"I’m sitting here in Chicago. It’s 7 o’clock at night and it’s 92 degrees. I’m cooking dinner for my kids and the little A/C unit is too small to compete with the pork I’m braising and too loud for me to think, so I turn it off, open the windows, and just let the heat engulf me. Why did I braise pork? That was stupid. I just focus on the cool juice leaking out of the bloody tomatoes and the green turgidity of the cilantro bunch that I’m maliciously chopping into nothingness.

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Francisco has decided that he wants an egg. Truth is that the pork is not going to be done until 8:30 and with all the prep and Lupita’s leisurely bottle, it probably makes sense for me to just treat the pork like five-star leftovers, serve him an egg with a wedge of cheddar, give him a bath, and call it a night.

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“You want an egg?”

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“Ya, oggy dada.”

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“Ok. I’ll cook you an oggy.” At least it’s a really expensive egg from some farm.

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I open the fridge to get the egg and there, down by the mustard and the coconut water, is this bottle of red wine, shrouded in a crescendo of fog that has bloomed from the violent clash of domestic climates. I actually try to swipe the fog away with a backhanded motion. I feel like Frodo Baggins, or maybe even Hamlet. I bend down close to look at this thing I forgot existed, grab the neck, and twist it around. It clanks against the other bottles, remnants of other hot nights, living out their days in cool lassitude. Sweat beads on the bottle like a hundred spider eyes.

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It’s Nicolas Vauthier. A Pinot Noir from Northern Burgundy. It takes over my life. I fumble for a corkscrew and tear the bottle open, pour it into the closest vessel and gulp it with a melodrama that doesn’t make me feel self-conscious one damn bit.

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I cook the egg without breaking the yolk. Give Lupita her bottle. Put the kids in bed. Take out the pork and eat it until pleasure has become entirely divorced from necessity."

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Before he started making wine, Nicolas Vauthier (commonly known as “Kikro”) was one of the most important cavistes in France, acting as the buyer for Aux Crieurs de Vins, a legendary wine bar on the outskirts of Champagne. About a decade ago, he sold his share in that business and started Vini Viti Vinci, a negotiant project based in the less exulted regions of Northern Burgundy, including Chitry, Epineuil, and Irancy. His experience as a buyer has given him a keen eye for quality despite the lack of conventional credentials. The result is a set of wines from unknown vineyards that deliver lots of personality and complexity without a hefty price tag.​

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- Ordinaire Wine