James Melendez—who reviews wines as James The Wine Guy—has sampled thousands of wines over nearly two decades. A former...
Archive for category: Feature Stories & Reviews
In June 2025, the political became personal. Our long-time vineyard manager, Moises Sotelo of Novo Start Vineyard Service was...
Wine Time Fridays is a weekly wine podcast hosted by Shelley Webb and Phil Anderson, a couple who have...
We rarely submit our wines for scoring by large publications. As a small, micro-boutique winery, most of the wines...
Anatoli Levine, who writes and reviews wines via his Talk-A-Vino site, checked in with us earlier this year for...
Spring always feels like a reset in the vineyard—and this year, it came with a really fun conversation on...
Husband-and-wife wine reviewers Nathan and Courtney Marton of Winery Reflections just shared their thoughts on the ALMOST SOLD OUT...
It’s that time of the year again! When wine reviewers reflect on the vintages they sampled over the past...
James The Wine Guy (also known as James Melendez) is a wine reviewer, writer, and videographer who has created...
Prolific wine reviewer, writer, and videographer James Melendez — also known as James The Wine Guy — has produced...
The Bells Up Winery Story…
“If you’re this successful in a career that makes you sick, stressed and miserable… how much more successful would you be doing something you love?”
That’s the question Sara asked Dave almost two decades ago, following his mental and physical breakdown from more than a decade as a successful corporate tax attorney. This, while watching Sara’s professional mentor battle pancreatic cancer at age 40.
The answer, for us, was that life is too short to spend unhappy. So we turned the basement hobby that brought Dave joy — winemaking — into Bells Up Winery.
Today — micro-boutique, un-domaine and always open by appointment — Bells Up composes 600 cases annually of handcrafted, classically-styled Oregon Pinot Noir, Rosé, Pinot Blanc, Seyval Blanc, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Schioppettino with grapes sourced exclusively from our estate vineyard and from Summit View Vineyard in Eastern Oregon.