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.
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...
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The 10 Best Wines of 2017
The (PLCB) Fine Wine and Good Spirits Edition This past year was a fantastic one for those of us living in Pennsylvania, at least for wine. The first independent wine shops started cropping up all over the state, and a handful of state-run stores finally found their...
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Top Ten Wine Shops in Philly
Buying good wine in Philly can be a challenge. The prices are too damn high. Most of the folks working in the stores know more about Barefoot Cellars than Bordeaux. It would be very reasonable to despair. But don't despair: we have your back. We have compiled the...
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Our Wine Tasting Kit
Each element of our tasting kit is custom designed by the executive director of the school. The package includes a BYO wine bag, a lead-free crystal wine glass, sommelier corkscrew, silver pen, and tasting book. Wine is not included in the kit.
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December Newsletter
The December Newsletter Friends, the holidays are upon us. It's time for all of us to transform into hybrid Santa-Sommeliers. To start off the Holiday newsletter, I've crafted a super-corny jingle for you: Pop the corks and spread the cheer: Let us be part of your...
read moreSelections from our Wine Cellar
A few wine reviews from our archives.
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