Author: the BELLA crew

June 1st, 2026

For more information or to select any gift on this registry, visit either BELLA location or email us at bellabakercity@gmail.com

Get your tickets now – this promises to be one of the most delicious wine events of the year!

Joy’s reviews for AUGUST 2025

Champagne Tassin $49.95

A Champagne lover’s Champagne, and I absolutely love it! Loads of heady bubbles and an extremely long lasting effervescence. To taste, we have golden apple, cream, and toasted almonds, with just a hint of lemon zest and a faint salinity. You can’t go wrong pairing it with oysters, but I loved it with risotto, or anything with parmesan.

Montgermont Cremant de Borgougne, Blanc de Noirs $22.95

It’s not often I wish I could grab a winemaker and hug them, but this cremant made me want to do just that. This wine is stunning! Think raspberry, black currant and toast, with just a little violet from the Gamay make for a bubbly with loads of complexity. Fine bubbles and a very good structure all come together to make this a must have wine for the summer!

Illahe P. Gris $22.95

One of my favourite Oregon winemakers, Illahe has lived up to their reputation for producing extremely lively wines. On the nose, I got vanilla, chamomile and weirdly, caramel, with just a hint of zest underneath to prepare you for what comes next. To taste, lime zest, green apple, shell, and just a little cantaloupe. That push and pull is what I really love about this wine, and having it with some excellent chicken piccata didn’t hurt either.

Aresca Barolo Costoreca $29.95

Summertime means grilling beef for me, and grilling beef means Barolo. Stellar and at a very good price, this one does not disappoint. On the nose we have tart cherry, licorice, and a little rose. To taste, Pomegranate comes to the fore, with cherry, leather and a hint of earthenware. Very well balanced, with a bright, acidic front and a long, silky tannin finish. I had it with chili lime flank steak, but Tagliata is always a winner as well.

Schiavenza Barbera d’Alba $22.95

A delightfully tasty wine from one of my favourite regions. Think ripe blackberries, black cherry, and pomegranate, with tomato leaf showing off the varietal’s herbier side. Well balanced, beautiful colour and a lovely mouthfeel overall. For pairing, think pizza night, burgers, or pasta, this one is the friend of the quick dinner!

Mise en place: wine, art, and the folks we choose to gather with

A French term for ‘everything in it’s place’, this phrase has resonated in our thoughts as we worked with Steve Brooks, owner of Trust Cellars, to create this wine to commemorate the beginning of our 29^th year and to honor those who helped BELLA along the way.

Sarah Wynn (the local artist responsible for our fabulous windows, the mural on the sidewalk in 2020, and our newest stickers and postcards) is the creator of the 12 paintings chosen for our wine labels. Each case of the BELLA Syrah will include 12 different pieces of art. Our goal was to create a wine that captures the essence of BELLA- of beauty, bounty and gratefulness – and to make every bottle even more memorable with beautiful art. The peaches and blue skies (above) is one of the 12 labels.

The wine: near the rocks and from the hills

Most of the grapes for our Syrah come from Francisca’s Vineyard, just a hop and a skip north of the Oregon border and ‘The Rocks’ District. This tiny (7 acre) Walla Walla vineyard was planted in 2001 at 1000 feet elevation near the base of the Blue Mountains. That elevation meant everything in 2022 as it was above the freeze which decimated a lot of Walla Walla vines. This vineyard is both LIVE certified (low impact viticulture) and Salmon Safe, both indicators of the care and dedication to producing high quality fruit without the mechanical and chemical interventions used in large operations. The soil here is ‘periglacial sediment’ meaning mostly sand and silt with a small amount of clay.

There is also Syrah from ‘The Hills’ (as the Rattlesnake Hills AVA would like to be known) belnded into our wine. Portteus vineyard is one of the oldest in the area near Zillah, Washington- the first vines planted in 1981! ‘The Hills’ are well known for the fact that the ridge (yes, Rattlesnake Ridge) protects the vines from the freezing drafts that waft down from Canada. The elevation is also key to that long, slow development that you’ll taste in the glass – this vineyard is known for its undertones of allspice, black pepper and berries as well as the classic smokehouse and dried roses you’ll often see in Rhone Valley Syrah.

Our tasting notes:

Right out of the bottle, this wine tells the story of it’s ‘place’; the terroir, the weather and gentle winemaking. Our BELLA Syrah captures all of what we’ve come to love about Walla Walla Syrah! Huge floral bouquet, heavy on the violets and sweet, ripe marionberries. Classic notes of anise and a touch of warm vanilla on the finish, deep crimson color – intense and completely opaque. As it develops, berry flavors expand with boysenberry notes and weave themselves together with French herbs including sage. It is gorgeous right now, but as we’ve seen with Steve’s wines, this should continue to improve over the next decade (as will BELLA!)

