Jenny & François Selections

Last summer, while shivering in an old limestone quarry in Saint Emilion — now the magnificent, thermoregulated cellar of — we were some of the first to try the 2021 vintage of Ormiale’s flagship red, which was the first wine made in this new cellar. Only 2,390 bottles were made, as well as 209 magnums: a lucky few have landed at , who wrote beautifully about winemaker Fabrice Domercq’s artistry and the wines themselves.

“‘It’s a way for me to create something from A to Z.’ The nose-to-tail maxim with which Fabrice Domercq approaches his project afield the lost floodplains of Bordeaux’s Entre-deux-Mers spells out, for better or worse, the hyper-artisanal manner of what ends up in a bottle of his beloved ‘Ormiale.’ Derived from an amalgam of his & his business partner’s children (igOR, MIlo, ALexandre, achillE), Ormiale has very quietly re-worked the idea of what’s vinously possible in Bordeaux for nearly a decade and a half. Here is a boutique, Bordeaux micro-production’s micro-production. For example, there are limits to numbers when you destem every single grape by hand à la Petrus’ Jean-Claude Berrouet or Tom Gautier & Miha Trifa of L’Absurde Genie des Fleurs. There are limits when you want to craft a pét-nat of bled rosé juice from big Bordelaise fruit, or you want to ferment and age a pressed Merlot in a handful of demijohn. To boot, he still wraps each bottle in tissue paper himself. There really does feel to be the sculptor’s aspect within the wines — crafted, which isn’t to say interventionist: these are staunchly zero/zero wines. They are crafted in the manner of the artist: the work lives within itself, its own time, over there, humming the other side of the glass.”

For your consideration: four domestic producers to celebrate with this July 4th 🎇

Moonland () is a new sustainably-minded project from Jason Charles of , focused on exceptional canned wines sourced from Northern California — pictured are the Sparkling Rosé, Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir, and Skin-Contact cans.
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Sol Y Mar is part of the juicy, thirst-quenching collaboration between fermentation masters .la and wine educator — fresh, low ABV bubbles for beach 🥂
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*The* skin contact sipper for all your hotdog and hamburger pairings today. Crunchy stone fruit, mouthwatering acidity, & a saline streak on this beautiful blend from Willamette Valley via .
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We 🧡 Linus! Part of our collaboration with Chris Christensen of , this orange wine is a blend of Viognier and Sauvignon Blanc from Northern California — aromatic, easy drinking, and ready for the backyard BBQ.
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J&F Travels 📍Styria, Austria

Schmecke das Leben (“Taste Life”) is a group of five growers who have pioneered low-intervention winemaking in Styria — the longtime friends share a similar outlook on winemaking that we’re proud to represent in the states.

After visiting Strohmeier and the Musters, we finished our Styria trip with visits to two more members of the group — their equally storied peers, Roland Tauss and Andreas Tscheppe.

To work off all the schnitzel we’d been eating, we hiked up Hohenegg, Tauss’ hillside Opok vineyard, which he took over in 1991 and has been farming biodynamically since 2005.

A highlight of his cellar tour — beyond barrel tasting — was seeing how he stamps his barrels to keep track of how many times they’ve been used.

Next, a scenic walk through Tscheppe’s terraced vineyards drove home the significance of his labels, which feature dragonflies, salamanders, beetles, and other creatures that populate his wonderfully biodiverse vineyards.

His expertise and dedication to natural winemaking is evident in his pristine cellar, where he rarely intervenes — rather, he lets nature work her magic, even setting up a pipeline to the neighboring forest to bring in fresh air as the wines rest in barrel for 18 months or more. The results are superb. These bottles are hard to come by, so don’t hesitate if you come across one.

Meet the winemaker! Andy Young of and is coming to New York this week 🍷 The former New Orleans rock drummer has been making low-intervention wine in the Willamette Valley since 2012, earning quite a cult following for his signature Pinot Noir Carbonic Maceration.

