Wine Review Newsletter
Wine reviews and all things vino from Keith Wallace
Wine Reviews & The Wine Report
Over two thousand wine reviews! While most of our reviews focus on great wines under $20, we also offer reviews of luxury and collectible wines. As we are located in Philadelphia, most wines reviewed here are available via wine shops in Pennsylvania. Our main reviewer is Keith Wallace, the executive director and founder of the Wine School of Philadelphia.
Want to locate a specific wine? Use our PLCB Wine Finder.
Domaine Kuentz-Bas 2014 Alsace Blanc
Sometimes a wine review doesn't start with the wine, but how the writer discovered it. Finding great wines at any price point would be impossible if I were to taste every wine. There are over 2 million wine brands in the world currently, which breaks down to about...
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Brotte 2015 “Esprit Barville” Cotes du Rhone Blanc
If you happen to be in the village of Chateauneuf-du-Pape, you'll probably end up at the Musée du Vin. It's attached to Maison Brotte, one of the oldest wineries in France's Southern Rhone. While your there, you'll notice a selection of black twisted bottles of wine....
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Hillersden 2016 Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough
Located in Upper Wairau Valley, a remote corner in one of the most remote wine regions in the world, Hillersden is an interesting winery that is as much about Kiwi ingenuity as it is of wine. The wine is an exceptional Sauvignon Blanc. Nose of guava and pineapple...
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Moniker 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon, Mendocino County
This is the last vintage of this wine, so I'd recommend picking up a few bottles. A rock-solid cabernet that has the big oak and extraction one would expect for a luxury wine, but it snuck into the PLCB Wine & Spirits stores for half of that. There's a reason for...
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The Chook 2015 Shiraz Viognier, McLaren Vale
Like much of Australian lingo, Chook has a forboding silliness to it. WTF is a Chook? Is it an insult? A term of affection? I went looking for clues. In Shakespeare's England, it was a term of endearment, first recorded in Love's Labor Lost. A wine of endearment is...
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Robert Mondavi Winery 2014 Fume Blanc, Oakville
This is a landmark bottle of Napa wines. One of those historic wines that fly under the radar these days. Let's let the old guard take up the description of this wine: 1968 Mondavi's Fume Blanc is made entirely from the Sauvignon Blanc grape variety, the same that is...
read moreThe Wine School Blog
This is where we feature all our favorite things. Great wines, top sommeliers, awesome winemakers, great articles, and charity events at the Wine School. If we really love it, or we think you should know about it, it’s going to be right here.
Domaine Kuentz-Bas 2014 Alsace Blanc
Sometimes a wine review doesn't start with the wine, but how the writer discovered it. Finding great wines at any price point would be impossible if I were to taste every wine. There are over 2 million wine brands in the world currently, which breaks down to about...
read moreJuly 2018 Newsletter
Hope you are having a good summer. It's been really great here at the school, and we have a lot of interesting classes coming up. The Great Ciders of the World class is going to be really interesting. The Mixology class is going to be really amazing. We did a...
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May 2018 Newsletter
I hope you are doing well. I am a bit late with the newsletter this month. Sorry! We've been a little busy renovating the school. I hope you can forgive me. I've enclosed my top wine suggestions, and I've posted a few really cool classes. I think you'll like...
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A Wrinkle in Wine: The Former Chairman Returns. Sort of.
File under: down the rabbit hole we go. Jonathan Newman, the former Chairman of the PLCB is selling wine to Tim Holden, the current PLCB Chairman for the Chairman's Selections Program that Mr. Newman created when he was Chairman. Huh? It's been over a decade since...
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Food and Wine Books 2018
The Complete Sous Vide Cookbook Back in the Iron Age, I worked my way up into an executive chef position. I'm not talking prehistory (that would be a feat) but when all food was cooked using the raw power of hot iron grills under massive exhaust hoods. I...
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Wine School Newsletter for March 2018
MARCH NEWSLETTER ANNOUNCING OUR NEW SOMMELIER CERTIFICATIONS You can now earn a specialized sommelier certification in a single month. This Spring, the National Wine School is unveiling a bold new qualification for the wine trade: the Single Semester Sommelier Program...
read moreSelections from our Wine Cellar
A few wine reviews from our archives.
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