Rules are made to be bent a little, right…? And when it comes to great friends and even better wine, well, we’re fully prepared to break them. This month sees a first for Biondivino – the auspicious inclusion of a Californian interpretation of an Italian staple. Thomas Debiase is a long-time friend of Biondivino, a voracious pupil of all things Italian wine, and the Director of Operations at Sam Bilbro’s Idlewild Wines in Mendocino by day – a winery that has cemented itself as likely the greatest champion of Italian varieties in our fair golden state. Having spent almost a decade making wine for others, and lured by the gravitational pull of his daily proximity to Italian grapes (not to mention a borderline sociopathic passion for Sangiovese), Thomas was spurred to mint a project of his very own – Jupiter Wine Co. – with 2020 marking his inaugural vintage. This endeavor is still so fresh that these wines are yet to even be released to the public (he’s still working on a website!) but boy are we proud to be the first to get them in your hands. Our little Thomas is all grown up!
Thomas’s inaugural release of his ‘Vibration’ is an absolute killer! Hailing from Fox Hill Vineyard, a site that has now become synonymous in the Californian wine community with the propagation and celebration of Italian varieties, the maiden voyage of ‘Vibrations’ packs everything one could want out of an ‘everynight’ bottle of Sangiovese and then some. Thomas has long been inspired by the ethereal wines of Giovanna Morganti’s ‘Le Boncie’ estate and the parallels in stylistic approach seem clear: oodles of snappy/crunchy red and black cherry fruit, verve-y and lifted purple flowers, the sweetness of freshly manure-fertilized earth, raw Nduja, and a welcome upper register of volatility the strolls pleasantly across