$25 - $50 Wine

Winemaker Description 

The Côtes du Vivarais is an AOC situated on the western side of the Rhône in Ardèche.  This region is renowned for producing wines with high mineral content due to the limestone and clay-rich soils.  Alain Gallety, a pioneering winemaker, founded this domaine with the goal of finding the perfect soil for his wines. He is now a respected figure in the expansive Côtes du Vivarais. The entire range of wines, from the entry-level to the single vineyard cuvées, is exceptional.  Alain Gallety embarked on his viticultural journey with his father in 1974 in an area that was later designated as the Côtes du Vivarais appellation in 1999. Today, Alain and his son David-Alexandre manage the 15-hectare organic domaine.

"We love this Rhône white for its distinct weight with enhanced mineral notes, keeping the wine from being flabby. Citrus and orchard fruit are prominent flavors that make this wine versatile with many dishes."

Pairings: White fish, Roast turkey, Veal piccata, and the hen & potato stew
Grapes: 50% Grenache Blanc 40% Marsanne 10% Roussanne
Soil: Clay
Viticulture: Organic (Practicing)

• All grapes harvested by hand

• All grapes are fermented together in stainless steel tank

• Wine ages in stainless steel until bottling, 4 to 8 months after harvest

• Bottled unfined and unfiltered

Our Professional Review

Bart Hopkins of 67Wine.com | Classic dark fruited Dolcetto made from 50 year old vines. The bouquet is full of earthy black cherry aromas that carry through the mid-palate. Light to medium bodied yet well structured with a good balance of refreshing acidity and lifted tannins. Round, juicy and succulent, a perfect wine for tomato based dishes, sharp cheeses and vegetarian inspired recipes.

Winemaker Description

The Dolcetto for this wine is sourced from both the Paje and Carso vineyards in Barbaresco, which is part of the Asili hill. Paje is particularly rich in calcareous marl soil with a high content of active limestone. Carso sits next to the fortresses of Barbaresco, facing East, with limestone clay soil and a significant presence of sand. Hand-harvested in September. The vines for this wine have a minimum age of 45 years. Fermented lasts for ten days in large french casks with a pied de cuvee made with indigenous yeasts. Submerged cap maceration then follows for 90-100 days. The wine then ages in neutral french oak botti for approximately one year.

Winemaker Description

An elegant and refined expression of Pinot Noir with notable bing cherry, plums and mulberry balanced with the Ribbon Ridge earth element. 

Expert Reviews - Vintage 2022 

Audrey Frick writes:  Another potential wine for a Top 100 list, the 2022 Pinot Noir Select is a jeweled red/ruby color and offers a fantastic bouquet of spicy fresh herbs, pomegranate, peppery spice, and wildflowers. Medium-bodied, it’s energetic and lifted on the palate, with a mouthwatering feel and fine, well-defined tannins. I love its texture, which has a crisp feel with notes of orange peel through the finish. It’s a more angular wine for this vintage, and I love it. The estate has backed off punch downs and is working with more delicate pumpovers instead, and it shows. It’s very pretty and transparent in its feel. Drink 2025-2040.  - Jeb Dunnuck 95

Tim Fish writes:  Vibrant and floral, with expressive raspberry and cranberry flavors that are laced with pretty notes of rose petal, forest floor and dusky spices as this glides toward refined tannins. Drink now through 2032.  - Wine Spectator 93

Eric Guido writes:  The 2022 Pinot Noir Select is wonderfully perfumed with spice-tinged red berries, cloves and dusty flowers. This is juicy and energetic on the palate, with raspberry and cherry depths slowly saturating the senses. This finishes long and sapid with fine tannins framing exotic spices and inner florals, all enlivened by a bump of residual acidity.  Drinking 2025 to 2031.  - Vinous 93

