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Naranjuez Prisa Mata 2014 $25
Bauchet Plan B 2021 $27
Gazzetta Rosso Susanna 2021 $27
La Despeinada El Ciego 2021 $29
La Despeinada Claviento 2021 $29
Mendall La Plana 5 2021 $29
Damien Bureau Amandine 2016 $30
Guichard Bouchat 2020 $32
Michael Georget Syrah 2019 $33
Emile Heredia Le Verre des Poetes 2021 $35
Sistema Vinari Novetat Total 2021 1L $36
Gemini Leda 2019 $38
Renaud Boyer Bourgogne Blanc 2020 $39
Le Thio Noots Red Cox Knock 2021 $40
Le Thio Noots Carre d’Astres 2021 $40
Julien Altaber En Chapon 2019 $40
Julie Brosselin La Mer Rouge 2019 $41
L’Ostal Levant Un Coeur Simple 2021 $42
J-F Ginglinger BIHL 2020 $42
Michael Georget C’est Tout 2020 $50
Philippe Jambon Blanc 15/18 $59
Altura Saverio 2017 $66

Canta is a private client service supplying
mostly to the east side of Los Angeles, and
delivering for free each week on Wednesday,
Thursday, and Friday with a $100 minimum
order. We only buy and sell wines from growers
and producers that we ourselves drink.
We are now shipping within California with
a six bottle minimum—choose ‘California
Shipping’ at checkout or write us to build
an order! If you’d like to browse our selections
in person, please make an appointment via
the email link below.

YOU MUST BE 21+ TO PURCHASE WINE

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Mark

Stagiaire

Brent Mayeaux
(Bay Area, California)




I get the sense that Brent Mayeaux is never satisfied with his wines. He tends to use hyperbole about them online, but then in person, plays the humility card and speaks about everything that went wrong during harvest. Like many winemakers that I speak to, he’s told me that he doesn’t know what to do with himself after harvest—the prior year of preparation has either gone well or didn’t or lands somewhere in between, and then all one can do is periodically check in with the resulting resting juice, and try to live some semblance of a “normal” life. It’s hard to plan in making wine, and especially in California; one learns from their mistakes of the previous year and then goes head first into a whole new set of problems when the next vintage rolls around. Repeat ad infinitum.

It’s been a few years now that I’ve been following Brent closely, and I feel that we’ve formed a friendly bond towards each other that leads to vulnerability on both sides. I’ve witnessed Brent go from bright-eyed startup to becoming a sort of weary poster child of the new guard of California natural winemaking—say what you will but this was, to me, completely evident at the recent Open Door tasting that Kae Whalen and Sam Zimman’s Gay Wine project presented in DTLA, gathering a cadre of young California vignerons who all work sans distribution channels and have produced less than five vintages. While there were many beautiful bottles being opened that afternoon, I felt that no lineup poured as consistently strong as Stagiaire’s.

Having spent time working in key regions such as the Auvergne and the Jura of France, as well as hours clocked in the Adelaide Hills, Australia, and now after multiple California vintages, Brent’s Stagiaire project is really beginning to take on a voice of its own. I find that Mayeaux is reticent to admit to liking “wild” wines, but then when we hang out, these kinds of bottles are mostly what gets drank, and while I wouldn’t necessarily say that the Stagiaire juice is wild, I do feel a sense of letting go in each successive vintage; a feeling of non-attachment and confidence in the wines that belie their cartoonish and pun-laden labels and whatever ills may have gone down during harvest. Even the turn away from clear glass marks a more grownup feel to me. These are superbly elegant wines for people who like to think a little at the table, and enjoy open conversation with friends. 



Sapphire, Samphire, & Saturn Returns 2020
Sauvignon Blanc maceration
$39

An elegant and balanced maceration of Mendocino County Sauvignon Blanc with a touch of reduction and an incredibly pleasing mineral component. It tastes fantastic now but will also be a treasure in the cellar come a few years.





Scales and Arpeggios 2020
Sangiovese (direct press)
$39

A rose gold rosé that tastes like still Champagne, made from Sangiovese picked in the Santa Cruz mountains