I’m a fan of Molly Young’s lively New York Times newsletter “Read Like the Wind,” her guide to older, forgotten and just generally overlooked books. Her tone is personable, funny, smart and helpful. Her enthusiasm almost invariably sends me to the library, AbeBooks or a local used-book store in search of some obscure title. (I’m also a fan of Sacramento Public Library, but why is one of her recent recommendations, Dilys Winn’s “Murder Ink,” published in 1984, only now “in transit” to Sacramento?) Anyway, inspired by her eagerness to share her discoveries, I hope to share here occasionally my own enticing discoveries, but of wines more than books. Some of these wines may be as difficult to find as some of the books suggested by Molly Young, but for the most part I will keep accessibility as well as character, quality and value in mind when pulling together a roundup. I just need to come up with a name as catchy as “Read Like the Wind” for this series. Suggestions?

When Anne “Wine Angel” Vercelli orchestrates a soirée you can count on domestic wines not often found in California, given her affinity for releases from along the Atlantic Seaboard and in the Pacific Northwest. One of her recent treats was the Maggie Malick Wine Caves 2018 Virginia Loudoun County Dry Petit Manseng. The Virginia wine trade is high on Viognier as its signature white wine, but quietly waiting in the wings to challenge Viognier’s standing is Petit Manseng. Petit Manseng is a green grape grown principally in southwest France but also in Australia and isolated parts of the United States, including North Carolina, Arizona and Georgia, as well as Virginia. Very little is cultivated in California. Generally, Petit Manseng is made into a sweet wine, but dry versions can be rewarding in their delivery of clean and refreshing fruit on lean builds with sharp acidity. The Maggie Malick springs from that mold with suggestions of dried herbs and chalk dust floating on its tropical fruit, mostly pineapple. The 2018 is sold out; the available 2020 sells for $29 on the winery’s website. Incidentally, one of the many toques that Anne Vercelli wears as a longtime presence on the Sonoma County culinary scene is coordinator of the professional food competition at the Sonoma Harvest Fair. Sonoma County is celebrated for its local and seasonal cookery, and the Harvest Fair’s food competition draws dozens of caterers, restaurateurs and specialty-food producers eager to present proudly to a panel of judges all sorts of breads, ice creams, appetizers and the like. The results – available at the fair’s website, harvestfair.org – is a handy guide for food enthusiasts planning an outing in Sonoma County. Winners from this fall’s competition on my list include the “peanut butter pretzel” ice cream of Pilar Bernard in Petaluma (best-of-show ice cream), the French bread at Nightingale Breads of Forestville (best-of-show specialty bread), the cheesecake with mango and Pinot Grigio sauce by Sonoma Cake Creations of Santa Rosa (best-of-show cake or pastry), and the brandied pear tartlet with brandied caramel sauce at Society Bakery & Café in Sebastopol (best-of-show individual dessert).

For a casual gathering of viticulture and enology students of UC Davis recently, Axel Borg, the university’s “Distinguished Wine and Food Science Bibliographer Emeritus,” greeted guests with glasses of the Marimar Estate 2021 Russian River Valley Don Miguel Vineyard Godello ($42). Godello – pronounced go-day-o – is a green grape grown extensively in northwest Spain, where it yields a breezy white wine variously suggestive of grapefruit, orange, quince and peach. So little Godello is grown in California that state agriculture officials do not track its cultivation. That could change as the character of the Marimar Godello grabs attention, as it did at Axel Borg’s party. In a word, that character was refreshing. By the wine’s vitality, suggestions of sunny citric fruit and zesty acidity, it is not far removed in style from the Spanish model. Alas, Marimar makes so little of the wine that its distribution is limited to members of the winery’s wine club. According to the Marimar website, however, the wine still is available for anyone who signs up.

