The Brewer Clifton style is in your face pinot with full on intense fruit. The nose is a dusty mix of teal leaf and pomegranate mixed with brown spices and earthy, gamey, forest floor, fig, and raspberries, with a dusting of cocoa. The fruit is aged in neutral barrels, and whole stems are an essential part of the structure of this wine. I’m thinking rich duck or pork dishes as the perfect foil to the intense flavours of this wine. The Brewer-Clifton pinot is an assembly of three Sta. Rita Hills AVA sites: 3D (Swan, Pommard and 667 clones), Machado, and Hapgood (Merry Edwards clone).

The Willamette Valley, pinot cuvée sources fruit from 6 AVAs, thought of as a broad overview of the valley through the Penner-Ash / Jackson Family lens. The wide mix of clones, soils, and locations gives a broadly textured wine, further amplified by 10 months in French oak (23% new). Darkly fruited, with brooding plums, perfumed blackberries seasoned with thorns, tobacco, violets, and soft baking spices. Tannins are ample but supple, guiding this to a lingering spiced finish. Able to take on duck or richer pork dishes; drinking now.

A Stellar Season: Tasting the 2019 Vintage Through Premiere Napa ValleyLot# 66Inky, opaque purple in color, this barrel sample smells of grapey black cherry and cassis. In the mouth, plush and lush flavors of blackcurrant, black cherry, and blackberry have a bright acidity and powdery, supple tannins. There’s a nice tangy note in the finish, and the oak is very well integrated here. Still somewhat primary in quality, but going to develop into a nice wine. 100% Cabernet Sauvignon grown in the estate’s historic Howell Mountain vineyard, which dates to 1888. Native-yeast fermented, aged in French oak, and bottled unfined and unfiltered.

Winemaker Peter Fraser is riding high in McLaren Vale, as evidenced by this single vineyard 98/2 shiraz/viognier grown at 180m on North Maslin Sands, which is estimated to be 54 million years old. Intense dark fruit, bright spice, and supple tannins tell the story in this impeccably balanced wine. The finish is long and persistent with perfect tannin balance and more dark fruit and licorice. The texture is amazing. Fraser works with 47 acres of shiraz to choose from, divided into thirteen individual blocks, each defined by different aspects and subtle variations of the sand and Ironstone soils. 2018 was a fine vintage, and Fraser went 50% whole berries with 20% whole bunches cold-soaked, and was wild fermented in open top tanks. It's aged in French oak for ten months on its lees (20 percent new).

Smooth, juicy and lean with fresh acidity, clean, balanced and long.

Katherine’s Vineyard is located on the coastal Santa Maria Bench in Santa Barbara County. The property is typically fog-covered and cool most mornings, providing a surface asset to match the underground fossilized seashells, shale, limestone, and sand soils planted to the Wente selection and clones 4, 76, 96. The wine is rich but bright most years with intense citrus, ripe red apple, tangerine, and pink grapefruit with a dusting of vanilla and honey over bright acidity. Big and busy, but still food friendly with creamy pasta and or halibut dishes. Big value for New World chardonnay lovers. Should be on every restaurant wine list in the province under $55.

Julia's Vineyard will soon be 50 years old. It was named after Julia Jackson, daughter of Jesse Jackson and Barbara Banke, in 1988, two years after the Jackson family purchased the Cambria Estate Winery. You can feel the inherent warmth of Santa Maria Valley here, in terms of its darker fruit profile, brown spices, and rich, glycerous-like textures. It’s not over the top but rather nicely balanced by savoury notes of underbrush, flint and perfectly integrated oak. It’s always charming shortly after bottling, given its silky smooth tannins. I suggest a light chill to set the fruit off here.

Jackson Family Wines bought Copain, and like most of its acquisitions, it was given what it needed and left alone to pursue its ethos in peace. Copain has been lauded for its Rhone wines, so it only seems natural they would make a rosé of substance. This pink treads an edge consumers will like: dry, earthy, saline, and fresh. Look for that snappy pink grapefruit and strawberries with just a hint of licorice. Fine quality for this very un-Californian rosé. It is all Mendocino pinot noir, and Pommard, clone 667, and 777, fermented in stainless steel. The site is northwest-facing, so it gets minimal sunlight, allowing multiple passes in the vineyard and harvest at numerous ripeness levels.

This wine smells like blackberry jam and fresh soil. The palate has some weight to it, with low-ish acidity. There is a significant tannin structure that doesn't frame the wine so much as wind through it. It feels like this bottle needs another year or two to settle.

The 42 Best Syrahs to Buy Right NowCrafted by Greg Brewer, this whole-cluster gem spent 60 days on its skins and stems, and the result is a wine of precision and definition: Notably fresh acidity brings tarragon and licorice notes to the fore, where they are joined by green peppercorns, oyster-shell minerality, and a solid core of blueberries, blackberries, and a flowers, especially on the finish. Great price for a wine this layered.

