About Zodiac House of Wine
Zodiac House of Wine is the new satellite location of R Wine Cellar, the family-owned urban winery in Pittsburgh's Strip District. What began as a commitment to handcrafted wines made with minimal additives now extends outward, like a gentle cosmic swirl loosening at the edges, to our suburban satellite in White Oak, Pennsylvania. Here, those traditions find new expression: through the lens of the zodiac, the change of the seasons, and the connections that form when the right people arrive at the right time.
R Wine Cellar was founded in 2013 by Steve and Kathy Russell and their four children. We are honored to carry these time-tested wines forward while beginning to write a new chapter of our own. We invite you to connect with us through a curated selection of wines from R Wine Cellar: the bottles that inspired this new space and the journey still unfolding. These wines offer a glimpse into the philosophy that shapes Zodiac House of Wine — respect for tradition, patience in process, and the belief that there is a wine for everyone. You just have to sip until you find it.
Our focus here is connection and education through creating space for guests to engage with wine more deeply, visit after visit. And as our own cellar quietly takes shape below, the story is still being written.
Wine has always been about more than what's in the glass. It carries over 9,000 years of history, with roots tracing back to Georgia around 7000 BCE. It is shaped by geology and the lay of the land, guided by meteorology, and expressed through viticulture as vines follow the rhythms of the seasons. Biology enters with yeast, setting in motion the chemical processes of fermentation and preservation. Wine is sensory — from the first splash in the glass, to aroma, to the experience of the first sip. It is cyclical and seasonal, moving from vine dormancy to harvest, from fermentation to aging in barrel and bottle, taking different forms as time unfolds. With the pop of a cork, it becomes celebration, creating moments with family, friends, and self that are etched into memory.
May these wines from R Wine Cellar invite you to slow the spinning, connect deeply with those around you, and engage intentionally with the wine in your glass. We are delighted to have you as part of this evolving story.
Cheers to stories written in the stars!
What are we?
Zodiac House of Wine currently operates as a satellite tasting room, meaning the wines you'll taste today are produced by R Wine Cellar while we establish our own in-house production. This is an intentional first orbit — one that lets us launch our educational tasting events, build community connection, and plan our production based on guest's opinions well before our first batch finishes fermenting.
Wendy Matta
Zodiac House of Wine - R Wine Cellar Satellite Location Manager
I spent over two decades teaching chemistry — training myself and my students to see the world in reactions, bonds, and transformation. To find the beauty in the predictable and the exceptional while respecting both the precision and the kinetics of chemistry. Turns out, that's exactly the right lens for winemaking. A class at Penn State Behrend made that click, and I haven't looked back since. Now, with a PSU Winemaking Certificate and WSET Levels I, II, and III behind me, I left teaching to pursue this dream — and some argue, to finally use chemistry for good.
In 2022, I walked into an interview with Kathy Russell, owner of R Wine Cellar, with a chemistry background, almost no wine service experience, and the nerve to tell her I'd own my own winery someday. She believed me anyway. That conversation is where Zodiac House of Wine really begins.
The fact that I am writing this and sharing this space with you just four short years later can only be attributed to having a dream and having a "little" help from my friends.
My husband Tony has been here from the start, doing the unseen work without expectation, from dishwashing on the busiest shifts to builder and heavy lifter. His faith in me allowed us to close on Zodiac's starter home in January 2026. My longtime friend and fellow retired teacher Cathy Ellis found her niche in the behind-the-scenes work like labeling, inventory and has since had a hand in almost every project, from demolition to production space design. My Penn State classmate Rusty Hewitt arrived at exactly the right moment, with shared winemaking philosophy and a connection that felt less like coincidence and more like a sign. We've started traveling the tristate area in search of the best grapes for our future wines, and each trip has spurred hours of additional research and discussion about microclimates, hybrids, vinifera, fungus, yeast, and all the nerdy stuff that secretly goes into a bottle of wine.
This dream team, along with an entire constellation of friends, family, former and current TJHS students, the R Wine Cellar family, our Facebook Marketplace collaborators, and so many others, has created a space for connection, learning, and celebration. Zodiac House of Wine is more than a tasting room; it is a shared dream. We'd love to share the full story with you over a glass of wine. We hope you'll become part of ours.