Insider Highlights: The Best Wines Our Buyers Discovered Abroad

Our buying team recently returned from their journeys through Champagne, Burgundy, Rhône, Italy, Bordeaux, and beyond, bringing back an insider's perspective on what's exciting in the world of wine right now. From under-the-radar producers to emerging vintages, this curated collection features their favorite discoveries, greatest values, and standout bottles.

• The Incredible Champagnes of Alexandre Le Brun
• A Rhône Roundup: Highlights and Reflections
• Burgundy: Trip Notes, Vintage Tips, and New In Stock
• Pernot-Belicard’s 2023s: The Domaine’s Best-to-Date
• Top Scoring Wines from Marsannay's Rising Star
• Laberinto’s Highly Rated Sauvignon Blanc Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg
• Reporting Back from Italy: Espresso, Barolo, and Your Next Favorite Bottles
• 2024 Vintage Report: A Cloudy Vintage in Bordeaux

Every time I go to the picturesque, hilltop town of Monthelon to visit Alex Le Brun, he wears his Giants gear, and it makes me feel so welcome. We looked in the vineyards, tasted his 2024 vin clair (the still wine before the second fermentation in the bottle) and also his current and a few upcoming releases. It was the best part of my day!

Going through his range at his kitchen table, it was certainly the 2019 Alexandre Le Brun "Cuvée Revelation" Brut Champagne that stood out to me the most. This wine, made from his ancient plot “Les Vignes d’Etoges,” is 100% Meunier, all barrel-fermented Champagne from vines that are half from 1950 and half from 1903—the latter being the oldest vines I have ever seen in the region, planted just after Phylloxera. Read more from Champagne Buyer Gary Westby or shop our current in-stock selections from this longtime favorite producer!

I recently returned from two weeks in the Rhône and I am still playing catch up. There were so many things to digest along the way – new vintage assessments, strengthening our producer relationships, finding new partner producers, and quite literally hundreds of wines to taste.

One of the big points of this trip was to attend the Découvertes en Vallée du Rhône and the Printemps de Châteauneuf-du-Pape. These two wine fairs gave me the opportunity to taste more broadly across the categories. I tasted over a hundred wines each day with iconic producers, new relationships, and old friends. So many highlights, I saw Domaine de la Ganse, Domaine de l’Amandine, Saint Cosme, Jamet, Stephane Ogier, Guigal and Chapoutier. What an experience! And one of the best ways to survey the vintages and overall styles of each unique region. As I look back at the trip, here are the wines I find myself drawn back to over and over again. I hope these selections bring you as much joy as they have me. Read Keith's full vintage rundown here or shop these excellent trip highlights below!

I’ve just returned from an exhilarating nine days in Burgundy, where I tasted the fresh 2023s in bottle and previewed the vibrant 2024s from barrel, and got to really dive deep into the latest global economic trends with our winery partners. This annual pilgrimage is essential for refining our selections and nurturing relationships—so we can offer you the very best wines at truly irresistible prices!

We’ve just received several new containers of Burgundy, and we can’t wait to share these outstanding finds with you. And while this container is packed full of truly incredible and collectible gems that no Burgundy fan should miss, I'm also super excited about this shockingly affordable trio, that to me truly does go to show that affordability is increasingly on the horizon in Burgundy. Read Alex's full trip recap here.

If you’re in the market for impeccably well-made white Burgundy that is also affordable then the set of 2023s from Pernot-Belicard should definitely fit the bill. I have been lucky enough to visit this property multiple times and taste the 2023s from both barrel and from bottle and see the wines evolve from potential to reality in terms of how good they are. These are easily the best set of wines produced from Pernot-Belicard to date, and they represent stellar values from the entry-level Bourgogne Blanc all the way to the top 1er Cru Puligny-Montrachet and Meursault offerings. Read more from Alex about this incredible domaine here.

Although Marsannay’s top sites aren’t granted cru status, they shine for collectors in standout years like 2022. Domaine Charles Audoin may fly under the radar compared to hyper‑allocated stars such as Sylvain Pataille, Bruno Clair, and Joseph Roty, but Cyril Audoin’s recent, top‑scoring 2023s already rival the region’s finest. In fact, authorities like William Kelley of Wine Advocate have quietly anointed him among Burgundy’s elite. These top-scoring picks truly magnify the great potential of the region and offer unbelievable quality at under $60 a bottle. Learn more about Audoin's wines here.

For the last five to six years the dollar-per-dollar highest-reviewed Sauvignon Blanc in the world has been Chile’s Laberinto Sauvignon Blanc (check out the current vintage we have in stock: 2023 Laberinto "Cenizas de Laberinto" Sauvignon Blanc Maule Valley ($19.99 96TA 95DS 93JS). The competition is not even close. Its closest competitor comes from New Zealand, and, at this price point I think we would have to go back decades to find a wine with similar reviews from France! I love that this overachieving wine comes from an appellation that is off the grid, far away from where, on paper, you would expect to find crisp, mineral-driven wines.

While the Sauvignon Blanc is Laberinto’s calling card, there are many other excellent wines you should not ignore. In fact, there's a white wine that may be rivaling their Sauvignon Blanc—unexpectedly it's a Riesling! Read more from Kirk about this incredible project here.

You have not really lived until you have tasted Barolo at 9 AM, had six espressos before noon, rushed through Vinitaly meetings as if speed-dating while forging new friendships at every stop. That was my last week. And yes, it was worth it.

This was not a vacation. A complete ground-to-ground initiative led me to inspect new vintage wines while reconnecting with established suppliers to obtain exciting products for our store shelves. I spent my days between Verona tasting booths and Barolo vineyard walks and ended nights in Tortona—yet managed to actually feel more energized when I returned. Here's a rundown of all of our incoming and freshly arrived direct-imports, both new and old! Read more from Orazio about his trip here.

We’re back on the trail in Bordeaux, gearing up to taste the 2024s and reconnect with our friends. It’s a cherished (though exhausting) tradition, and it gives us a prime look at the wines slated for release as early as next week—another chapter in Bordeaux’s storied legacy. Still, the region isn’t without its challenges: relentless rain during the 2024 harvest, looming tariffs, and an uncertain near-term future for the old guard. The bright spot? The quality of wines currently on the market is sky-high, and their prices are refreshingly reasonable. We’re hopeful this silver lining will shine through.

Still, as I mentioned earlier—Bordeaux has a too-many-good-wines problem, which is why I still remain optimistic that we’ll find a way to navigate this issue. Our shelves are full of best-in-class collector’s jewels that are often well under $200—something you’ll rarely find in Napa. The quality of back-vintage availability continues to amaze, and the amount of incredibly serious but approachable wines under $50 is unrivaled. I also believe that the surplus available from 2019, 2020, and 2022 will be wines to build a generation of new collectors around. Read the full 2024 vintage report from Ryan here.