Catch him in NYC and upstate this weekend & next week for tastings, BTG takeovers, and a dinner in ’s enchanted forest 🍃✨

Sat, 6/22 - pour takeover at (catskills), 1-4pm

Sun, 6/23 - talk, tasting & In the Wild dinner at , 5pm

Weds, 6/26 - tasting at , 7-8pm

Thurs, 6/27 - pour takeover at , 6pm

J&F Travels: 📍Styria, Austria, Maria & Sepp Muster

Maria & Sepp Muster began farming biodynamically almost immediately after taking over Sepp’s father’s vineyards in 2000.

The estate’s history dates back to 1727, and the pair live with their son Elias (now a budding winemaker in his own right, .muster) in a meticulously restored 300-year-old farmhouse perched atop their vineyards.

To walk through their steep vines — mostly planted to Opok soil, a mix of rocky clay and silt with chalky marl — and minimalist cellar gives you a new appreciation for their highly sought after wines, which are made with ample precision and patience, and without fining, filtration, or added sulfur.

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Meet the winemaker! Next week, Jarad Hadi of and his wife Giulia, who handpaints their labels, will be in New York to share their wines with us. Born and raised in the Willamette Valley, Jarad is a poet and winemaker — something that’s clear from the first sip of his vivacious, emotive wines. These are quite hard to come by, as they’re made in very small quantities (less than 1000 cases per year), so don’t miss your chance to taste them with the winemaker himself.

Tuesday, 6/11: from 5 to 8

Wednesday, 6/12: from 5 til late

Thursday, 6/13: from 5:30 to 7:30

For a taste of Jarad’s true artistry, check out this beautiful recent profile from for — and come taste his wines with him next week! erwineshop.com/here-and-now/grape-ink-on-the-edge

Great wine comes in many forms — from the bottle, from the tank, from the box 😉 Ecstatic to see some of our favorites highlighted in & — perfect for summer sipping on the beach, in the park, or on your front stoop.

Where’s Linus is a longstanding collaboration with California-based Bodkin Wines (), and From the Tank is the boxed wine that frankly may have started it all (!), a Mediterranean marvel that we’ve been working on with Domaine de La Patience () since 2010. Boxíe is a skin contact dream from California-based Field Recordings ()🍊.

DM us for where to find them near you!

Excited to share some wonderful recent press! Our founder, Jenny Lefcourt (.lefcourt) was highlighted in a fantastic article laying bare the new USDA laws around organic labeling for by the brilliant . Amidst the frustration and confusion surrounding these new regulations, it’s encouraging to see all of our efforts and producers being celebrated 🍷

Florèz Wines () are such a pure and precise expression of the Santa Cruz Mountains, where winemaker James Jelks crafts no- and low-intervention wines from historic local grape varieties.

Don’t miss your chance to meet him and taste his wines this week in NYC! Come by tonight (5/9) for a pour takeover, or tomorrow at .

LA friends, we’ll see you today at for our J&F Portfolio Tasting 🍷 Come say hi and meet some of our wonderful producers, including , , & .

11am to 3:30pm, see you there!

And come meet us at .la tonight for the after party 🍾

California friends, mark your calendars — Jenny & Francois Selections is hosting our first-ever LA tasting since opening our California office! 

We’ll have some legendary winemakers with us who are true pioneers in the world of natural wine, from the West Coast to Austria and beyond, including Christian Tschida, Joe Swick, and Jason Charles of Vinca Minor. 

We’ll be pouring their wonderful wines and a wide selection of bottles from our portfolio at Melody LA () on Monday, May 6th from 11am-3:30pm PST— please RSVP with your rep, we’d love to see you there!

A big week for J&F in the press — we’re in !

Grateful for the spotlight on J&F and our co-founder .lefcourt as one of the featured importers with “impeccable taste” that suggests seeking out “for some of the best low-intervention wines around.” We’re honored!

Also love to see Les Vignerons d’Estézargues highlighted as a flourishing natural wine co-op that’s crafting “the perfect hamburger wine” 🍔 (It’s their 2021 Côtes du Rhône Rouge, and we couldn’t agree more).

Thank you to
for including us!

