August 2026 Wine Club Release

This month marks a shift in rhythm.

Summer is beginning to loosen its grip, school is back in session, and calendars are slowly filling with the first signs of the busy season ahead. The days may still be warm, but cooler nights are returning, bringing with them the promise of longer dinners, open bottles, and evenings spent reconnecting with friends and family after a season of travel and adventure.

Our selections this month reflect that sense of return.
The Select Tier looks toward the next chapter of classic wine regions, with bottles that honor tradition while showing how familiar places continue to evolve. The Premium Tier celebrates producers willing to challenge convention, trust their vineyards, and create something unexpected. The Private Sommelier Tier turns its attention to time itself, offering wines chosen not only for their beauty today, but for the occasions and memories they may become part of in the future.

Together, these wines feel especially suited to this moment between seasons. There are bright, energetic bottles for lingering late-summer evenings, structured reds and textured whites for the first cooler nights, and cellar-worthy selections to set aside as we begin looking toward the holidays and the celebrations beyond them.

This is the time of year when the table starts to matter again. Friends return home, family routines settle back into place, and dinner becomes less hurried and more intentional.

Consider this month’s collection an invitation to prepare for what comes next, one bottle, one evening, and one shared table at a time.

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Select Tier

Wine regions earn their reputations over centuries, but they never stop evolving. This month's collection reminds us that some of the world's most exciting bottles aren't rewriting history, they're simply writing the next chapter.

Across Spain, Washington, Italy, France, and Oregon, each of these producers respects tradition while quietly challenging expectations. Some are elevating overlooked grapes. Others are reimagining familiar regions through a fresh perspective. Together they illustrate how today's most compelling wines often emerge from places we thought we already knew.

Campo de Borja has long been associated with Garnacha, yet Vinos del Viento turns to the deeply colored Tintorera grape to produce a wine of remarkable concentration and structure.

Washington Cabernet has earned worldwide respect, but Rue Naujac approaches Columbia Valley fruit through a distinctly Bordeaux-inspired lens, marrying New World generosity with Old World restraint.

In Sicily, Due Terre reminds us why Frappato has become one of Italy's most exciting indigenous varieties, producing a red that's aromatic, vibrant, and surprisingly versatile.

Further south, Masseria Cuturi continues the renaissance of Negroamaro, showcasing a grape once known primarily for bulk production as a refined expression of Puglia's historic vineyards.

The whites continue the same story. Estelle Bidault's Vouvray demonstrates how Chenin Blanc can be simultaneously generous and mineral, while Pearce Predhomme's Pinot Gris reflects Oregon's growing confidence in producing whites with both freshness and complexity.

Each bottle comes from a region with a remarkable past. Together, they show that the future of great wine often begins by looking at familiar places through a different lens.

Join or Upgrade: 2 or 4 Bottles for $20 Per Bottle

Premium Tier

This month’s Premium Tier celebrates producers who looked beyond convention and trusted their own vision.

Lasseter Family Winery’s Inattendu, meaning “unexpected,” brings French inspiration into a distinctly Sonoma setting. Rather than copying Bordeaux, it blends Old World structure with California generosity to create something entirely its own.

Panther Ridge’s The Cub Pinot Noir reflects the emerging identity of Petaluma Gap, where cool Pacific winds and a long growing season are helping redefine California Pinot Noir. It is a wine shaped by a region still writing its story.

In South Africa, Ken Forrester has built a career around seeing potential where others overlooked it. His Barrel Selection Roussanne explores the richness and texture of a Rhône variety in Stellenbosch, while Sparklehorse shows how traditional-method sparkling wine can express South African character without trying to imitate Champagne.

Together, these four wines share a spirit of independence. Each comes from a producer willing to challenge expectations, explore new possibilities, and create wines that stand confidently on their own.

Sometimes the most memorable wines are not the ones that follow tradition. They are the ones bold enough to move it forward.

Join or Upgrade: 2 or 4 Bottles for $40 Per Bottle

Private Sommelier Tier

Some wines are selected for tonight. Others are chosen with a future evening in mind.

This month’s Private Sommelier selections celebrate wines shaped by patience, both before and after they enter the cellar. They come from historic vineyards, long-lived grape varieties, and producers whose work rewards the collector willing to wait.

Bianchi’s Vigneto Valferana Gattinara Riserva begins in Alto Piemonte, where Nebbiolo grows on steep, ancient volcanic soils. The fruit comes from the highest, best-exposed portion of the Valferana vineyard, while the Riserva designation requires years of maturation before release. It is a wine already acquainted with time, yet still capable of developing greater aromatic detail and softness in bottle.

Liébart-Régnier’s Hortï offers a different kind of rarity. This Extra Brut Champagne is made from Petit Meslier, Arbane, and Pinot Blanc, ancestral varieties that together account for only a tiny portion of Champagne’s vineyards. Drawn from the family’s historic garden parcel, aged in oak and then for three years in the cellar, it combines an almost forgotten past with remarkable potential for future evolution.

The two wines from Domaine Gérard Julien & Fils provide an opportunity to follow Burgundy at two levels. The Nuits-Saint-Georges introduces the character of the village, while Les Bousselots Premier Cru offers a more concentrated expression of a specific vineyard. Under fifth-generation grower Étienne Julien, both reflect a small family domaine committed to preserving its own wine and destiny. Cellaring them together allows the collector to watch place, classification, and time reveal their differences.

Ehlers Estate Merlot brings the collection to St. Helena, where the estate’s organically farmed vineyard occupies a historic site first planted in the nineteenth century. Merlot’s generous fruit makes it inviting in youth, but estate fruit, careful barrel maturation, and the structure provided by this distinctive Napa Valley site give it the foundation to develop gracefully.

Together, these wines remind us that building a collection is not only about saving bottles. It is about creating possibilities: a future celebration, a meaningful dinner, or the pleasure of discovering how a wine has changed.

The true luxury is not simply owning something rare. It is giving it time to become something more.

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Our Wine Club currates collections of exceptional wines. Each release features Somm Says™ tasting games that you and your friends can enjoy. Our experts constantly monitor our club member experience to optimize selections for seasons, events, and the best wine available each month.

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