Erin Brooks writes:  The 2022 Pinot Noir Select is bursting with blueberry and pomegranate on the nose, plus accents of orange peel, tea leaves and forest floor. The medium-bodied palate is finely chalky and bright, and its long, flavorful finish calls you in for another sip.  Drinking 2024 to 2034.  - Robert Parker Wine Advocate 92

Samantha Cole-Johnson writes:Pale ruby in colour. Gorgeous, stemmy spice on the nose with green cardamom, rose and bright, tart Bing cherry. Really lovely. Fresh mouth-watering acidity with lightly drying tannin and a long, earthy potting-soil-kissed finish. Refreshing. Ready now.   Drinking 2024 to 2030.  - Jancis Robinson 17+

 Winemaker Description

With the Classic, it is a fresh and fruity wine that expresses itself. 

The combination of freshness and delicate fragrances allows it to be served with grilled white fish and meats, shellfish, vegetable tians and Japanese dishes. Also, ideal for an aperitif. 

Winemaker Description

An exceptionally fine old tawny blend, aged for 10 years in oak casks. Elegant and smooth, combining delicate wood notes and rich mellow fruit, it is bottled for immediate drinking. A superb dessert wine, particularly with dishes made with chocolate, coffee or almonds, Taylor's 10 Year Old Tawny may also be served at the end of the meal in the same way as Vintage Port.

Expert Ratings

93 Points Robert Parker | It is my opinion that Taylor's tawny ports are the best of their type. When tasted against other tawnys, they all exhibit more aromatic personalities, greater fruit and ripeness, and a wonderful sweetness and length. The Ten Year Old Tawny is a personal favorite, as well as the best bargain among these ports.

93 Points James Suckling | Beautiful sweet berries with walnut, toffee and caramel undertones on the nose. The palate is medium-bodied with medium sweetness and a chocolate and toffee aftertaste. A richer style of 10-year-old and delicious. Drink now.

91 Points Wine Spectator | This has a nice racy edge to the mix of slightly dried red cherry and raspberry fruit, backed by red tea and singed vanilla. Shows good tension from start to finish. Drink now. 500 cases imported.

90 Points Wine Enthusiast | This ivery complete aged tawny has all the right nuts and fruit characters that show a Port that still looks back to its fruity origins. The style is ripe, full and sweet, a mellow wine that only hints at the spirit behind it.

92 Points Natalie Maclean | From the Swartland wine region, Mullineux Great Heart 2021 Chenin Blanc is a dry, vibrant, flavoursome and beautifully balanced Chenin with white-fleshed stone fruit, citrus zest, creamy and leesy on the palate. The wine is named after The Great Heart Project, a staff empowerment project the results and profits of which are aimed at improving the circumstances of the winery's employees and families. 

Winemaker Description

100% Pinot Noir. The only kosher Pinot from Willamette Valley! Cherry on the nose, with flavors of blackberries, dried herbs and roasted coffee beans. Aged 12 months in neutral Oak barrels.

Winemaker Description 

Pale yellow color with hints of gold and green. Powerful notes of minerality and yellow fruits. Rounded and rich with a good structure and lengthy finish.

 Enjoy as an aperitif or with seafood, veal, goat cheese, or gruyère.

Winemaker Description 

Olivier Foucher followed a classic career path: studies in viticulture and oenology, a few years of collaboration with his parents and taking over the family estate after his father's retirement in 2011. Today, he and his wife cultivate 10.5 hectares of vines.

Light lemon in color, the wine has a delicate floral scent, with a touch of lime zest and tangerine on the nose. The palate is full of white-fleshed fruits — particularly peach and pear — that blend with more exotic, softer notes of grapefruit and papaya.

Wave after wave of mouth-puckering acidity and a mineral-packed finish will keep you coming back for more! Perhaps the most impressive feature of the wine is its impeccable balance of flavor intensity, structural tension, and length: everything is where it should be, making this Sauvignon Blanc almost too easy to drink.

