You can see why the Australian media is so excited about this pinot. Fresh, light, and medium-weight, this projects a lot of pinot character and fits the Jackson Family Wines delicious factor they like in their pinot noir. Giants Steps’ is now under the watch of JFW Australia and will have access to many resources, including the mind and palate of Peter Fraser. I have no history with this wine, but it doesn’t take much to fall in love with the elegance here, and the rooty, savoury undercurrent that complexes its delicious red fruit. What a delicate pinot with extraordinary length. Let’s hope local buyers get on board and order all they can get.

Appealing nose of peach, nuts and some crystalline lemons. The palate is soft, smooth and rounded with nice pear fruit and some fine spicy characters. Stylish and textural, this shows really good balance and a smooth, rounded character.

I like how Australian chardonnays sneak up on you with an inviting, nutty, citrus that mixes effortlessly with a creamy undercoating and plenty of lees to feed its complexity from front to back. It is rich in a Grand Cru way but not overpowering. This is a terrific discovery for the Vancouver market. I hope some of this gets distributed out to retailers so all can enjoy it. It joins a short but impressive list of Down Under chardonnays that are lighting up the category. The 30 hectare Sexton Vineyard, planted in 1997, is located on the steep, north-facing slopes of the Warramate Ranges. The topsoil is thin, and vines sit on shallow, gravelly loams over a rocky clay base. Vigour and bunch yields are naturally low.

Dense, quite structured, but with plush black cherry and blackcurrant fruit. There’s a lovely fruit core here: it is fresh and quite detailed, with nice fruit sweetness. Accessible and also with a hint of seriousness. I really like it: modern Chianti Classico.

Wines under $20 to spring into spring withThe 2018 Murphy-Goode Cabernet Sauvignon from California is — well, good. It’s also a great value for an easy-drinking, food-friendly cabernet. Made from grapes sourced from vineyards throughout California, it delivers abundant plum, cherry and chocolate notes across the palate and ends with a pleasing hint of licorice on the medium finish.

Exploring The Cabernet Sauvignon Of Napa Valley, Part Two: Rutherford And St. HelenaKirsch, black raspberries, dark chocolate, and mineral precede a palate of wonderfully detailed and assertive structure, with flavors of Amarena cherries, red and black currants, dusty tannins that are very much classic of Rutherford’s reputation, toasted fennel seeds, bay laurel, and a dash of coffee. This is built for the long haul, with balance and acidity to spare, and should continue evolving in fascinating ways until the late-2040s.

Yangarra’s fourth-ever bottling of concrete-egg-fermented Grenache from biodynamic bush vines planted in 1946 is as elegant and ethereal as it gets. The color of rosy cheeks, it pulses with raw beauty: pure red berry and plum fruit etched with delicate floral notes and savory, earthy, briny nuances. Tannins are gorgeously textured, sappy and fine with understated power. The fruit crackles, silky and sexy. A singular, site-expressive wine of precision and grace. Easily one of Australia’s best Grenaches. Drink now–2030.

Squid-ink-purple colour, scents of plush boysenberry, balsamic flowers and coffee. A rush of flavour, sweet red and black cherries, bacon fat, dried herbs and vanilla bean cradled by a full-body with svelte tannins. Showcasing flavour concentration, depth, opulence and long persistence to finish.

Lucid and expressive, this opens with a mélange of aromas: cherry and currant, sweet and savory spices, chocolate, floral and mineral base notes. The palate follows suit just as you’d expect, with a lovely juxtaposition between elegance and crunchy red berries tempered by taut, fine, highly textural tannins. A spiciness lingers. Drink now with rustic, meaty autumn and winter dishes, or cellar until 2035, at least.

This is a precise and highly ageworthy example of Oz’s most famed red blend. Fleshy plum and blueberry fruit mingles with mint and other dried herbs, chocolate, bay leaf and peppery spice. The barrel influence is there, too, but it’s better integrated than in the past. At the moment the palate is a beast, with oodles of fruit and spice and muscular, chalky tannins, but there’s chisel, finesse and a lengthy finish—all the trimmings of a harmonious wine set for the long haul. Drink until 2040.

