Though it may feel like the height of summer already passed us by, the official midpoint of the season doesn't arrive until August 7. If you've been panicking about not getting enough beach days in 2026, fear not. If you're like me and are already tired of the intense heat and sweating all day...well, c'est la vie.
It's just that, there's been so much going on this summer. The Knicks bringing home the 'chip with about the most likable cast of ballers imaginable. The U.S. Open just down the road at Shinnecock. The World Cup! And of course, the 250 year anniversary celebration of the U.S. back on July 4. I wrote a bit about the latter recently, how I've been thinking quite a lot about all the incredible wine being made in America today.
Picking an All-American lineup for each wine club seemed to be the only thing that made sense.
In many ways, the goal of celebrating American wine is far too broad for a three-bottle wine club shipment. There are too many places, too many people, too many wines worthy of being included that making any selections at all felt woefully inadequate. But the years are long and there are many, many more wine club shipments to share with all of you. So without further ado, here are the wines included in this month's wine club shipments!
Entry-Level Club
Presqu'ile Santa Maria Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2024
Serious renditions of Sauvignon Blanc are thrilling, like sitting in the lower grandstands at a Formula 1 race or the moments before paragliding. There's an intensity to the rush of citrus and tropical fruits that is somehow balanced by the grape's mouth-watering acidity and crisp texture. That's what the mass-produced versions will always miss out on. Sure, they're packed with flavor. But there's no tension, no electricity in the wine. Presqu'ile nails this.
The Santa Maria Valley is one of the most complex wine regions in the world. Its climates range from marine on the west side to Mediterranean closer to Bien Nacido, with pockets of moderate or scorching weather in-between. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir dominate the accolades and for good reason, but there are compelling examples made from many different grape varieties. Think of Syrah, Grenache, Riesling, and yes, Sauvignon Blanc. Sandy soils dominate the Murphy family's holdings, perfect for nurturing mature, complex fruit.
Kelley Fox Mirabai Pinot Noir 2024
Pinot Noir and the Willamette Valley...who could have seen this one coming?! All sarcasm aside, Kelley is the kind of person that will always keep this region and its principally celebrated grape variety in fashion. After cutting her teeth at a host of local wineries, including Eyrie, she's focused exclusively on her own wines since 2015. While she works with heritage sites throughout the larger Willamette Valley, the Mirabai cuvée exclusively highlights those in the Dundee Hills.
The Willamette Valley is most known for two primary soil types: Willakenzie (marine sedimentary) and Jory (volcanic). Perhaps nowhere is more dominated by Jory than the Dundee Hills. Kelley combines the old vine plantings at Weber, Maresh, Durant, and Stater vineyards to create what amounts to an incredibly harmonious and shocklingly approachable example of Pinot.
Ellsworth Grenache 2024
I struggle with not getting romantic about wines from the Sierra Foothills. This vast region covers some of the most complicated, difficult, and beautiful terrain in California. These foothills gave birth to the Gold Rush and early Western dreams of making it big. They house religious and secular cults, some of the most insular and hidden compounds in the nation. And regardless of who lives on the land, who works it, and what grows there, it remains haunting and heart-breaking in its beauty. A mosaic of soil types and exposures, of grape varieties and farming practices. It is very much still the Wild West of Wine.
Bryn and Jeffrey Sherwood are based in Nevada County's Penn Valley but their 2024 Grenache comes from a single-vineyard further south, just outside Placerville at 2,800 feet of elevation. The soil here is volcanic clay loam and perfectly serves to grow ripe but restrained Grenache. They use 50% whole cluster in the winemaker, indigenous yeasts, and bottle the wines unfined and unfiltered. This is an incredibly lively, bright example that can also be enjoyed with a slight chill.
