen other people join me on it.

Finally I’ve noticed a little influx of new subscribers to this list — welcome! Now is a great time to send me a note if there are things you’re interested in me writing on, wine things you’re curious about, or things that are bugging you. Promise next time you hear from me that there’ll be a little more stuff in here.

Talk soon.

<3,
grape kid