Very deep, bright red/purple colour, with a superbly ripe, fruit-driven bouquet displaying ripe mulberries and blackberries, with traces of raspberry and violets - and barely a glimpse of leafy pyrazines, although the ripe fruit conveys undeniable cabernet varietal character. The palate is medium to full-bodied and firm of tannin, a thread of sinew, with all things in perfect balance. Superb cabernet.

A superb wine of great depth and dimension, without any crushed-leaf greener-spectrum cabernet notes or gumleaf-mint. Dark fruits, black olives, earthy and mysterious with lashings of fine-grained tannins, excellent texture and persistence. 

Deep, dense, red/purple colour with a black tinge, the bouquet oaky and blackberry-scented, and the oak is smoky and charred. The wine is concentrated, deep and compact, the tannins and flavours dense and packed. The wine is powerful and searing, the finish long and satisfying. This really has a lot of stuffing. A serious cabernet, well worth cellaring. 

A robust and concentrated aroma of ripe mulberries, blackberries, dark chocolate and tar. A generous, intense, and opulent palate with plentiful fine tannin and balanced acidity. It is a bold, full-bodied wine that has been very well-made, and it will cellar long into the future

1971 plantings in Clarendon, which is a very beautiful part of South Australia, and indeed, the world.Violet, tobacco and earth, black fruits and a little pepper. Full bodied, fleshy and flavoursome, with a juicy core of black and blue fruit, a wonderful chompy set of tannin, balanced acidity, and a succulent and savoury finish of considerable length. Here’s a wine! Took me about one minute to form the opinion that it’s an absolute beauty. That tannin on the finish, too. Yes.

One of the stars of our recent regional tasting. Serious, brooding bouquet of red and black berries, briar, clove and cinnamon wood as subtle backdrop, bitter dark chocolate, just a whiff of Aussie bush character. Beauty. Medium weight, glides gloriously and evenly across the palate, a quiet lake of dark fruit, spice, wood, swirls of graphite-like tannins. It’s superb. Shuts you up.

Dark garnet with a purple hue; while the aromatics are lively, the palate has clamped shut, no matter the hallmarks of a superb wine are here. Fragrant cassis, tobacco, black olives, eucalypt and black plums dipped in chocolate with some fruit sweetness getting through on the firm palate, but the tannins are powdery yet intense and the oak (70% new) a little unforgiving. Come back to this in '0925.

Black raspberry, damp thyme and white pepper make for a brilliantly fresh while intoxicatingly herby nose on this singlevineyard expression. The palate sticks to that story, offering crisp pomegranate alongside thyme, marjoram and more white pepper.

Fresh black-raspberry aromas meet with pinches of thyme and sage on the nose of this herby bottling, which also shows a wet gravel minerality. The fresh berry flavors mix with peppercorns, thyme and eucalyptus on the complex and intriguing palate, which finishes with a boost of acidity.

From a site planted in 1995 to a myriad of clones, Three Jacks is richly woven in a mix of tropical pineapple, succulent peach and crème brûlée. The mix contrasts well, offering both richness and juicy freshness, compelling in the glass in lengthy tension and grace.

From a late-ripening site in the cool, windy Sebastopol Hills, Jennifer’s gives off a rounded richness and voluptuous texture, alongside flavors of pear compote and baking spice. Classically structured and racy, it has undeniable weight and concentration that taste unexpectedly light on the palate.

A tempting fresh-bread aroma tops this ripe, buttery and creamy-textured wine that is medium bodied and beautifully concentrated. It offers complexity of flavor, as notes of earth and mineral join in, and a rich lingering finish. Built to improve with age, it should keep gaining through at least 2028.

This elegant, superbly balanced wine offers tempting, just-ripe fruit flavors on a medium to full body, and has a lively, slightly grippy mouthfeel that showcases the vivid redand black-cherry flavors and subtle baking-spiceaccents. Best through 2027.

Santa Barbara: An In-Depth Look at the 2018sThe 2018 Pinot Noir Radian Vineyard is a total rockstar. Deep, resonant and luxurious in its beauty, the 2018 possesses tremendous texture and exceptional balance. Red/purplish fruit, lavender, licorice and blood orange build as the 2018 shows off its layered personality. More than anything else, the Radian is a Pinot built on depth and a real sense of volume. Don't miss it.