2017 was a comparatively cool vintage, which has ramped up the elegance and freshness factor on Yangarra’s most premium and renowned wine. Compared with the raw beauty and pure joy of the Ovitelli Grenache (which is half the price), this is a more polished wine, set for time in the cellar but also drinking beautifully now. The floral characteristics shine alongside brambly fruit and soft savory, mineral aromas. The palate is openknit, with juicy berries washing over the tongue, followed by a tug of highly textural and precise tannins. Drink now–2030.

The Peake is an American’s (Chris Carpenter’s) ode to the classic Aussie red blend. 2017 was a fairly cool vintage and it shows here. More elegant, lucid and fruit driventhan the ’18, this may not age as long but it’s drinking pretty darn well now. Notes of cherry, blueberry, licorice, violet and five-spice powder are wound in sappy, savory tannins that have lovely texture and integration. A powerful but harmonious wine that should age gracefully until 2035.

From a 15-acre parcel of rolling hills north of Highway 246, this wine is ripe but manages to channel the appellation's coolness to remain lively and playful. It leads with scents of red berry, black tea and licorice, then the flavors are a burst of red fruits, becoming livelier with air, a juicy exuberance grounded by spicy stem tannin and mouthwatering acidity. Showing beautifully now, this is ready to pour with a pork chop.

This wine isn't shy; its dark plum scents and turfy, black-cherry flavors are bright and generous. But there's a vibrancy and foresty savor that keeps the wine lifted despite its richness. It could stand up to something big, like a pasta with roast chicken and mushrooms.

This grows at the Jackson family's estate vineyard in Annapolis, a far-coast site one ridge inland from the Pacific. That cold ocean influence lends tartness to the fruit in flavors of sour cherries and scents of foresty herbs. Oak adds richness in nutty scents and dark tones that meld with the forest floor notes. The fruit's fresh refinement will play well with a fatty cut of roast pork.

The Jackson Family added Saralee's Vineyard to their portfolio in 2013; it's a site that has been farmed for grapes since the 19th century, replanted by Saralee and Richard Kunde in 1989, now 200 acres of vines. Those vines produced a classical Russian River Valley pinot noir in 2017, rich and plush with red cherry and black currant flavors. It's full bodied with lively intensity, a wine to enjoy on its own or with a rare roast beef.

Bright raspberry red in the glass, this is lively with candied red fruits, grounded by a hint of cocoa. The flavors are broad and expansive, drawn out by an oak richness, the fruit vibrant and flavorful.

Concentrated and creamy but not overly showy, this wine is balanced, restrained and layered. It meshes an apple-tart flavor with subtle vanilla and nutmeg nuances whileunderlying acidity achieves excellent balance.

This wine is dark and dense, its concentrated black-cherry flavors woven with notes of licorice, vanilla and warm spice. Hints of amaro bitterness add complexity to the rich flavors, a match for grilled game or other robust dishes.

Oak enriches this wines' creamy texture and provides the base notes while the fruit shimmers on top. It's a powerful pinot with enough brisk structure and high-toned fruit to carry all the richness.

From a vineyard in Bloomfield, a village in the coastal hills south of Freestone, this wine delivers cool richness in flavors of juicy kumquat, red spice and layers of earthy tannins that have a supple red-clay feel. It's integrated, lasting and clean.

This gentle pinot fans out in a range of transparent red fruit flavors, hinting at wild strawberries and sour cherries, complete with the pits and the leaves. That tangy berry flavor lasts, on the incipient side of ripeness. It has the delicacy for Japanese fare, like Hamachi kama.

If you look to Hartford for rich Russian River pinot noirs, you'll find this to be a departure—a bright, oceanic red with the umami brininess of seaweed and salt-cured olives. There's a light cherry sweetness to check the saltiness, setting up an appetite for pasta tossed with sea urchin.

Julia's is always dark red and savory, with a scent of the sea, of turf and dark-red fruits. What starts out lean and cool becomes more rounded and seamless in the glass, all the complexity filled in a black-cherry lushness—and wonderfully lively for a 2016.

Rich and deep, with plenty of oak to gather the lush fruit, this is a broad-shouldered pinot with the power and generosity for braised beef.