A Guide to Letters from Southold
Welcome. If you’re new here, this is your map.
This Substack follows the journey of Southold (from Long Island to Texas to Francs/Bordeaux) and the questions we’ve been asking along the way about place, identity, tradition, and what it means to farm with conviction.
Below, you’ll find the posts organized by theme. Pick what interests you most, or start at the beginning and see where it takes you.
New here? Start with these three:
Who we are: Part II: Not Everyone Creates. But Everyone Chooses. (February 11, 2025)
The moment you decide to stop selling stories and start living one.
Where and why we are: A Hundred Years Is Long Enough (October 15, 2025)
What we’re building. The story of Francs, a century in the wilderness, and why this place matters now.
How we are: The Wine Business is Dead. Long Live the Wine Business. (April 15, 2025)
This is the post that explains why we’re doing what we’re doing. It’s about connection over distribution, meaning over scale, and what wine becomes when you refuse to let it turn into background noise.
Our Story: The Journey from NY to TX to Bordeaux
These posts trace how we got here: the moves, the decisions, the reinventions.
A new beginning.... (May 16, 2024)
The first post from Bordeaux. Starting over, again.
Welcome to Francs... (December 3, 2024)
Arriving in our new home in Francs.
A Side, B Side (January 28, 2025)
How music shaped the path to wine, and what both have in common.
Part I: Reinvention, Again and Again (December 10, 2024)
On leaving, rebuilding, and learning to let go.
Part II: Not Everyone Creates. But Everyone Chooses. (February 11, 2025)
Leaving advertising, finding wine, and deciding what matters.
Dust the Frames or Paint Something New (May 18, 2025)
The search for land in Bordeaux and what it taught us about inheritance vs. authorship.
On Francs: The Place We’re Building
Understanding where we are, what it was, and what it could become.
A loveletter to Cabernet Franc...in Francs (January 21, 2025)
Why we’re focusing on single-variety, single-site expression.
Bordeaux: The Weight of an Old Hierarchy (January 16, 2025)
Navigating tradition, classification, and the baggage of Bordeaux’s past.
Bordeaux is the place to be... (November 20, 2024)
Why we chose this region despite (or because of) its challenges.
On Legacy... (November 26, 2024)
What gets passed down, and what we choose to carry forward.
Vintage Report 2025: Learning Francs (October 9, 2025)
Our first full vintage in Bordeaux…what the land taught us.
Philosophy & Approach: How We Think About Wine
The principles that guide our work in the vineyard and cellar.
Natural Wine: A Personal Reckoning (April 1, 2025)
Wrestling with labels, movements, and what actually matters.
Pretty over Powerful (September 9, 2025)
Choosing elegance and precision over extraction and weight.
Varieties Are Vocabulary, Not Territory (September 19, 2024)
Why grapes are tools for expression, not rigid definitions of place.
What France Taught Me About Burgers, Tacos, and Breaking the Rules (February 18, 2025)
On tradition, innovation, and knowing when to respect boundaries.
The Mess Before the Clarity (March 18, 2025)
Embracing uncertainty and the nonlinear path to understanding.
The Shape of What’s to Come... (March 5, 2025)
Looking ahead at what we’re building and why.
On Farming & The Land
What it means to work with, not against, the vineyard.
The Most Exciting Time in Wine (October 3, 2025)
The urgency and potential of this moment in winemaking.
What the Work Requires (June 24, 2025)
The honest labor behind every bottle.
The Smell of Ferment (August 26, 2025)
The sensory markers of transformation in the cellar.
We All Spill Wine (May 6, 2025)
On mistakes, mess, and the humanity of this work.
The System Isn’t Broken. It Was Built This Way. (August 12, 2025)
Understanding the structures that shape wine (and us).
The Seal Will Not Hold (June 30, 2025)
On change, inevitability, and letting old systems crack.
Waiting for Ignition (June 5, 2025)
The patience required before anything begins.
The Business of Wine: Scale, Connection & Meaning
Navigating commerce, distribution, and what actually sustains a winery.
The Wine Business is Dead. Long Live the Wine Business. (April 15, 2025)
On why scale killed meaning, and how to bring it back.
Scale Can’t Save You (April 29, 2025)
Why we’re choosing to stay small, deliberately.
When the Words Stop Working (September 24, 2024)
On storytelling, authenticity, and the limits of language.
Success Isn’t Always Upward (February 4, 2025)
Redefining what winning looks like.
Propane, Patience, and the Art of Getting Nothing Done... (December 17, 2024)
The slow, unglamorous work behind every vintage.
On Identity & Reinvention
Who we are, who we were, and who we’re becoming.
Part III: What We Leave Behind (February 25, 2025)
Letting go of what no longer serves the work.
We Are Proof That Change Is Possible (October 6, 2025)
On transformation, doubt, and moving forward anyway.
Following the Dog, Even When You’re Lost (April 8, 2025)
Trusting instinct when the path isn’t clear.
Always Outsider (March 11, 2025)
On never quite fitting in, and being okay with that.
Altitude and The People We Meet on Mountains (March 24, 2025)
How elevation (literal and metaphorical) changes perspective.
Less, But Better: Finding Meaning in Wine, Life, and Everything Else (January 1, 2025)
The case for doing fewer things, more intentionally.
On Balance, Connection, and Finding Home (December 24, 2024)
Reflections on what grounds us.
On Time, Patience & Process
The long game. The waiting. The work between harvests.
A Hundred Years Is Long Enough (October 15, 2025)
How Francs spent a century in the wilderness, and what that means for us now.
The Art of Pacing (January 7, 2025)
Why rushing ruins wine (and everything else).
The Quiet Inheritance (April 22, 2025)
What gets passed down that isn’t land or vines.
Blocks and Silences (July 29, 2025)
On the spaces between words, vintages, decisions.
Don’t Leave A Message (July 15, 2025)
Why some things are better said in person, or not at all.
Wine Isn’t for Everyone Anymore, But It Still Needs to Be for Someone... (May 27, 2025)
On who wine is for, and why that matters.
About Southold
If you want to know more about what we’re doing, or support it, here’s how:
Shop wines: southold.fr
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