Winemaker Description

100% Pinot Noir 60% estate grown fruit from Olivet Ranch vineyard in the Russian River Valley and 40% from Failla’s other single vineyard sources.

Expert Review

Vinous 92 Points by Antonio Galloni  | The Failla Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast is a fabulous wine at this level. Sweet spices, rose petal, mint and succulent cherry/plum notes all lift from the glass. Supple and beautifully layered throughout, the Sonoma Coast hits all the right notes. A final burst of fruit rushes across the palate on the refreshing, inviting wine. There is so much to like.

Expert Reviews - Vintage 2018 

91 Points Decanter | This is open overall in terms of its tannic structure, and there are lovely plum and blackberry fruits, with a slate texture through the finish. Enjoyable, with St Estèphe character. 40% new oak. Drinking Window 2023 - 2038

91 Points James Suckling | Blackcurrants, brambleberries, walnut husks, dried leaves and dark spices on the nose. It’s medium-bodied with firm, tight-grained tannins. Fresh and structured. Crushed stone comes through in the aftertaste. Better from 2024.

Winemaker Description 

Château Laffitte Carcasset benefits from the mild climate typical of the great terroirs on the left river bank of the estuary.

The average age of the vineyard is 30 years old, composed of 60% of Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% of Merlot and 5% of Cabernet Franc.

Faithful to Saint-Estèphe’s style, Château Laffitte Carcasset produces complex and fruity red wines with a beautiful tannic structure giving a very good aging potential. Winemaker Description. 

Winemaker Description

The Marsannay is sturdy and robust due to the rich iron-based soil. The wine has an intense bouquet of red fruit and a silky palate with a distinct gamey character and great tannic appeal. 

Critic Notes

James Suckling writes:  Such an enticing sour-cherry nose with subtle leafy and earthy notes. Such a joyful expression of this very underrated terroir. Such a zesty pinot noir with a long, crisp finish, in which the gentle tannins and lively acidity are beautifully integrated. Drink or hold.  - James Suckling 91

Jancis Robinson writes:  Transparent ruby. Quite an evolved, earthy nose. Sweet and rich with no rough edges. The ripeness of the vintage is evident but not intrusive.There'st a little dustiness on the finish that's far from unpleasant. A red burgundy that is attractively broad in the beam. A comfortable, comforting wine. Persistent.  Drinking 2022 to 2026.  Great Value.  Jancis Robinson 16.5

Allen Meadows writes:  Notably ripe aromas include those of cassis, dark raspberry and humus nuances. The rich, delicious and vibrant middle weight flavors conclude in a rustic and somewhat raspy finish. While this could be enjoyed shortly after release, it has the stuffing and structure to reward short to mid-term cellaring.  - Burghound

Expert Review - Vintage 2020 

James Suckling 94 Points | Intense, dark-fruited nose of plum skins, raisins, chocolate and wet stone character. Full and structured with a rich, succulent mid-palate and firm tannins. Structured and long, with juiciness and sappiness at the end. From organically grown grapes. Drink or hold.

Winemaker Description 

Bodega Flechas de Los Andes is a result of the partnership between Baron Benjamin de Rothschild and Mr. Laurent Dassault on a unique terroir situated at the foot of the Andes cordillera, to the south of Mendoza. The Malbec grape variety reigns in this alluvial terroir of the Andes. 

The finest plots of the Flechas de Los Andes vineyards have been selected to offer you a wine that is the expression of a pure, top of the range Argentinean Malbec. This hearty, sultry, spicy, mouth-filling dark- ruby wine offers raspberry, chocolate, dark licorice and lightly oaky flavors along with soft tannins. Pairs well with barbeque.

Kosher for Passover.

Expert Reviews - Vintage 2023 

James Suckling 93 Points | Cool and elegant, yet juicy and wonderfully fresh, this medium-bodied gruner vetliner has the garden herb and celery aromas of the grape. As lightly as this skips over the palate, and as crisp as it is in the finish, there’s very good substance here. It should stay fresh for quite a few years. From organically grown grapes. Drink or hold. Screw cap.

