Nick’s Picks – February 2026

Value $99

Discount Price $85

Vignamato Violetta Lacrima - $18

100% Lacrima Grape from Alba, Piedmont, Italy.  Aromatic and accessible, dry and fresh, this more obscure Italian varietal needs no comparison but requires your attention.  Vibrant violet and rose aromas layup to an explosive burst of ripe raspberry flavor on a crunchy and zesty palate of seamless tannin and beautiful acidity.  Easy drinking and delicate with no shortage of mature and complex flavors.

Chateau Bordieu Blaye Cotes de Bordeaux - $16

87% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 3% Cabernet Franc from Bordeaux, France.  Look for inviting flavors of plum and blackberry, with perfectly placed ornaments of cedar and earthy black pepper.  Well integrated smooth tannins and a medium body give this great balance and life, and the ability to maneuver between a nice evening of steak and a glass on its own and everything in between.  Fabulous for the price!

Lobetia Red Blend - $17

Tempranillo and Petit Verdot from La Mancha, Spain.  This full-bodied, fruit-forward red carries great Spanish flare atop even greater structure.  Black cherry compote and black raspberry play even fiddle with dried and smoked sage and a delightful presence of oak in the form of vanilla and leather.  Grippy and present tannin is kept in check by thick textured fruit that make this bottle destined for a cold cozy bundled up evening.

Rough Day Pinot Noir - $17

From Danube River Plains, Bulgaria.  Don’t let the label fool you.  This is bound to please many Pinot camps and for the price we love from Eastern Europe.  A lighter and weightless pinot noir brings pomegranate, raspberry, and jam on toast, with an upturn of savory thyme and charred mushroom flavors brought effortlessly on a palate so vibrant it evaporates off the tongue leaving essence of flavor in a surprising long finish.

Lyric Pinot Noir - $16

From Monterey County, California.  A lush dollop of vanilla ice cream dropped inside a cherry cola float starts off this Cali crowd pleaser, adorned with notes of clove and the slightest tone of oak.  Reinforcements of fruit on the palate plush up this profile only to be balanced out by silky acidity and a crackle of slight dusty tannin.  Indeed a Pinot that can give joy to a crowd and to its host.

Jacques Dumont Sauvignon Blanc - $15

From Loire Valley, France.  Big Sancerre Energy comes out of this bottle without the Big Sancerre price.  Soft pink grapefruit, lime zest, and guava/passion fruit leap from the glass with the slightest hint of green grassiness, all in perfect alchemy.  The first to last sip brings the essence of Loire, with refreshing acidity and fresh light body but with an elegance that is perfectly understated.