The Source Imports

06/03/2026

03/03/2026

Sometime in 2021, Saumur’s Arnaud Lambert gave us a name. We wanted, needed, a new grower in Brézé to work with across the U.S. The Source has been heavily associated with this Saumur commune since the beginning of our company. When we decided to cast our net from California across the country, it felt strange to be missing wines from Brézé—perhaps the greatest French cornerstone of our earliest identity as an importer.

Fabrice Esnault from Domaine la Giraudière is a third-generation grower, built for the trade. Following in his father’s footsteps, he spent most of his working life doing the hard things first: farming, fixing, lifting, and pruning in freezing temperatures—then sending the bulk of his fruit to négociants and a modest share saved for his tasting room. Today, he’s breaking from the négoc system and building his own name.

Inside his range of Chenin, the first standout was a wine labeled Chenin de Brézé. It’s the most elegant of the three Brézé whites with a strongly crystalline mouthfeel and aromatic purity. L’Ardillon de Brézé and Champ Picard are grown on more clay-rich topsoil and are more muscular—and often take longer to develop their aromatic profile upon opening.

He also has two adjacent Cabernet Franc vineyards in Saumur-Champigny, with Les Meuniers the brighter, more ethereal and striking wine on shallow limestone-clay soils atop tuffeau bedrock, and Les Chauvelière, an earthier, flowery red on sand and gravel with less direct tuffeau contact.

Fabrice’s wines are in very short supply but available from the Source in all U.S. states. Much more information can be read in our February Newsletter Part Two. Link in bio.

24/02/2026

The new Prádio: When forced with the threat of legal action to continue using the name Prádio, Xabi could have chosen something comparably simple, but he elected for his family name instead, Familia Seoane Novelle.

From Ribeira Sacra’s coolest subzone, Chantada, Xabi’s wines reflect endurance and clarity after a brutal run of years. 2022 is a breakthrough (perhaps with many growers throughout Galicia), and while the Mencía is excellent, the real story here is Pacio–a wine built from the four principal indigenous varieties of the area, representing the deeper historical and viticultural truth of this place. The blend is dominated by Caíño Longo and Brancellao, with Merenzao and a touch of Sousón and Mencía (~5%). These are all naturally high-acid varieties (aside from Mencía), all highly aromatic, and represent the deeper historical and viticultural truth of this place before Mencía took over. They’ve been here for centuries before, and are fine, definitive, world-class, and authentic varieties, with a potential for emotional currency that feels effectively limitless. This is the currency that shapes my daily choices in the wines I drink.

After all these difficult years that tested his grit in the vineyard and sharpened his mind in the cellar, his 2022s are reflections of his persistence and finely-tuned palate. The 2022 Pacio is incredibly pure, with a massive metal crown and very finely etched jewels—pure, clean, sharply cut and elegantly set. This wine really comes alive with grilled and braised meats and deeply savory food, where it makes the most sense and actually gets to be itself.

Inside our February Newsletter (link in bio) is an opinion piece on Ribeira Sacra’s indigenous red varieties, and how their depth, range, and historical truth compare to the role Mencía occupies.

Familia Seoane Novelle (Prádio) is available from the Source in all U.S. states.

20/02/2026

Join us for an intimate, seated masterclass with one of Burgundy’s most respected and influential vignerons, David Duband. His organically certified domaine is renowned for a refined touch, judicious use of whole cluster fruit, and ability to convey terroir.

This is a rare opportunity to taste across the Côte de Nuits through the lens of a producer whose wines consistently overdeliver on character and value, guided by the winemaker himself. This intimate tasting and discussion will explore Duband’s philosophy, and the nuances that distinguish the 2023 vintage and each appellation. Seating is extremely limited to ensure a focused, conversational experience.

Monday, March 2nd
4:30 – 6:00 PM PT
$50 | This will be a seated seminar limited to 12 attendees.

Verve Wine SF, 2358 Fillmore St, San Francisco, CA 94115 - 4:30-6pm

18/02/2026

NYC’s Crown Shy Wine Director Kristen Goceljak has selected a series of Katharina Wechsler’s Rieslings that transmit the depth of Rheinhessen’s famous limestone terroirs: Kirchspiel, Morstein, and soon to join that elite club, Benn. Katharina challenges the greats of Germany and Austria’s top class with her vigorous wines, flowing with high-energy tension, potent salty and minerally impressions, and mouth-watering precision.

