The 2021 Sycamore Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, with 4% Cabernet Franc and 3% Petit Verdot in the blend, is deep garnet-purple in color. It needs a fair bit of swirling to bring out notes of redcurrant jelly, juicy blackberries, and blackcurrant jelly followed by hints of wild sage, crushed rocks, and mossy tree bark. The full-bodied palate is built like a brick house, with firm, ripe, grainy tannins and wonderful tension supporting the muscular black fruit preserves layers, finishing long and minerally. 1,500 cases were made.

The 2019 Upper Barn Chardonnay features youthful notes of lemongrass, preserved kumquats, lime cordial, and grapefruit oil plus hints of wet slate and coriander seed. The medium to full-bodied palate is packed with citrus and mineral layers supported by a satiny texture and racy backbone, finishing long and zesty. This is impressive! Part 97of the vineyard is planted to 1982 Old Wente clone vines on AXR rootstock.

Deep garnet-purple in color, the single-varietal 2014 Christopher's Cabernet Sauvignon bursts with bold, ready-to-go notes of creme de cassis, blueberry pie, and Morello cherries followed by hints of candied violets, tobacco leaf, and fallen leaves with a touch of red loam. The medium to full-bodied palate is rich and velvety, with bags of juicy black fruit and loads of earthy sparks, finishing long and layered.

The single-varietal 2019 Bear Point Cabernet Sauvignon is deep garnet-purple in color. It sashays out with notes of kirsch, fresh blackberries, and mulberries plus suggestions of graphite, lavender, and black olives. The medium to full-bodied palate has a rock solid structure of firm, grainy tannins and fantastic tension to support the generous yet bright black and red berry layers, finishing with great length. Yum! 504 cases were made.

The 2022 Warrior Princess Chardonnay jumps from the glass with notes of juicy pears and honeydew melon giving way to an evocative undercurrent of struck flint, grapefruit oil, and allspice. The medium to full-bodied palate delivers jaw-dropping tension juxtaposed with a creamy texture, finishing with an impressively persistent and refreshing steeliness. This is gorgeous! This wine was barrel fermented and aged in French oak. Native strains were used for alcoholic and malolactic fermentation and the wine is unfined and unfiltered. It is sourced from a block within the Zena Crown vineyard in the Eola-Amity Hills, planted to Dijon clone 95.

The 2022 Jennifer's Chardonnay pops from the glass with vibrant notes of fresh pineapple, honeydew melon, and lemongrass with suggestions of wet pebbles and fresh ginger plus a waft of lime blossom. The medium to full-bodied palate delivers amazing tension, with super-intense tropical and citrus fruit flavors, finishing long and zesty. This wine was barrel fermented and aged in French oak. Native strains were used for alcoholic and malolactic fermentation and the wine is unfined and unfiltered. Jennifer’s Chardonnay is sourced from a dramatic, steep-sloped vineyard in the windy and very cool Sebastopol Hills neighborhood of the Russian River Valley AVA. The block was planted to Old Wente selection Chardonnay in 2005.

The 2022 Highwire Zinfandel Old Vines is medium to deep garnet-purple in color. It comes barreling out of the glass with notes of baked cherries, black truffle, juicy blueberries, and spice cake with hints of oolong tea and mossy tree bark. The full-bodied palate is lively and fine-grained, with earth-laced black and red berry layers, finishing long and earthy. The vines are more than 100 years old, with half of the plot head-trained and half trained on a high wire.

Medium to deep garnet-purple in color, the 2022 Dinas Old Vine Zinfandel flies from the glass with notes of charcoal, wet rocks, and black truffle leading to a core of baked blueberries and stewed plums plus wafts of sandalwood and tree bark. The full-bodied palate has a seriously racy backbone of acidity and velvety tannins supporting the generous earth-laced blue fruit layers, finishing with epic length. This comes mostly from head-trained vines planted over 100 years ago.

This is about as fine as shiraz can get in the Vale, boasting filigreed tannins and such a natural sense of freshness that it whets the palate and makes one hungry at first sip. Northern Rhône-like scents of grilled meats, cloves, lilacs and Damson plums. A gentle cascade across the spicy framework to a long, immensely refined finish. All foudres vats, Austrian and French. Despite the full body, the wine is almost ethereal in the best sense, making for effortless drinking despite the profundity in the glass. This has such delicacy and cooler climatic tension to it that it is truly startling. From biodynamically grown grapes. Drink or hold. Screw cap.

Deep, pure bright yellow. The grapes are sourced from 4 different vineyards across the Cape, fermented in a range of vessels (oak, ceramic, stainless) and matured in in oak barrels of diverse sizes and ages. The resulting wine is magnificent, elegant with excellent structure and complex, interwoven flavors. Chalky minerals run throughout the wine and mark the finish. A truly exceptional Chardonnay. Not inexpensive (even in South Africa) but great value!

What a stunning wine, and although still vibrant and concentrated, it is at a gorgeous moment to drink, really opened up with rose petal aromatics, mouth wateringly juicy and supple tannins, along with rosemary and sage spice wound through damson and blueberry fruit. Harvest 6 September through 1 November, after a relatively cool growing season, with very few days topping 100 degrees (38C), even in the warmest locations. This gave it a measured reception on release, but at this point showcases the beauty of Cardinale, where it can maintain its signature punch while leaning in to the cooler fruit character of the vintage. Throwing some deposit at this point, make sure you carafe. Christopher Carpenter winemaker, bottled unfiltered and unfined.