Love to see shining a light on Austrian reds — their versatility and vibrancy make these year-round staples on our table. They can be juicy and bright, or contemplative and age-worthy — there’s much to discover, and Asimov suggested two excellent places to begin:

🍷 Koppitsch Weinland Ret (Zweigelt & Sankt Laurent)

❤️ Christian Tschida Österreich Kapitel I (Cabernet Franc)

DM us for where to find them near you!

Chicago showed out yesterday! The 6th annual was such a delight — thank you to all our fantastic producers for making the trip, to our friends , & to everyone who came for your wonderful energy and enthusiasm for these wines!

It was hard to top the tasting, but sharing pizzas (and more wine, bien sûr) around a table with , .magali & was a pretty perfect way to finish off day.

Our portfolio tasting is only a week away 😍 and our winemakers can’t wait to meet and chat with you all! You can hang with them all week at some of our favorite spots around NYC, Brooklyn, and upstate, from .la at to .binner taking over . See you there 🍷

Nature’s wine fridge ❄️🍷 A snowy long weekend means infinite possibilities — like cozying up with a bottle of Austrian winemaker Matthias Warnung’s Why So Serious - The Red Bottle. It’s a light-bodied, ruby-red Blauer Portugieser — best served with a chill.

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Our spring Jenny & Francois Portfolio Tasting is a month away! Last year’s was an absolute delight, and we can’t wait to share more of our favorite bottles with you. 🍷

Industry only — please RSVP with your rep. Hope to see you there!

Where: Rule of Thirds
When: Tuesday, 3/12, 11am-4pm
Producers on site: Domaine Christian Binner, Orsola, Domaine des 2 Ânes, Chemins de Bassac, Mae Son, Celler 9+, Wild Arc Farm, Thibault & Dimitri Ducroux, Wonderwerk

We’ve made it to France! 🇫🇷 It’s going to be a whirlwind week of wine fairs, starting today as we drive down to Montpellier before making our way back to Paris and on to the Loire Valley next week. Dozens of our producers will be pouring their wines, and we’re so excited for you to taste with them — here’s a little cheat sheet we made so you can come say hi! 👋

🍊 Azimut Brizat Orange

Bright and easy going, this skin contact wine tastes like a summer sunset in Spain: sun-warmed skin, tropical colors streaking the sky, and the salty lick of the sea at your feet — essentially, everything we’re dreaming of on chilly winter days ❄️

Part of the Suriol family’s playful, easy-going Azimut line (), this bottle is a blend of Parellada, Sumoll Blanc, Garnatxa Blanca, and Moscatell sourced from certified organic farmers that the Suriol family work with around Penedés.

DM us for where to find it near you! 🧡

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We love our little wine world!! We were lucky to kick off this year by spending some time
with our amazing partners in Florida () and in Charleston, South Carolina ().

THANK YOU to everyone for taking the time to meet & taste with us. It was amazing to meet everyone and see the passion and hardwork they’re doing to grow and nourish this community. We are so grateful to work with you all and are looking forward to all that’s to come!

If you are in Florida or Charleston, SC make sure to check out & support the below places — we cannot say enough good things about every place we visited and every person we met with. 

Florida:










Charleston:









And honorable mention to a spectacular meal in Savannah, GA at , plus after dinner drinks at  🍷 Thank you all for your hospitality & good vibes!

BTS: the life of a wine rep!

Introducing the newest member of our team:
! Bryan joined us in November as our sales rep for Northern California, where he’s passionately helping to expand the J&F presence on the West Coast. His wine journey began 13 years ago, when he moved from Alabama to California’s wine country 🍇 After years working in tasting rooms and as a sommelier in restaurants, he found himself increasingly drawn to natural wine — SF pals, we hope you get the chance to meet him! He’s looking forward to helping you discover your new favorite bottles 🍷

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Chilled reds are here to stay, and Bob is one of our longtime favorites. Named after pioneering winemaker Zsolt Sütó’s donkey, the wine is juicy and joyful, with a slight fizz that proves endlessly drinkable.