Santa Barbara: An In-Depth Look at the 2018sThe 2018 Pinot Noir Rita's Crown Vineyard shows all the natural intensity and depth that are such signatures in this rugged district within the Sta. Rita Hills. Black cherry, plum, hard candy, lavender, menthol, licorice and graphite all run through the Rita's Crown. Readers will find a deep, potent Pinot endowed with tremendous depth and structure.

It’s not always easy to find a new release Pinot Noir with a little bit of bottle age, but here it is. La Crema’s 2016 vintage from the iconic Saralee’s Vineyard offers a Pinot of uncommon depth and complexity, shows beautifully integrated tannins and it’s ready to drink now. Complex notes of raspberry, strawberry and cherry come together in a dazzling display of Russian River Valley Pinot Noir at its very best.

Noir indeed - this lovely light-bodied, juicy wine is a voyage of discovery by the intrepid Peter Fraser. The grapes were mechanically sorted 50% whole berries, wild-fermented, 14-16 days on skins, matured for 6 months in used French oak. A wonderfully different wine, welcoming investigation, not hiding anything. 62% grenache, 15% shiraz, 12% mourvedre, 6% carignan, 3% cinsaut and 2% counoise.

It's impossible to bypass the southern Rhone Valley in writing about this wine with its blend of grenache, mourvedre, shiraz, cinsaut, carignan and counoise. Autosuggestion of course, but its ultra-fragrant bouquet crosses into that of the garrigue, the juicy palate bubbling with similar flavours. Such value.

The 2018s from Santa Barbara CountyMoving to the reds, the 2017 Pinot Noir Truly Rita comes from the Dierberg-Drum Canyon Vineyard in the Sta. Rita Hills. Its medium ruby hue is followed by rocking notes of black raspberry and wild strawberry fruits, notes of flowery incense, and subtle marine-like minerality. These carry to a beautifully textured, ripe, balanced Pinot Noir that has everything you look for from this appellation. It's going to evolve for a solid decade.

The 2018s from Santa Barbara CountyI loved the 2018 Pinot Noir Solomon Hills, which shows the pure, elegant, fruit-driven style of this vineyard beautifully. Pure raspberry and strawberry fruits, lots of flowers and sappy herb notes, medium-bodied richness, bright acidity, and background oak all make for a brilliant Pinot Noir to enjoy over the coming 7-8 years.

The 2018s from Santa Barbara CountySpiced cherries, strawberries, sappy flowers, and hints of gamey, foresty notes all emerge from the 2018 Pinot Noir Sta. Rita Hills, and it's medium-bodied, elegant, and seamless on the palate. This stunning value should be snatched up by readers.

The 2018s from Santa Barbara CountyThe darker ruby/plum-hued 2018 Pinot Noir 3D offers more forest floor, gamey herbs, salted meat, and assorted mulled red and black fruits notes as well as a richer, medium to full-bodied, beautifully textured style on the palate. It's a big, rich, seamless Pinot Noir that excels on its texture and balance.

The 2018s from Santa Barbara CountyPure lemon, honeysuckle, caramelized stone fruits, iodine, and toasted almond notes emerge from the 2018 Chardonnay Machado. This medium-bodied beauty has bright, juicy acidity, terrific balance, and a great finish. As with all of Greg's wines, it's accessible today yet has another decade or prime drinking.

The meat, the bones, the sinew, the pucker, seems to be a theme for the top flight reds of Yangarra. The soils kept alive with biodynamic activity, a plot here set aside for this wine. Holds 35% new oak but smells a bit more, tastes a bit less. This is beautiful, held to medium weight but with a cornucopia of spice an absolute and dominating feature. Garam masala, Chinese five spice, paprika in there and a dash of white pepper, it’s hauntingly scented and flavours are fresh albeit doused in this souk. Ripe and dark fruit characters, a touch of rum n raisin, dried plum and earthy berries. Shale-like minerality here too. Magnificent length unfurling over layers of fine, silty tannin and cool, faintly herbal acidity. Shapeless but tight, lacy and yet stacked with flavour, this is such a great shiraz.

Aged in all French oak, 56% of it new, Dina Arata’s old-vine site contributes soft supple waves of mocha, coffee and black-cherry-berry flavors. Juicy lengthy tannins and generous oak give it power and substance within a graceful buoyancy and lasting freshness.