Sourced from two blocks of the Keyes Vineyard at La Jota, the 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain shows more caramel, barrel toast and mocha notes, derived from the choice of Demptos as the cooper. Cassis and blueberry flesh out the flavor profile of this full-bodied, rich, velvety effort. Mouth-filling and plush, it's broad and expansive in the mouth, finishing long and intricately textured.

Made mainly from WA's Gingin clone and planted in Gruyere on the same grey clay as Applejack. Whole bunches pressed into French puncheons with 20% new oak. Smells tightly wound and concentrated with aromas of ripe peach and nectarine, together with just a hint of lanolin and apple custard. Equally powerful and punchy on the palate. This has more of everything, including sprightly acid and some phenolic grip on the very long, stone-fruit pithy finish. Today, this is my pick of the 4 single-vineyard 2021 chardonnays, but who knows what will come out on top in 5 or even 10 years from now!

Purple fruit, such as ripe plums and white peaches with flowers. Medium to full body with lots of perfumed flavors and a savory finish. Powdery tannins provide roundness and beauty. Long finish. Tight at the end. Needs two or three years to soften and open.

Aromatic and complex with sweet tobacco, fresh and dried herbs and fresh flowers, as well as red fruit. Medium-to full-bodied with wonderful polish and drinkability, especially for the mountain fruit from Howell, Veeder, Diamond and Spring mountains. Elegance. A blend of 67% merlot, 20% cabernet sauvignon, 12% cabernet franc and a dash of malbec and petit verdot. Drink or hold

The essence of cabernet sauvignon on the nose with cassis and fresh flowers. Full-bodied with orange peel, blackberry, cassis and hints of rose stems. Creamy and powdery tannins. Needs time to come together. Try after 2026, but already beautiful.

The nose is of lifted blackberry and dark forest fruit on this blend, made from a combination of Napa’s mountain fruit. There are overtones of gravel, of stone, of hints of smoke. The palate is immediately concentrated, powerful and intense. This is like a primal force, bold but toned, rich but fresh. Ripe tannins coat the mouth, assert themselves while that dark fruit lingers.

A shy nose hints at dark berry and some graphite only. It is on the palate that the fine freshness, the superfine tannin, like combed, starched silk, breaks though. There is crunch, there is freshness, there is this insistent, lasting, long and pure, tart red berry fruit. This is Cab Franc the California way.

Blueberry smoothie, perfumed, slight black pepper and exotic spices, violet perfume, dried herbs, and mocha oak. Medium to full-bodied, powerful, blackcurrant, some red fruits, ferrous tannin and plenty of them, firm ‘mineral’ acidity keeps it fresh and it’s very long and powerful. Needs a fair amount of time, but a what a great Cabernet this is. So emphatic.

Always an exciting proposition. A transparent grenache of pixelated precision. As reminiscent of its nebbiolo brethren as it is of pinot. A shimmering red-fruited veil. Gritty, attenuated tannins derived from old vines (1946) and a long, gentle agitation in ceramic eggs. Here, a spontaneous ferment occurs across an astounding 170 days. Like biting into the juiciest raspberry that bridles the perfect edge of ripeness, before sucking on sandstone. Long is an understatement. This is among Australia's greatest wines from the country's finest cultivar.

Moderately light garnet color in the glass. Seductive aromas of Bing cherry, raspberry, sap and spice. Delicious, mouth filling flavors of black cherry and raspberry saturate the palate with goodness. Very polished in the mouth, with buried tannins and a vibrant acid backbone. Everything works in harmony so that the wine can be thoroughly enjoyed now. Fabulous when tasted the following day from a previously opened bottle.

The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Mount Veeder is one of the most distinctive wines in this range from Lokoya, but it is also the most backward. Huge beams of tannin give the Veeder Cabernet energy and shape. It will be at least a few years before the fruit starts to fully emerge, so a measure of patience is essential. Iron, red plum fruit, sage, mint and white pepper lend striking brightness to this gorgeous Cabernet Sauvignon from Lokoya and winemaker Chris Carpenter.

In 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain is entirely from W.S. Keyes ranch. A huge, statuesque wine, the 2019 possesses tremendous intensity right out of the gate. Inky dark fruit, gravel, menthol, licorice and spice build in an opulent, dramatic Cabernet that hits all the right notes. This is such a classic expression of Howell Mountain.

