Top 5 Wines of the Month (April 2026)

Hey guys!

April is coming to a close, which means it's time to count down this month's top five bottles. Between dinner parties, our birthday celebrations, and a trip through France and Germany, it's been quite the wine-fueled month. Here are the highlights:

Location: Baden, Germany 🇩🇪

Variety: Chardonnay

One of the most exciting topics in wine right now is the rise of German Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Regions that were historically too cool to ripen certain grapes, combined with a more progressive approach to winemaking, have sparked a renaissance in the country, and this bottle from Bernhard Huber from South Germany only strengthened that feeling for me.

We were poured this blind at Gigi's in Greenpoint earlier this month, and I could have sworn it was Burgundian: it had a perfect flinty reduction, great yellow fruit, and beautifully balanced acidity. A real treat for a wine that retails for around $50.

Location: Rhone Valley, France 🇫🇷

Varieties: Syrah

This was something of a unicorn bottle, opened for my brother and me at Bodega Nights to celebrate our birthday. Hirotake Ooka is a bit of a mythic figure in the wine world, a Japanese-born winemaker who followed an unlikely path to the Northern Rhône, where he farmed just 3.8 hectares. Since retiring in the late 2010s, his bottles have become exceedingly rare, which made this one all the more special.

It was nearly a perfect Syrah: olive tapenade and wintergreen on the nose, with a palate that was deep and blue fruited, but remarkably fresh. One of several bottles opened that evening, but this was one of the standouts.

Location: Nuits-Saint Georges, Burgundy, France 🇫🇷

Variety: Pinot Noir

Some lunches take on a life of their own, especially in France. What was meant to be a quick bite at La Cabotte in Nuits-Saint Georges with winemaker Pierre-Olivier Garcia, before heading down the street to taste at his winery, turned into a nearly three hour affair with four bottles poured blind.

One of them stole the show. It was a 2012 Pinot Noir from Cécile Tremblay, one of the most revered producers in Nuits-Saint-Georges, if not all of Burgundy. What struck me most was it’s contradiction at its core: how something so delicate could still carry that much power and ripeness after nearly 15 years in bottle. A genuinely special thing to taste. Thanks to Pierre for opening it for us.

Location: Rheinhessen, Germany 🇩🇪

Variety: Sylvaner

I've been lucky enough to drink a lot of different wines in all shaped and sizes, and I'm always filing away the bottles that really stand out to me. This Sylvaner from Carsten Saalwächter was one of those.

I'd heard the stories for years, people swearing to me that his wines drink at the level of white Burgundy, which, naturally, made me a little skeptical. That skepticism was only compounded by the fact that his wines have been sold out in New York for what feels like forever, leaving me with nothing but secondhand praise to go on. That changed this past weekend.

As part of the opening festivities for the Karakterre and VDP Weinbörse, the organizers hosted a dinner at Pankratz, a stunning restaurant in Mainz, with over 100 guests seated. The wine list was like a who's who of exciting German producers, and Carsten Saalwächter was on it. Naturally, a bottle of his Sylvaner was the first bottle ordered.

It lived up to every expectation and then some. Flinty, complex, and endlessly drinkable, with a core of minerals and bright fruit that kept me reaching back for the glass every 30 seconds. Genuinely one of the better wines I've had in recent memory. As a cherry-on-top, I was able to visit Carsten with the Vom Boden team later in the week as well.

Location: Rheinhessen, Germany 🇩🇪

Variety: Riesling

Max's wines have always been familiar, some of the best value in natural wine, and his entry level bottles are usually what I reach for at a casual dinner party. But tasting through his range at Karakterre this past weekend, a few really caught my attention, especially his Cherry Path Riesling.

It's a long élevage, extended lees aging cuvée, and it had everything you want from a dry Riesling: bright lemon lime acidity, a saline finish, and just a touch of creaminess. It was so good that later in the trip we convinced a few friends to open the bottles they'd bought from him just cause we were really craving it again. This is one I'll be actively hunting down as soon as I'm back in New York.

While this is a 6th addition to the list (and not even wine, for that matter), I couldn't leave it off. For those unfamiliar, Chartreuse is a French herbal liqueur made from a secret recipe by Carthusian monks. It's rare to begin with, and this "Une Chartreuse" is about as rare a bottling as they come: a solera-style release of which only 120 bottles are made per year.

We had a small pour at Ma Cuisine in Beaune. It was, honestly, one of the most complex and layered liqueurs I've ever tasted, not something I'll likely come across again, but an absolute privilege to experience

April’s Shipment is on the way! Would love to hear what you guys think of the picks. Make sure to email [email protected] if you run into any issues and they’ll you help out.

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That’s it for today! Wishing you the best for the month of May. Thank so much for reading, and as always, drink responsibly! 🥂