September Wine Club

September is always a little bittersweet around here. We’re still holding onto summer, but there’s a definite shift happening — cooler evenings, longer dinners, and the first little hints of fall. So this month’s lineup is all about that transition: juicy reds that can handle a slight chill, mineral-driven whites, and a bottle of bubbles for good measure.

Bora Tier

Modales Gamay Noir 2024

Michigan Gamay! Yes, really. And this is exactly the kind of wine we love finding for Wine Club.

Modales is a family-run winery in Fennville, Michigan, making cool-climate wines that challenge the idea of what Michigan wine can be. Their 2024 Gamay is the first Gamay Noir they’ve ever produced, sourced from Kroupa Farms on Old Mission Peninsula, a sixth-generation family farm with more than a century of history on the peninsula.

Gamay is one of those grapes that can be both incredibly playful and surprisingly serious. Modales leans into both sides here. A portion of the grapes underwent carbonic maceration to bring out bright fruit and freshness, while the rest fermented as whole berries for a little more texture and depth. The wine then spent seven months in neutral French oak.

The result is full of fresh cherry and raspberry, with soft tannins, a little earthiness, and a juicy, easygoing finish. It has enough structure to feel like a proper red but is light enough to pop in the fridge for a bit.

This is the kind of bottle we want with burgers, mushroom pizza, roast chicken, tacos, or basically anything that involves sitting outside as the sun goes down.

Klet Krasno Ula 2024

We couldn’t resist this one. First, the name. Second, the dog on the label. Third, the wine is really, really good.

Rebula Ula comes from Klet Brda in Slovenia’s Goriška Brda, a beautiful wine-growing region tucked between the Alps and the Adriatic. The wine is made from 100% Rebula, Slovenia’s signature white grape, grown in the region’s distinctive marl and sandstone soils.

But Ula is more than just a cute label. She’s a blind Boston terrier who became the beloved mascot of Klet Brda. The wine was created in her honor, and the winery uses her story to celebrate resilience, curiosity, and the joy of navigating the world in your own way.

The wine itself is fresh, mineral-driven, and wonderfully uncomplicated. Think pear, white fruit, a little banana and delicate acacia, followed by a bright, saline mineral finish. The 2024 vintage even picked up a silver medal at the 2025 Vino Slovenija competition.

This is an ideal end-of-summer white: crisp enough for hot days but with enough texture to move comfortably into fall. Pour it with seafood, grilled fish, charcuterie, roast vegetables, or a big plate of snacks.

Le Mistral Tier

Frédéric Cossard Bigotes Bourgogne Blanc 2023

Now we’re getting into serious Burgundy territory.

Frédéric Cossard is one of those producers whose wines have become cult favorites among people who love expressive, low-intervention Burgundy. Cossard originally worked as a courtier, essentially traveling throughout Burgundy and developing relationships with growers before eventually establishing his own négociant project.

Bigotes is made from Chardonnay sourced primarily from vineyards around Puligny-Montrachet, Volnay, and Pommard. The 2023 vintage comes from roughly 40-year-old vines planted in clay and limestone soils.

What makes this bottle especially interesting is the texture. Cossard uses an egg-shaped cement tank for the wine, allowing the Chardonnay to develop without the overt influence of new oak. The result is incredibly pure and energetic, with lemon, yellow apple, white peach, chalky mineral, and a subtle saline quality.

It’s a beautiful reminder that Bourgogne Blanc doesn’t have to mean heavy, buttery Chardonnay. This is bright, elegant, mineral-driven, and quietly complex.

Drink this with roast chicken, oysters, buttery fish, mushrooms, soft cheeses, or a dinner where you want the wine to be the main character.

Division Wine Co. Cinq Pinot Noir 2023

We love a Willamette Valley Pinot, especially when it comes from a producer who knows how to keep things fresh and energetic.

Division Wine Co. was founded in Portland in 2010 by Kate Norris and Thomas Monroe. Their inspiration comes from classic regions like Beaujolais, Burgundy, the Loire, and the Northern Rhône, but their wines are firmly rooted in the Pacific Northwest.

Cinq comes from the Armstrong Vineyard in Ribbon Ridge, one of the smaller sub-AVAs within the Willamette Valley. This is classic Oregon Pinot Noir: red-fruited, earthy, elegant, and full of that cool-climate freshness we love.

The 2023 vintage was particularly beautiful in the Willamette Valley, with a growing season that stayed relatively close to historical norms. Division fermented their Pinot with native yeast and used a combination of whole-cluster and destemmed fruit, then aged the wine in French oak before giving it additional time in concrete.

In the glass, look for ripe strawberry, cherry, forest floor, and savory mineral notes. It has the elegance of Pinot without becoming precious about it.

This is your roast chicken wine, your mushroom wine, your pizza wine, your “I made a really nice dinner on a Tuesday” wine. Basically, it’s going to make itself at home at your table.

Testalonga “I Am the Ninja” Chenin Blanc

And finally, because every Wine Club needs at least one bottle that makes you say, “Wait, what IS this?!”

“I Am the Ninja” is a pét-nat from Craig and Carla Hawkins of Testalonga in South Africa’s Swartland. The wine is 100% Chenin Blanc from old vines growing on sandstone on the Piketberg Mountain.

Craig and Carla love méthode ancestrale wines and wanted this one to be a drier expression of Chenin. The wine begins fermentation in stainless steel before being bottled under crown cap to finish fermentation and create its natural bubbles. It then spends months in bottle before being riddled and disgorged. No added SO₂, no fining, no settling agents.

And the result? Bright, zippy, slightly wild, and incredibly fun.

Think lemon, pear, green apple, fresh herbs, lively bubbles, and just a tiny bit of residual sugar balanced by all that Chenin acidity. It finishes dry and refreshing, with enough texture to keep you coming back for another sip.

Also: the label is a photograph of a dog named Layla, which feels extremely appropriate for a wine called “I Am the Ninja.”

Serve this very cold alongside oysters, fried seafood, salty snacks, tinned fish, fried chicken, or absolutely nothing at all.

Cheers to September! We hope these bottles help you ease gracefully from summer into fall — preferably with good food, good friends, and a little dog on the label.