2018 Wilson Foreigner Valdiguie Rancho Chimiles Napa Valley 750 ml

This is one of the wines that is changing the face of Napa Valley and California wine, driven by a new generation of winemakers set on proving that Napa Valley’s incredible diversity of terroir. As producers experiment with new varieties and return to ones from decades past, the Napa Valley wine spectrum is expanding to include light, fresh, crave-worthy reds like this 93-point Valdiguié, a heritage grape of California.

The result is a light and lively red wine that manages to be complex and layered, yet fun and easy-drinking at the same time. Just-picked cherry fruit meets fields of violets and lavender, with waves of savory herbs and minerality on the palate.

If you’re never heard of Valdiguié before, you’re not alone. Just a few decades ago, this southern French grape was common in California, valued for its ability to make large amounts of deeply-colored wine with refreshing acidity. But in a classic case of mistaken identity, Valdiguié was thought to be identical or related to Beaujolais’ Gamay grape, and was therefore dubbed “Napa Gamay” until 1980. Thinking the variety made only mediocre wine, most vintners ripped out their Valdiguié vines, and the grape fell into obscurity.

But Wilson Foreigner winemaker Dave Wilson grew up among Valdiguié vines planted in 1972 at his family’s Napa farm, Rancho Chimiles. After studying winemaking and working as a vineyard manager at spots like Pahlmeyer, Wilson did something he had always dreamed of—he started Wilson Foreigner with his wife, Christine, and made a varietal wine from the two remaining acres of his family’s 45-year-old Valdiguié vines at Rancho Chimiles.

If you’ve never tasted Valdiguié before, this is the one to start with. Quality Valdiguié is still rare, and this is only the third vintage of Wilson Foreigner’s version. From marine sediment and sandstone soils, the Wilson Foreigner is vinified using ambient yeasts in neutral French oak barrels and bottled unfined and unfiltered.

“Our approach is always to have a light touch in the cellar,” says Wilson. “We want to preserve aromatics, acidity, and the characteristics of each vineyard we work with.”

Though the Wilson Foreigner Valdiguié is the kind of thirst-quenching wine that you’ll want to chill slightly and drink by the case year-round, it really shines when paired with food. Even Wilson calls the Valdiguié his weeknight wine; he’s yet to find a meal that it doesn’t pair well with. From sweet, spicy barbecue ribs in the summer to savory Thanksgiving turkey, the bright fruit and mouthwatering acidity of this Valdiguié makes it one of the most versatile reds we’ve come across—tart cherry greets the palate from the first sip,  and then develops into a complex and thought evoking party of savory and mineral notes with velvety tannin.

Valdiguié may be an underdog now, but it’s poised for a comeback, and it’s all because of delicious, refreshing reds like the 2018 Wilson Foreigner Valdiguié—and that’s why this is a permanent fixture in our wine drinking rotation.