Sacramento grocer Darrell Corti’s contribution to the gathering, other than an immense and varied charcuterie platter, was the Corti Brothers 2017 Canzoniere Colli Euganei Riserva Cabernet Franc ($40). It is a medium-bodied interpretation of Cabernet Franc that while dry nonetheless is saturated with sweet cherry and berry flavor, floral aromatics, and intricately woven threads of acid, tannin and oak. A friend of Darrell Corti’s made the wine on his estate outside of Padova in Italy’s Veneto region. As to the wine’s name, Darrell Corti explains it in his store’s newsletter: “The name Canzoniere was selected…in keeping with the Petrarch motif of our label since the Canzoniere was…Petrarch’s poetry collected in one work. The Canzoniere is the model on which Renaissance lyric poetry is based. The town where the winery is located is called Arquà Petrarca, where the poet died in 1374. Petrarch is regarded as the father of Humanism.” Try the wine with Cheetos; everyone did.

My own contribution to the reception was the Terre Rouge 2013 Sierra Foothills Garrigue, a muscular blend of Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon. When the San Francisco Chronicle’s Esther Mobley chose the Garrigue as her “wine of the week” 18 months ago, I bought some, opened a bottle immediately and found the wine hefty, generous and pretty hard for a wine eight years old. Curious about how it had aged since then, I took a bottle to Axel’s. The wine is now much more approachable, elegant even. It is inviting in its floral aroma and luscious in its suggestions of dark fruits. An earthiness that evokes the hardness of slate more than the give of loam provides the wine’s staying power. It still is firm, but it is more cohesive and approachable now than it was a year and a half ago. Terre proprietor Bill Easton says the wine was inspired by wines along France’s Mediterranean coast, where vineyards are bordered by garrigue – scrubland of lavender, juniper, rosemary, thyme, oak and the like. Vineyards of the Sierra Foothills run up against similar brush, though more of manzanita, toyon, poison oak and pine. Here, that kind of landscape is called chaparral. Why not, then, call the wine “Chaparral?” Could be tribute, emulation or marketing. At any rate, the 2013 Garrigue is sold out, though the 2014 is available for $25. Savor it with the truffled pate from Corti Brothers.

Yes, it is costly to taste wine in Napa Valley. Costly to feelings as well as wallet, given the notorious Napa Valley “attitude” with which tasting-room personnel too often welcome guests, though “welcome” might not be the best word for their chilly and aloof greeting.

We ran into it a couple of times the other day, but we weren’t blameless. We had not made reservations, which is the standard nowadays when you taste in Napa Valley. The practice began with Covid-19 restrictions, and remains in place because vintners learned that guests who linger in a more calming atmosphere and get more personal attention buy more wine as they leave.

But happily, after being turned down at two wineries, even though one with immense space had very few customers – a shortage of staff, perhaps – we landed at Bouchaine Vineyards, where we did have a reservation.

By my notes, I hadn’t stopped by Bouchaine in nearly 30 years. Both the facilities and the wines have expanded, diversified and become more refined. Back then, Bouchaine was identified most closely with Pinot Noir. It still is, but its production nowadays also includes Chardonnay, Riesling, Pinot Gris and even underappreciated Pinot Meunier.

For gregariousness and warmth, the staff was marvelous, showing that the familiar aloof Napa Valley attitude is not necessarily as contagious as feared, or personnel are up to speed on their vaccinations. Marija Jovanovic, the “estate sommelier,” was our appointed guide, appearing tableside with one surprise after another, answering questions with precision and candor, and, because she is as enthusiastic about cheese as she is about wine, offering all kinds of tips on what cheese should accompany this and that wine. Oddly, however, no cheese or any other snack was included with the $75 per person charge.

Two of the three Pinot Noirs we tasted were fabulous, the Estate Calera Clone ($90) for its pinpoint expression of the variety’s charm and quiet authority, and the Gee Vineyard ($88) for its floral aroma, lavish berry fruit, and nuanced suggestions of herbs and earth.

The Hyde Vineyard Chardonnay ($70) should please anyone who looks for deep color, a floral scent, rich tropical fruit, notes of spice, and ample oak in the varietal. That was all there, packaged seamlessly.

The biggest surprise and best buy was the Las Brisas Vineyard Riesling ($30), forthright in its telltale aroma, abiding in its pointed citric fruit, silken in feel, and just a touch sweet, not enough to make it at all tiresome, thanks to its ticklish acidity.