Wine Blog
Welcome to the Sipped Reviews wine blog. The reviews you see here are partly appearing because we love to taste, tear apart and review wines. We taste a huge variety of wines from all over the place. We don’t really focus. If a great wine comes our way, we review it. So, what you see will seem completely random, these reviews come from an eagerness to continue exploring wine, viticulture, oenology, geology and climate. Every glass is an education.
Why ratings? I like to see a rating on a wine simply because it means someone else has taken the time to share their view, and also, I’m not blindly purchasing a wine. Now, I might not agree with the rating after I taste it, but at least I have some data to go on to give me some idea of the quality of the wine I’m thinking of purchasing. So, take it or leave it. Our ratings tend to be more conservative than others and, ALL of the wines rated here were purchased by us. None of these wines were gifts given to elicit a better rating. FYI.
Past Archives:
ARCHIVE #2: Reviews from February 23, 2024 to July 23, 2024
ARCHIVE #3: Reviews from July 23, 2024 to May 23, 2025
ARCHIVE #4: Reviews from May 24, 2025 to 12/11/20225
ARCHIVE #5: Reviews from December 11, 2025 to April 20, 2026
ARCHIVE #6: Reviews from April 20, 2026 to July 2, 2026
— Most Recent —
ARCHIVE #7: Reviews from July 2, 2026 to October 19, 2026
Wine
Vintner: Babs Wine Company
Description: Phone Booth, Santa Lucia Highlands
Vintage: 2023
Varietal: Pinot Noir
Notes: Black raspberry, kirsch cherry, brioche, coriander seed, cardamom, nutmeg, vineyard earth, strawberry jam and dill.
The palate has med+ tannins, full body, concentration, intensity and long finish. You get a plush range of black raspberry, cherry and spices on the finish. The flavors are mouth filling, covering the palate.
For the price point this is a killer deal. At $45 bucks this is daily sipper. And for the quality, it’s a steal. Adam and Moret know what they are doing.
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Rating: 95
Date Tasted: 11/08/2026
Vintner: Stoller
Description: Winemaker Series, Whole Cluster, Dundee hills, Willamette Valley
Vintage: 2022
Varietal: Pinot Noir
This is a re-taste from several years ago.
Notes: This wine says it is whole cluster on the label, and it tastes like it too! The wine has just fruity ripeness on the nose with all the cherry and strawberry you can handle. The obvious hallmarks of a lovely wine made with carbonic fermentation. It is one to get your hands on. Really pleasant drinking with full concentrated, bright flavors.
Update: the palate is med- tannins, high acid and med+ in concentration and intensity, but the finish is loaded with strawberry and goes long. The palate coverage is hit and miss, but the mid-palate is brilliant with jammy strawberry and cherry. Love that whole cluster maceration.
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Rating: 94
Date Tasted: 11/08/2026
Vintner: Fel Wines (Cliff Lede)
Description: Ferrington Vineyard, Anderson Valley
Vintage: 2021
Varietal: Pinot Noir
Notes: Cranberry, strawberry, rhubarb, cocoa, baking spices, mushroom and orange blossom.
The palate has light tannins, high acid, med+ concentration, intensity and finish. The wine is crisp, brisk with acidity and ripe with berries. In a word, the wine is brisk.
Cliff Lede stopped making the Fel line with the 2024 vintage. And all in all, these have been nice wines. And on another point, what lovely label. It reminds us of the wine with its freshness and contrast between acid and fruit.
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Rating: 93
Date Tasted: 11/07/2026
Vintner: Emeritus Vineyards
Description: Pinot Hill Elite, Sonoma Coast
Vintage: 2019
Varietal: Pinot Noir
Notes: The nose is of raspberry, strawberry and tart cherry. It is classic and richly scented. For an eight-year-old wine it has very few tertiary notes other than a touch of walnut and a hint of raisin. It is holding very well. The cool part of this nose is the Jello scent and a hint of orange.
The palate is the highlight. The tannins are soft but plush. They coat the teeth with fruit. The acidity is high and the flavors intense. The finish is long and pleasurable. It is everything you want in a pinot with a few years on it. It is aging nicely.
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Rating: 95
Date Tasted: 11/02/2026
Vintner: Tolenas Vineyard and Winery
Description: Suisun Valley
Vintage: 2024
Varietal: Pinot Noir
Notes: Lisa Howard has been doing pinot for a few years now. The grapes are grown along the I-80 corridor where the wind howls east toward Sacramento all summer long. And the nighttime temps stay cool enough ripen pinot correctly. And these seem to keep getting better every year.
The nose has dusty, ripe plum, raspberry and vineyard soil. Sour pomegranate and freesia notes join the berries for a deep nose.
The palate is very rich. Thankfully, the acidity is high and balances out the very intense, concentrated berry/cherry/plum fruit. Tannins are medium and the finish is long. This is a wine all the pinot lovers should try. The price point is insane.
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Rating: 94
Date Tasted: 11/02/2026
Vintner: Artesa
Description: Los Carneros, Napa Valley
Vintage: 2019
Varietal: Pinot Noir
Notes: The nose as a richness of berries, black cherries and strawberry. There is a dry baked bread note, a mild mushroom nose and soft dried yellow raison tertiary notes.
The palate has a thickness, fairly firm tannins, high acid, soft raisin notes from bottle age. The finish is covered in black cherry kirsch and is long.
We purchased this wine at the winery before JCB. This wine has a very Burgundian style, a rustic nose and palate with rich flavors a few rough edges that make is really interesting.
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Rating: 93
Date Tasted: 11/01/2026
Vintner: Gray Pez Wines
Description: Sonoma County
Vintage: 2019
Varietal: Pinot Noir
Notes: The nose has rich raspberry, kirsch black cherry, pomegranate, cranberry, coffee, raisin, dried date and toasted grain.
