Walter's World, Edition No. 19 (February 2026)
February was all about connection —
not just romance, but the people (and wines) that are better together.
Last month’s lineup celebrated partnership in all its forms:
winemakers working together to bring a vision to life, grape varieties
that shine brightest in combination, and bottles that practically beg to be shared around a table.
Some of these wines highlight collaboration behind the scenes, like the partnership that brought Pearl Morissette to life in Ontario. Others show how blending vineyards or varieties can create something more expressive than any one element on its own. And of course, a few are simply wines made for sharing — whether that means opening them with dinner, pouring a glass for a friend, or enjoying them slowly over the course of the week.
However you chose to enjoy them, we hope these wines reminded you that the best bottles are rarely enjoyed alone.
Cheers,
the Walter's team
I | La Vecchia Posta Il Selvaggio
2022 | Colli Tortonesi, Piemonte, Italy | Timorasso
Il Selvaggio translates to “the wild one” because these vines are planted intermittently throughout several of their vineyards and are encouraged to roam the landscape, soaking up the characteristics of each small plot. When vinified together, they bring each of those elements together to create a wine with a multitude of layers and personality.
Timorasso is an ancient Piemontese variety that almost went extinct but was revived in the 1980s thanks to Walter Massa (amazing name!) who was based in the area of Tortona in southeast Piemonte. It has thick skins, which provide a lot of texture, and is adept at retaining acid even in warmer vintages, so while it can have a broader mouthfeel, it will remain focused and refreshing on the palate.
What we love about this particular example is that there is so much more than fruit and minerality, with those wild elements peeking out here and there. They can be hard to describe but give the wine an aura of mystery that keeps morphing in the glass. As with most Piedmontese whites, I’d want some food to fully enjoy this bottle—so a wild spot prawn risotto or a herbed butter fresh pasta would be killer with this!
II | Chateau de Cedre Cedríc
2022 | Cahors, France | Malbec
The boxed wine is back! We featured this same company a few months ago with their Grüner Veltliner from Austria, and it was a big hit with you all, so we decided to feature another that’s more winter appropriate. If you’re new to the club, don’t worry—this wine is super delicious and also equates to four, that’s right, four whole bottles, so we almost doubled your club this month with this selection. You’re welcome!
Malbec is the featured variety here and is made by one of the most famous producers in the Cahors region—Château du Cèdre. We’ve had the normal-sized bottles on the shelves here at the shop before and have always loved the wines. Cahors is in southwest France, just outside of Bordeaux, on the Lot River, and is the last region in France to focus solely on Malbec. With Argentina adopting the variety in the 1980s, it’s been hard for anyone else to compete, but Cahors has remained the OG gold standard for more perfumed examples of the variety.
While I realize that a box isn’t as romantic as a bottle, this is the perfect vessel to emphasize that wine can be a grocery item—an essential part of meal planning for the week that doesn’t need to be viewed as a special occasion. Have half a glass with your sandwich for lunch! The advantage of the bag-in-box is that it collapses on itself, so there is no exposure to oxygen that will degrade the wine. You can enjoy wine at your own pace. While I wouldn’t recommend cellaring this, you can enjoy the box over the course of a month or two with no problem.
III | Ana Maria Cumsille El Litre
2022 | Coelemu, Itata, Chile | Cinsault
Chile is often associated with inexpensive grocery wine, but it’s actually a wine culture rich in amazing, beautiful places that produce wines of elegance and freshness. This Cinsault is from Itata, which is not only fun to say, but is also one of the most exciting regions in Chile at the moment. Located south of more famous regions such as Maule, the Itata Valley is within the larger region of Bío Bío (also fun to say!) and lies between the Pacific Ocean and the Coastal Range, so it’s overall quite cool and influenced by the maritime climate.
Cinsault is the most planted red variety there and originally hails from southern France in the Languedoc region. It’s easygoing in the vineyard, dealing with drought particularly well, so it’s migrated all over the world from Africa to Australia to Chile for its simplicity in farming and high yields. As a result, quality varies wildly, and to achieve superior elegance the grower must substantially restrict yields in order to build concentration in the wines.
