Wine Discovered

In the course of our travels through many of California's wine regions and wineries, we often come across delicious bottles of wine and it is our desire to share these finds with you. Some of the small to medium vineyards we visit are far from the well-traveled wine path, so you may find you simply don't get the opportunity to go there yourself. Ah, but you are missing out on some great bottles of wine and PinoVino is proud to tell you about them!

You can't necessarily find wines from small to medium vineyards in stores because they may not be available through large distribution wholesalers and thus be found in your local wine store. But don't fret! There's still a good chance you can buy those wines direct from the cellar door.

Small to medium vineyards have a great advantage over the larger high-volume wine producers because they:

• Can harvest their vines when optimum conditions prevail - not as part of a production schedule
• Can "fruit" manage, i.e. green harvesting and/or pruning; excessive grape yields can lack character
• Do not produce the enormous volumes demanded by large retail chains on demand

Although some of the wines we review may be selected from larger producers, often these wines are released on a limited basis due to small production and/or specialized varietals.

If you're thinking, how can I find a bottle of wine from a producer I've never heard of, simply go to the advanced search page and enter a varietal you like such as Shiraz and see what comes up. We recommend you browse through the list and see what looks interesting and/or new to you....everyone will pick out something different.

My personal love of wine has provided me with the experience and understanding of the wine making process from vine to bottle. While I sold wine in the Texas market a couple years ago, I was exposed to a wide variety of wines from all over the world. At that time, I wrote hundreds of wine reviews that I penciled into in a small six-ring green plastic binder. My notes were cryptic, but only I was reading them. I used those reviews to make recommendations to my customers, friends and family.

When I developed PinoVino, I decided to expand my reviews and standardize my review process so anyone, from the professional to the amateur wine lover, who gets frustrated by the endless array of wines available at stores that only seem to differentiate themselves by price - which is no way to judge a bottle of wine - can benefit. There are plenty of delicious bottles that are reasonably priced, you just need to know what they are and where you can get them.

So, come along with us and find out which of those hidden wineries you may have never heard of before have incredible offerings. We buy our favorites, bring them home and review them to share them with you!

Tasting and selection process

Our Wine Discovered tasting process is at the heart of PinoVino. You can be confident that the wine reviews we offer have been assessed by an expert tasting panel: us. Read more...