The palate shows an amazing richness covering the tongue with berries and cherries. Great acidity balances the intense fruit keeping the wine from being too flabby. Berries and toasted grain linger on the finish with tannins that swell with fruit on the front teeth. Yah, good stuff.
Well, these guys went out of business right around Covid. They did pinot from Sonoma and oddly, El Dorado Hills. We had one bottle of the Sonoma left. It is a pleasure to meet this wine at 7 years of bottle age. There are very few tertiaries in this wine’s profile except that touch of raisin and date. It is really well made, and I wish I had a few more bottles of it.
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Rating: 95
Date Tasted: 10/27/2026
Vintner: Rivers-Marie Wines
Description: Sonoma Coast
Vintage: 2024
Varietal: Pinot Noir
Notes: Strawberry, black cherry, raspberry, cranberry, pomegranate syrup, black tea, wet soil, nutmeg, cardamom and pot pourri.
The palate is high in acid, has juicy, med+ tannins and concentrated fruit. The intensity of the fruit is lovely. It creates a finish that ends up flavorful and long.
Seriously, this is amazing wine for the $35 price point.
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Rating: 96
Date Tasted: 10/26/2026
Vintner: Hall Winery
Description: Eighteen Seventy-three, Napa Valley
Vintage: 2020
Varietal: Cabernet Sauvignon
Notes: Oh jeez, the nose on this wine is ridiculous with fun. It is almost sweet with Kirsch cherry, blackberry, a hint of candied lemon, cocoa, leather, coffee and lilac.
The palate is rich of black cherry, berries, cocoa and brioche bun. There is nothing left to say about this. It is fully concentrated, intense, long finish, high, silky tannins and high acid. And it has so much fruit the palate feels like is is viscous.
Hall was one of a few wineries that had valley floor fruit that was ready to pick before the 2020 fires. And thanks to an early budbreak, warm and dry season, the Glass fire did not impact this wine. Good thing! It is really a richly intense pleasure to taste.
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Rating: 96
Date Tasted: 10/26/2026
Vintner: Hall Winery
Description: Napa Valley
Vintage: 2017
Varietal: Merlot
Notes: This is a massive wine. We grabbed a bottle at Walt in Oxbox Market in Napa yesterday. They were selling the magnums for ungodly price of $100. A lot of Napa wineries are offloading older vintages these days.
The nose has red plum, bright cherry and dark blackberry. There is some green melon, cocoa, leather and burnt sugar pie crust as well.
The palate shows bright acid, med tannins, lovely dark flavors of plum and berry and a long, lingering finish. This is a ’17 merlot that is holding its own. It only shows the first beginnings of tertiary bottle characteristics.
It has a mouthful of flavor with almost no missing gaps in flavor. The burnt sugar note on the nose comes through on the palate luxuriously.
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Rating: 94
Date Tasted: 10/26/2026
Vintner: Sans Liege
Description: The Adversary Central Coast
Vintage: 2023
Varietal: Mourvedre
Notes: Raspberry, tomato, blackberry, cranberry, cinnamon, cedar, mint, cocoa, vanilla, coriander seed, crushed wet rock, nutmeg, ginger, brioche, black pepper and dried California hillside herbs.
The palate has ample minerals, beautiful berry and herbs with full concentration and intensity that send the finish on this wine into the minute+ range. The tannins, acidity and flavors are a perfect structural storm that will allow this wine to age well.
This wine provides a plush mound of beauty containing earth, berries, herbs, baking spices and baked goods. It has the best of all worlds.
I cooked Bang-Bang salmon, rice and broccoli. This wine paired with beautifully with the mayo, Thai chili sauce and sriracha blend that coated the salmon.
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Rating: 96
Date Tasted: 10/22/2026
Vintner: Bacigalupi
Description: Frost Ranch, Russian River Valley
Vintage: 2024
Varietal: Pinot Noir
Notes: This nose is lovely. There is strawberry, cranberry, pomegranate, loquat, cola, coriander seed, lilac and soil. The nose has full concentration that gives it a kind of Jello feel.
The palate has lovely loquat acidity, minerality, concentrated, intense fruit. And all of these send the berry finish a long way. But the best thing on this palate is viscous texture — as though someone has removed some of the water from the wine leaving a thick richness of berry fruit that is really amazing. You don’t get this in many wines.
This wine can be described in one word: PLUSH.
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Rating: 95
Date Tasted: 10/20/2026
Rating: 94
Date Tasted: 10/20/2026
Vintner: Bacigalupi
Description: Bloom Ranch, Russian River Valley
Vintage: 2024
Varietal: Pinot Noir
Notes: This one has cranberry, black pepper, raspberry, fresh cremini mushroom, tomato and a hint of lime.
The palate has medium tannins, high acid, med+ concentration and intensity. And the finish is long. The flavors are lovely, accentuating the berry fruit, crisp acid and warm tomato, which gives is a great bottom end.
Bloom Ranch is obviously a lovely place, with lovely grapes, making lovely wine that has very unique nose and a bright palate with interesting flavors that lay outside of the usual box.
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Vintner: Bacigalupi
Description: Russian River Valley
Vintage: 2024
Varietal: Pinot Noir
Notes: Bright raspberry, strawberry and cherry fill out the nose. There are some baking spices in there, lilac and wet soil.
The palate shows light tannins, high acid, med+ concentration and intensity and a med+ finish full of bright with acid, raspberry and strawberry. It can use some time. It is very young. We tasted it and then came back to it after an hour. It opened up nicely.
We love these regional blends. Sometimes they are better than the individual vineyard wines.
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Rating: 94
Date Tasted: 10/20/2026