The Wine Advocate 92 Points |  Just bottled with 12.5% stated alcohol, the incredibly charming 2023 Grüner Veltliner Terrassen opens with an irresistible, pure, bright and intense as well as coolish and aromatic bouquet of white seed fruits yet also a saline background. Lean, fresh and juicy on the palate, this is a medium-bodied, saline, savory and highly stimulating Veltliner that will probably never tastes as attractive as in its first year after bottling. It's an irresistible picture-book Veltliner. Screw cap. Tasted end of March 2023.

Winemaker Description 

This Grüner Veltliner is a blend of wines sourced from different terraced vineyards. The elevated terraces consist of stonier soils (schisted granite). The vines there show aromatic expression, good acidity, elegant stone fruit and lots of minerals. The lower sited terraces mostly of layered fertile loess show more body and ripeness. By combining those two characteristics you get a really classic Grüner Veltliner with both finesse and a certain vigor. Winemaker Description. 

The 2022 Rose is a light salmon color with brilliant edges. Aromas of fresh white alpine strawberry, ripe apricot and crisp Canary Melon waft from the glass.

The wine is medium bodied and starts with bright flavors of orchard fruits that weave into a mouthwatering and snappy, saline inflected finish. Winemaker Description. 

Winemaker Notes

G.D. Vajra Barolo Vino Spumante Neve Rose 750ml. 60% Nebbiolo 40% Pinot Noir Nostra Signora Della Neve is the most important vineyard in the blend of this Metodo Classico of Nebbiolo and Pinot Noir. It is located in Roddino, where the Barolo hills rise into the Alta Langa. With magnificent vines growing on steep sides, this vineyard is every year a beautiful challenge for our harvest crew.

Critic Notes

Billy Norris writes:  Vajra's NV Extra Brut Rosé N.S. Della Neve is incredibly characterful, sizzling out of the glass with leather, mesquite smoke, blackberry and white pepper. A blend of 50% Nebbiolo and 50% Pinot Noir, the structure of the former comes through loud and clear through bright acids and firm, powdery tannins. Sour berry fruit and mentholated herbs meet with salty stoniness in the mouth, elevated by a lively, fine mousse. It's not the most finessed sparkling wine you'll taste, but it's certainly charming.  Drinking 2024 - 2027.  - Vinous 91

Expert Review - Vintage 2019

James Suckling 92 Points | Currant, blueberry and violet aromas follow through to a medium body with firm, fine tannins that give the wine form and focus. Chocolate and hazelnut emerge in the undertones. Drink or hold.

Wine Enthusiast 91 Points | This blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Petit Verdot features alluring aromas evoking cassis, black-skinned berry and underbrush. The concentrated palate offers black plum, tobacco and mocha alongside polished tannins.

Winemaker Description

Bright garnet with high-toned red and blue fruit aromas, tinged with wet stone and violets. On the palate, lush, but with bright acidity to balance the red cherry and pomegranate fruit. White pepper, slate and herbal aromas overlay the core of fruit on a juicy, fresh finish.

Pair with roast game or poultry, or ratatouille. 

Expert Reviews 

"I’m not sure any country drinks more sparkling wine than Italy. Ferrari’s wines, from the Trentino-Alto Adige region of Italy, are generally superb. This entry-level bottle, made entirely from chardonnay, is sleek and graceful, impeccably balanced and a great value." - Eric Asimov’s New York Times Article Dec. 21, 2023

Monica Larner writes:  An Italian classic and a terrific value, the Ferrari NV Trento Brut is all Chardonnay that opens to crystalline luminosity and brilliance. The bouquet is straightforward and confident, delivering a clear and precise message of good cheer and easy-drinking appeal. There are notes of citrus, white peach, breakfast pastry and drying notes of crushed mineral. This is the quintessential Italian aperitivo wine.  -  Robert Parker Wine Advocate 91

Winemaker Description

Balanced and elegant with full, bright fruit and complex earth notes that hail from our carefully selected cool Sonoma Coast vineyards.