Zsolt’s zero-zero winery is located in Strekov, a village straddling the Hungarian-Slovakian border. It’s a majestic place to visit if you get the chance, with a rustic outdoor tasting room looking over the vineyards and the Danube (see photo 2!)

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Our first sip of was one of those moments that’s lodged in our brain. It’s rare to come by wines of such sapidity and balance, particularly with zero-zero cuvées. Hungarian winemakers Annamária and Attila — a vibrant couple whose energy is reflected in their wines — first worked under natural wine icons including Gut Oggau, Heinrich, Michael Gindl, and more, before turning to their own project in 2021.

On a recent visit to this week, we were delighted to share two of their wines with friends 🍷

Optimum Acidum: Furmint, Olaszrizling, Chardonnay — crunchy & bright, with fine bubbles & a zippy, vibrant acidity.

Controlled Chaos: Pinot Noir, Furmint, Cabernet Sauvignon, and a touch of unknown local varieties. Juicy, tart red fruits and gone too soon!

We are deeply passionate about the producers we work with, and love to see when their wines resonate as deeply with all of you!

has highlighted some of our favorites in their roundup of the Best Red Wines of 2024, describing .lardy’s Gourde à Gamay as a “great example of how playful this variety can be.” There’s plenty to say about Hervé Souhaut’s Syrah, but “UGH this wine is good” sums it up nicely 😊.

There’s so much to discover in these two bottles — DM us for where to find them near you 🍷

Who else is hunkering down with a bottle of Hervé Souhaut this week 🍷? We’re reaching for his Sainte Epine, a marvel of red cherries and freshly ground black pepper with baking spices.

Hervé created Domaine Romaneaux-Destezet in 1993. He thoughtfully farms acres of vines aged 50 to 100 years old,
producing some of the most delicate and beautifully finessed wines in the Rhône Valley. Through techniques like whole-bunch, semi-carbonic fermentation, he crafts wines that are lighter and more youthful in style — a jubilant yet balanced expression of the terroir.

We’re proud to note that his Syrah was also voted the Best Wine of 2023 by !

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This year, we were delighted to welcome two brilliant Italian producers into our book: Domini del Leone, and Mae Son by Matteo Furlani 🍷

Domini del Leone is a fourth generation family-run winery based in Veneto. Decades before converting to biodynamics in 2015, the winery was among the first in Italy to certify their estate organic, back in 1974. The vineyards skirt the Lagoon of Venice, whose seaside influence lends crisp minerality to the vibrant, aperitivo-friendly wines.

Mae Son is a new project from winemaker Matteo Furlani, in collaboration with export manager .coronato and Jenny and François Selections. Matteo focuses on expressing local grapes, such as Pavana and Negrara, as well as well-known varietals like Muller Thurgau. The vineyards are all practicing organic & biodynamic, and the fresh, playful wines are fantastically floral and transportive.

Looking for a juicy, chillable red to kick back with this week? ’s got the right idea with a bottle of Cousin Oscar from . Cinsault & Pinot Noir come together in a crunchy, vibrant red-fruited blend 🍓🍒🍎.

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Partners in wine 🍷 Our founder and CEO, .lefcourt, first formed a close friendship with one of the Loire Valley’s star natural winemakers, Olivier Cousin of Domaine Cousins-Leduc, over 20 years ago. In the decades since, the (bio)dynamic duo have become integral forces in America’s natural wine boom.

Read more about how Jenny and Olivier have shaped the way we drink and talk about natural wine over on .wine Wavemakers column!

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Step aside, Champagne — this year, we’ll be popping Austrian bubbles at all of our holiday gatherings. Juicy, electrifying and unexpected, they’re a delightful way to kick off a celebration 🥂

⚡️Strohmeier, Schilcher Frizzante: made from Blauer Wildbacher, zips with addictive acidity and fresh fruit flavors.
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🌹Tauss, Rosé Sekt Brut Natur: made from Blaufränkish, smacks of bright red berries and peppered roses.
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🧡Schrammel 2.0, Color Orange: made from Grüner Veltliner (pomace & young wine), a lighthearted dance of citrus and spice.
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