Montebruno Wine Co. From Willamette Valley

It took a toddler to put the final stamp on Montebruno Wine Co.'s black-cherry-laced 2009 Cuvée Una Pinot Noir ($65 for 750 ml).

As the 200 cases of wine aged, Brooklyn-based winemaker Joe Pedicini's daughter, Una, scribbled away, creating the Jackson Pollock-like label. The cuvée is an ode to her, made with grapes harvested from a plot planted the year she was born.

That sort of sentiment is found in every bottle Pedicini makes. His winemaking has long been a family affair: He learned the trade as a boy at his grandparents' New Jersey home.

Now, the Brooklyn resident tends to his vines in the Willamette Valley four times a year. There, he employs sustainable and biodynamic practices, uses wild-yeast fermentation, and limits added sulfur at bottling.

Pedicini says that it is "the only way I know how to make the highest-quality wine that I can, and I feel it is the best way to express the terroir of a specific place."

Try the Cuvée Una and his more classic 2010 Eola-Amity Hills Pinot Noir ($25 for 750 ml) with no-brainer summer foods, such as grilled steak, hearty mushrooms and summery, tomato-flecked pasta.