Expert Reviews - Vintage 2021 

Vinous Media 93 Points | The 2021 Pinot Noir (Sonoma Coast) is a huge overachiever. Bright, punchy and super-expressive, the 2021 offers up boisterous red/purplish fruit. Lavender, rose petal, spice and mint are all dialed up in this heady, explosive Pinot. Readers will have a very hard time finding a Pinot with this much quality for the money. All of the fruit is estate. I am not sure I have ever tasted a California Pinot this good for $40 a bottle.  

James Suckling 92 Points | This is so bright and fruity, with vivid cherry, hibiscus and lime. Medium to full body. Tangy. Bitter orange at the end. Drink or hold. 

The Wine Advocate 91 Points | The 2021 Pinot Noir is made from 100% estate fruit this year. Bottled under screw cap, it takes a minute or two to reveal cranberry sauce, baked rhubarb, red cherries and mint with touches of mushroom and mossy bark. The light-bodied palate is chalky and refreshing with concentrated, earthy fruit, and it has a satisfying finish that draws you in for another sip.

Expert Notes

Stephan Reinhardt writes:  The 2021 Sand & Kalk is a pure Weissburgunder (a.k.a. Pinot Blanc) that was vinified in 600-liter oak barrels (5% new) for almost a year. Bottled in September this year and released in November, the wine offers a clear and aromatic, very elegant and balanced bouquet of ripe, white and yellow seed fruits. Medium-bodied yet dense and intensely fruity, with fine phenolic grip and delicate citrus bitters, this is a textural and very elegant Pinot Blanc with a refreshing and stimulating bitter finish with lingering lemon aromas. This is another excellent white that should be paired with raw fish, freshwater fish, seafood, white meat or cheese. This is a lovely, uncomplicated but structured terroir wine for the Buchertberg in Vulkanland Steiermark. Marketed as Landwein, though. 12.5% stated alcohol. Screw-cap closure.  Drinking 2023 to 2030.  - Robert Parker Wine Advocate 91

Winemaker Description 

Seductively fresh Pinot Blanc with orange zest, honeysuckle flowers, and lemongrass and a luscious texture from the bit of skin contact that we greet us like a big soft hug. He manages to coax an intense amount of flavor out a relatively neutral grape, and we think it could go with anything from a bitter green salad with winter citrus to roasted chicken, pork tenderloin or seared scallops. This could easily be our everyday white! 

Because it has a nice, round body and prominent fruit, it also works as a Chardonnay alternative for those seeking a white with a bit more meat on the bones.

The HERRENHOF was a former wine estate of the Vorau Abbey. I started this project in 2006 from scratch, without vines. It required me 15 years to rebuild the winery. Since I have always been very close to nature, it is clear to me that I grow and vinify my wines exclusively organically. I want to bring the taste of the land where I grew up into the bottle of wine. Gottfried Lamprecht. 

The wine project at the HERRENHOF is pretty young. I've started to recutivate vineyards on this perfect slope in the year 2006 completely from the scratch. My mission: I want to present the Buchertberg, the place where I grew up in a bottle of wine. Because wine just can do that! Everything is harvested by hand of course. What makes me a special wine grower? I ferment 100% in barrels. 50% of my barrels are made of wood from my own forest. This brings my wines much closer to my terroir - closer to the Buchertberg, the place where I grew up. After fermentation the wines stay on their lees till bottling. Prior bottling I just about 20mg of Sulphur or less, or nothing and anything else. It depends on the wine.