Premium-Level Club
Walter Scott Chardonnay Cuvée Anne Willamette Valley 2023
There are very few producers that have done more to redefine American Chardonnay over the last decade than Walter Scott. While California was busy rediscovering restraint, Ken Pahlow and Erica Landon quietly built one of Oregon’s benchmark estates by looking to Burgundy not as something to imitate, but as something to learn from. The wines are never burdened by oak or richness. Instead, they are driven by texture, precision, and an uncanny ability to translate site into glass. Cuvée Anne is their introduction to that philosophy, assembled from some of the valley’s finest vineyards without sacrificing an ounce of seriousness.
Willamette Valley Chardonnay has reached a remarkable point in its evolution. The region’s cool climate preserves acidity naturally, while volcanic and marine sedimentary soils provide both tension and depth. Fermented with native yeasts and aged largely in neutral French oak, Cuvée Anne delivers citrus, orchard fruit, crushed stone, and just enough creaminess to remind you this is Chardonnay after all. It’s the kind of wine that makes you wonder why anyone still insists great Chardonnay only comes from France.
Arnot-Roberts Trousseau 2024
If there were a shortlist of wineries responsible for changing the conversation around California wine, Arnot-Roberts would be near the very top. Duncan Arnot Meyers and Nathan Roberts built their reputation by asking a simple question: what if California’s greatest wines didn’t have to come from Cabernet or Chardonnay? Their answer has been an ever-growing collection of site-driven bottlings from overlooked vineyards and forgotten grape varieties, each made with remarkable restraint. Few wineries have inspired more young winemakers over the last fifteen years.
Trousseau is native to France’s Jura, where it produces aromatic, pale-colored reds that somehow combine delicacy with surprising intensity. California has proven to be one of the variety’s most exciting new homes, and Arnot-Roberts remains its standard bearer. Whole-cluster fermentation, restrained extraction, and careful élevage preserve the grape’s wild spectrum of cranberry, blood orange, rose petal, and spice. It’s a wine that sits somewhere between Pinot Noir, Gamay, and Nebbiolo while ultimately tasting like none of them.
Âmevive Wine Ibarra-Young Vineyard Peripherie 2025
There is an infectious optimism surrounding Âmevive. Founded by Alice and Topher Magoon, the winery has become one of the defining voices of California’s new generation, embracing regenerative farming, Mediterranean grape varieties, and wines that prioritize energy over power. Their work centers around Ballard Canyon, where they farm alongside some of the region’s most respected growers, always with an eye toward transparency rather than manipulation. The result is a portfolio that feels both deeply Californian and refreshingly unconventional.
The Ibarra-Young Vineyard sits at the western edge of Ballard Canyon, where relentless Pacific winds and sandy, limestone-laced soils naturally limit vigor and preserve freshness. Périphérie is intentionally difficult to categorize, a co-ferment of Marsanne, Syrah, and Mourvedre. Bright red fruit, herbs, citrus peel, and savory spice weave together into a wine that feels equally at home on a dinner table or slightly chilled on a summer evening. It’s less about fitting neatly into a category and more about capturing the remarkable energy of the vineyard itself.
Cellar Pick Add-On
Rhys Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir 2018
Few wineries have done more to elevate the reputation of the Santa Cruz Mountains than Rhys. When Kevin Harvey began planting vineyards high in these rugged mountains more than two decades ago, many considered the terrain too remote and too difficult. Today, Rhys stands comfortably alongside America’s greatest Pinot Noir producers, proving that steep slopes, fractured shale, and painstaking farming can produce wines with extraordinary longevity. They have become a benchmark not only for California, but for Pinot Noir worldwide.
The Santa Cruz Mountains occupy a fascinating middle ground between California sunshine and coastal austerity. Vineyards perch above the fog line while remaining close enough to the Pacific to retain remarkable freshness, producing wines that are simultaneously generous and tightly wound. The appellation blend captures fruit from several estate vineyards, offering dark cherry, forest floor, crushed herbs, and mineral depth with the quiet confidence that only bottle age can provide. Eight years after harvest, this wine is just beginning to reveal the complexity that has made Rhys one of the country’s most revered names.