Event Details

Where: Crown Shy, 70 Pine St, NYC

When: Wednesday, February 25, 2026 | 6:00 PM

Reservations: Book via Resy link in bio

All wine orders placed during the event will be fulfilled through

17/02/2026

Pablo Soldavini’s ethereal style of Ribeira Sacra wines grown inside the Ribeiras do Sil subzone are built on finesse, brighter red fruit, and an almost inexhaustible energy. They can feel startlingly alive when poured alongside other gorgeously crafted classical reds, wines sculpted in pursuit of deep complexity hidden behind layers of fruit, yet which can taste strangely exhausted by comparison.
Pablo’s words on 2023: “2022 was a very dry and warm year; however, in 2023, in addition to high temperatures, we experienced several episodes of extreme heat… Curiously, we still achieved optimal ripeness and perfect sanitary conditions. This latter point led me to carry out longer macerations, of up to 60 days.”
New arrivals (available from The Source in all U.S. states): Tanis comes from 70-year-old vines and is composed of 75% Mencía, 15% other red varieties (Garnacha Tintorera, Mouratón, and Merenzao), and 10% white varieties, primarily Palomino and Godello. Merenxiao is harvested from 40-year-old Merenzao (Trousseau) vines, while Sabela comes from vines planted in 1912, with 80% Mencía, 10% Mouratón, and 10% Gran Negro. All of Pablo’s wines ferment naturally with 100% whole-cluster, infusion-style extraction, with macerations lasting 45–60 days, followed by 11 months of aging in 300 and 500-liter French oak barrels, and are unfiltered and unfined, with very low sulfite additions.
Available From the Source in all U.S. states. Much more information about Pablo can be read about on our website. Link in bio for his entire profile story.

13/02/2026

Need more Piemonte wine? Who doesn’t?

We’ve been waiting for Brandini’s 2021 Barolo La Morra since we started our collaboration at the beginning of 2022. Crafted by the hands and mind of Giovanna (right) and Serena Bagnasco (left), they nailed the 2019 and 2020 versions, but this one just might top them.

Gio’s words: “As most people know, 2021 was great. One of the most important factors was the winter of 2020 and 2021, which was the snowiest one I’ve ever experienced. The vineyards went into hibernation, regained nourishment and energy, and entered spring in excellent condition. The wines show remarkable aromatics and an approachable character, while still maintaining structure, backbone, and the complexity needed for aging. I have to say that I truly love the 2021 as a vintage, especially for La Morra, because it is unmistakably La Morra.”

Our resident Aussie winegrower in Barbaresco, five of Dave Fletcher’s non-Nebbiolo 2024 wines have landed in California. Dave’s words on the 2024 vintage: “At the end of the day, yes, it rained, and yes, it was cool. … just focus on the wines you’ve actually got in your hand. And the wines, honestly, are frigging great.”

Once you taste his range of just inbound 2024s, you will see that his opinion is indeed not bluster. Arrived whites: pear and citrus Favorita (Vermentino), “the bang on the style he’s chasing” Chardonnay ‘C24’, the 75% Arneis/25% Moscato Arcata with “constantly shifting aromatics moving between fruit, flowers, herbs, and citrus peel, with texture from three weeks on skins.”

And reds: Violets and rose petal Dolcetto d’Alba and the whole-cluster pure, elegant, and poised Barbera d’Alba.

Brandini is available through The Source in all U.S. states except TX. Fletcher in all U.S. states except NY & NJ. There’s much more on them in our February Newsletter. Link in bio.

10/02/2026

We’ve added another French wine grower to our California roster that fits into the game-changer category.

The south of France has a well-earned reputation for powerhouse red wines and much less for subtlety—at least inside a more delicately framed wine. When I’m there, which is at least a couple of weeks every year, I want an ethereal red that matches the ambiance, not a hefty one, which is all too common.

This is what draws me to Domaine Mont de Marie, where I’ve found an elegant portrayal of regional specificity in the south, in this case, the Gard, that strikes the resonant chord I’ve long been missing. Thierry Forestier and his wife, Marie-Noëlle, and their Domaine Mont de Marie are a wonderful addition to our collection of growers. I love Thierry’s wines; they bring me so much pleasure and can downright thrill me with their intended simplicity. They demonstrate what can be accomplished in the south of France when one consciously farms to pick the fruit at alcohol levels around 12% to retain a fresher profile.

