The master Kyè

Last month we took a quick trip to Tuscany. Among the wines we sampled was Sassicaia, the fabled Cabernet blend from Bolgheri on the Tuscan coast. I said that the wine was an “instant sensation,” but an alert reader pointed out that it was only when it was sold commercially, in the late 1960s, that it took the wine world by storm. Before that, it was the private province of its creator, the marchese Mario Incisa della Rocchetta, who began experimenting with Bordeaux grapes in the 1940s. I also said that Tignanello was another superlative Super Tuscan from “the region.” But that same alert reader noted that while the region was Tuscany, Tignanello comes not from Bolgheri but from Chianti, several miles to the East.

Let us leave those geographical niceties to one side and head northwest into Piedmont, home of Barolo and Barbaresco, the king and queen of Italian wines. The area has been recognized as prime wine-growing soil for a long time. The great naturalist Pliny the Elder (AD 23-79) noted that “the cretaceous earth” of the local hills “is preferred to all others for the vine.” Some things never change.

I’ve dipped into Barolo and Barbaresco before in these jottings, and I naturally paid special attention to Nebbiolo, widely hailed as Italy’s noblest grape. The house of G.D. Vajra makes some excellent Barolos and other Nebbiolo dominant wines from Langhe, the hilly area that encompasses Barolo.

Today, however, I’d like to introduce you to Kyè, a wine Vajra makes from Freisa, “a noble yet forgotten local grape” whose renaissance the Vajra family helped to pioneer in the 1980s. In 2004, an industrious oenologist discovered that Freisa was the closest biological relative to Nebbiolo. I can believe it. The wine (which will cost you around $50) has a patent family relationship to its cousins (or brothers and sisters) in Barolo and Barbaresco. That is to say, they are all bold without being pushy, full and complex in the mouth, astringently fruity, and with sufficient backbone to complement any robust meat- or pasta-based meal.

Kyè is also eminently drinkable, by which I mean two people can get outside of a bottle before they can say “antipasto.” What Enobarbus says of Cleopatra is true also of Kyè: “Other women cloy / the appetites they feed but she makes hungry / where most she satisfies.” The literature for the wine says that “Kyè” means “Who is?” or “What is?” the answer to which is “Freisa.” In what language is that? I have been unable to discover the answer, and I hereby invite the first person with the correct answer to join me for a glass (or two) of the wine at a local refectory in New York.

The house of G.D. Vajra, while best known for its Barolos, also makes other excellent wines. Just so, the storied Merry Edwards winery in Sonoma (since 2019, part of the Champagne house Maison Louis Roederer) is best known for its Pinot Noir (about $70) but also is successful with other varietals. I may weigh in on the Pinots another time. For now, I want to recommend the winery’s Russian River Sauvignon Blanc (about $50). I recently had the 2019 vintage. It is unusually aromatic and floral for the varietal, heady in the nose, almost luscious in the mouth. It was quite unlike any Sauvignon Blanc I have had: less tart, more elegant, with a bigger finish than is typical. Highly recommended.

Finally, let me check in again on wines from the Devin Nunes Wine company. A year ago, I wrote about the inaugural vintage, 2021, from this winery in San Luis Obispo County on the Central Coast of California. Devin Nunes, the former congressman (and now head of the media company Truth Social) called upon the celebrated vintner Mike Sinor (founding winemaker at Ancient Peaks) to craft two distinctive styles of red wine.

One is Paso Robles ($75), a Portuguese blend of Tourgia Nacional, Souzao and Tinta Cão, familiar varietals for port. The other is a Bordeaux style Cabernet, Patriot ($50) and Patriot Reserve ($120). I say “Bordeaux style,” but no one would mistake these wines as coming from the Médoc. All of them are BIG. The 2022 vintage is perhaps a bit more succulent and fruit-forward than the 2021. Drinkers’ advisory: in addition to being big, and hot (14-plus percent alcohol), these wines are obviously very young. They benefit greatly from being decanted for several hours; then they blossom. Nunes has increased production somewhat with the 2022 vintage, but the quantities are still small. The best way to sample these wines (something you should definitely do) is to join the Nunes Wine Club. This not only guarantees your access to these excellent wines but serves as an invitation to a host of events at the winery. If you are in the wintry northeast, as I am, you will want to have a case of these wines by your side as the snow piles up.

This article was originally published in The Spectator’s January 2025 World edition.