The most recent wine that I shared as part of my continuous effort to bring you as much great wine from my home state of New York as possible was from the North Fork of Long Island. The 2022 Pinot Gris grown, produced & bottled by Bedell Cellars was made with 100% estate grown fruit. Today, we'll travel to Western New York for another wine made with estate grown fruit: 2020 Cool Terroir grown, produced & bottled by Arrowhead Spring Vineyards (Lockport, New York). This wine is a blend of estate grown syrah, merlot and cabernet sauvignon. It was aged in French oak barre ..read more

(Photo Courtesy of Sofra Restaurant & Bakery) Every Sunday, I'll post some of my favorite local stories from the worlds of food, wine, beer, cocktails and spirits. This week on the Nittany Epicurean, I wrote about the 2019 Woodenhead Pinot Noir Russian River Valley, the 2022 San Felice Rosato Toscana IGT and the 2020 Vermilion Valley Vineyards Pinot Gris. Mr. Galarneau wrote about the Turkish cuisine to be found at Sofra Restaurant & Bakery in Depew [Four Bites] Andale Tequila Bar's first downtown location opened this past week [Four Bites] Andre ..read more

I do my best to bring you wines from across the world, both from the most famed winemaking regions from the United States to Europe as well as lessen know locals. Today, I'm excited to bring you the first wine from a winery that I've been wanting to try for quite some time located in a region many don't think first about wine when it comes to mind (but they should): 2020 Pinot Gris produced & bottled by Vermilion Valley Vineyards (Wakeman, Ohio). Owned by the husband and wife team of Kristi and Joe Juniper, Vermilion Valley Vineyards is an estate winery located in the the Vermilion Rive ..read more

A few weeks ago, Vino Italiano - my series bringing you some of the best wines from around Italy - brought us to my ancestral homeland of Sicilia for a great red wine. The 2020 Saia Nero d’Avola Sicilia DOC bottled by Feudo Maccari Società Agricola s.r.l. was yearning to be paired with lamb. Today, we're headed north to Toscana for this wine: 2022 San Felice Rosata Toscana IGT estate bottled by Società Agricola San Felice S.P.A. (Castelnuovo Berardegna, Italia). This wine is a blend of sangiovese and cabernet sauvignon. It was both fermented and briefly aged in stainless stee ..read more

The last wine that I wrote about from Woodenhead and its winemaker, Nikolai Stez, was the 2018 Pinot Noir Russian River Valley Ritchie Vineyard produced & bottled by Woodenhead when I told you that it made my list of the Top Wines of 2023. We're headed back to Sonoma today for another great pinot from Woodenhead: 2019 Pinot Noir Russian River Valley produced & bottled by Woodenhead (Healdsburg, California). This wine is 100% pinot noir sourced from three vineyard sites in Sonoma's Russian River Valley. Bottled unfined and unfiltered, this wine comes in at 13.4% ABV. Here ..read more

More than a year has passed since we last visited Argentina. When we were last there, we tried a bold red blend - the 2019 Privada Family Blend produced & bottled by Bodega Norton. We're going back to Argentina today for this wine from the Susana Balbo portfolio: 2022 Susana Balbo Crios Sustentia Chardonnay produced & bottled by Dominio del Plata S.A. (Mendoza, Argentina). This wine is naturally low in alcohol as the fruit was harvested early. It was both fermented and briefly aged in stainless steel. The wine comes in at 9% ABV. Here it is in the glass: Another look: One ..read more

Quite some time has passed since I shared a wine from J. Christopher wines as part of my series bringing you some of the best wines from across Oregon. The last wine we enjoyed from this label was a pinot noir made from fruit grown in the Dundee Hills AVA - the 2018 J. Christopher Volcanique Pinot Noir produced & bottled by Loosen-Christopher Wines. Let's go back to Newberg today for this great red blend from J. Christopher wines: 2020 J. Christopher Lunatique Rouge produced & bottled by Loosen-Christopher Wines (Newberg, Oregon). This wine is a blend of pinot noir (7 ..read more

(Photo: Mark Mulville/Buffalo News) Every Sunday, I'll post some of my favorite local stories from the worlds of food, wine, beer, cocktails and spirits. This week on the Nittany Epicurean, I wrote about the 2019 Montes Wings Carmenère, the 2021 St. Francis Red Blend Sonoma County and the 2021 Double Eagle Sauvignon Blanc Napa Valley. Mr. Galarneau told us about the dishes on what he calls the best taproom menu in town at Gene McCarthy's Old First Ward Brewing Company [Four Bites] Turkish cuisine has arrived in Depew at Sofra Turkish Cuisine [Four B ..read more

I only recently introduced Grieve Family Winery to my ongoing series of discovery of some of the great wines of California. The first wine we enjoyed from this great Napa Valley winery was an aromatic white wine - the 2020 Grieve Family Estate Sauvignon Blanc produced & bottled by Grieve Family Winery. Today, we'll return to Grieve Family Winery to try a wine bottled under their second label: 2021 Double Eagle Sauvignon Blanc Napa Valley produced & bottled by Grieve Family Winery (Napa, California). Grieve Family Winery's Double Eagle wines are a line of Bordeaux-style win ..read more

Many years have passed since we tried a wine from Chilean producer, Montes Wines. The last wine we explored from this winery was a great red blend - the 2014 Montes Twins Red Blend produced & bottled by Montes S.A. We're traveling back to Chile now for another red wine from Montes: 2019 Wings produced & bottled by Montes S.A. (Chimbarongo, Chile). This wine is mostly carmenère (85%) blended with a small amount of cabernet franc (15%). Following fermentation, the wine was aged for 16 months in French oak barrels (80% new). It comes in at 14.5% ABV. Here it is in the g ..read more