Wine Down Thursday: Island Beauties
July 30 from 6 to 7L30pm
Sampler: $25/person

There’s something about island wine that just makes sense in the heart of summer. Surrounded by sea air, grown in volcanic soil or wind-battered vineyards, and often made from grapes you won’t find anywhere else, island wines carry a sense of place unlike any other. Isolation has preserved rare indigenous varieties, while maritime climates and mineral-rich soils give the wines a distinct salinity, brightness, and freshness that make them ideal warm-weather drinking.

Join us as we island-hop through the glass with three wines that showcase this diversity: a Vermentinu and Biancu Gentile blend from Corsica, a partially skin-contact Listán Blanco from the Canary Islands, and an old-vine cuvée of Nerello Mascalese from Sicily. Each offers a different expression of coastal terroir, from volcanic minerality to sun-soaked fruit.

Come taste your way across the Mediterranean and Atlantic, no passport required. See you there!

Featured Wines:
2023 Yves Leccia YL Île de Beauté
Yves Leccia’s 2023 YL Île de Beauté is a distinctly Corsican cuvée that showcases the island’s native-grape identity with uncommon precision. Built around Vermentinu and Biancu Gentile, it reflects the maritime influence, mineral tension, and aromatic clarity that set Corsica apart from mainland Mediterranean whites. Its significance lies in how it balances regional authenticity with polished definition, offering a modern, site-driven expression that feels both rooted in island tradition and sharply contemporary.

2024 Envínate Benje Blanco
Envínate Benje Blanco is a striking Tenerife white that distills the island’s volcanic high-altitude identity into a remarkably individual expression of Listán Blanco. What makes it special is the combination of ancient vines, Atlantic tension, partial skin contact, and a restrained, low-intervention élevage that gives the wine uncommon texture and energy. It feels less like a standard Canary Islands white and more like a precise, site-driven study of volcanic terroir, with real depth, lift, and personality.

2016 Calabretta Nerello Mascalese Vigne Vecchie
This old-vine cuvée is old-school Etna at its most soulful. Sourced from ungrafted, decades-old vines and aged for years in large Slavonian botti, it trades polish for personality: pale garnet in color, wonderfully perfumed with sour cherry, dried rose, orange peel, and a savory, almost sherry-like whisper from extended oxidative aging. Structured yet ethereal, with volcanic grip and real length, it offers a captivating glimpse into traditional Etna winemaking before modernity smoothed things over. A treat for the curious!