August 2026 Wine Club

Click above to enjoy August’s playlist

August is hot, sweaty, and (if we are thinking positively) sultry. These dog days remind me of late summer on the Euphrates when I used to work at a site called Hacinebi Tepe in Birecik, Turkey. I cannot even describe being in 44 C heat with high humidity. We would drive to the nearby city of Urfa with the windows down, and the sensation of the hot air blowing in was not unlike putting one’s face in an oven. Working in Syria introduced me to summertime in the desert. What is it like? Hot, sweaty, and (if we are still thinking positively) sultry. In that heat, lounging becomes an activity. The “act” of lounging makes me think of depictions of desert Queens of antiquity: Zenobia, Bathsheba, Cleopatra. Of course these famous powers did more than just lounge and look sultry – but they would be forgiven for doing so in August.

Anyway, this is a roundabout way of saying that our August theme is “Queens”!

Now, I do love the Queens of the Desert – and we’ll touch more on that later – but I also have an affinity for Queens of any landform. So, our Wine Club wines feature another love of mine: alliteration. We have wines from Romania and the Maremma in honor, respectively, of Queens Tomyris and Tanaquil, both of whom reigned in the 6th century BCE.

Tomyris was a Queen of the Massagetae. They inhabited an area east of the Caspian Sea – probably modern Kazakhstan. This was on the eastern edges of the Scythian empire – of which the Massagetae were part, whose westward expansion by the 3rd century BC followed the northern steppes into Romania, and even Hungary. Scythians, in general, were horse-riding nomads who raised livestock. They were relatively egalitarian between the sexes, and had female rulers and warriors. 

Queen Tomyris undoubtedly held a rich and eventful life among the Massagetae, but our knowledge of her is basically limited to that which was written by the Greek historian, Herodotus. Herodotus wrote his “histories” in the 5th century (a century after Tomyris’ reign), as an exploration of the rise of the Acheamenid Empire in the 6th century and the succeeding Greco-Persian wars of the 5th century. So, he focuses quite a bit on the exploits of Cyrus the Great, founder of the Acheamenid Empire. It is regarding Cyrus the Great that we learn about Tomyris; she killed him. Now, Herodotus was not alive when Tomyris ruled and Cyrus died, so his knowledge of these events would only have been speculation or second-hand (or even apocryphal) accounts. Regardless, the story goes that Cyrus the Great made a marriage proposal to Tomyris, in order to control the land of the Massagetae. She demurred and war was declared. Cyrus defeated the Massagetae in battle, but only via ruse; the warriors were lured into a mostly-empty camp in which large amounts of wine were left by the Achaemenids. The horsemen were not used to wine, and got quite drunk and were then slain by the ambushing Persians. In that battle, Tomyris’ son was captured and died, causing the Queen to vow revenge. She took her revenge in battle, where the Massagetae defeated their vastly-larger foe. Cyrus was killed and, it is said, beheaded and his head thrown in a bucket of human blood.

In honor of Queen Tomyris, we have a wine from the steppe lands of Romania, once part of the Scythian Empire.  

La Sapata Aligoté Dobrogea, Romania

Dobrogea, Romania is near the Black Sea and the Bulgarian border. This Danubian Delta has sandy soils and pastures that could support herds of Scythian horses. Today, agriculture and labor at the winery is worked… by horses.

The grape is 100% Aligoté. The vines are organic and the harvest is manual. The wine uses ambient yeast for fermentation and is matured in stainless.

The result is a lovely wine with notes of floral lemon, tart green-apple, and wild thyme. It is full and fresh with a bit of mineral. Refreshing!

Tanaquil was an Etruscan woman born in Tarquinia, in the heart of Etruria, near the border of Lazio and Tuscany. That wealthy, trading city was one of the most important Etruscan towns. Its riches are clear today in the burials of elite citizens, and its amazing necropolis was given UNESCO World Heritage status.

Back to antiquity… elite Etruscan women seem to have had more freedoms than their Roman and Greek counterparts, and ambition among them was approved and even expected. This was viewed a little differently by the Romans, who marveled at their “licentiousness” in participating in mixed-sex banqueting. The nerve!

Etruscans were also renowned for their divination skills, and Tanaquil was believed to have been a prophetess. She saw a sign that her husband, Lucumo, was destined to lead the Romans and so they changed their names – to Gaia Caecilia and Lucius Tarquinius Priscus – and moved to Rome.  There, her husband became the 5th king of Rome and its first Etruscan king. Tanaquil had another prophesy regarding Servius Tullius, and that he, too, would be king. She raised him as her son and, following the death of Tarquinius, made sure that Servius became the 6th king of Rome.

Fattoria di Magliano ‘Heba’ Morellino di Scansano, Italy

While Tanaquil helped rule in Rome, the town of Heba was founded in Etruria. It thrived – for a short time - vestiges of which can be found in ruins of villages, in tombs, and in museums. Heba is now Magliano and this lovely, Medieval-walled town is on the road between Orbetello and Scansano, in the heart of Tuscany’s Maremma region. The winery is found just outside the walls, across the main road.

Sangiovese is still “king” in Tuscany, and here it is joined by a bit of Syrah. Cultivation is organic, and the wine is aged six months in a cement vat.

Heba, the wine, is juicy with bright red fruits and also some blackberry, and there are also some notes of wild fennel. It is fresh, soft, and balanced in the mouth. 

Desert Queens

I have promised Queens of the Desert, and here they are! In addition to our Wine Club Queens of the City and Steppe, this month’s tasting features three Queens of the Desert: Cleopatra, Zenobia, and Priscilla. Our first tasting date (Aug 19th) sold out(!), so we added a second date on Tuesday, August 18th.