Yves du Port 'Le Marginal' Gamay 2025

"Every region needs an Yves," writes Wink Lorch in her book Wines of the French Alps. In her section on Yves Duport, she tells her readers to "expect the unexpected." She's right.

Duport is the fourth generation to grow grapes and make wine in his family, just outside the village of Montagnieu in Southern Bugey. He's been organic since 2007, and he's been moving toward biodynamic methods ever since. He works with nature, with the soil, with the climate. This is Savoie country, baby! Home of world-class ski resorts, rich dairy-heavy comfort food, and crisp, mineral-driven white wines. But Yves makes Gamay too. And it's something you should not sleep on!

Juicy and fun. Even more fun when chilled. It smells like soft lavender, freshly cracked pepper, mulberries hanging from a tree you just walked by, ripe and tart at the same time, falling to the ground and painting the sidewalk red and black. You almost feel like a raccoon getting high on a mulberry supply. Soft, baby tannins.

Drink it with charcuterie, with roasted vegetables, with nothing at all. The Gamay of the summer!