The fine wine world has a tendency to canonise and then calcify. The same two dozen names circulate at auction, command the allocations, and absorb the attention. There is nothing wrong with DRC, Leroy, or Rayas—they are extraordinary for a reason. But the most interesting collectors we know are always looking at what comes next, not simply what has already arrived.
These are five winemakers whose work we believe deserves serious attention. Some are already on the radar of sommeliers and insiders; none have yet reached the prices their quality warrants. That will change.
1. Thomas Bouley — Domaine Thomas Bouley, Volnay
Thomas Bouley took over from his father Jean-Marc in 2015 and has quietly transformed this Volnay estate into one of Burgundy’s most exciting addresses. The shift was not dramatic—no manifestos, no Instagram presence—but the wines tell the story clearly. Whole-cluster fermentation has increased, extraction has decreased, and the resulting wines have a transparency and lift that place them alongside the best of Marquis d’Angerville and Lafarge.
The Volnay Premier Cru “Clos des Chênes” is the calling card—a wine of extraordinary precision that, at $60–80 on release, remains almost absurdly underpriced relative to its quality. The village-level Volnay is equally compelling and one of the best values in all of Burgundy. Production is small, and allocations are beginning to tighten. We would not wait.
2. Arianna Occhipinti — Azienda Agricola Occhipinti, Sicily
Arianna Occhipinti started making wine in Vittoria, in southeastern Sicily, when she was twenty-two. Two decades later, she has become arguably the most important figure in Italian natural wine—though she would resist the label. Her work with Nero d’Avola and Frappato on ancient bush vines in the Cerasuolo di Vittoria DOCG has produced wines of startling originality: savoury, mineral, and profoundly site-specific.
The SP68 Rosso, named after the provincial road that runs past her vineyards, is one of the great entry-point wines in the world—$20–25 for something that tastes like it belongs in a serious cellar. Her single-vineyard Grotte Alte, from a parcel of 60-year-old Nero d’Avola, is the bottle that commands attention: structured, complex, and ageworthy in a way that challenges every assumption about Sicilian wine. Current release prices around $45–55 will look like a historical footnote within five years.
3. Théo Dancer — Domaine Dancer, Chassagne-Montrachet
The Dancer family has held vineyards in Chassagne-Montrachet for generations, but it is Théo—who took the reins in 2019 at twenty-four—who has elevated the domaine from reliable to revelatory. Farming has shifted to organic and biodynamic practices, yields have been reduced, and the winemaking has moved toward a less interventionist approach: whole-bunch pressing for whites, longer élevage, and a judicious reduction in new oak.
The results are stunning. His Chassagne-Montrachet Premier Cru “La Romanée”—a white, confusingly for Burgundy—is taut, mineral, and built for decades. At $80–100, it stands alongside wines costing three times as much from neighbouring Puligny. The Meursault Premier Cru “Perrières” is, if anything, even more impressive—precise, energetic, and deeply serious. This is a domaine in the early stages of a trajectory that ends in the very top tier. Allocations will become difficult within two to three vintages.
4. Cristina Ferrando — Ferrando, Carema
Carema sits at the far northern edge of Piedmont, where Nebbiolo grows on steep, terraced vineyards supported by stone pillars and pergolas. It is one of Italy’s most hauntingly beautiful wine landscapes, and one of its most marginal. Cristina Ferrando is the fourth generation to farm here, and after studying winemaking in Alba and a stint at a domaine in Cornas, she returned home with a clarity of vision that has electrified this tiny appellation.
Her “Etichetta Bianca” (White Label) Carema is mountain Nebbiolo at its most ethereal: pale, perfumed, and laced with the mineral signature of alpine granite. It drinks beautifully young but, as older vintages from the estate prove, ages with extraordinary grace—developing the tar-and-roses complexity that makes Nebbiolo one of the world’s great grapes. At $35–50, this is, bottle for bottle, one of the most undervalued serious wines in Europe. The “Etichetta Nera” (Black Label), from the best parcels and given extended ageing, is a wine of genuine profundity—and at $60–80, a fraction of what comparable Barolo or Barbaresco commands.
5. Dylan Grigg — Domaene, Adelaide Hills
Australia’s fine wine conversation has long been dominated by Barossa Shiraz, and with good reason. But the most exciting developments in Australian wine are happening elsewhere—in cooler climates, with different grapes, and at a scale that resists commodification. Dylan Grigg’s project in the Adelaide Hills is a case study.
Working with tiny parcels of Syrah (not Shiraz—the distinction matters here), Pinot Noir, and Chardonnay, Grigg produces wines of remarkable restraint and site-expression. The whole-bunch Syrah from the Piccadilly Valley is savoury, peppery, and structured more like a Northern Rhône wine than anything typically associated with Australia. His Chardonnay, from vines planted in the 1980s at 500 metres elevation, has the tension and precision of good Meursault.
Production is measured in hundreds of cases. Prices remain in the $30–60 range—a reflection of a market that hasn’t yet caught up to the quality. For collectors willing to look beyond the established regions, this is the kind of discovery that makes cellar-building genuinely exciting.
A note on timing
The window for acquiring wines from emerging producers at reasonable prices is, by nature, brief. The mechanism is always the same: a handful of sommeliers and critics notice, word spreads among collectors, allocations tighten, prices adjust, and what was once accessible becomes scarce. We have seen this cycle play out dozens of times—with producers like Coche-Dury in the 1990s, Raveneau in the 2000s, and Roulot and Bizot in the 2010s.
The five names above are, in our view, at the early stage of that curve. We are actively sourcing from all of them. If any are of interest, the time to act is now.