There are a select few wineries in the world whose wines are always great, but sometimes rise to another level entirely. We’ve run out of adjectives to describe our love of Domaine Castera’s Jurançon Sec. Franck Lihour took over making his family’s wine after working at wineries all over the world, but it was while working at a wine shop in nearby Pau that he honed his palate towards the energetic style he’s now famous for. Great dry Jurançon has a spiritual kinship with Chenin Blanc: both wines offer tension between weight and energy, with aromas and flavors that seem to clamor over each other brash and loud but never able to drown out the rest. Petit and Gros Manseng are not related, but they work together perfectly, offering here aromas of apple sauce, acacia, preserved lemon, honeycomb, oregano, flint and fresh baked cornbread, before flavors of apples, pears, and baking spices that hit the palate like fireworks. Rich and creamy yet buzzing with acidity, the Castera leaves behind a gentle lilt of pears, apples and baking spice. This is a wine for a range of powerfully flavored foods, but duck is the iconic pair.