Cellar Notes

Notes about the wines we have tried recently.

2020 Beaujolais Nouveau featured photo

Beaujolais Nouveau is Perfect for Springtime Sipping

Every February we get a few days of bright, sunny weather with temperatures approaching the 70s. We take advantage of the break from chilly weather by heading outside to finding a sunny spot in the backyard to enjoy the faux spring. We know it won’t last long and soon we will be back to chilly, rainy weather, but this little […]

Vilarnau Cava featured photo

Toast Your Valentine With A Glass of Vilarnau Cava

Valentine’s Day is the perfect occasion (well, OK, excuse) to indulge in a glass of sparkling wine. There are many kinds of sparkling wines made around the world made in a variety of ways from many different grape varieties. Cava is Spain’s contribution to the world of sparkling wine and is made with particular grape varieties using the traditional method. […]

7 Deadly Wines and Ghirardelli Chocolates featured photo

7 Deadly Wines and Ghirardelli Chocolate for Valentine’s Day

Fully realizing wine and chocolate pairing is not to everyone’s taste, we’re sharing a wine and chocolate pairing for Valentine’s Day because we also recognize many will think the pairing is a grand idea. We recently received three wines from 7 Deadly Wines and three chocolate bars made by Ghirardelli Chocolate Company as tasting samples, so we are proceeding with […]

Doqi Saperavi featured photo

2014 doqi Saperavi – A Qvevri Wine from Georgia

The country of Georgia is situated on the eastern shore of the Black Sea. Russia is its neighbor to the north, Turkey and Armenia lie to the south and Azerbaijan to the east. We may just be discovering wines from Georgia, but the winemaking history there goes back 8,000 years. Georgia’s fascinating winemaking includes more than 500 indigenous grape varieties. […]

Chateau Malescasse featured photo

2017 Château Malescasse – Consistently Delicious and Affordable Bordeaux

Château Malescasse is located on Bordeaux’s left bank north of the city of Bordeaux in between the AOCs of Margaux and Saint-Julien. You might say it’s located in a great neighborhood. This bottle of Château Malescasse, which we received as a tasting sample, comes with lots of memories for us. It is one of the Bordeaux wines we tasted almost […]

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Calla Lily Estate & Winery in Napa’s Pope Valley

Calla Lily Estate encompasses 95 acres on the eastern slopes of Howell Mountain. Vines were first planted in 1995, though Hong Kong businessmen Anthony Fung and Andy Chui established Calla Lilly in 2013. Current plantings include 12 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon, five acres Petite Sirah and one acre each of Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Merlot and Petit Verdot. Cary Gott has […]

Hey French featured photo

Hey French: Pasqua Has Fun With Wine

Hey French You Could Have Made This Wine But You Didn’t is a wine with a very long name and more than a bit of attitude. This new wine, made by Pasqua in northeastern Italy’s Veneto region, is a multi-vintage blend of Garganega along with Pinot Grigio and Sauvignon. It comes with a graffiti-inspired label similar to the PassioneSentimento wines […]

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A Taste of Portugal’s Vinho Verde Region

Just when you expect us to be sipping red wine we’re reaching for the lively white wines of Vinho Verde. We know we’re swimming against the stream, but these energetic wines from Portugal are perfect with appetizers or to sip while cooking even if it’s too chilly to sit on the patio. And it’s so refreshing to take a break […]

Sosie white wine featured photo

Sosie White Blend will Brighten a Winter’s Day

As I sit writing this cellar note it is foggy and 45 degrees Fahrenheit. The forecast is for a chilly day with no sunshine until this afternoon. And it’s the first day of winter. This white wine will be a delicious way to welcome winter this evening. We received this wine as a tasting sample. Regina Bustamante and Scott MacFiggen, […]

Robert Hall featured photo

Good Things Come in Small Packages from Robert Hall Winery

With all of us having smaller celebrations over the holidays this year it follows that purchasing wine in smaller bottles might be a good idea for many of us. And I like the idea of drinking better wine rather than drinking more wine. We’re happy to share these little gems with you that we received as tasting samples from Robert […]