Blended with 9% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc and 6% Petit Verdot, this wine offers firm structure and strong tannins. With more than two years in French oak, it unfurls into waves of earthy dried herb, cedar and peppercorn,
with a chalky texture of crushed rock.

This charming, light-colored and well-balanced wine offers the balance of a Pinot Noir with light tannins and good acidity as well as some of the tangy, mouthwatering qualities of Sangiovese. Enjoy this rarity (in California) for its focus, lively texture and subtle cranberry and black-tea flavors.

Rounded aromas of apricot, peach, salted butter and citrus pith emerge on the nose of this three-barrel bottling. A light sandalwood flavor shows on the sip along with lemon peel, wet earth and more savory sea-salt elements.

The aromas appeal, with notes of powdered cinnamon, red cherry, strawberry, clove and spice. A full-feeling, flavorful palate follows, redolent with dark fruit. The spice accents play well off them.

Cinnamon stick, cherry, cedar, cola, wood spice and licorice aromas lead to fuller-feeling fruit and barrel barrels. Coffee notes linger on the finish. It mixes fruit and barrel throughout.

A yellowish pink in the glass, this Pinot Noir-based rosé offers strawberry, apricot and light honey-nut aromas on the nose. The palate has a tropical, banana-like flavor, with decent textural tension.

With a spice box of woody oak, ginger and the richness of baked apricot, this wine presents as heavier than it is. There’s only moderate acidity to help balance.

15 Show-Stopping American Wines for Under $20
If you're hosting this holiday season, you'll want to keep these bottles in heavy rotation.
2018 Nielson Santa Barbara County Pinot Noir
The black-tea aromatics and spicy berry flavors of this Santa Barbara County Pinot give it a complexity and depth that make it taste like a bottle that costs substantially more than it does.

Large-scaled but sleek in profile, with boysenberry, açaí and loganberry pâte de fruit notes that are brightly defined and inlaid with a violet, anise and graphite spine, which lets the fruit just sail through. Shows serious grip, too, but it's well-buried in the fruit. Best from 2024 through 2040.

Seriously packed, with dense black currant, plum and blackberry fruit flavors embedded with prodigious grip, this manages to have a sleek and well-defined feel. Reveals a long iron spine and flashes of anise and violet in the background. A lovely combination of power and purity. Best from 2024 through 2040.

Rumbles along with dark plum, black currant and blackberry reduction notes carried by a slightly chunky structure, with tar, dark tobacco and sweet bay leaf supporting the finish. Youthfully rugged and begging for some cellaring, but everything is there. Best from 2024 through 2038.

Delivers a gorgeous, generous mix of velvety dark chocolate-covered cherry, red licorice and mocha as well as hints of fresh mint, huckleberry and boysenberry at the core. This wine's power is matched by refinement and a long, expressive finish, where spicy notes linger. Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz. Drink now through 2035.

Very dark and winey in profile, with steeped plum,blackberry and boysenberry fruit flavors laced withlicorice snap, bramble and apple wood. A tarry noteunderscores the finish, while the fruit drips. A big winebalanced by inner purity. Best from 2024 through 2038.

Stunning, with incredible vibrancy and concentration to the orange sherbet, lemon curd and ruby grapefruit flavors at the core. Features fresh-grated ginger, lemon thyme and salted melon on the finish. Drink now.

Halloween Candy and Wine Pairings You're Sure To Fall In Love With
A rich, oak filled and vanilla spiced California Chardonnay is a big wine to pair with any food. As far as candy pairings, it especially tastes great with Butterfingers. The crispy buttery layers inside the chocolate melt in your mouth with each sip of Chardonnay. You can also try Candy Corn as an additional pairing. The acidity in the wine breaks down the Candy Corn to a creamy and sugary delight.
SPLURGE! Penner Ash Chardonnay 2020

Located on the steep north facing slopes of the Warramate Ranges, the Sexton Vineyard is exposed and demanding. Being on the higher slopes, topsoil is thin and root systems have established themselves in shallow gravelly loams above a tough rocky clay base. Bunch yields set naturally low in this environment, resulting in intensely flavoured fruit with high skin to juice ratio.
The 2020 season was a bit of a rollercoaster and the cool Spring delivered very low yields across the Chardonnay blocks, primarily driven by tighter, smaller bunches – the consequence of which is naturally high acidity and fresh savoury flavours. Expect to be greeted with a fabulous nose of mixed citrus, sorbet and peach cobbler, while toasted nuts and aromas in abundance on the palate.