Located on the rocky landscape of Souvignargues, directly 20 minutes west of Nîmes, their twelve hectares of organically farmed Carignan, Cinsault, Grenache, Ugni Blanc, and the rare aromatic and fine red, Aramon, are surrounded by all those wonderful herbs that seem to infuse the wines rendered from them. Arrivals: Anathème Blanc composed of 80% Ugni Blanc with Viognier and Grenache Gris from vines planted in the 1960s. Anathème Rouge, Mont de Marie’s business card, is 90% Carignan and 10% Aramon planted in the 1950s, a jovial, well-balanced and very perfumed rouge. Salve Ager, built on 95% Grenache and 5% Cinsault, is an elegant wine that floats well above its price. Coquin de Sort, from 60% Cinsault and 40% Grenache, recalls Persian mulberry-like exoticness intermingled with sweet greens.

Thierry’s southern French wines are not corrections of a warm and sunny place, but a recalibration of what we’ve come to expect from it.

Available From the Source in only in California. Much more information about Mont de Marie can be read about on our website. Link in bio for his entire profile story.

06/02/2026

There was too much that came in all at once to cover in a single newsletter this month, so a second February edition will be published next week on Friday, February 13th—scary … In the meantime, we’ll pick up where we left off last month: David Duband.

Monsieur Duband has a newish project (started in 2018), a portmanteau created from the names of his twins, Philomène and Léandre: Les Terres de Philéandre. While he’s best known for his meticulous stewardship of some of the Côte de Nuits’ most prestigious appellations, this deeply personal project was born from a desire to work with greater freedom at the margins of Burgundy’s formal hierarchy—to step back into something quieter, more intuitive, and perhaps even more revealing. Les Terres de Philéandre fills a continually widening gap on shelves and lists for years: Burgundy that smells, tastes, and seems like what it is, priced fairly, without feeling diluted or like the result of a quiet cellar declassification. Les Terres de Philéandre doesn’t sit apart from Duband’s core work; it quietly completes it.

Arrivals: VDF Chardonnay “Le Blanc” from 30-year-old vines in the Hautes-Côtes de Nuits and structurally reads nearly as much like an Aligoté as a Chardonnay. Aligoté, grown on 50-year-old vines in the Hautes-Côtes de Nuits aged in a mix of concrete egg, Stockinger foudre. A high-altitude VDF Pinot Noir from 20-year-old vines with a whole-cluster maceration and ten months of aging in neutral French oak. The Hautes-Côtes de Nuits Rouge “Célénie” is a sans soufre wine from 50-year-old vines that underwent whole-cluster maceration, was aged in a Stockinger foudre, and stands as a testament to no-added-sulfite wines when left to those who have mastered the fundamentals first. Finally, a Savigny-lès-Beaune Rouge and 1er Cru Aux Serpentières both from 50-year-old vines, was vinified with whole clusters, macerated for ten days, and aged for 13 months with the first sulfites added after malolactic fermentation.

There’s much more on this in our February Newsletter. Link in bio.

30/01/2026

Virtually a complete unknown, wines from Castello di Castellengo made by Magdalena Ciccioni have been described by our luminary Nizza grower, Sette’s Gino Della Porto, as some of “the best wines in Italy for the price. Maybe the best wine [Rosso della Motta] in the world for the price.” They’re pure Nebbiolo from Alto Piemonte on deep sandy-loam soils similar to Lessona just to the north but often a little more stout in soil structure.

Warehoused and well rested since early December and now ready for selling, the Coste Della Sesia Nebbiolo ‘Rosso della Motta’ and Coste della Sesia Nebbiolo ‘Il Centovigne’ arrive as two complementary expressions of Castello di Castellengo’s Alto Piemonte Nebbiolo. The 2023 Rosso della Motta is very inexpensive but very serious. It is made entirely from Nebbiolo harvested from 70 to 80-year-old vines planted between 300–350 meters on rolling hills of marine sand and clay. What it’s best at is how much joy it unfurls compared to so many other Alto Piemontese reds that have forgotten wine is also to be enjoyed, to be fruity and merry. It is refined through two weeks of natural fermentation in steel, then aged on lees for 24 to 30 months in concrete without racking, and finished with only 40 mg/L of total sulfur added at bottling. It is truly one of Italy’s best serious red wines for the price, maybe even the best for those in search of classical Nebbiolo with purity, restraint and generosity at the same time. The 2019 ‘Il Centovigne,’ the main event this month with Castellengo, shows in the 2019 vintage how a wine once lost in the middle between Rosso della Motta can expand in the glass. This 85% Nebbiolo with 15% Vespolina builds slowly with floral spice and sappy red fruit, then marches with great lift and regal aromatics and fine palate textures. It is a truly great wine in itself, full of charm without overpowering technique. Like Rosso della Motta, it is surely another one of the greatest value “great wines” of Italy—a complete win from top to bottom for Magda and her reds.

