The 2017s From Sonoma I also loved the 2016 Pinot Noir Arrendell Vineyard. Located in the Russian River and planted in 1975 to a heritage Martini Clone, this cool site struggles to ripen, giving this 2016 an exotic, complex, vibrant style along with its ample red and black fruits, candied violets, potpourri, and sandalwood. It’s one of the more vibrant, racier wines in the lineup, yet its acidity is nicely integrated, it’s flawlessly balanced, and it has a great, great finish. Give bottles a year or two and enjoy over the following decade.

USA, Northern California, Napa Valley: 2016 & 2017 – A Tale of Two Vintages The 2016 Hartford Court Chardonnay Jennifer’s Vineyard displays intense notes of grapefruit, green guava, mango and pineapple with nuances of talc, oyster shells and fresh ginger. The palate is medium-bodied, elegant and super intense with tightly wound layers of citrus and tropical fruits and bags of mineral notions on the epically long finish. This needs time but should emerge from the cellar gloriously in 2-3 years!

USA, Northern California, Napa Valley: 2016 & 2017 – A Tale of Two Vintages A blend of 88.2% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4.4% Petit Verdot, 4.2% Cabernet Franc and 3.2% Merlot, the deep garnet-purple colored 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Sycamore Vineyards comes skipping out of the glass with a spring it its step and singing notes of crushed blackcurrants, fresh blackberries and red and black plums with touches of underbrush, fungi, wild sage, chocolate mint and cigar boxes. Full-bodied and built like a brick house, it has a rock-solid frame of firm, grainy tannins and seamless freshness supporting the generous, crunchy fruit, finishing long with a touch of minerality.

Super clear, barely any hue at all in the glass. The classic provençal nose of subtle red fruit and white flower. Wonderful on the palate, just a delight. Sure, it’s subtle and reserved but near impeccable balance with lovely fruit and an acidity that persists for days.

Gorgeously pure aromatics of crème de cassis, graphite, scorched earth, and mineral nuances all define the 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon, a blend of 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc, 8% Malbec, and 2% Petit Verdot aged in 73% new oak. It's medium to full-bodied on the palate, with plenty of ripe tannins, terrific overall balance, and a great finish that's very much in the pure, structured style of the vintage. Hide bottles for 4-5 years and enjoy over the following two decades. There are 2,683 cases produced. Drink 2029-2049.

Composed of 76% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Merlot, 11% Cabernet Franc, and 6% Petit Verdot, the 2022 La Joie has a deep garnet-purple color. It springs from the glass with bold notes of black currant preserves, baked plums, and juicy blueberries, followed by suggestions of mint tea, underbrush, and lilacs. The full-bodied palate has a rock-solid structure of grainy tannins and bold freshness to support the generous black fruit layers, finishing long with a minty lift.

This is taut, concentrated and very fine. There’s a lovely purity to the lemon and lime fruit, with just a slight hint of peach and pear richness, showing lovely crystalline fruit with a stony minerality sitting underneath. Not showy: this is restrained and intense with lovely precision, and potential for development. One of Australia’s great Chardonnays.

The 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon Spring Mountain is a classy, elegant wine. It shows all the f inesse of Spring Mountain, with a fair amount of tannin. Dark red/purplish fruit, lavender, rose petal, spice and blood orange open with some reluctance. The Spring Mountain Cabernet is usually more sensual and approachable in the early going. The 2023, on the other hand, needs quite a bit of time.

The 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon from Cardinale is dense and packed to the core. Dark red cherry, plum, mocha, spice and espresso all race across the palate. Cardinale is a blend of top sites across Napa Valley, both valley floor and mountain, which yields a more plush, generous Cabernet Sauvignon relative to the wines Chris Carpenter makes from pure mountain sites. There's a bit more new oak imprint as well

Notably complete, with aromas of fresh flowers, cherries, wild berries, graphite, minerals,
plum skins and blood orange. The palate is silken, with no hard edges, finely tuned tannins
and notes of five spice and red and blue fruits, plus an herbal, savory edge. Excellent, with
plenty of flair. Drink or hold. Screw cap.

This wine is all about nerve and minerality, with aromas of lemon pith, lime blossoms,
honeysuckle, grapefruit, oyster shells and struck matches. The palate is powerful and
tightly wound, with notes of crushed stones, gingerbread, cordial, lime curd, pastry and
sherbet. Flashy and concentrated, with a fine line of acidity, this is a great example of the
new wave of Australian chardonnay. Excellent. Drink or hold. Screw cap.

A notably complete single-vineyard bottling, with an excellent balance of tension and
power. Aromas of lime leaves, sliced lemons, sea spray, green apples, oyster shells and
flint. The palate is tense and nervy, with a strong mineral drive and strength, which will
unravel beautifully over time. Floral and mineral in character, this chardonnay will reward
time in the bottle. Drink or hold. Screw cap.

Full of brambleberries, bruised cherries and rose hips with rich aromas and flavors of scorched earth, black licorice and allspice. Substantial yet lively, especially through the finish. Long, supple and structural tannins elongate, promising over a decade of easy aging. Drink or hold.

