Earlier this week our team spent the evening celebrating 10 years of Leon & Son – cracking open lots of wine, and lots of crab, at Wu's Wonton King. IYKYK, it's one of the most iconic BYOB spots in the city); and there's a special kind of magic in sharing a no-frills (but extremely delicious) meal with great people, and great wine. 

Every year we open up some of our most special bottles to share with each other. And now, we're sharing them with you.

2013 Arnot-Roberts Clary Ranch Syrah, Sonoma Coast Magnum $185
The oldest wine on the table that night, but probably also the wine with the longest life left in it! This is a library wine from one of California's most talented duos, Nate Roberts and Duncan Arnot. Clary Ranch is one of their signature Syrahs, which theyre famous for; always done whole cluster, from one of California's coldest vineyards. It's like Saint Joseph in the fog, with olive brine, wild herbs. Crazy wine. And pretty dang delicious with some ribs.

2019 Frank Cornelissen 'Munjebel VA' Terre Siciliane Bianco Magnum $240
This wine is so cool. More and more, Cornelissen's white wines feel like the sleepers in his lineup. This is his top wine from his highest elevation sites (1000 meters and 900 meters, wild), both pre-phylloxera and bush trained. A powerful, macerated blend of Grecanico Dorato, Carricante, Coda di Volpe; but this wine is more about the silty soils and the skin maceration than the varietals.

2022 Vincent Laval (Georges Laval) Cumières Premier Cru Rouge Coteaux Champenois $285
From Cumières, a "warm" area by Champagne standards, this is an extremely special still wine from Champagne. It's the first time Vincent Laval (whose immense personality comes through in the wines) has made it in 13 years. Chris visited in the spring and intensely wrote about the release here. Highly recommend diving in here, the standout bottle of the night for many of us.

2024 Bodegas Cota 45 UBE Paganilla, Andalucia, Spain $35
The least expensive bottle on the table was no less interesting. We still can't get over the amount of great dry, unfortified wines coming out of Andalucia, and at Cota 45, Ramiro Ibáñez is one of the few producers making single vineyard bottlings. UBE Paganilla is Palmonio, whole cluster pressed into used Manzanilla bota and aged with time under flor. A delicious variation on Andalucia's terroir.

2018 Jacques Lassaigne 'Grain de Beaute' Blanc De Blancs Brut Nature, Champagne $225
Equally intense as his Vin Jaune barrel-aged Autor de Minut, the vin clair here also sees 4 years before it even goes to bottle – practically unheard of in Champagne. Emmanuel Lassaigne is the king of Montgeaux, a rare, chalky terroir in the Aube, and this bottle really shows it. A big eye opener that got swirled around the lazy susan many times for a retaste...

2019 Marie Courtin Champagne Concordance Extra Brut [Sans Soufre] $125
Dominique Moreau is a special grower. She was taking the single varietal, single vintage, no dosage approach to Champagne before it was more widely applied. Her focus is on Pinot Noir from the Aube, and she experiments with a variety of vessels (and in this case, a no sulfur approach). This work is rare in Champagne and vintage after vintage, her wines just continue to become more open knit, vinous wines. This one felt more like a rich rosé from Pinot Noir than a sparkling wine.

2022 Azienda Vitivinicola Tiberio 'Fonte Canale' Trebbiano d'Abruzzo, Italy
Trebbiano Abruzzese is the most noble clone of Trebbiano. Specific to Abruzzo, it's thicker skinned and in turn, intensely flavored. Cristiana Tiberio's 'Fonte Canale' is the top white from the grape, from a very specific pergola-trained, 93 year-old parcel of vines that sits on limestone. Special fruit that she bottles separately and makes (like almost all her wines, with one exception) entirely in tank. The wine is a high wire act of acid and texture, with '22 being the most generous in recent memory. We did an Instagram Live with her in 2020, worth a rewatch as she walks through the parcel. Sadly, we drank the last 'Fonte Canale' 😬 but there are many other cuvées in stock, including her equally singular Pecorino 'Quarmari.'

2019 Far Mountain 'Amotus' Cabernet Sauvignon, Moon Mountain District, Sonoma County $140
Far Mountain is new to the shop and we have to thank Pedro Parra for the tip. It's tiny, just 1-3 barrels made of each wine, all from high elevation, dry farmed sites in Sonoma County. This is their top Cabernet from Alta-Vista Vineyard (a historic registered vineyard) planted in the 1930s. Smoldering, old school Cabernet. Only 100 cases produced.

2023 Ceritas Hellenthal Vineyard 'Old Shop Block' Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast, $106
We really went in on Sonoma for this dinner 👀 John Raytek continues to make some of the country's finest Pinot Noir and Chardonnay – and topped off with a cool, long growing season in 2023, it's a vintage not to miss. 'Hellenthal' is from one of the most unique sites in Sonoma Coast: the only own-rooted vines that they farm, planted in sandstone in the late 1970s next door to Hirsch Vineyards and exclusively vinified by Ceritas.

2020 Weingut Schätzel Pettenthal Riesling Grosses Gewachs Rheinhessen, Germany $285
All eyes were wide open tasting this one – one of the most unique bottles of Riesling the group has enjoyed. We did a fun writeup earlier this year on the work Schätzel is doing, singular in the farming (biodynamic!) and work in the cellar (no sulfur! flor!). The whole lineup is a provocative tribute to Rheinhessen’s most famous sites, and this 2020 Pettenthal has extra fame as the first VDP-approved no-sulfur GG.

2023 Domaine Roulot Meursault, Cote de Beaune $260+
The wines of Jean-Marc Roulot really don't need much introduction – synonymous with Meursault, and a consistently precise, spirited take on the village. Even the "entry-level" bottlings carry the estate's unmistakable signature. These always land in tiny quantities, so we were lucky to enjoy a bottle together: here a blend of multiple biodynamically farmed lieux-dits. Fermented in barrel, full malo, a year on the lees, delicious Roulot.

2023 Domaine Fourrier Gevrey-Chambertin Vieilles Vignes, Cote de Nuits $120
It can't be a visit to Wu's without red Burgundy, too. We had some fun swapping memories of our first tastes of Fourrier – a foundational producer for a reason. The VV Gevrey is equally quintessential, from centenarian vines rooted in limestone, fermented with some whole clusters (and a cold soak) and aged with no new oak. Perfection, tbh!

2023 Weingut Wasenhaus, Spätburgunder 'Bellen', Baden $145
We've been talking about Wasenhaus and Baden-Württemberg at large a lot lately, how could we not crack one? Bellen is one of their most limestone-driven sites, producing Pinot Noir with extremely high thread count. Another eye-opened that sat very comfortably next to all that Burgundy.

2022 Domaine de Trevallon, IGP Alpilles Rouge, France $100+
Trevallon rages against the Provençal appellation to plant Cabernet and Syrah (which existed here prior to phylloxera) and make a 50/50 blend that became iconic. Also iconic are their wine labels, initially made by the artist-owner, that change in response to every vintage. Deeply Mediterranean, powerful – these wines live forever and have marked several important personal milestones for Chris and his family.

Barbadillo 'Cuco' Oloroso 12 Year Old Sherry Andalucia, Spain $22
Did you even go to the Leon & Son team dinner if you didn't have some pocket Sherry for the ride home? 😇 As this made its way around the lazy susan in the center of the table, some of us enjoyed it mid-meal, some at the end, some at the very end. But this nutty, dry Oloroso felt just right in all the moments. It sure doesn't hurt that it's made by the 200 year old reference point, Bodegas Barbadillo.

Cheers to our amazing team!