IntelBring something they haven’t had before.
A different bottle for hosting season, the people making California interesting and a little momentum around Chenin.
November is here, Chenin has a fresh headline and eventually somebody will ask, “What should I bring?”
A bottle is a good answer. A bottle with a person, place or discovery behind it makes a better conversation. This week’s edit follows the producers, unfamiliar grapes and gatherings giving us reasons to get curious.
The next wine drinker gets to choose the way in.
This week’s lens · the November table
I make wine, and I do not think anybody owes it their attention. We have to keep giving people a reason to care.
The invitations I like are human: someone farming a place they care about, a grape that prompts a question, a gathering where you can enjoy yourself without feeling you missed the prerequisite course. That is where I would look for wine’s next chapter. Hosting season gives the curiosity somewhere to go.
Follow the person behind the bottle.
People worth following
VinePair’s next-generation California selection led me to these two producers. Their own introductions put farming and authorship up front—a useful way into a bottle before a score or hierarchy.
Emme: Rosalind’s introduction.
On her site, Rosalind introduces Emme through organic farming and making wine without additives. That gives a curious drinker a person and a set of choices to follow. Start with the producer’s account, then explore what makes you want to ask another question.
Madson: a place to get curious about.
Madson describes limited-production wines from organically farmed Santa Cruz Mountains grapes. Place is part of the first encounter. Alongside Emme, it gives the wider list a thread worth following: make the work legible, and let a drinker choose the part they connect with.
Keep the budget. Change the question.
Beyond the familiar varieties
The Festival of Undiscovered Grapes puts California varieties beyond the familiar rotation in the foreground. For a separate wine-shop conversation, keep Arneis, Teroldego and Marsanne in mind.
Try: “Here is what I normally spend. What California bottle would surprise me, and why would you take it to dinner?”
I like value that includes an introduction and an experience, as well as the price. An unfamiliar grape still has to earn your money. The festival is a discovery route to follow, not an event I am sending you to this weekend; the shop conversation can happen now.
Chenin has something worth following: a gathering.
This week’s reading lead + 2025–2026 festival coverage
The Business Times published “The rise of American chenin blanc” on November 5. Put that fresh reading lead beside Wine Spectator’s July 2026 Hella Chenin feature and Vinography’s September 2025 tasting-notes piece. Follow the originals for their reporting and impressions.
What draws me to the festival coverage is the invitation: give one grape a gathering, and let people explore it together. Specific, social and curious feels like a promising way to meet a drinker.
A festival’s attention does not establish a market recovery. It does raise a question worth following: which new occasions will people actually want wine to be part of? That interests me more than recreating the old ones.
Make the next dinner a two-bottle discovery.
For the next dinner
For the next dinner, ask someone to bring a familiar favorite and bring one bottle neither of you knows well. Give both a fair pour and a place at the table.
Use the producer and grape discoveries above as a starting point. Talk about what you enjoy and what surprised you. The people should remain more important than the scorecard.
Sources & further reading
VinePair · 2026-08-19
Festival of Undiscovered Grapes · Undated source
Hella Chenin · Publication date unavailable
Emme Wines · Undated source
Madson Wines · Undated source
Wine Spectator · 2026-07-21
Vinography · 2025-09-13
The Business Times · 2026-11-05