2020 Chateau Des Hospices Canet Nova Ona Red Wine IGP Côtes Catalane 750 ml

Trained at Opus One alongside longtime Napa legend Michael Silacci, the fifth-generation winemaker Marc Benaissas has impeccable California credentials.

Yet in his quaint seaside hometown of Canet-en-Roussillon, Marc is virtually indistinguishable from the dock workers and fish-market owners he grew up with. Raffishly handsome with a five o’clock shadow, black sunglasses, and a blue-and-white striped Breton shirt, he greets us on the street with a million-watt smile and pulls us into a café. 

A waiter immediately pours the ruby-red 2020 Château des Hospices Canet Nova Ona Red Wine, which won three stars—the highest accolade possible—in Le Guide Hachette, France’s authoritative wine-buying bible.

“You cannot talk about this wine and not talk about the sea,” Marc tells us, within earshot of crashing waves.

In the glass is freshness and fruit personified—a testament to the striking expressivity of the native grape, Marselan. Nowhere else but in Burgundy have we found a red wine that could pack such pure red fruit intensity into such a lithe, light-bodied, easy-drinking frame. Yet the pronounced marine influence and complexity evokes something of the beautiful rawness of the Sonoma Coast as well.

The 2020 Nova Ona Red is 100% Marselan, a hybrid of Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache Noir that is perfectly suited to the property’s Mediterranean climate and terroir. It’s typically the last variety that Marc picks: The refreshing marine breezes cool the grapes at night, allowing maturation and ripening to extend into early October. That allows the bright, concentrated strawberry and cherry notes to come to the fore, while a shorter maceration keeps this wine agile and light.