Because we like to bring you wines before the rest of the world discovers them, we managed to score a few bottles of this Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah blend from Provence that has cult status in Europe but is almost unknown here. If you like serious Bordeaux, Super-Tuscans or California Cabs, you will love this rich and complex red. And we love their backstory: In the mid 20th century, French textile artist Jacqueline de la Baume Dürrbach was commissioned by Nelson Rockefeller to create a tapestry of Picasso's Guernica. She and her husband René, a sculptor and painter (who was close friends with cubist movement founders Fernand Léger and Pablo Picasso) used the money from the tapestry sale to purchase an estate at the foot of Provence's jagged, toothy peaks of the Alpilles mountain range. Tucked at the base of its rock walls, Domaine de Trévallon is at once the darling of Les Baux de Provence and also its black sheep. There is no person that has done more to elevate the quality and prestige of the wines around Les Baux than Eloi Dürrbach, son of Jacqueline and René, who began planting vines in the three valleys (where the estate gets its name) in 1973. Eloi and his father had studied the old texts of the famous 19th-century viticulturalist, Doctor Guyot, who claimed that much of their area had been planted to Cabernet Sauvignon before the arrival of phylloxera. Intent on respecting the terroir, they divided their red grape holdings equally among Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah, both planted on north-facing slopes to strategically minimize over-sunning. Both varieties thrive in the deep chalky soils, and the 50/50 blend turned out to be the perfect balance between the wild qualities of the Mediterranean basin and the structure of a more northerly climate. Eloi blasted the first vineyards out of the mountain himself. Over time and after subsequent planting, the estate is now divided between 15 hectares of reds and 2 hectares of whites. 95 Vinous