2018 Le Désir has a dark inky appearance with a violet hue that extends to the rim. The compelling characteristics of Cabernet Franc are expressed on the nose and palate with flavours of crunchy cranberry, ripe raspberry, red currant, dried sage, crushed mint, and cinnamon bark, followed by spice cake, subtle vanilla liquor, and singed toast. The persistent finish and bright acidity suggest the wine will continue to evolve in the cellar for many years to come.

Ripe plums, black cherry liquor and dried cassis provide sumptuous aromas while hints of orange peel, toasted allspice, fresh cinnamon bark and dried tea leaf beckon. A velvety, Merlot-driven mid-palate slowly opens into a multi-layered bouquet of red fruit, toasted baking spices, truffle and coffee bean. An iron-rich minerality provides a taut, complex structure, while fine-grained tannins and firm acidity grip the palate to sustain a long and elegant finish. This classic expression of Saint-Émilion offers a dual brightness and sophistication that will continue to improve for years to come.

A very serviceable and pleasing white wine with a softer fruit and green profile that should satisfy white wine drinkers who don’t gravitate towards Chardonnay or a more pungent style of Sauvignon Blanc.

Can there be a more comforting white wine than a California Chardonnay? Bring on the arguments, but when push comes to shove it’s near impossible to outdo the coddled joy preferred from a bottle of sun-kissed, robust Cali Chard. As Exhibit A see Freemark Abbey’s quintessential Napa Valley Chardonnay. Oozing ripeness and flavours of tropical and stone fruit, this rich white also does not shy away from evident oak influence — adding layers of wood toast and spice. Texture abounds in this rich but lively Chardonnay, which finishes with a lingering kiss of more peach and citrus.
Bottom line: B+, Comforting, classic Chard.

The Mt. Brave similarly takes a lot of time to really come out of its shell. The modestly boastful nose includes black cherry, muddled strawberry, black licorice, mulling spice, and black plum. Full bodied with broad, lush, and finely grained tannins and juicy acid, the youthful structure and significant chew and depth indicates a long positive evolution ahead. Flavors include salty plum, cigar tobacco, dark cherry, blackberry, tar, and cassis. Far too young to fully enjoy right now, I wouldn’t touch this until at least 2026 and can easily see it reaching the height of its evolution around 2030.

The nose of the La Jota is at half mast, showing sweet blackberry and plum, black currant, blueberry, and clove. Full bodied, the structure is a nice combination of precise acid and broad and soft tannin. The longer it’s in the mouth, the more grit and chew that develops (and becomes mouth coating). Red plum and cherry, blackberry, raspberry, violet, tamari, and black tea are all pronounced in the flavor profile. This shows, if barely, primary development and is one to cellar for at least seven or eight years, if not fifteen to twenty if you can wait that long.

Pale straw in the glass with lemon curd and vanilla in the glass. Yum. The palate is similar, with plenty of fruit and that vanilla aspect, but there is also a boatload of acidity, which serves to hold it all together. Yes, Copain is now a part of a corporate conglomerate, but the wines continue to perform at a very high level. Very nice. Excellent.

Mid-weight, middle of the California stylistic road taken, a cabernet sauvignon amalgamated from many sources crafted in a square peg through a square hole way. Nothing forced, taken for granted, nor excess make-up neither. Just honest to Murphy Goode-ness, chock full of flavour and a chocolate-vanilla swirl. Just a shade too much sugar (6 g/L) but this too is a choice run straight down the centre.

This a dandy, well priced cabernet that provides authenticity in a price band where that is often compromised by too much sweetness. This captures forward, ripe blackcurrant jam with fresh herbs/cedar bough and wood spice. It is medium-full bodied, a touch sinewy but still full of California warmth, smooth texture and generosity. Well balanced and very drinkable now, or over the next three years.