A jeweled ruby hue, the 2021 Pinot Noir The Sum takes on fantastic crystalline and pure aromas of wild strawberries, raspberries, dark stones, menthol, and cedar spice, but it’s not very oaky. Medium-bodied, it has ripe tannins, with ripe acidity and a bit more modest acidity compared to the other wines from Zena Crown, but it’s long on the palate, with a more autumnal sensibility, and it’s going to show its best over the next 12-15 years.

A magenta/ruby-colored wine coming from sedimentary soils, the 2021 Pinot Noir Block 6 was aged for 18 months in 60% new French oak. On the nose, it reveals fantastic, layered, and ripe notes of macerated cherries, mixed berries, peppery spices, turned earth, violets, and piney herbs. Medium-bodied, it has ripe, sweet tannins, with lovely refreshing acidity that makes it cruise through the palate as well as a long-lasting, mouthwatering finish. A very nicely done red in a slightly riper style, enjoy it 2025-2038.

With a golden/yellow hue, the 2016 Chardonnay Dropstone shows how these wines take on a more reductive tendency, with a delicate note of incense and flint rising from the glass as well as notes of white peach, savory herbs, spice, and preserved citrus. Medium to full-bodied, it floats on the palate with a clean, mouthwatering feel and a lovely finish. It’s not creamy, but it has a great note of citrus oil texture.

Raised for 10 months in 50% new 228-liter barriques, the ruby/magenta-colored 2021 Pinot Noir Cascade is expressive and spicy on opening, offering notes of toasted cedar, sassafras, pine, and black cherries. Medium-bodied, silky, and polished, its decadent oak spice offers a lot of perfume on the nose and through the palate. It has a good deal of length and is going to drink well over the next 12-15 years.

Malbec with a splash of cabernet sauvignon (7%). The malbec was planted in 2013. Fermented as whole berries with pump-overs, with 17 days total on skins; matured in French barriques (60% new) for 15 months then blended and aged for two months in older oak. Deeply coloured and flavoured, it feels like a good amount care has been taken here to extract the bountiful flavours without too much grip. It is there and with authority, as the variety dictates, but it’s in lockstep with silky, mildly plush fruits. Dark berries, mulberry, raspberry, a floral hint and integrated oak notes, clove and pepper.

This Pinot Noir is a brilliant garnet color with juicy and candied red fruit. The characteristic Petaluma Gap saline dusting comes through, alive and well, but subtly instead of aggressively.

Unfined and unfiltered, and only 325 cases were produced, the Seascape Vineyard sits high on a ridge over the Sonoma Coast among arboreal surroundings. The Pacific Ocean is directly below, so the vines benefit from the cooling ocean influence and impart garrigue flavours and those of mushrooms, oak chips, and chalkiness. The mineral character is a lovely component that gives dimension.

The strong aroma of buttered popcorn, caramel candies and freshly cut banana slices is accompanied by a rather viscous texture and flavours of tropical mangoes, papaya, lemongrass and pineapple slices. It's a rich take on chardonnay without the heft that often accompanies such weight. Sevens Bench sits on a ridge at about 80m in elevation in Carneros, which is an AVA that historically lends richness to the mouthfeel of its wines. The secondary sensation on the palate is minerality. Sevens Bench lends the minerality to an otherwise fruit and acid-driven wine. Will drink well for up to six more years.

There is a green bitterness on the finish and some herbal notes up front, which offer a great complement to the tropical bananas and papaya notes that prance about this wine.

Sporting a medium ruby color, the 2021 Pinot Noir Conifer is a very expansive wine in its aromatics, with enveloping aromas of – well, you guessed it– pine resin and sappy forest herbs, woven together with framboise, wildflowers, and mossy earth. It was aged for 17 months in 65% new French oak barrels. Medium-bodied and linear, it has fine tannins and crisp, ripe acidity, with a savory finish and a hint of umami richness underneath that’s going to shine through well with time in the cellar. I love this wine now, but it will have the ability to age gracefully if stored in cool cellars. Drink 2024-2040.

The 2021 Pinot Noir Ridgecrest Vineyard comes from the oldest vines in what has become the Ribbon Ridge AVA, planted in 1980. The wine is a ruby/magenta color and has more powerful and layered depth on the nose, with notes of woodsy earth, crushed cherries, black raspberries, crushed flowers, and pine needles. It has a little more sapidity, with more depth on the palate, and while it’s still medium-bodied, it saturates the palate with wonderful intensity and retains a lot of pure character. It holds onto its great, red-fruited undertones with its refreshing acidity, but it’s very well-balanced. I’m very impressed with this wine from Kate. Bravo. This might be the best wine they made this vintage. Drink 2025-2040.

