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Agent Noir
Chief Wine Buyer
“Can read a wine list like a classified dossier.”
Agent Noir is on his 3rd decade in the wine business. He was born and raised in Istanbul, where wine too was likely born. It’s clearly in his ancestral DNA, since the obsession defines his life. Most of his career is focused on retail buying, with adventures in fine & rare auctions, journalism, judging, fundraising, and consulting, for collectors and hospitality businesses.
One of his passions in wine has been educating, which he attributes to an English teacher grandmother and a professor of the piano mother. He’s held a WSET Diploma since 2006, a Bachelor’s in International Relations, and a Master’s in Food & Beverage Management.
Top Varietals
Chardonnay
Merlot
Nebbiolo
Top Regions
Burgundy
Napa Valley
Rhône Valley
Recent Picks
Elio Altare
2022 Langhe Nebbiolo
Antonio Galloni’s Vinous calls it “a fabulous entry-level wine from Altare” since his Barolos go for $200-300.
A baby Barolo we sold on my birthday for a song by a master with a cult following that I can no longer afford. — Agent Noir
Accessory
Accessories are non-wine products which can be added & shipped with your Locker. Accessories do not count against the 12-bottle Locker limit and will ship for free if the Locker is full!
Beekeeper Cellars
2016 Montecillo Vineyard Sonoma Valley Zinfandel
This must come from where no Zin’s been before and bound to take you there. Could this be Zen AND Zin in one?
There had never been a better deal on Zin before, my first red grape love back in the 1990s, nor shall there ever be again. — Agent Noir
Accessory
Accessories are non-wine products which can be added & shipped with your Locker. Accessories do not count against the 12-bottle Locker limit and will ship for free if the Locker is full!
Müller-Catoir
2020 Bürgergarten Erste Lage Pfalz Muskateller Trocken
By the time we all can pronounce Bürgergarten Erste Lage Pfalz Muskateller Trocken well, this will be long gone.
Muscat and I share a birthplace, Asia Minor, and to antiquity, for all the reasons wine is a business I;m in today, and this is one of the best dry examples I've ever had. — Agent Noir
Accessory
Accessories are non-wine products which can be added & shipped with your Locker. Accessories do not count against the 12-bottle Locker limit and will ship for free if the Locker is full!
Domaine Gérard Raphet
2018 Clos Vougeot Grand Cru
WE ARE NOT WORTHY! Inventors have da Vinci… Artists have Monet. …and Burgundy lovers? They have Raphet.
I live and die by Burgundy, and Raphet is the epitome of classic growers who make traditional gems, both instantly lovable and super age worthy, too. — Agent Noir
Accessory
Accessories are non-wine products which can be added & shipped with your Locker. Accessories do not count against the 12-bottle Locker limit and will ship for free if the Locker is full!
Champagne Charles Heidsieck
2004 'Blanc des Millénaires' Brut Blanc de Blancs
How about a South Pacific overwater bungalow getaway? Close as we can get in liquid form anyway…
Hard to pick a Champagne, our #1 home drinking category, really, but this had it all, I like them decadent, and this one defines that style for far less than Krug! — Agent Noir
Accessory
Accessories are non-wine products which can be added & shipped with your Locker. Accessories do not count against the 12-bottle Locker limit and will ship for free if the Locker is full!
Le Casematte
2015 Faro DOC
When an up-and-coming producer gets coined “a comet that burns bright in the skies above” by WA, we pay attention.
One of Italy's best-kept secrets is this top Etna doppelganger for a lot less, still drinking my small stash of these with joy. — Agent Noir
Accessory
Accessories are non-wine products which can be added & shipped with your Locker. Accessories do not count against the 12-bottle Locker limit and will ship for free if the Locker is full!
Sullivan
2015 Napa Valley Merlot
Agent Noir just won’t stop raving about that last bottle of 1984 Sullivan Merlot he popped just a few years back!
My first gig in California that I moved here for, and the varietal that originally put them on the map, examples from the 1980s still drinking great! — Agent Noir
Accessory
Accessories are non-wine products which can be added & shipped with your Locker. Accessories do not count against the 12-bottle Locker limit and will ship for free if the Locker is full!
Prieuré de Montézargues
2017 Rosé Tavel AOC
You’ll appreciate that this hails from the first and ONLY appellation in the world exclusively devoted to rosé.
Tavel! The ultimately rare, quintessential red wine lovers' rosé for $14? Any day! — Agent Noir
Accessory
Accessories are non-wine products which can be added & shipped with your Locker. Accessories do not count against the 12-bottle Locker limit and will ship for free if the Locker is full!
Domaine Georges Vernay
2017 'Les Chaillées de l'Enfer' Condrieu
54% OFF on a wine that just does not need it to sell out? Be proud, open your mind, and make room in your stash.
One of my favorite white wine producers on the planet and a definitive Viognier, impossible to resist! — Agent Noir
Accessory
Accessories are non-wine products which can be added & shipped with your Locker. Accessories do not count against the 12-bottle Locker limit and will ship for free if the Locker is full!
Joseph Swan Vineyards
2015 Ritchie Vineyard Russian River Valley Chardonnay
THE quintessential Russian River institution along with visionaries like Rochioli, Dehlinger, Williams Selyem.
California Chardonnay by an old school master from arguably one of the top vineyards for it. What's there not to fall in love with? — Agent Noir
Accessory
Accessories are non-wine products which can be added & shipped with your Locker. Accessories do not count against the 12-bottle Locker limit and will ship for free if the Locker is full!
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