Category: about

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.

This month I decided to take a non-wine centric approach to what I decided to review. The turn of the colder months are a time of preparation for the indoors, for finding ways of being warm — for finding means of  comfort until sunnier times lengthen to fill our days — so I directed my efforts toward a simple but nostalgic new challenge that I somehow have yet to take up until this point: Homemade Chicken and Rice Soup.

Luckily I work in a place that allows me to take up some simple and basic recipe on Reddit and give some personality and life to it. I get to really spice things up, if you will allow me the bad pun (I’ll show myself out, thanks…).

Ahem.. Anyway… In this experiment I went back and forth between just using the egg noodles i had in my cupboard at home or trying to figure out the magic behind rice staying firm in soup without over cooking it. I figured you have to try to mess up cooking egg noodles, and also I apparently had not taken time to fully grasp how rice works, especially quality rice. Luckily, and with the influence of my work allowance to take liberty with food experimentation, I went with the later option of a good, quality rice: Lotus Foods Volcano Rice.

Of the options available to me at BELLA, I chose this mostly for the aesthetic of the beautiful coloration, grains ranging from brick red to white, and how it would look in the bowl of my finished product. Being as how I hadn’t taken the time to enjoy the privilege of this medium grain delight, I had no idea what I was in for. The aroma alone of the small batch I made prior to the soup, my baseline rice test, was something different than the normal cooked jasmine rice I’m generally accustomed to. There is an extra sense of heartiness to the general smell, not quite as exotically distinct as basmati, but rich nonetheless. The texture and bite it has, though, is as big and firm and texturally pleasing as its Pakistani/Indian cousin. It gets its name from being grown in volcanic soil, and it pulls every last ounce of minerally flavor from there as well. Honestly, I could eat a whole bowl of this rice sans seasoning or protein, it packs that much goodness.

Adding it to the soup, with far more than the recommended amount of water per cup, did not take away from this experience at all. The bite and texture and minerality were all still just as present and were absolutely complimentary to everything else added to the soup. And for the record, the aesthetic I was shooting for in the finished bowl was above and beyond what I envisioned.

Another huge part of the soup experience, in my opinion, from a mostly tasting only perspective, is seasoning. You have to add something else  to the mix besides salt, otherwise why not just crack open a can of Campbell’s and call it good. This may seem like I’m being a bit hyperbolic, because I am (it’s a hobby of mine), but in all reality, you can have all the great free range this and organic that on whatever plate, but if you don’t add the right amount and kind of spice and seasoning to a dish, is what you’re doing with that food even self care? 

Growing up just on the Oklahoma side of the Oklahoma/Arkansas border, my favorite memory of being brought up in a region close enough to the influence of true Southern culture has hands down got to be the food. Heat, of all culinary definitions, smoke, and spice were how you knew things were created and slow cooked with care and love. If you grew up in a household where your grandmother was raised in middle Tennessee, you learned that liquor wasn’t just what was in Crazy Uncle Roy’s cup at the dinner table. Chances were that there was Jack or Jim Beam in a sauce or glaze and amaretto or rum in the baked dessert. When I came across the Bourbon Smoked Citrus Pepper I knew I had to put this in the recipe I was trying to bring life to. 

When you open this 2 ounce puck of spice, you are met IMMEDIATELY with, in my case, an overly inviting fragrance of cracked pepper, warm orange peel, and mesquite bourbon barrel wood smoke. The pepper corns are quarter cracked, so the generous amount of texture you get with the abundant flavor is beyond pleasing to the tactile sensory pickups in the mouth, and everything is tied together with a familiar warm note of garlic and the balancing sweetness of onion that rounds out the makeup of this near perfect seasoning. It, added in with the Nashville seasoning from Spiceologist, and just a dash (or three) of chili powder, brought the broth alive with both spicy warmth and a familiarity that I miss from time to time when I am needing that taste of my roots to comfort me.

What else could be added to a menu of comfort food that fits this bill better than fresh baked bread? Soberdough makes a whole line of appetising just-add-beer bread dough mixes, and honestly it took more than one trip to the display to settle on my final choice of the Hatch Green Chile and Cheddar. I like the heat, what can I say? Although it does give the option of just adding soda water as a nonalcoholic alternative, I chose to stick with the “pale ale” suggestion and picked up a Pfriem Golden IPA to make the dough. The Pfriem choice was an easy one to go with because if the Hood River brewers know anything, its how to brew an exceptionally balanced beer. Knowing that this IPA, naturally hoppy by nature, was more toward the bright, almost citrusy, rather than super piney, in flavor, it wasn’t going to over influence the flavor of the bread but most likely add to the overall experience. From start to finish (open the bag, mix in the measured 12 oz of beer, put in the oven) the feeling of accomplishment that comes with smelling fresh baked bread, regardless of how much actual work went into the process, is something that can bring a smile to anyone’s face and heart.

The cheddar part of the recipe isn’t included in the bag of mix, and for this go around, I decided to forgo adding it in. I wanted to make sure my bread was going to stay true to form with its crusty outside and soft interior that would be ready to dip in and soak up the broth and flavor of the soup without any interference of the sharpness (i like my cheddar so sharp you sould cut yourself on it) of the cheese influencing the bite. I did add a touch of shredded parm on top to give a bit of salty crunch to the top crust, but nothing more. The chiles inside matched the smokiness of the citrus pepper and Nashville seasoning beautifully. I seriously considered just having a cup of broth and bread for a snack later that night.

No allowance review sheet is complete without at least one wine:

Biutiful Malbec – Mendoza 2018

A couple of severely over simplistic reasons went into choosing this wine for tasting: 1. I had roughly $24 and change left to work with, and 2. It had a picture of a chrysalis hanging from a branch on it. I figured with the year 2020 has been for the living and waking world, the destruction of the caterpillar and the formation of a butterfly in a seasonal hardened (s)hell was a perfect metaphor for the hope I wanted to see ahead. So yes, I got suckered into this bottle by label shopping (I regret nothing!!), and let me tell you, I am super glad that I did.

From the first pour, the deeeeeep, inky purple color of the wine in glass is absolutely stunning. It’s not just opaque for the sake of being opaque. Rather, it has an almost elegance to how it just pulls in and drowns the light. The nose is full of big black fruit, namely ripe berries and hints of plum at first pour that deepen as it opens up. The body is full without being too big, has a richness to it without being over decadent (or, i guess in this non-dessert wine’s case, jammy). This is a wine to not share. This is a wine that deserves your attention but gives you the space to reflect on where you’re at in life. I very much recommend having a nice cut of beef and a Neal Gaman novel close by to pair with this most definitely underpriced Argentinian vino.