The 2014 Chardonnay Yamhill-Carlton sports a bright golden yellow hue and offers expressive notes of beeswax, gunflint, ripe apples, candied ginger, and candied orange. Leaning a bit more to full-bodied, this wine is in a great place, and Shane Moore thinks it’s quite similar to the 2013, his first vintage of this wine. It has mouthwatering freshness, with a delicate, oily texture and more orange peel notes. Very well done, it’s showing very well now, but it can be enjoyed any time over the next 5-6 years.

A medium golden hue, the 2021 Chardonnay Yamhill-Carlton is floral with notes of jasmine, poached pear, lemongrass, and wet stone. Medium-bodied, it has a rounded, supple, and silky texture, with wonderful stony mineral underpinnings and a fresh ripeness of acidity. It carries balanced tension and a seamless feel. It is going to drink its best over the next 8-10 years.

Coming from nearly 30-year-old vines, the 2023 Semillon Flavorscape was just bottled, so it has a good deal of sulfur right now, but the estate doesn’t plan to release this until 2030. The nose reveals notes of candied green apple, lime zest, flint, crushed rocks, and fresh herbs. Medium-bodied, with bright acidity, it has a fantastic chalky texture and a weightless feel. It’s going age at a glacial pace, but it was fun to try it so early. It's hard to estimate a drinking window, though, since it’s got another six years before release. 250 cases were made.

This one takes you back to childhood, as the bouquet echoes lemon taffy and Starburst candies—the perceived sweetness of those candies persists, as does a burnt caramel component that is a pleasing finish to a fun-to-drink wine.

Rich with lots of dark fruits and chocolate here, and grainy tannins. There's also a chalkiness to this wine, perhaps due to the good tannic structure, that gives it dimension and ageability.

Pineapple, bananas, coconuts and lemon cake are par for the course. So is soft, sweet lemon creme pie on the palate. Fantastic acid profile that tells the story of its vines and that of the Sonoma Coast.

Fresh wild strawberries on the nose and palate with a silken texture. Being the West Sonoma Coast AVA, the Sealift Vineyard has close proximity to the ocean, imparting a saline spray all over the grapes and, subsequently, into the wine.

A transparent medium red color, the 2021 Pinot Noir Shea Vineyard is spicy on the nose with notes of fresh, ripe cherries, pine needles, wildflowers, and porcini. From classic sedimentary soils, at moderate elevation, the wine is medium-bodied, juicy, and savory with sweet tannins and a good bit of length and purity that lasts on the fresh finish. It’s another charming wine that is going to drink well over the next 6-8 years.

The 2016 Blanc De Blancs comes from a great Chardonnay vintage in the Willamette Valley and pours a medium golden color. Expressive with notes of ripe peach, bread dough, tangerine, and frangipane, it was raised both in stainless steel and barrel, without going through malolactic fermentation. The palate is medium to full-bodied, and the wine is generous and ripe but fully dry, with a pithy structure, a peppery mousse, and a savory finish. A really solid and serious Blanc de Blancs, it’s drinking well now, but its structure should provide quality enjoyment over the coming 6-8 years.

Poppy but carrying a good deal of complexity, the 2022 Gamay Noir Flavorscape comes from 30-year-old own-rooted Gamay and has a fantastic nose, with aromas of wild raspberries, white pepper, fresh herbs, and pine. Medium-bodied, it has fine polished tannins, refreshing, ripe acidity, and a beautiful, tapered finish. I highly encourage readers to find this fun but very, very well-made wine. Drink 2024-2029.

Juicy red and black fruit, and yuzu, too, as well as some seaspray from the nearby Pacific Ocean. Sealift spent 10 months in oak barrels and is ready to drink now.

Sweet raspberry and cherry fruit leather, vanilla and an open wood fire on the nose, but the palate is somewhat muted, only leaving hints of Earl Grey tea and artificial candies towards the finish, without a distinct mid-palate texture or flavour.

A cat pee funk that has come to be known as typical for Sauvignon Blanc is present here, and it emanates from the glass unapologetically, alongside white grapefruit, both lime and lemon zest, yet a slight and subtle flavour profile with an aqueous, silky texture.

From old vines planted in 1972, the 2021 Riesling Hyland Vineyard Old Vine is a pale silver/yellow color and offers a good deal of intensity and concentration in the glass, with notes of petrol, peach candies, fresh ginger, jasmine, and preserved citrus. High-acid, dry, and medium-bodied, it carries this intensity to the palate full force, with a long, persistent core of acidity and ripeness and a mouthwatering, saline finish. It’s going to drink well over the next 15 years. Bottled under screwcap.