This one's a clean, crisp and ultimately refreshing sparkler that is one of our favorties. Just this year imported to the U.S. and now available for your holiday celebrations! According to Wne Enthusiast: "This sparkler offers a beautiful nose of white flower, orange blossom, curshed peppercorn, talc powder and almond skin. There's a focused sharpness here that helps give the wine definition, staying power and loads of character." (07/09) 

Inventory: Hollywood Main Warehouse Redwood City San Francisco

According to Robert Parker's Wine Advocate: "Castiglione Tinella is a bit off the beaten track for visitors traveling to Piedmont, but it is here in this gorgeous hillside town that some of the most profound Moscatos are found, particularly those of the talented Paolo Saracco. While I generally advise drinking Moscatos young, I have also tasted a number of four to five year-old bottles here that have aged beautifully, although, of course at that age the wines no longer have the sheer charm they did when they were young. Simply put, Saracco is a reference... Read More » 

Inventory: Hollywood Main Warehouse Redwood City San Francisco

An Editors' Choice, Wine Enthusiast: " Very characteristic of the variety, with perfumes of white flower, citrus, lemon soda and drying mineral tones. The wine offers intensity and precision with focused attention on acidity and citric freshness. Try with fried wontons or eggrolls. (07/09) 

Inventory: Hollywood Main Warehouse Redwood City San Francisco

The wine is pale straw in color, with aromas of almond, citrus and a hint of herbs. It is bone dry and finishes with a very attractive hint of apple-skin. This is a knockout everyday bottle of white wine, flavorful enough to stand up to a range of dishes but bright enough to make a good dry aperitif. 

Inventory: Main Warehouse Redwood City

This is the self same grape that goes into Gavi. If you are unfamiliar with the Cortese variety, this is a great place to start. Rich and mouth-filling, with tropical subtle pineapple notes balanced by mineral elements and nice citric acidity. Really, it's got something for everyone and works equally well with food or without. 

Inventory: Redwood City San Francisco

Diego Bolognani is a brilliant and energetic winemaker from Trentino, not far from the Austrian border. His Moscato Giallo (known as gold muskateller in Austria) is hugely aromatic, with ripe peach, white flowers and honeydew melon. This is an outstanding dry example of the varietal, and makes wonderful aperitifs, and is also very good with cured or smoked meats such as the local 'Speck' ham. 

Inventory: Main Warehouse Redwood City

The Bronca sisters grow their own fruit in steep hillside vineyards, then make their own base wine and perform the secondary (sparkling) fermentation three or four times a year (to ensure freshness). Low yields and hillside-grown fruit ensures that the wine has good concentration and acidity, this last necessary to balance the traditional Extra-Dry level of sweetness. (Extra-Dry is slightly less dry than Brut, confusingly. Both terms are used to describe the amount of sweetness in sparkling wines. The Prosecco drunk in Italy is always Extra-Dry; the pear... Read More » 

Inventory: Main Warehouse Redwood City

Collestefano is situated in a hilly belt in the hinterland of the Marches, 420 m above sea-level. This narrow land is watered by the Esino river and bounded on the east and on the west by the mountain range of the Appennini Umbro-Marchigiani (1479 m above sea-level). Not being affected by the mitigating influence of the Adriatic Sea, the region is characterized by a cold, dry microclimate with high temperature ranges, ideal for the growing of Verdicchio di Matelica, which has been grown in this district since ancient times and here ripens late from the s... Read More » 

Inventory: Hollywood Main Warehouse Redwood City San Francisco

91 pionts Robert Parker's Wine Advocate "The 2004 Capo Martino reveals terrific purity, depth and definition in its layers of sweet, ripe fruit, toasted oak, licorice and menthol. With air the wine's frame fills out and the richness of its expression becomes apparent. This blend of 70% Tocai Friuliano, 30% Pinot Bianco, Ribolla, Malvasia and Picolit spent 13 months in Austrian oak tonneaux. Anticipated maturity: 2007-2012." (03/08) 90 points Wine Spectator "Some honey and light almond character, with a hint of toffee. Full-bodied, with good fruit and a ... Read More » 

Inventory: Hollywood Main Warehouse Redwood City San Francisco

Grown on its own roots and vinified and aged in stainless steel, this is a very distinctive example of how delicious Campanian white wines can be. It delivers a crisp minerally character while also showing appealing aromas and flavors of citrus, flowers, and tarragon. This is an excellent seafood wine, and its brineness works incredibly well with olives, especially green ones! 

