January 2026
The Month of
Old Vines, New Year
Three wines from vines that have outlived movements. An Aragón Garnacha pushed up from rocky elevation. A Sonoma field blend where century-old Zinfandel shares rows with Carignane and Petite Sirah. A Mosel Sundial-slope Riesling picked by the same family for over a century. The bottles a quiet January rewards.
Selections from a past month — availability may have changed.
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01
The Weekday Wine · Under $20
Bodegas Borsao Tres Picos Garnacha 2022
Campo de Borja, Aragón, Spain
Ripe black cherry and crushed rosemary on the nose, with the dusty granite-and-iron lift that Aragón Garnacha tends to carry from elevation. The palate is plush but not heavy — old-vine concentration without the heat that plagues cheaper Spanish reds. Tres Picos comes from goblet-trained vines at 600–800 meters in Campo de Borja, where the soils are poor and the diurnal swing keeps freshness in the fruit. For under twenty dollars, this is a wine that lets you taste what high-altitude Garnacha actually does.
TASTING NOTES
Black cherry, rosemary, granite
PAIRS WITH
Lamb shoulder, smoky pimentón rice
GRAPE
Garnacha (100%)
DRINK WINDOW
2025–2028
Vintage Context
Campo de Borja’s 2022 brought a warm, dry summer — the kind of year that punishes vines without deep roots and rewards the ones that have been finding water for fifty years. Borsao’s old-vine parcels held their acidity through the heat, giving Tres Picos a 2022 with more lift than the warmth would suggest.
Build the Board
via Murray’s Cheese
A January board for an Aragón red — across the border, but the same mountains
Ossau-Iraty AOC · 9-month Jambon de Bayonne · black-cherry confiture · Marcona almonds · pain de campagne
02
The Saturday Pour · $20–$50
Ridge Zinfandel Lytton Springs 2023
Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma County, California
Bramble and bay leaf, then dusty cocoa and the kind of warm-spice depth that only happens when Zinfandel grows alongside its old field-blend cousins. Ridge has farmed the Lytton Springs property since 1972, and the vineyard’s century-old vines — Zin sharing rows with Carignane, Petite Sirah, and Mataro — give this bottle its layered grip. The 2023 is medium-weight rather than heavy, a Dry Creek expression that drinks more like Châteauneuf than the jammy stereotype the variety still carries. The label tells you what you’re holding: percentages of every grape, vine ages, picking dates. It is a wine that respects its drinker.
TASTING NOTES
Bramble, bay leaf, dusty cocoa
PAIRS WITH
Mushroom ragù, aged cheddar
GRAPE
Zinfandel field blend (with Carignane, Petite Sirah, Mataro)
DRINK WINDOW
2026–2034
Vintage Context
Sonoma’s 2023 was the cool, late vintage California had been waiting for after a run of warm, dry years — a long hang time, classic structure, the kind of season Ridge has been making this wine for since the 1970s. The Lytton Springs cuvée came in at modest alcohol for old-vine Sonoma Zin; the structure is built for at least a decade in the cellar, and opening one now feels like joining a long conversation already in progress.
Build the Board
via Murray’s Cheese
A Saturday board for a Sonoma field-blend — California talks to its neighbors
Beecher’s Flagship 15-month · Olympia Provisions saucisson sec · apple butter · Oregon hazelnuts · Beecher’s Flagship crackers
03
The Splurge · $50+
Joh. Jos. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Kabinett 2022
Mosel, Germany — Wehlen, Wehlener Sonnenuhr vineyard
Wet slate and yellow plum, with the faint kerosene lift that Riesling earns over time and the off-dry sweetness that keeps it from being austere. The Wehlener Sonnenuhr — the Sundial vineyard across the river from Wehlen — is one of the steepest blue-slate slopes in the Mosel, southwest-facing and very nearly vertical. Prüm has been working this site since 1911. Their Kabinetts are made to wait: low alcohol, naturally high acidity, a precision-balanced sweetness that lets the wine age for three decades and barely soften. Open this one in 2046 and someone will pour you a glass that still tastes like January.
TASTING NOTES
Wet slate, yellow plum, faint kerosene
PAIRS WITH
Roast chicken with herbs, pork loin
GRAPE
Riesling (100%)
DRINK WINDOW
2026–2046+
Vintage Context
2022 was hot and dry across much of Germany — but the Mosel’s slate cliffs hold cool air and night moisture longer than any other valley in the country. Prüm’s Kabinett came in at the classic light register; the higher must weights of the warm year went into Spätlese and Auslese bottlings rather than diluting the Kabinett identity. The 2022 drinks beautifully now and will keep evolving for decades.
Build the Board
via Murray’s Cheese
A Splurge-worthy board for a Mosel Kabinett — slate against butterfat
3-year Comté AOC · Roquefort PDO · Brillat-Savarin triple-crème · fig confit · walnut bread
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“These are wines that have already spent a long time becoming themselves.”
— The TERROIR Editorial Desk
Producer Spotlight
Domaine Marcel Lapierre
Morgon, Beaujolais — the estate that quietly started the natural-wine revolution
Forty-five years ago, Marcel Lapierre stopped following Beaujolais. He met a chemist named Jules Chauvet who told him wine could be made with nothing in it — no commercial yeasts, no enzymes, no chaptalization, no sulfur — and the Lapierre name is shorthand now for an entire movement.
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