23/01/2026

Oh the many faces of Sergio Arcuri, a madman in all the right ways … He’s of the men leading the charge of Cirò, one of the most compelling and least understood truly great appellations in Italy. Under his hand, the reds from Gaglioppo are marvelous—pure, clean, cultural, historical, singular. For this taster, lover-of-wine, obsesser, Gaglioppo is one of Italy’s finest varieties and belongs on the list of the country’s top red grapes.

I opened a well-rested bottle of 2021 Cirò Riserva ‘Aris’ in January waiting in my cellar since July. These wines, destined for California, arrived at our warehouse mid-December, and I hope they will show as brilliantly as the bottle I opened on the last day of the winter holiday stretch. Outside of the company of Più Vite, it could alone carry the burden of proof for Cirò’s deserving place in the conversation of the greats. No doppelganger of Barolo here, only pure southern Italian nuances—much more relatable to its further south vinous brothers and sisters, Nerello Mascalese and Frappato, rather than Sangiovese and Aglianico—to all of which Gaglioppo is genetically related. It’s the fuller and punchier of the two Ciròs and an easier mouthful for newcomers to this historic region. This 2021 is a stunner, and I want (need!) a lot more of it.

The Cirò Riserva ‘Più Vite’ is produced only in select years on calcareous clay from 70-year-old vines. After 9-15 days of maceration and spontaneous fermentation under a fully submerged cap, the 2019 Più Vite’s 4 years in concrete softens the fruit compared to Aris. It’s rustic and savory, and young versions often lead with earthy notes of kiln-dried red clay, fall leaves on wet soil, chestnut, saffron, leather, iron, animal, braised meat, and rose water; the fruit is present but delicate. More tannic than Aris, the 2019 balances firmness and delicacy but with a more solar-fruited profile than the epic 2016. Hours after opening (even the next day), it rises and can be deceptive, indeed sometimes that doppelganger of a top-tier, traditionally made Barolo—tar, plush red rose, sun-touched cherry, and anise. Più Vite is one of my soul wines. Never to be missed, but never enough made. -Ted

20/01/2026

“2023 Burgundy surprises me…” (Excerpts from our January 2026 Newsletter)

“This bumper crop of balanced fruit delivered a much-needed cellar restock in time for the tiny quantity produced in 2024, where losses across much of Burgundy were catastrophic.”

“For growers like David Duband, who lost around 90% of their 2024 crop, the generosity of 2023 isn’t just a gift; it stands as a bridge…”

“Across both colors, the wines show a straightforward and proportionate sense of alcohol, acidity, fruit, and tannin, all falling into place without any forced adjustments.”

“This is not a vintage that presses its claim to greatness; it offers the early pleasure of wines already speaking in complete sentences, yet likely with enough guts to reward those in search of the complexities developed years down the road.”

“Those high yields, which were often seen as harbingers of diminished quality to come, work well in warmer years to buffer concentration and alcohol with slow ripening. This is apparent in David’s 2023 range.”

“2023 was a hot year that followed another hot year that came after a frigid and wet year. But somehow, like many red wines across continental Europe, Duband’s ’23 reds seem finer than the 2022s: equally more open but more reddish, lifted and ethereal. The 2023s from Duband have a similar, slightly roasted bright Nebbiolo-like red and orange fruit and flower component that shows a little more like 2019 without the slightly roasted notes. Duband’s range is full of generous wines with enough nuance to remind you of the breed of this region, even in the face of difficult weather for such a sensitive bunch of grapes.”

A deep cross-section of Duband’s range has landed, from 3 Hautes-Côtes de Nuits bottlings to a full sweep of the Côte de Nuits: 5 Village wines, 6 Premier Crus, and 6 Grand Crus. The January Newsletter contains a 13-page deep dive on the vintage and the complete Domaine David Duband lineup now in market.