Explore Our Wine Reports

The CWM Wine Report is our opportunity to take a closer, in-depth look at particular varietals, vintages and regions, and to highlight some of the top wines available in our store. With our Reports, we hope to provide our customers with the information necessary to explore and enjoy a number of high-quality wines at ultra-competitive prices.

As always, we focus on obtaining and highlighting wines that, in our opinion, offer the best balance of quality and value. To do this, we offer highly rated wines from around the world, but we also go the extra mile to seek out little known wines from new and exciting wine regions and producers. Many of our wines are small production wines made by family estates, old and new. We believe that these wines offer some of the best values in the wine world.

All wines in our store are 15% off of any 12 or more mix-and-match bottles and 10% off any 6. Call, Email or stop by our store for a mixed case! View our recent Reports below.

2006 Brunello di Montalcino - A Benchmark Vintage
2006 may be the best overall vintage of Brunello di Montalcino since 1997, at least in terms of consistency across producers. I had the opportunity to taste more than two dozen wines from this vintage between January and April, and I am blown away by the quality across the board! Overall, this is an elegant vintage, beginning with very beautiful perfumed aromas in many of the wines. On the palate, the wines show balanced acidity, soft tannins and layered flavors that include wild berries, dark cherry, cassis, blueberry, earth, tobacco and dried flowers.

2008 Oregon Pinot Noir Report (August 2010)
2008 presented near-ideal harvest conditions and created unprecedented anticipation for Pinot Noir in Oregon.  Our staff at City Wine Merchant have already tasted quite a few of the releases and we couldn’t be happier with the ripeness and balance of many of the wines.  Here we discuss some of our favorites and highlight a few of the reasons that make 2008 a special vintage for Pinot lovers. 

2004 Brunello di Montalcino Report (February 2010)
Explore our picks from the great 2004 vintage of Brunello di Montalcino, which has been compared to past great vintages of 1997, 1999 and 2001.  We taste and highlight what we think are some of the best selections for a combination of quality and value, and even discuss some of our favorite "Baby Brunello" picks from the current vintage.

2007 Châteauneuf-du-Pape Report (December 2009)
An in-depth look at the highly sought-after 2007 CDPs. Robert Parker has stated that "Throughout the southern Rhone, 2007 is the greatest vintage I have tasted in my thirty years working in that region." We discuss the reasons and take a look at some of the vintage's highly-regarded wines. Click on the above link to read more about this great vintage.

2007 California Pinot Noir Report (August 2009)
James Laube of Wine Spectator says that 2007 offers "the greatest assortment of outstanding wines in the 25 years I've been tasting and writing about Golden State Pinot." Read why he thinks so, why we think there are some great values, and see some of our favorite selections.