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About Us
Hello and thanks for visiting our site. Our names are Megan and Michael and we are a couple that have shared a keen interest in wine since Megan started working in the wine industry in 2005. Over the past 14 years, we have visited (purely in the name of research, of course....) all of the wine regions in Australia, New Zealand and France as well as the majority of regions in Italy, North America, Spain and Portugal clocking up visits to over 600 cellar doors. We certainly aren't claiming to be wine experts, we'll leave that to the likes of Halliday and Parker, but what we did notice on our travels was that there was no real "one stop shop" for advice or independent reviews of the overall cellar door experience at the many, and varied, cellar doors around the world.
We therefore decided to start this site (putting all of that laborious research to use) where we will share our experience at the cellar door and provide our rating based upon a number of criteria that we have found useful, rather than purely just an opinion on the quality of the wine. That said, one of the criteria we will share is "How many bottles we purchased", which will be an indication of how much we liked the wine (noting that we always like to buy at least one bottle from every place we visit to thank the owners for welcoming us, although sometimes this may not be possible when travelling overseas!) Where applicable, we will also make observations about the food offering, food being another of our passions, but again this will be just one component of the experience.
We will also share with you some of our tips and photo's of the regions and cellar doors, to try and help you get a sense and feel of the places we are describing and ultimately rating and hopefully help you to navigate through the countless cellar door options across some of the world's greatest wine regions.
We therefore decided to start this site (putting all of that laborious research to use) where we will share our experience at the cellar door and provide our rating based upon a number of criteria that we have found useful, rather than purely just an opinion on the quality of the wine. That said, one of the criteria we will share is "How many bottles we purchased", which will be an indication of how much we liked the wine (noting that we always like to buy at least one bottle from every place we visit to thank the owners for welcoming us, although sometimes this may not be possible when travelling overseas!) Where applicable, we will also make observations about the food offering, food being another of our passions, but again this will be just one component of the experience.
We will also share with you some of our tips and photo's of the regions and cellar doors, to try and help you get a sense and feel of the places we are describing and ultimately rating and hopefully help you to navigate through the countless cellar door options across some of the world's greatest wine regions.
About Our Ratings
Our ratings systems is based upon a number of criteria that we found important to our experience in addition to certain things we observed which we felt may be useful to others. These criteria are set out on each of the individual cellar door review pages. We should highlight that our review is purely based upon the experience we had on that particular day (or an average of our experiences if we have visited more than once) and therefore it is possible that the experiences of others will be different to the one we had (I guess we will just need to tough it out and visit them all again to confirm our observations!!) All of the reviews are solely undertaken by the two of us, ensuring consistency of views across the board, although other visitors are welcome to share their own experiences in the comments section of each page on our site.
Based upon these criteria, we have then awarded our experience a "Cellar Door Score" (out of 20), of which up to 10 points relates to staff and overall service, 6 points for setting, atmosphere and comfort and 4 points for value, complementary offerings and range of appeal.
For those that were the most highly rated based upon all of the criteria, we have awarded them a "Cellar Door", with 3 Cellar Doors being the highest rating awarded.
Based upon these criteria, we have then awarded our experience a "Cellar Door Score" (out of 20), of which up to 10 points relates to staff and overall service, 6 points for setting, atmosphere and comfort and 4 points for value, complementary offerings and range of appeal.
For those that were the most highly rated based upon all of the criteria, we have awarded them a "Cellar Door", with 3 Cellar Doors being the highest rating awarded.
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Cellar Door Scores
10 Satisfactory 11 Reasonable 12 Solid 13 Good 14 Very Good 15 Great 16 Excellent |
16 17 17 18 19 20 |
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Marvelous, an excellent tasting and more Superb, all-round experience Outstanding, worth a special trip Brilliant, one of the best Exceptional, an unforgettable experience Best of the best, a must do that has it all |
While there are a number of factors that go into determining whether a "Cellar Door" is awarded, the level of award can be broadly defined as follows:
We also offer a "hidden gem" award to those cellar doors that have something unique or special to offer but don't necessarily have all of the complementary offerings to achieve a door rating. Keep an eye out for Dom in our ratings and he might just guide you to a few hidden gems!
As we continue to visit new cellar doors around the world, or revisit some of our favourites, we will update this site with our reviews, so be sure to check in every now and again or keep an eye out for our alerts on various social media (or via direct updates for subscribers).
- 1 Cellar Door - the cellar door has an outstanding cellar door host/team, broad ranging appeal and a very high level and standard of complementary offerings and facilities
- 2 Cellar Doors - the cellar door offers all that of a ”1 door” cellar door, but has a greater level of the complementary offerings and facilities under consideration
- 3 Cellar Doors - the cellar door offers all that of a ‘2 door’ cellar door, but has all of the complementary offerings and facilities under consideration and also has something unique or unforgettable (i.e., a real “wow” factor) that sets it apart from other cellar doors and makes it a destination in itself
We also offer a "hidden gem" award to those cellar doors that have something unique or special to offer but don't necessarily have all of the complementary offerings to achieve a door rating. Keep an eye out for Dom in our ratings and he might just guide you to a few hidden gems!
As we continue to visit new cellar doors around the world, or revisit some of our favourites, we will update this site with our reviews, so be sure to check in every now and again or keep an eye out for our alerts on various social media (or via direct updates for subscribers).
We have also introduced some quick reference icons to help you narrow down your desired cellar door by region. Our new quick reference icons are:
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Cellar door caters well to large bus group
Cellar door has a fireplace Cellar door has a food offering Cellar door provides free tastings Cellar door has toys, etc for kids Cellar door is dog friendly |
We hope you enjoy!
Please note: Bottle price range quoted is for 750ml bottles in local currency for consistency and approximate delivery costs refer to delivery within the cellar door's home country. Also, whilst we endeavour to ensure administrative information such as opening times, credit cards accepted, etc are as accurate as possible, we suggest you refer to the wineries own website (linked through the heading of each page) to confirm this information if you are planning a visit.
Please note: Bottle price range quoted is for 750ml bottles in local currency for consistency and approximate delivery costs refer to delivery within the cellar door's home country. Also, whilst we endeavour to ensure administrative information such as opening times, credit cards accepted, etc are as accurate as possible, we suggest you refer to the wineries own website (linked through the heading of each page) to confirm this information if you are planning a visit.