September 2025
The Month of
Late Summer Light
Three wines for the last warm-light evenings before fall arrives. A California heritage-vine natural red, chilled lightly. A Bandol rosé from one of the two founding houses of the appellation. And a vintage Champagne to mark the cooler nights coming on.
Selections from a past month — availability may have changed.
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01
The Weekday Wine · Under $20
Broc Cellars Love Red 2023
California — old heritage-vine natural blend
Bramble, dried strawberry, and a light tannin that asks for a cool glass and grilled vegetables. Broc Cellars’ Love Collection foregrounds California’s unsung varieties — this 2023 is 50% Carignan, 30% Syrah, with Valdiguié, Mourvèdre, and Grenache rounding the blend. Organically farmed, partial carbonic on the Carignan, neutral oak and steel. Drinks lightly chilled at this time of year, which is the entire point. The cellar-tier natural red that takes the temperature down before the dinner table heats back up.
TASTING NOTES
Bramble, dried strawberry, light tannin
PAIRS WITH
Grilled vegetables, late-summer charcuterie
GRAPE
50% Carignan / 30% Syrah / 10% Valdiguié / 5% Mourvèdre / 5% Grenache
DRINK WINDOW
2025–2028
Vintage Context
California 2023 was a cool, late vintage after several warm years — for Broc Cellars, working with old-vine Carignan and Valdiguié from organic growers, the slower ripening produced a Love Red with more lift and lower alcohol than recent years. Drinks lightly chilled now and rewards the year’s last warm-night dinners.
Build the Board
via Murray’s Cheese
A weeknight board for chilled California natural — Pacific Northwest answers the West Coast
Beecher’s Flagship 15-month · Olympia Provisions saucisson sec · apple butter · Oregon hazelnuts · Beecher’s Flagship crackers
02
The Saturday Pour · $20–$50
Château Pradeaux Bandol Rosé 2024
Bandol AOC, Provence, France
Salt, grapefruit pith, white peach, and a Mourvèdre weight underneath that distinguishes Bandol rosé from the lighter Provence stuff most people know. Château Pradeaux is Bandol’s OTHER founding house alongside Tempier — the Portalis family has owned the estate since 1752, when it entered the family through inheritance to Jean-Marie-Etienne Portalis (co-author of the 1804 Civil Code under Napoleon). Arlette Portalis was instrumental in establishing the Bandol AOC in 1941, the same founding moment Lucien Peyraud at Tempier is credited with. The 2024 is 65% Mourvèdre, 35% Cinsault — fuller-bodied than typical Provence rosé. A rosé with a serious last word as the season ends.
TASTING NOTES
Salt, grapefruit pith, white peach, Mourvèdre weight
PAIRS WITH
Grilled fish, ratatouille, late-summer charcuterie
GRAPE
65% Mourvèdre / 35% Cinsault
DRINK WINDOW
2025–2028
Vintage Context
Bandol 2024 was a cool, mistral-blown growing season — the kind of vintage Pradeaux’s clay-limestone-flint slopes hold their Mourvèdre acidity through. The 2024 rosé has more lift than the warmer 2022 vintage and the textural weight that pre-phylloxera-rooted Mourvèdre brings to the blend. Drinks now through the next two summers.
Build the Board
via Murray’s Cheese
A Saturday board for Bandol rosé — the Pyrenean canon meets the Provençal table
Ossau-Iraty AOC · Jambon de Bayonne 9-month · black-cherry confiture · Marcona almonds · pain de campagne
03
The Splurge · $50+
Bollinger La Grande Année Brut 2015
Champagne AOC, Aÿ Grand Cru, France
Brioche, white peach, candied lemon zest, and a deep Pinot Noir spine that Bollinger’s house style has been built on since 1829. The Grande Année is Bollinger’s vintage cuvée — only released in declared years, spending five years on the lees in bottle, aged under cork rather than the standard crown seal. The 2015 is a warm-vintage Champagne with the structure to age another decade. Bollinger sits in Aÿ, one of Champagne’s 17 Grand Cru villages, rated 100% on the échelle. This is the bottle for the night you mark the season turning.
TASTING NOTES
Brioche, white peach, candied lemon, Pinot spine
PAIRS WITH
Oysters, roast chicken, Comté aged 36 months
GRAPE
Pinot Noir-dominant blend (with Chardonnay)
DRINK WINDOW
2026–2040+
Vintage Context
Champagne 2015 was a warm-vintage year that produced ripe, structured wines built to age. For Bollinger, working its Aÿ Grand Cru holdings and reserve wines, the 2015 Grande Année shows the house’s signature toasty, library-aged register without losing freshness. The under-cork aging discipline (not crown seal) gives the wine its slow oxidative complexity. Drinks beautifully now and will keep evolving for decades.
Build the Board
via Murray’s Cheese
A Splurge board for vintage Champagne — the French canon meets the season turning
3-year Comté AOC · Roquefort PDO · Brillat-Savarin · Jambon de Bayonne · Fabrique Délices saucisson
Subscribers get a weekly pick that never hits the site — a fourth bottle, every Thursday, in The TERROIR Letter.
“These are the bottles for the last warm light of summer.”
— The TERROIR Editorial Desk
Producer Spotlight
Domaine Tempier
Bandol, Provence — the Peyraud family’s defense of Mourvèdre
In 1936, Lucien Peyraud married Lulu Tempier and spent the next forty years arguing that Bandol’s traditional grape — Mourvèdre — was the soul of the appellation, against the broader drift toward earlier-drinking accessibility. The estate became Bandol’s spiritual center under his stewardship, and remains so under his sons and Daniel Ravier today.
The TERROIR Letter
The Cellar, Delivered
Monthly selections and a weekly Subscriber’s Pick — curated bottles that never appear on the site.
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