Ana Maria lives in Santiago but has chosen Itata for its quality potential. She’s chosen to work with Cinsault because it can achieve a wonderful character of dark citrus fruits like blood orange and grapefruit with a heady perfume of hibiscus and rose. This wine is crushable on its own, but I’d also crush it with our new mortadella sandwich on the daytime menu. 🙂
IV | Pearl Morissette Roselana
2024 | Niagara Peninsula, Canada | Pinot Noir and pals
When was the last time you had a wine from the Niagara Peninsula? I wish we would see more Canadian wines here in the States, but c’est la vie. While parts of British Columbia like the Okanagan can be found once in a blue moon for us here on the West Coast, wines from the eastern side of the country are a bit harder to find—but they are making some really cool things there.
François Morissette earned his chops by working in Burgundy, learning from the masters of Pinot Noir who’ve benefited from a cool 1,000 years of winemaking started by the Cistercian and Benedictine monks in the Côte d’Or. Returning to Ontario, he wanted to apply what he learned to the nuances of the Niagara Peninsula and found a partner to realize the vision in Toronto developer Mel Pearl.
The Niagara Peninsula is well suited to cool-climate varieties as it receives cool breezes off Lake Ontario, which acts as a great moderator due to its significant depth of around 800 feet. The Niagara River creates its other border, and the geology of the peninsula is quite diverse due to the flow of the river and the influence of glaciers over millennia.
François has blended his favorite variety, Pinot Noir, with Gamay, Merlot (gasp!), and Lemberger—aka Blaufränkisch—to make a darker style of rosé. It’s full of strawberries and licorice and has an adult Kool-Aid vibe that makes it a great bridge rosé from late winter to the early spring sun we’ve been having.
BUBBLE CLUB
I | Bertrand-Delespierre Premier Cru Brut Enfant de La Montagne
NV | Montagne de Reims, Champagne, France | Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, Chardonnay
Chantal Delespierre and Didier Bertrand are the dynamic duo behind this Montagne de Reims récoltant-manipulant (RM), also known as a grower-producer. Champagne is big business, and often the larger houses must buy fruit from growers to meet their demand as global brands, but RMs have the distinct advantage of having control from pruning to releasing finished wines.J
This bottling is dubbed Enfant de la Montagne, which translates to “Child of the Mountain,” and is meant to represent this sub-area of the Champagne region by being a black-grape-dominant blend of roughly one-third each Pinot Noir and Meunier, with the remainder composed of Chardonnay. The black grapes bring red fruit characteristics to the palate—even though it’s made as a white wine, those notes are pretty clear—and that creates a richer mouthfeel, which is further amplified by a healthy 40% of reserve wine added to the 2022 base.
Lees time is also another way to contribute opulent character to Champagne, and this wine spent over three years with those spent yeast cells, giving it a freshly baked brioche- or waffle-like layer of yumminess.
As some of you have experienced at the wine bar, Champagne is super versatile with food, but our favorites are Lauren’s popcorn (hit us up for the recipe), fried chicken, or any kind of potato chip.
II | June’s Rosé
2022 | Traisental, Austria | Pinot Noir, Zweigelt
June is a fellow Master Sommelier who is a restaurateur in Houston, Texas and has created some truly magical joints in the Montrose neighborhood. Ask Chris for a list if you plan a visit!
She has also partnered with longtime friend Cat Miles, who has extensive experience on the importing side of the wine biz, to bring this bubbly rosé to the U.S. market. They wanted to create something approachable, delicious, and drinkable any day of the week without sacrificing lunch money. They found the solution in the Traisental region of Austria with winemaker Markus Huber, who has crafted a tasty blend of half Pinot Noir and half Zweigelt using the tank method to keep costs down. This approach simply eschews the 750 mL bottle for the second fermentation and instead uses a large tank, which can then be bottled under pressure.
Zweigelt was developed in the mid-20th century by Dr. Zweigelt, who was a professor at the Austrian enology school of Klosterneuburg. It makes dark-red-fruited and juicy wines akin to Gamay with soft tannins and is the most consumed red wine in Austria.
This bottle ticks all the boxes one would want from a sparkling rosé, and we’ll always have it in the cooler here at the shop.