Bart Hopkins, 67 Wine Buyer, writes: For savvy Burgundy lovers, the Hautes-Cotes de Beaune is a source of great value and a breeding ground for exceptional winemaking talent. Fourth generation Luc Bourgogne is one such grower and winemaker, and Domaine Bourgogne-Devaux is reliably one of the best estates in the Hautes-Cotes. His 2022 Le Clou shows the flesh and friendliness of the vintage with its dark color in the glass and inviting aromas of berries, plums and violets with an earthy bramble complexity. The beauty of the 2022 vintage is the accessibility of the lovely fruit that shines from the glass, with no hard tannins or jagged edges. An elegantly balanced, deliciously flavored red to indulge your love of Burgundy without breaking the bank.

Producer Notes

Aromas of blackberry, black cherry and violet. Like liquid silk on the palate, conveying terrific depth to its flavors of raspberry, warm spices and smoked meat.

Winemaker Description

Certified organic. 65% Mourvèdre, 35% Cinsault. The terraced vineyard faces the sea on the top of a hill that reaches 300m, forming a great natural south-east-facing bowl. Highest elevation in Bandol.

The soil is made of clay, limestone and white chalk. Fermented at low temperatures slowly for 20 days. Indigenous yeast. Aged in tank for 6 months. 

Expert Review

Wine Advocate 92 Points | A blend of 65% Mourvèdre and 35% Cinsault, the 2023 Bandol Rosé from Château de Pibarnon offers up a delicate, complex bouquet of spices, licorice, red berries, lemon, spring flowers and herbs. Medium-bodied, enveloping and beautifully structured, it’s round and juicy with a delicate, lively core of fruit and a mineral, calcareous finish. This is a classical rosé wine from Bandol. (2023). 

Expert Notes

James Suckling writes:  Attractive notes of cherries, dried blood oranges, cocoa and hints of hibiscus and licorice. Bright and savory on the palate, with dusty tannins and lively acidity. Medium-bodied. It’s very pretty and refreshing, with savory nuances at the end. Drink now.  - James Suckling 91

Winemaker Description 

Is the result of the union between Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon (85% Sangiovese & 15% Cabernet Sauvignon): it gives the idea of a young red, significant but with easy drinkability and is linked to the characteristics of its native territory, with an unforgettable Casanova di Neri stamp.

Expert Review - Vintage 2022

Wine Enthusiast 92 Points | This bottling delivers the ripe power that so many want in a package that’s balanced by savory elements. Dense aroma of tar, char, asphalt, cassis and cocoa show on the nose. The palate is rich and creamy, loaded with coffee bean, coconut husk and baked fruit flavors.

Winemaker Description 

The 2022 vintage delivers yet another bewitching blend with trademark Pessimist flair. An intensely aromatic nose begins with fragrances of blueberry, boysenberry and black plum. Deeper layers reveal lavender, truffle, cocoa and tamarind spice with hints of cherry pipe tobacco, leather, mint and smoked meats. A bright, vibrant palate offers generous flavors of black cherry, cranberry, crème de cassis and pomegranate. Notes of lilac, anise and black olive complement the rich fruit while the mouth is flooded with lush, silky textures. Lingering accents of blueberry and raspberry round out this elegantly balanced wine.

Blend: 60% Petite Sirah, 22% Zinfandel, 16% Syrah, 2% Lagrein 

Barrel Aging: 10 months in 50% new French oak

Alcohol: 14.9%

Producer Description 

The Fiano di Avellino takes its name from the variety that the Latins called Vitis Apiana. The grapes were so sweet that they proved irresistible to bees (“api”).
The wine, which was already highly appreciated in the Middle Ages, originated several millennia ago. An order for three “salme” (a measure) of Fiano is entered in the register of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II. Charles d’Anjou must have enjoyed the wine as well, since he had 16,000 Fiano vines planted in the royal vineyards.

Fresh and minerally, slightly smoky with notes of lemon peel and pear. Medium body, excellent fruit, long finish carries a note of grilled pineapple and dried fruits. Food Pairings: Perfect as an aperitif