USA, California, Central Coast: The 2018 VintageThe medium ruby colored 2018 Pinot Noir Hapgood, made with 100% whole clusters, features scents of crushed rhubarb and blueberries with notes of licorice, violet, blood orange and forest floor. The palate is medium-bodied with perfumed flavor layers, finely grained and seamlessly fresh with a long, floral finish. This offers a bit more oomph and power than the other wines in the lineup this year and is immediately accessible, although it will age well in bottle.

Sonoma: Another Brilliant Vintage in 2018Coming from Carneros and aged 17 months in one-third new French oak, the 2017 Pinot Noir Seven's Bench sports a medium ruby/purple color as well as a big nose of spiced cherries, candied orange peel, violets, and spicy oak. Rich, medium to full-bodied, beautifully textured, and concentrated on the palate, it's another serious release from this estate that's going to reward 2-3 years of bottle age.

Sonoma: Another Brilliant Vintage in 2018The 2017 Pinot Noir Hailey's Block comes from the Arrendell Vineyard, which is a cold site in the Green Valley sector of the Russian River Valley. From a block named after Don and Jennifer Hartford's daughter, it was all destemmed and spent 17 months in 32% new French oak. It shares plenty of similarities to the Arrendell Vineyard release yet is slightly more approachable, with lots of spice, cherry cola, sappy spring flowers, and forest floor aromas and flavors. It nevertheless has the more focused, pure, and locked-and-loaded style, and is going to benefit from 2-3 years of bottle age. It's a beautiful wine.

USA, Oregon: Searching for Hidden Gems from Willamette Valley's 2017 VintageMedium ruby-purple in the glass, the 2016 Pinot Noir Slope gives up blueberry coulis, crushed blackberries, black cherries and cranberry sauce with touches of pomegranate, loamy earth, tar and charcuterie. The palate is medium-bodied with very intense flavor layers, expertly framed and fresh, finishing very long and flavorful. This will benefit from another year in bottle.

The brilliant 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon Sycamore Vineyard (another Rutherford site on Bella Oaks Lane) is a blend of 85.4% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6.5% Merlot and the rest Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot aged 28 months in barrel. It boasts an opaque purple color, terrific notes of licorice, creme de cassis, charcoal, forest floor, baking spices and earth, as well as a full-bodied mouthfeel with great fruit intensity and purity. This savory, mouthfilling beauty is best drunk over the next 20-25 years.

The 2004 Cabernet Bosche Vineyard, which sits on alluvial, gravelly soils in Rutherford and is one of Napa's most famous vineyards, is absolutely brilliant. The blend of 88% Cabernet Sauvignon and the rest Merlot spent 24 months in French oak. This one is still young for a 2004. Its dense purple color, big sweet kiss of cola, vanilla, cedarwood, oodles of black currants and dark cherries, a hint of licorice and unsmoked cigar tobacco, make for a classic almost Pauillac-like style of wine. This is youthful, full-bodied, promising and should hit its peak in another 4-5 years and last at least another two decades.

The 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon Sycamore Vineyard (86% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Merlot and 2% Cabernet Franc) comes from a vineyard about a mile south of the Bosche site. A blockbuster effort, it is more backward and unevolved than its siblings with a more opaque ruby/purple color (almost black), and a sweet bouquet of licorice, blackberries and toast. Full-bodied, moderately tannic and dense, this beauty needs another 3-4 years of cellaring and should keep for two decades. It should prove to be one of the longest lived wines of the vintage.

USA, Northern California, Napa Valley: 2016 & 2017 – A Tale of Two Vintages The 2017 Chardonnay (no malolactic fermentation) offers notes of fresh pineapple, honeydew melon and lemon tart with touches of allspice, shaved almonds and lanolin. Medium to full-bodied, the fruit hits the palate with amazing freshness and vivacity, sporting loads of citrus and spice notions and finishing long.

Copain's 2014 Syrah Baker Ranch is one of the many highlights in this range. Aromatic, lifted and precise, the 2014 hits all the right notes with its beautifully delineated aromatics and flavors. Bright red cherry, rose petal, chalk and minty notes are nicely pushed forward. Readers should be prepared to cellar the 2014 for at least a few years.

This 1,500 case cuvee is a blend of 88% Cabernet Sauvignon and 12% Merlot aged in 100% new French oak for 22 months. Made from a combination of mountain vineyard fruit (from Mt. Veeder, Howell Mt., and Spring Mt.) and fruit from valley floor sites in Oakville, St. Helena, and Stags Leap, for a 2006, this cuvee offers surprising accessibility and openness. A sumptuous bouquet of cedarwood, black cherries, black currants, licorice, and wet rocks/crushed stones give way to a broad, opulent, fleshy wine offering sweet tannin, abundant quantities of sexy, ripe fruit, a full-bodied, layered mouthfeel, and a velvety finish. This is an atypically sumptuous 2006 that should drink well for 15-20 years. Kudos to winemaker Christopher Carpenter for this brilliant effort.

Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Revelation has expressive notes of warm cassis and black plums with hints of pencil shavings, yeast extract, toast and fertile soil. Medium to full-bodied, solidly structured with plenty of fruit flesh, it has gorgeous ripe tannins, a lively backbone and long, layered finish. Still very youthful, give it a year or two more in bottle and drink it over the next 20+ years.

A super-classic Sonoma wine, the Cabernet Sauvignon Monte Rosso Vineyard is also one of the most distinctive offerings in the range. Black cherry, plum, iron, graphite, smoke and cured meats give the 2013 its distinctive aromatic and flavor signatures. Ample and bold, the 2013 is a total knock-out.

Another brilliant effort is the 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon Réserve Spéciale, which actually comes from five vineyard sites in Sonoma (Monte Rosso, Kellogg, Smothers, Sellitto and Lasseter). It’s also 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, barrel selected and blended after 24 months, then aged another 8 months in 45% new French oak. This opaque purple wine has a long pedigree and a history of aging for 25 to 35 or more years, and I don’t see any evidence that has changed, although Kristina Werner is now making the wine rather than Dick Arrowood. This is a big, powerful, classic Cabernet Sauvignon, with loamy soil notes intermixed with unsmoked cigar tobacco, blackcurrants, licorice, and touches of graphite and oak. Full-bodied and muscular, it will be better in 3-4 years and keep for 25-30 years at the very minimum.

Still an infant in terms of development, the 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon Monte Rosso (100% Cabernet Sauvignon) requires another 4-5 years of cellaring, and is capable of lasting 25-30 years. Another convincing example of this iconic vineyard now owned by Gallo, it exhibits medium to full body, abundant truffle, camphor, tobacco leaf, black cherry and black currant fruit, a full-bodied mouthfeel, plenty of tannin, tremendous purity and texture, and an expansive finish that lasts for 50+ seconds.

Richer, softer and sexier, the youthful 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon Helena Dakota reveals more boysenberry and briery mountain fruit interwoven with crushed rock, graphite, espresso and white chocolate characteristics. More stunningly perfumed than its sibling, it, too, is an infant in terms of its development. Cellar it for another 4-5 years and drink it over the following 25+. Verite's French winemaker, Pierre Seillan, makes these wines. When I tasted these cuvees right after bottling, they were so massive and enormous, it was hard to discern their full personalities, so it was a pleasure to taste them at age ten, even though they are still infants in terms of development, and reveal only a small fraction of their ultimate potential. Both are 100% Cabernet Sauvignons aged 14 months in 100% new French oak prior to bottling.

The 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Helena Dakota is a slightly softer, but still structured, meaty effort with impressive levels of black cherries, black currants and a steely, crushed rock-like minerality. Like its sibling, it is full-bodied, tannic and deep, but with less of the burning ember/scorched earth character. It offers pure floral, concentrated fruit and beautiful purity, symmetry and balance. Nevertheless, it, too, will benefit from 3-4 years of cellaring and should drink well over the following three decades.

The 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon Helena Dakota's vineyard is planted in more reddish, loamy soils mixed with the white volcanic ash. It is a deeper, fuller-bodied effort with an inky/purple color as well as sweet aromas of blueberries, blackberries, graphite, and subtle new oak. With beautiful purity as well as hints of crushed stones and flowers, a wealth of fruit, an extravagantly rich mouthfeel, sweet tannin, and a long finish, this seamless Cabernet should drink well for 15-20 years.

Bush vine grenache, planted 1946. Hand picked, wild fermented, 50% whole berries, cold soaked, open fermenters, matured in French oak but none of it was new. Certified organic/biodynamic. Released May 2018. Keen fruit, pure tannin, a keen line of acidity and stunning length. If there’s oak here it’s so hand-in-glove that you’re hard pressed to detect it. Kirsch, redcurrant, fennel and generous flings of dry spice. It needs a little time but it’s a ripper wine.

High Sands is a delineation for this grenache that comes from the highest vineyards on the Yangarra estate from bush vines planted in 1946, of course on sand. The estate is tended biodynamically and a less-is-more mantra follows in the winery, again with attention to biodynamic cycles. Wild yeast, 24 months in used oak, winemaker Pete Fraser at the helm. They call this patch of dirt 'the beach'. 135 cases produced. Immediately you notice the gravelly, dusty texture. A wine for aesthetes in a way, you have to let the wine unfurl a bit, drink in small sips and appreciate structure, appreciate the clarity of fruit and glorious perfume, or get blown away by oscillating in the finer detail. I shared the wine on day two with wine-savvy and non-wine-savvy friends who thought it was the best wine on the table out of a series of luminaries, and drained the bottle first - it's got a lot of easy charm. Definitively shows how grenache and power can work hand in hand, serious stuff here with firm tannins, grunt of fruit and savoury disposition. Impressive, and look forward to seeing the wine with time notched into it too.

With a very deep garnet-purple color, the 2010 Ironheart Shiraz has a wonderfully expressive nose of red and black cherries, violets, licorice, cloves and chocolate. The firmly structured, taut palate has a generous amount of youthful, muscular fruit with ripe grainy tannins, refreshing acid, and a good long finish. Drink this one 2014 to 2025+.

USA, Oregon: 2016 Vintage – Part Two Pale ruby-purple in color, the 2016 Pinot Noir Emery has a nose of sweet fruits —strawberry, raspberry and peach jam—with underlying broody notions of cardamom, leather, forest floor and pipe tobacco—there are a lot of layers on the nose. Light to medium-bodied, it has wonderful layers of savory spice, fruits and earth. It's got very fine, grainy, pixelated but powerful tannins and juicy acidity carrying the very long, spicy, sweetly fruited finish. This is beautiful now but will benefit from a couple years in bottle.

Mocha, bittersweet chocolate, tobacco, menthol and savory herbs meld together in the 2010 Le Desir. Like all of the 2010s here, the Desir is going to need time to unwind and fully come together. There is wonderful definition in the flavors, along with vibrant structure and plenty of intensity. Savory herb and tobacco are some of the notes that inform the powerful finish. Like all of the 2010s, the fruit is a bit suppressed by the wine's imposing structure today. There is no shortage of personality, though. All the 2010 needs is time.

The 2009 Le Desir blasts across the palate with layers of deep, sumptuous fruit. This is an especially deep, plush wine packed with fruit. Hints of mocha, espresso, licorice and tar wrap around the finish in this muscular wine as varietal Cabernet Franc notes take shape in the glass... The 2009 Le Desir is 74% Cabernet Franc, 13% Merlot, 9% Cabernet Sauvignon and 4% Malbec. Anticipated maturity: 2017-2029.

Bright ruby-red. Black fruits, tobacco leaf, licorice and violet on the nose; a bit like Cheval Blanc on steroids. Broad, ripe and plush but still a bit youthfully aggressive and in need of softening. Showing little easy sweetness; in fact, there's an inky, graphite mineral character that makes this wine seem a bit youthfully brutal. Finishes firm and alive, with the spine and energy for a long evolution in bottle. The broad tannins became increasingly chewy--even a bit youthfully tough--with air. This is still a baby. Extended time in the recorked bottle brought sexy game and coffee elements without any loss of freshness, and, if anything, the wine gained a bit in sweetness.

Bright ruby-red. Perfumed aromas of cherry, coffee, red licorice and minerals. Suave and vibrant, with lovely lift and musky complexity to the juicy red fruit and mineral flavors. Powerful and deep but with superb elegance. Finishes youthfully tight and very long. A baby today. These 2005s were bottled in November of 2007.