Jeff Patten co-founded Flatiron Wines & Spirits and remains a partner in both the New York and San Francisco shops. His life in wine began well before Flatiron: for years he owned and ran specialty shops in Brooklyn, among them Uva Wines in Williamsburg — an early, stubborn champion of natural wines and wines of terroir long before either was fashionable.

Across more than 30 years he has traveled to over 20 wine regions, tasting beside the growers, importers, and fellow obsessives who shaped his palate. He calls himself a generalist, but his roots run deepest in Piedmont, the Northern Rhône, and Burgundy — the three regions he returns to, vintage after vintage.

That restlessness is the point. A familiar Barbaresco one night, an Oregon Chardonnay the next, a sparkler from Croatia later in the week: Jeff calls it wine adventuring, and it runs through everything he publishes here.