Cellar Notes

Notes about the wines we have tried recently.

Locations Wines featured photo

Looking for a New Locations Wine?

This cellar note includes four of winemaker Dave Phinney’s Locations wines. We begin in New Zealand then stop off in Europe, to visit France and Spain, before reaching our final destination of Washington State. No passport required. We received all four wines as tasting samples. The first thing you probably notice about the Locations wines are the distinctive black and […]

Lieb Cellars and Bridge Lane wines

A Return to Lieb Cellars and Bridge Lane Wine

Lieb Cellars and its sister winery, Bridge Lane Wine, are located on the North Fork of Long Island, New York. And while we have tasted a fair number of wines from New York’s Finger Lakes AVA, we are novices when it comes to Long Island. Our first taste of Long Island’s North Fork came last year when we tasted these […]

Gonzales Byass wines featured photo

Food-Friendly Wine from Gonzáles Byass

Today’s Cellar Note takes us on a tasting tour of four Spanish wine regions: Rías Baixas, Rueda, Rioja and Jerez. All four wines are imported by Gonzáles Byass USA and all are priced under $20 per bottle. We received all four wines as tasting samples. After five generations in the wine business, Gonzáles Byass remains family-owned. What began in 1835 […]

Brkic Greda Zilavka featured photo

Brkić Greda Žilavka

There is something to be said for the comfort of familiarity. On the other hand, the exhilaration of new discoveries should not be underestimated. We recently discovered this for ourselves when we enjoyed a bottle of Brkić Greda Žilavka, both a new wine region and grape variety for us, with a delicious mushroom pasta dish that was also new to […]

Lucas and Lewellen featured photo

Lucas & Lewellen Vineyards: Celebrating Wine and Friendship

Today’s Cellar Note includes two varietal wines and a red blend that highlight the large number of grape varieties grown in Santa Barbara County. All are produced by Lucas & Lewellen Vineyards, a winery established and owned by two long-time friends and their families. All three wines, which we received as tasting samples, are sourced from Lucas & Lewellen estate […]

Concannon Cabernet Sauvignon featured photo

Concannon Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon

Every bottle of wine made by Concannon Vineyard comes with a long family history of winemaking in the Livermore Valley. That history includes the development of three Cabernet Sauvignon clones that are now widely planted in California. Today’s Cellar Note offers a taste of Concannon Cabernet Sauvignon, from Paso Robles, and a brief telling of that family history. The wine […]

Garofoli Verdicchio

Garofoli Verdicchio Times Two

Today’s Cellar Note takes us to the Marche region of Italy and provides a taste of Verdicchio, a grape variety closely associated with the region, which lies along the Adriatic Sea. We received both wines as tasting samples. 2017 Garofoli Macrina Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico Superiore, Marche — pale straw in the glass with generous aromas of oat […]

Hess Select featured photo

Summertime Sippers from Hess Select

As I sit writing this Cellar Note today’s temperature is expected to break the triple-digit mark. Strategies to keep cool will be needed. Umbrellas will be up on the patio and the misters turned on. Something cool in the glass will be required. We recently received three wines as tasting samples that will do nicely. These wines will keep you […]

Tascante Ghiaia Nera Nerello Mascalese featured1

Tascante Ghiaia Nera Nerello Mascalese

Nerello Mascalese will forever be connected in my mind to Sicily and more specifically Mt. Etna. Not so much because it is, along with the white grape variety Carricante, the signature red grape of the Etna DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata), but because the striking natural beauty of Mt. Etna. Several years ago we spent three weeks traveling around Sicily. […]

Wine by Andrew Jones

Field Recordings + Barter & Trade

In today’s Cellar Note we share our tasting notes for two wines made by Andrew Jones. To be honest, Andrew Jones is a new winemaker to us and, as it turns out, his story is pretty interesting. Both wines are tasting samples that came to us by chance — a chance encounter on Twitter with Mark Aselstine, co-owner of Uncorked […]