The 42 Best Syrahs to Buy Right NowEstate-grown in northern McLaren Vale, this is excellent, with iron filings and black tea amped with blackberries, blueberries, and camphor. These find a counterpoint on the palate in flavors of blackberries, kirsch, seriously structuring and mineral-flecked tannins, and a finish marked by more of that camphor. Needs time, but will be wonderful. Drink 2025 - 2045+.

The 42 Best Syrahs to Buy Right NowThere is a real sense of freshness to the nose, a sea breeze character that further enlivens aromas of brambly berries and Mediterranean herbs. The palate is just as bright, with black raspberries, blackberries, and cherries, all energetic with minerality and mouthwatering with lengthy acidity, chamomile, and sweet spice. Whether you drink this now or into the 2030s, its pleasures will be substantial.

Full-bodied but balanced, fruit for this bottling is sourced from six specialized sites in the Alexander Valley – well-suited for grapes in the Bordeaux family. Cherries, chocolate, tobacco, graphite, leather and herbs suggest a ripe, savoury expression that rides the line between New and Old World.

The Brewer-Clifton philosophy is embedded in the geographic, geologic, and climatic peculiarities of the Santa Barbara sub-AVA Santa Rita Hills. This blend comprises 3D Machado, Acin, and Hapgood vineyards yielding a range of intense tropical fruit aided by only neutral barrels adding zero extra weight to the wine. 2018 is fresh and juicy, mixing baked orchard fruits with mineral, saline notes boosted with orange marmalade streaks for extra added lift. Best with grilled lobster, Dungeness crab with butter, or your favourite holiday roasted turkey with stuffing.

On the nose, there are warm spicy notes with bright red fruit. The structure is wonderful and the wine is well balanced, fresh and lively. Notes of spice and cedar coat the palate. Produced from 90% Sangiovese and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon this Chianti Classico Riserva has bright acidity and a distinct minerality that makes you salivate and invites you to keep on drinking. You will enjoy pouring this wine again and again.

Gran Moraine Yamhill-Carlton Brut RoséJackson Family Wines has built itself into a luxury winemaking conglomerate in recent years under the savvy leadership of Barbara Banke, widow of company founder Jess Stonestreet Jackson. Banke’s portfolio of investments in Oregon’s Willamette Valley exhibits an appreciation for elegance, as evidenced by this spot-on charmer clad in golden-tinged pink, which caresses the palate with delicate raspberry and strawberry notes.

Last minute luxury gifts for Father's Day 2021A perfect pairing for a special father's day dinner together with the family, the Lassègue Saint-Émilion Grand Cru is a rich, tannic red with a velvety mouthfeel and bold, black fruit flavours. Derived from the sun-drenched vineyards of Saint-Émilion in Bordeaux, this red blends Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc grapes to create a wine that complements red meat with its decadent tasting notes of ripe blackberry and juicy plums melting into an earthy and oaky aftertaste with just a hint of dark chocolate.

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Quite light in the glass with a beautiful nose of peach, cherry, and white flower. The palate? Whoa. Great tartness and balance here. This is another contender for top wine. Outstanding.

The 2016 Saralee's Vineyard Pinot Noir displays aromas of red currant and dark cherries. It's precisely what I would expect from this cool-climate Pinot. Flavors of black plum, pomegranate, and cranberry come through. The wine presents a delicate structure and refined tannins.

The 2017 Saralee's Chardonnay is aromatic and flavorful. Notes of lightly toasted oak in the nose are followed by Gravenstein apple, Meyer lemon, and baked pear. A hint of herbacious flavors adds to its complexity.

COMMENTARY: The 2018 Penner-Ash Estate Vineyard Pinot Noir is bright, aromatic, and lasting. TASTING NOTES: This wine shows up with bright and fragrant blue fruits and stays lovely on the palate with lasting and attractive boysenberry flavors.

COMMENTARY: The Gran Moraine Brut Rosé is fresh, lovely, and persistent. TASTING NOTES: This wine sails onto the palate with red fruit flavors that lasts long and crisp in the finish. Pair it with grilled salmon.

I bought three bottles of this wine from Wine.com way back in 2011 and while this is the first I remember tasting, there is but one bottle left in the cellar. #GriftHappens Well, certainly golden in the glass, but no signs of oxidation on the nose, just tons of honeyed, even candied lemon curd, laden with heavy doses of vanilla and oak. Yeah, this is a big’un, certainly in the style of those late 90s California Chards. The big difference? While all of that lemon chiffon pie, oak, butter, and vanilla are certainly there on the palate, there is also an acidity that breaks through and lets the others know who is really in charge. Certainly not my style of Chard, but there is no doubt that this is extremely well-made and a fabulous wine. Outstanding.