Inventory: Hollywood Main Warehouse Redwood City San Francisco

The F.lli Lombardo company was founded in 1881 when Giuseppe Lombardo Maltese, a man of endless energy and enthusiasm, and a gifted and resourceful shipbuilder, realized that with his sailing ships he could take the wine of his land, Marsala, all over the world. This particular dry Marsala wine makes for a tasty tipple when served alongside many of the holiday season's treats like pannetone and traditional fruitcake. A blend of catarratto and grillo, it is rich and warm with roasted notes and dried fruit flavors. Also very handy to have in the kitchen fo... Read More » 

Inventory: Main Warehouse Redwood City San Francisco

Ribolla Gialla with a small portion of Friulano and Riesling 

Inventory: Hollywood

Muscat grapes, being particularly aromatic, require a special wine-making technique in order to preserve the fruit's potent fragrance and to create a wine that is light on its feet and a fine accompaniment to fruit- and nut-based desserts. The gently pressed grape juice is kept in refrigerated tanks until it is processed into the autoclave to obtain a sparkling wine by means of a fermentation at controlled temperature, using selected yeasts. 7.10% alcohol, with 95.20 g/l residual sugar. 

Inventory: Hollywood Main Warehouse Redwood City San Francisco

Sweet wine fans need not apply! This Vernaccia from the oft-photographed Tuscan town of San Gimignano is very dry, even a tad sour. But it just this tangy sourness that makes the wine so adaptable with food. Fermented in steel and aged in steel, on the lees, for added complexity. Shows intense fresh fruit aromas with hawthorn and green apples, while the finish is balanced and quite persistent. 

Inventory: Hollywood

90 points Robert Parker's Wine Advocate: "The 2006 Vitovska is incredibly dense and rich in this vintage. This textured white reveals generous fruit in an expansive yet intensely mineral style, with excellent depth and persistence on the palate. There is a lovely baritone register to the fruit, but the wine needs considerable air to be fully appreciated. Anticipated maturity: 2009-2014." (10/09) This is a varietal that most of you are not familiar with. With Kante's delicate hand the structure, distinctive earthy character, power and depth really shine.... Read More » 

Inventory: Hollywood Main Warehouse Redwood City San Francisco

90 points Robert Parker's Wine Advocate: "The 2006 Malvasia emerges with lovely nuance and detail in its aromas and flavors. The Malvasia is made in a more mid-weight, focused style than the VitWow I love this Malvasia, it has such a unique mineral character, it is purposeful, long, complex, delicate and ethereal as well as powerful. How can he do this? Just a wonderful expression of Malvasia Istriana which is a very different grape than Malvasia Bianca, much more focus..." (10/09) Edi Kante's wines come from Friuli but if you don't know the Carso Plate... Read More » 

Inventory: Main Warehouse

Utterly integral to the sumptuously simple dessert Zabaglione, Florio's sweet Marsala is too tasty to be relegated to the back of the pantry. Macerate oranges or really any old fruit in a mixture of this with some added sugar and you'll have an authentic sweet sauce for any kind of cake or pudding. It is also delicious all by itself in a glass! Made from varieties indigenous to Sicily, such as grillo, with some inzolia and catarratto, this wine has been carefully aged for 18 months in Slovenian oak. 

Inventory: Hollywood Redwood City San Francisco

A dash of this dry Marsala in a mushroom risotto can be enlightening. But why stop there? Sicilians will recommend adding a few tablespoons to chicken (or fish) sautéed in olive oil, but it is also an inspiring aperitif when served with cheese (try Sicilian Piacentinu made from sheep's milk and flavored with saffron) and nuts. 

Inventory: Hollywood Redwood City San Francisco

92 points Robert Parker's Wine Advocate (10/09) Such an evocative varietal and such a unique expression, you can't say it's like NZ or Loire or…….. no, It is Carso. Of the 2006 wines I tasted this wine definitely had the most long term potential, it was a cauldron of molten mineral, braised herbs and powerful spice laden aromatics. Aging for me is critical for this wine to reach its full expression and that will be truly, truly something. Try after 2012 or with lots of decanting now. Edi Kante's wines come from Friuli but if you don't know the Carso Pla... Read More » 

Inventory: Hollywood Main Warehouse Redwood City

90 points Robert Parker's Wine Advocate "The 2006 Chardonnay is wonderfully nuanced and expressive. At once delicate, yet fully-flavored, the wine favors an expression of terroir over varietal flavors. This is a beautiful Chablis-like wine from Edi Kante. Anticipated maturity: 2009-2014. " (10/09) Thank you Edi Kante, because of you I think Chardonnay still exists as a grape variety. Potent, oily, full and thick with vibrant focus enlightening the wines size and power, lengthening the mouth feel, simmering, awesome. Edi Kante's wines come from Friuli bu... Read More » 

Inventory: Hollywood Main Warehouse

Volcanic soils make for interesting wines, and many of Campania's famous terroirs are of volcanic origin. Mount Vesuvius is an active volcano just east of Naples, and the organically farmed vineyards of Villa Dora are on the lower slopes of the volcano, inside the national park that surrounds it. The soil, ground-up pumice really, looks like black Grape-Nuts, and the wines are strikingly flavorful and distinctive. There is no known scientific reason why certain minerals in the soil would affect the flavors of the wines grown in that soil, but one taste c... Read More » 

Inventory: Hollywood Main Warehouse Redwood City