James Melendez — also known as James The Wine Guy — is a prolific wine reviewer, writer and videographer. He has produced thousands of thoughtful, wine reviews in video format since November 2006. Passionate about wine and business, Melendez is a former national wine marketing manager for a large, off-premise food and wine retailer.
Recently, he began producing short-format reviews for Instagram and YouTube. These video shorts introduce the producer and his thoughts on the wine’s color, nose, and palate profiles. Melendez also awards scores based on a 100-point scale.
Here’s what he had to say about our 2022 Prelude Estate Rosé:
This is Bells Up Chehalem Mountains Estate Rosé of Pinot Noir. This is called ‘Prelude.’ It’s a ‘22 vintage. Very nicely mid to darker pink carnation colorization. Here’s a back label for you to look at here. 12.8% ABV. You definitely have regions around the world that have a tradition of a darker Rosé colorization like Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo or Bandol or other regions.
The clonal input on this wine is 113, 667 and Pommard. Field strawberry as well as a very nice savory center of microgreens, a hint of fennel, as well as a mineral notation and fresh white flowers. A dry wine with a very nice initial characterization of mountain strawberry, very minute hint of spicing, as well as an ascending character of briny, compacted seashells and floral notation. This wine is 93 points out of 100 points.
Watch the video, here:
