Hartford's 2019 Pinot Noir Seascape Vineyard offers up an explosion of crushed red berry fruit, cinnamon, rose petal and cedar. This fruity, aromatic Sonoma Coast Pinot is a real charmer. It will drink well with minimal cellaring, but also has enough energy to develop positively for a number of years.

The 2019 Syrah Sea Lift is packed with blue/purplish fruits, lavender, spice, menthol, licorice, black pepper and mocha. Pliant and deep, with striking depth, the 2019 has a ton to offer. I imagine it will benefit from a few years in bottle, which should help the reticent aromatics open.

The 2019 Chardonnay DuPratt is layered and super-expressive right out of the gate. Orchard fruit, white pepper and flowers are some of the many notes that grace this delicate, understated Mendocino Chardonnay. I especially admire the energy and persistence here.

The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon is packed with dark red/purplish berry fruit, rose petal, mocha, spice and licorice. Plush and explosive, with terrific energy, the 2019 has a ton to offer. All the energy of this mountain appellation wine comes through beautifully. The 2019 offers tons of fruit intensity in a mid-weight, savory style that is hugely appealing.

The 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Knights Crown is a very pretty, perfumed wine that shows the more elegant, aromatic side of Knights Valley Cabernet. Sweet floral and spice top notes lend finesse to this deep, structured Cabernet, with hints of blood orange, dried herbs and red berry fruit that linger.

The 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Smothers-Remick Ridge is a classic Sonoma Valley Cabernet loaded with strong savory/mineral accents. Plum, black cherry, gravel, licorice, incense, chocolate and sage open with a bit of time in the glass. This powerhouse Cabernet just needs time to soften.

Produced from 60% Merlot, 32% Cabernet Franc, and the remainder Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot, the 2017 Valadorna is rich and polished, with a luxurious influence of sweet, wooded spice. A ripe perfume of black plum, vanilla, leather, and cedar emerges with a warming and sunny feel. It is full-bodied, with ripe tannins, velveteen texture, and a blanket of fruit without feeling heavy. Dried currant, turned soil, and herbs of amaro all move through the palate, and it speaks to the warmth of the vintage. It will drink well now or over the next 15-20 years.

Medium deep crimson. Fragrant pure blackberry, musky plum aromas with underlying vanilla notes. Well-concentrated and ultra-ripe blackberry, spicy/ hint of clove flavours, some stone fruit notes, fine loose knit chalky textures, very good mid-palate volume and underlying vanilla, mocha complexity before finishing slinky and long. Plush fruit, elegant structure; a fascinating wine. Drink now–2030.

Very deep red colour with a good tint of purple, the bouquet is rich and complex with smoky, toasty and earthy nuances overlying spice, dark berry and plum notes. The wine is full-bodied and ample, filling the entire mouth, and textured with emery-like tannins. Alcohol is well-balanced. Firm and lively, with a very long aftertaste. 

It’s fascinating to see how the wines of Yangarra have evolved in the last few years. They were always good, but now they feel speccy. And you can see it most clearly in the Shiraz wines – like this Yangarra Ironheart Shiraz 2018. What a bright, and energetic McLaren Vale Shiraz. Showing none of its 14.5% alcohol, and instead about fruit. I wouldn’t expect it to be this vibrant looking at the winemaking, which is deadly serious.- 25% whole bunches, wild ferment, 32% new French oak. 9 months in barrel, then a barrel selection, with the best blend spending 8 more months in a one-year-old foudre.
Definitely less iron-hearted and more purple fruited this vintage. It smells of blueberries, background oak and rich fruit, followed by a medium to full bodied expression of Blueberry nose. Just enough ferrous grip and some residual oak tannins. The whole thing just jumps out at you with its ripe fruit – too much energy and not much complexity for the moment, but you can see that will come.
Just a lovely Shiraz really.
Yangarra Ironheart Shiraz 2018. Best drinking: good now, probably even better next year, and will live for 10+ years.

Born from an egg on a mountain top.
68 cases made with 50% popped into a 675 litre ceramic egg and fermented on skins and left for 120 days and 120 nights. The other half fermented off skins in a ceramic egg of the same size. The final blend was 60% skin and 40% non-skin, so you’d have to say Yangarra have a fair bit of skin in the game. Great to see the spirit of adventure happening in the McLaren Vale at the moment, at least in some quarters. Bottled September 2014.
Almond and honeyed florals, light pineapple and ripe lemon, aniseed. Velour tannin and milky texture, fresh pineapple acid tang, savoury chicken and nutty flavour in there too, but it presents as fresh and clean with an extra dimension of interest. Light grip on the finish and sour/savoury twang in the aftertaste. Fascinating wine.

Grown biodynamically. 50% fermented on skins in two ceramic eggs, 50% fermented in ceramic eggs but not on skins. Final blend is 60% of the extended skin contact egg portion. Bottled unfined. 250-ish dozen made. Beautiful white wine. It crackles, it floats and it charms. Spice, florals, stone fruit and mineral. There’s grip to the finish but it doesn’t gather; it’s exquisitely well pitched and balanced. A class. Heady with florals but taut and controlled. Drink 2018 - 2022

Wild ferment, whole bunches, whole berries, classy oak but only where it’s needed.
That beautiful sweet fruit. That texture like silk. That perfect integration of plum-shot fruit and posh, cedar-like oak. It smells, taste and feels pure, fine-grained and terrific, every step of the way. Drink 2018 - 2028

A delight to drink really. One of those wines I'd rather happily sip away than ponder the thought of a review. But alas, here we are writing about this beauty we have on our hands. The use of older oak has certainly ensured the fruit bounds along. Attractive purple and blue fruit aromas are woven between aniseed and mulberries. Some earthiness lurches forward with a tap of minerality. Dried herbs raise their hand before long too. Exotic spices and dashes of pepper move along at ease. Drying to finish, almost puckering, before tight acidity wraps up a neat package urging another sip. Superb! Certified organic and biodynamic. Drink now to eight years.

It's only April and perhaps we've seen the bargain of the year. Wickedly juicy, one glass just isn't enough.
The latest addition to the Yangarra Estate range, the brand's ongoing commitment to Rhone varieties has delivered this blend of Grenache, Mourvedre, Shiraz, Cinsault, Carignan and Counoise 40/21/14/12/11/2.
Handpicked, 50% whole berries, wild yeast ferment with 100% old French oak for 10 months. Certified organic and biodynamic.
Flirtatious and dancy, this is a wine that screams nothing but pleasure. Earthy with some funk, but it's the absolute shower of red and blackberry fruit that just oozes charm. Medium bodied, the generous flow of fruit caresses the mouth filling every crevice with ease. Super smooth with the slurp factor sky high, stop at nothing to buy as much as you can.
Drink now to six years.

This is a very stylish wine. The word impeccable comes to mind. It’s balanced and soft, complex in its flavour offering and then firm/focussed through the finish. Notes of pepper spice, roasted meat, tar and raspberry. Sweet, minty, coconutty oak comes in as an afterthought. I like. A lot.

Dry-grown (biodynamically), whole-bunch pressed and fermented wild. 480 dozen made. Pale copper-crimson, gorgeously aromatic, spotlessly clean and a delight to drink. Echoes of redcurrant and spice, dried herbs and cherries. Dry and racy but not anaemic or underdone. Everything here, price included, is in alignment.

There’s a bit of thought gone into these wines from Yangarra. Says on the back label “Grown on a 2 acre block on ironstone gravelly sand. Hand picked and whole berry pressed using basket press. 30% fermented in large ceramic eggs (half on skins for 90 days), 60% in older French oak, and 10% new French oak. 7 months in barrel and stirred on lees. Certified bio-dynamic.” And, luckily for me, I’m not quite a touch typist, but pretty damned quick. 269 dozen made.
Lemon barley, white flowers and vanilla bean, pie apple and cinnamon. Medium bodied, fleshy smooth and chalky texture, just right acidity, savoury and creamy, punctuated by lime and lemon rind on a pretty long finish. Complex and interesting. Could even turn the head of a committed Chardonnay drinker.

Whole bunch-fermented, basket-pressed, 30% fermented in large ceramic eggs (half on skins for 90 days), 60% used oak, 10% new French, 7 months barrel maturation and lees-stirred. Yellow-gold, it is a wine all about texture and structure that just happens to be white. 269 dozen made.

This is my last bottle of this wine that I purchased way back in 2010, a couple of years before I launched my blog and, according to my notes, for which I got 15% off based on watching a podcast from Sadat X (the details are at best, blurry). I also opened another 2008 Clos Pepe, one from the mother ship (Clos Pepe Vineyards), and I have to say that this Siduri showed much, much better. Luscious fruit, balancing tannins, a hint of earth, and a whole lot of verve. I only have two more bottles left from the Adam Lee run Siduri, and that honestly makes me more than a little sad. Outstanding.

Medium ruby-purple, the 2020 Pinot Noir Sta. Rita Hills, made with a high proportion of whole clusters, is scented of cranberries and raspberries with nuances of Earl Grey tea leaves and loads of spicy accents. The medium-bodied palate is chalky and bright with delicate flavors and an uplifted, citrus-tinged finish. This is very easy to drink!

The 2020 Chardonnay Sta. Rita Hills begins with a touch of matchstick reduction, requiring plenty of aeration. It unfolds slowly to warm white peaches and singular wafts of lychee and dried tarragon, an intriguing interplay of exoticism and savory reduction. The palate is still youthfully coiled with linear acidity, anchoring texture and an evolving finish that hints at more to come. Give it a few years in bottle to unwind.

Made from the producer’s estate Monument Ridge, blocks that rise from 400 to 2,400 feet, this balanced, elegant wine is refined and savory, with classic structure. Crushed rock, mountain sage, pine and dusty tannin support a core of juicy currant and cassis.

As winemaker for Jackson Family’s high-end Napa Valley brands – Cardinale, Lokoya and Mt. Brave – Chris Carpenter has a sure hand with Cabernet Sauvignon, whether the fruit comes for the Howell Mountain, Mount Veeder, the benches along the valley floor or somewhere else from Jackson’s holdings. Although the vintage and the terroir certainly have an influence, Carpenter’s Cabs seem to always be assertive while maintaining a core of seductive fruit down the middle of the taste – and Carpenter is as intelligent and interesting a winemaker as you will come across – an added plus for visitors to the estate. The Mt. Brave fruit comes from the same Mt. Veeder vineyard that Chateau Potelle owned for several years, The 2018 vintage has lovely aromas – not always a feature of Cabernets – that is reflected in the rich fruitiness on the palate with lots of fresh vanilla and old oak notes that come across soon after opening as almost like a vinous cheesecake. With airing, the lusciousness is somewhat lessened, and the wine lengthens out to show savory notes and good finishing acidity. In sum, it is one of those fascinating wines that should evolve significantly in the bottle.

Aromas of fresh flowers, dried lemon peel, white peaches and ocean breeze. Medium- to full-bodied with dense texture and layered peach and apple fruit. Fresh character. Subtle and nuanced with very good persistence and gentle tannin structure. Sustainable. Drink or hold.