Perfumed with rose hips and hibiscus with a succulent yet chiseled mouthfeel. So long on the palate, showing pomegranate, cranberries, red tea and a pop of citrus. Amazing precision fans out with aromatic layers through the endless finish. Drink or hold.

Vibrating with an inner core of energy but supple and filigreed at the same time. There’s a distinctly Burgundian character here as crushed-rock, mineral and turmeric-powder aromas and flavors dust Meyer lemons and a kiss of white flowers through the finish. So complete. Drink or hold.

The 2024 Ovitelli Grenache is a confluence of two important elements: the first is the warm
year defined by amplitude and florals, and the second is the process of maturation,
whereby this wine is matured exclusively in concrete egg, which emphasizes the austerity
of the tannins and enhances the focus of the palate. Together, the wine looks both supple
and tightly coiled, and it bears all the hallmarks of aging impressively well over the week it
has been open, and decades into the future too. This is a super wine.

The 2014 Grenache High Sands is bloody, floral and ferruginous. The palate is sapid, ample
and wide, with great nuance. The season was hot, but the wine is energetic and fresh and
has such tannic presence in the mouth. This is a super wine. This is proof, along with the
2011 (cold and wet) that it is a mistake to write off vintages, especially in the case of a
single-vineyard wine, when one would do well to consider vintage variation merely as a lens
through which to view the vineyard DNA.

The 2015 Grenache High Sands is meaty and savory, with a core of freshness on the palate.
This is more in line with some other Grenaches I have seen outside of Yangarra this week—
i.e., perhaps is less "Yangarra-like" in its styling. But all elements of it are impressive,
especially the length of flavor. It's a sleeper, perhaps. This came from low yields and has a
low pH, and the wine looks quite like Nebbiolo in that it is structural and intense, but it is
super fine. There are notes of asphalt, petrichor and rose petals. There's an effortlessness
here that I find most beguiling. It's silky.

The 2016 High Sands Grenache was Australian wine critic James Halliday's Wine of the
Year in 2019, and it caused a stir in that it was the first time a Grenache had attracted the
accolade of Best Wine of the Year. The 2015 was named Grenache of the Year the year
prior, which caused a stir in itself. It's a wine used to these kinds of accolades, and for good
reason. Here, the wine is silky and composed, with great restraint and finesse. The tannins
coalesce at the back of the palate, and this is a beautiful wine, polished and powerful and
great. There are notes of pomegranate molasses, raspberry, blood plum, licorice, fennel
and leather

The 2018 High Sands Grenache comes from a warmer year, and almost all the red wines
made in South Australia have a powerful fruit presence that appeals to me. 2018 is perhaps
a little less complex than other vintages within that decade, but that attribute takes a back
seat to the pleasure and texture I find, almost across the board. This wine exactly typifies
the conditions of the 2018 season: it is powerful and effortless in its thrust of fruit flavor,
and I find it difficult to care that it doesn't have as many variations of "rose" or "asphalt" as,
say, the 2017, 2016 or 2015 tasted before it. It's just straight-up delicious, and it's polished
too.

I won't re-review this 2023 High Sands Grenache, as I have only just published its score and
note at the end of May 2025, but for the purpose of context in this vertical of 2012–2024,
the wine exudes all the fragrant perfume of the 2023 vintage. I like the 2023s more and
more, and I find them to be fine, firm, fragrant and finessed. What I will say is that perhaps I
undercooked the potential drinking window, which via this vertical has now revealed itself
to be around the 30-year mark. This, in the trio of cold vintages (2011, 2017, 2023), is my
preferred vintage by a margin.

Lokoya's 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon Diamond Mountain combines fruit from two sites:
Rhyolite Ridge, a south-facing site at 800 feet above sea level with powdery volcanic soils,
and Wallis Vineyard, about 300 feet higher, characterized by more sedimentary rock.
Scents of crushed stone and pencil shavings accent notes of sage, bay, cassis and
blueberry on the nose, while the full-bodied palate is creamy and lush, framed by finegrained tannins and revealing great intensity and length on the finish.

A very elegant, well-balanced and silky merlot, full-bodied but sleek and complete. Aromas of cherries, raspberries, violets and cedar meet flavors of red currants, star anise, cloves and dark chocolate. Fine tannins and subtle oak spices last from the mid-palate through a lingering, delicious, cinnamon-spiced finish. The blend contains 6% malbec and 4% cabernet franc. Aged in all-new French barrels. Drinkable now and best from 2032.

Broad, mouth-filling, ripe and rich, with dark fruits like blackcurrants and blueberries on velvety tannins. A full body carries generous chocolate and dark spice flavors, showing impressive breadth and a meaty, almost chewy texture. Expands in power on the palate without losing balance, and lingers long in the finish. Made from cabernet sauvignon and lesser portions of cabernet franc, merlot and petit verdot. Drinkable now and best from 2032.

The 2022 Le Désir is a blend of 80% Cabernet Franc, 9% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Malbec that matured for 16 months in 95% new French oak. It demands plenty of time in the glass before revealing pure, complex aromas of red and black cherries, tobacco, garrigue, grilled meats, soy sauce and lilac perfume, plus compelling ferrous undertones. The full-bodied palate features enveloping, detailed flavors. It has a seamless structure of velvety tannins and bright acidity and a long, layered finish. It should be long lived in the cellar.