The finest vintage in the region to date, bridling pinot-like essences with a Mediterranean warmth. The tannins, a broad slake of sandy, pixelated grittiness. Vinous and old-vine forceful. Pithy red cherry, tamarind, musk and lilac drawn long, taut and exact. This is a stunning wine. Imperious, even. I'd love to see this in a decade or more. From biodynamically grown grapes. Drink or hold.

The finest vintage in the region to date, bridling pinot-like essences with a Mediterranean warmth. The tannins, a broad slake of sandy, pixelated grittiness. Vinous and old-vine forceful. Pithy red cherry, tamarind, musk and lilac drawn long, taut and exact. This is a stunning wine. Imperious, even. I'd love to see this in a decade or more. From biodynamically grown grapes. Drink or hold.

The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Mount Veeder is 92% Cabernet Sauvignon and the rest Cabernet Franc. It's a classic Mountain Cabernet with full-bodied richness and ample, although velvety, tannins as well as pure cassis and currant-like fruits, gorgeous mid-palate depth and opulence on the palate, and beautiful complexity in its tobacco, graphite, and bouquet garni-like nuances. It's another remarkable wine from Carpenter that has some upfront accessibility today yet deserves 3-4 years in the cellar. It will have two decades of overall longevity, and as top Napa Cabernet Sauvignon goes, it's a terrific value.

An abundance of bark, bay leaves, blue fruits and black currants. Lead pencil shavings coming through clearly, too. Full-bodied with a solid tannin backbone that runs the length of the wine and comes across layered and intense. Savory and so structured. A blend of 93% cabernet sauvignon, 4% cabernet franc and 3% petit verdot. This needs time to soften. Muscular. Best after 2028.

So much black currant, dark fruit, pine cone, bark and pine needle aromas that show a depth and intensity with round, polished and creamy tannins. Medium to full body, with a complex and gorgeously flavored finish. A blend of 82% cabernet sauvignon, 6.5% cabernet franc, 5% malbec, 4% merlot and 2.5% petit verdot. Over 3050 cases produced. Give this three to four more years to come around.

Black berry with grapey highlights. The purity of fruit is so impressive. Almost a sense of chalkiness. Full and flavorful. A great mountain malbec.

This is a bigger and broader Spring Mountain cab with terra-cotta, dust and dry earth aromas suggesting its warmer nature. Medium to full body with thoughtful, cut-velvet tannins and a lovely texture at the end. Made from 100% cabernet sauvignon.

Composed of 80% Cabernet Franc, 15% Merlot, and the rest Malbec, the 2020 Le Desir was tasted as a barrel sample and offers up a resinous and piney profile that’s lush with aromas of wild cherry liqueur, cedar, wildflowers, white pepper, and forest herbs. It’s full-bodied and long on the palate, with a bit more nervous energy, and I’m looking forward to seeing how this wine evolves over the coming years. I personally like its rustic tannin structure, and it’s impeccably balanced, with a luxurious, ripe feel. Drink it over the next couple of decades.

This is racy and refined with very defined tannins that give length, depth and focus to the wine. Medium to full body. Great energy here. Tight and bright with tannins that have tension and class and are melted into the wine. Bright. Very serious for the vintage. Drink after 2026.

The 2013 Chardonnay Upper Barn is a stunning, mature Chardonnay from Alexander Valley with plenty of life ahead. Matured for 11 months in 49% new oak, it takes plenty of time in the glass to reveal dried apples, mixed nuts, mushroom paste, iodine and pastry scents. The medium-bodied palate is satiny, mouthwatering and loaded with honeyed flavors, and its savory notes of maturity haunt the long finish. 963 cases were made.

The 2019 Chardonnay Broken Road Vineyard was matured for 10 months in 50% new oak. It has delicate scents of apricot, chaparral, panna cotta and matchstick, then the palate explodes with concentrated fruit! It combines a silky texture and shimmery acidity with nuanced, expansive fruit and finishes with tremendous length and spice. It's a complex, polished Chardonnay that has lots of personality and is drinkable straightaway, yet it offers the structure and density to go the distance in the cellar. 392 cases were made.

Wild fermented. Open tops. Extracted dutifully across a 21 day window. Foudre and eggs for 11 months thereafter. This is a wine of power reigned in by sumptuous tannins, like matrix dots doused with spice and teeming across the mind's eye. More southern Rhône than Gredos, often the inspiration in these parts. Moroccan souk. Goa trail blazing. Darker, danker fruits, clove and assertive tannins ... those gorgeous tannins, trailing the wine to prodigious length. Wow!

Picked on a fruit day of the biodynamic calendar, with a portion destemmed and crushed to ceramic eggs where it remained on skins for 121 days, gleaning textural nourishment, complexity and persuasion. The rest, in an egg sans skins. All wild fermented. Among the greatest wines of this country, irrespective of colour. Rooibos, lanolin, quince, pithy stone fruits and almond croissant. A powerful, prodigiously textural wine of depth, resonance and profound belief.

The 2020 Le Désir is a composition of 80% CabernetFranc, 15% Merlot and 5% Malbec, matured for 15months new French oak. Its aromas gain intensity withair, blossoming from bright blackberry, blueberry andviolet to tones of dried thyme, pencil shavings and wildfennel. The palate is harmonious, with an etherealstructure of refreshing acidity and powdery tannins. Itoffers concentrated yet nuanced fruit streaked withgraphite and fl oral tones, and it has a long, fragrantfi nish. I love how much personality this Le Désir has tooffer, despite the challenges of the vintage. 1,200cases were made.