The Wine Access Unfiltered Club - November 2024 750 ml

2020 Hudson Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley

Hudson Ranch is one of Napa’s Grand Cru vineyards, selling fruit to top wineries—so you can imagine how special and irresistible grapes would have to be for Hudson to go outside their property line to get them. That’s exactly what happened in the 2020 vintage, when Hudson, occupying a prime valley-floor spot in Carneros, had the chance to get grapes from a famous friend high in the mountains of Napa Valley. They crafted a gorgeous Cabernet.

2020 Aeris Etna Bianco Superiore Sicily

A partnership between the famed Rhys Vineyards and Salvo Foti—“the single biggest expert of Etna and its wines,” whose wines “rank amongst Italy’s very best,” per D’Agata—Aeris crafts Etna Biancos from Mt. Etna’s best white-wine terroir. Their 2020 is Vinous’s top-scoring Etna Bianco of the vintage, and shows why Carricante can hold its own against the world’s most regal white grapes.

2021 Markus Wine Co Carignane Nicolini Ranch Ancient Blocks Lodi

From vines planted in the 1930s, Markus Wine Co’s Nicolini Ranch Carignan is plush, dense, complex, and a fine exemplar of ancient-vine Carignan—a grape whose single-variety bottlings belong in the cellar of anyone who loves bold red wines.

2023 Big Table Farm Laughing Pig Rose Willamette Valley

Big Table Farm’s Laughing Pig is one of the Willamette Valley’s most reliably excellent rosé wines—and in 2023, they outdid themselves. Comprising 100% Pinot Noir, it’s “a total stunner in terms of richness, flavor range, flavor density and underlying tension,” according to Owen Bargreen. A prime example of the depth, complexity, and texture rosé can achieve.