This wine will have it’s debut on our anniversary, May 14th. Please join us at BELLA Main St. Market in Baker City between 4:30-6:30 to taste our BELLA Syrah and meet Sarah Wynn, the artist.

TBJ Gourmet’s Uncured Bacon Jam Let me open this with the preface of saying that growing up on the edge of the American South, with all of its famous culture and, ahem, hospitality, it is a wonderful place to be FROM. But with that said, TBJ Gourmet’s Classic Uncured Bacon Jam gave me a quick reminder of the things that I truly do miss from my being raised in Southeast Oklahoma, most of which are food related in one way or another. If you have ever been to a region of the world where Bar-B-Q means more than throwing hot dogs on a propane grill, you, too, will be able to appreciate this accoutrement. With a subtle but rich cherry, smoke, and brown sugar presence, this “jam” has all the sauce to make any seasoning or marinade its added to feel like its been cooked, as they say in any Texas-Style BBQ joint: “low and slow”. This spread makes sweet-n-savory not just a welcomed addition, but something that you build a meal experience around. Next time you are in our Baker City locale, grab yourself a jar of this, a pound of the wagyu ground beef*, some Kerrygold Dubliner Cheddar, make yourself some coleslaw and pile it all on a kaiser roll with some Jo-Jo’s and a pickle spear on the side and tell me it’s not the best damned “bacon” cheeseburger experience you’ve had. I double-dog dare you. For those on the breakfast side of culinary adventure seeking, grab a bag of Birchbender’s Buttermilk (or Gluten Free) pancake mix and add a tablespoon of this into the batter and then cook. Don’t forget the Vermont Maple B syrup to drizzle on top of your shortstack (or if you’re like me, to drown your pancakes in). It’s definitely a wonderful addition to any meal that not only bookends a day, but everything in between. In the south, bacon is basically a seasoning. This is a little bit of a homecoming for me in that sense and is a concept I implore you to adopt as well by just dabbing a bit here, there, and everywhere.

Bunches and Bunches Fire Roasted Green Chile Sauce Moving forward in the same vein of having a product that enhances the opening and closing meals of your day, this chile sauce will turn no matter what style of egg, chicken, or pork dish you fancy into a smokey zest fest!! With three different types of fire roasted chile there is a well rounded depth and balance of just the right amount of peppery warmth with the great capsicum fruit flavor one would expect from a well crafted, hand made expression of love that the folks at Bunches & Bunches have gifted the world. Everything, literally everything, that we carry of theirs is a smash hit, no matter if you are needing sweet or savory. This is no exception. Maybe it’s left over food culture that I have brought with me in my genes to the Pacific Northwest, but adding heat notes to any dish is almost as much of a compulsive requirement as having a cold beer for yard work on a hot summer day. And a little bit of this sauce goes a long way in doing just that. So far my absolute favorite use for this is a tablespoon of this drizzled atop an omelette with sauteed spinach, Delallo roasted red pepper bruschetta, and fresh grated parmigiano reggiano folded inside. Also, try adding this to top your chicken enchiladas for a whole other level of depth to the classic family favorite.

Cantine Vincenzo Ippolito Liber Pater, Ciro DOC Located in the ball of the foot in the Mediterranian stiletto boot that is Italy, Ippolito is the oldest wine producer in Calabria, growing grapes and producing wine for 5 generations. With 15 different labels under their helm, they rightly named this bottle, made 100% from Gaglioppo, after the Italic god of Wine, Liber Pater (The Free Father for us who barely have grips on the one language). With an ancient grape make-up and tannins that command your respect to allow them to settle for a bit, this full bodied red wine expresses pretty straight forward with a prominent cranberry and raspberry presence that doesn’t so much evolve with much complexity as the pour opens up, but rather gets a bit deeper as exposure plays its part. The weight of the body and its counterbalance of brighter red fruit flavors lends itself to being something that could be enjoyed comfortably into the late spring or early summer without feeling like its impeding on white wine season. Be sure to allow this big boi decant for at least 30 minutes before enjoying. Matter of fact, pop this cork out as you are beginning to prep dinner. By the time those steaks are done resting after the sear or the chicken off the flame kissing grill, these complimentary vino will be 1000% ready for any and all imbibing purposes.