The 2019 Red Wine, Caladan's Merlot-based blend, is flamboyant to the core. Inky dark fruit, chocolate, new leather, licorice and sweet oak are all kicked up in this decidedly exuberant wine. Winemaker Chris Carpenter opted for hillside sites for this blend, so there is plenty of supporting mountain structure lurking beneath all of that fruit.

With time, this Cabernet is now beginning to reveal its cornucopia of autumn fruits on the nose; black currants, plum, figs, red and blue berries. The palate is equally packed with flavour. However, the tannins remain upright, structural, imposing even, less rounded out than in La Muse or Le Désir. There is a delicious, savoury note to this wine, making it immensely appetising despite its firmness. It is drinking now, with a little help from a good steak, but has really only just begun its journey to ultimate pleasure.

Right from the start, this wine tells you exactly what it is all about, all Cabernet class, cassis, green leaf on the nose and pure, compelling graphite on the palate. This is an immensely powerful wine of regal stature. Statuesque but dynamic thanks to the seam of fresh acidity running through it like a current of air, the tannins are beautifully managed but are uncompromising at this stage. There is a denseness to the wine at this stage. The overall impression is one of monolithic splendour, like the greatest of Bordeaux Pauillacs.

The 2019 Red Wine, based on 67% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Cabernet Franc, and miniscule amounts of Malbec and Petit Verdot, is the most difficult blend to put together. A deep, rich, powerful Merlot, it has tons of red and black fruits as well as chalky minerality, medium to full body, a dense, compact mid-palate, and complex notes of spring flowers and spice.

Winemaker Chris Carpenter fashions the Caladan releases to be more complex, lifted, and perfumed. Mostly from Spring Mountain, the 2019 Cabernet Franc checks in as 79% Cabernet Franc and 21% Merlot, aged in 75% new French oak. Gorgeous black raspberry, cassis, and earthy currant fruits as well as lots of spring flowers, iron, and spice notes emerge on the nose, and it’s medium to full-bodied, pure, and polished on the palate, with plenty of tannins and structure. It has some accessibility today, yet smart money will hide bottles for 4-5 years, and this beauty is going to evolve for at least two decades.

2018 Cardinale is a 90/10 cabernet sauvignon/merlot aged 22 months in 81 percent new French oak. It comes at you in waves from the glass as it gulps in oxygen. Winemaker Chris Carpenter appears to be letting Cardinale find its way, and the result is a less boisterous, more stylish Napa cabernet that tells an impressive tale. The wine is magnificently balanced, rich in black and blue fruits, bright acidity and Napa Valley power with a strong, savoury, mineral undercurrent. Long, complex, and nowhere near ready to drink, it is a delight to taste. You will eventually get to enjoy the full picture by 2024-26, but it will age effortlessly into the 2040s and beyond.

Seeing 20/20 – Sonoma & Anderson Valley New ReleasesThe 2016 La Joie soars out of the glass with stunning Cabernet Sauvignon red berry fruit, wild flowers, mocha, spice and mint. Elegant and refined, with striking depth, La Joie is pure and total finesse in 2016. It is one of the most sublime, nuanced wines I have tasted from Vérité.

Planted in 1946 on a sand dune in the cooler, elevated northeast of McLaren Vale. Hand-picked and sorted in the winery, the fermentation is wild. It is a glorious example of grenache picked earlier than in the past, retaining all the freshness of red cherries/berries, spices starting to build, tannins beautifully shaped.

Whole bunches, wild yeast, open fermenters and French oak (35% new). The quality here is sensational. It delivers a power of fruit in the freshest of ways, its glove of smoky/cocoa-like oak the perfect partner. Seriously ultra-fine tannin, and accompanying length, completes what must be described as a beautiful picture.

From six estate blocks, 75% destemmed, every berry optically scrutinised by a very expensive piece of equipment that happily deals with any disease or other damage (say botrytis). Wild yeast-open fermented, plunged, 14 months in French oak (20% new). The pure singularity of this certified biodynamic wine has a different face to its King's Wood sibling. It relentlessly captures the senses with its dark spiced fruits, the aftertaste slowly diminishing.

Matanzas Creek has a long and storied history with merlot, good times and bad. In the beginning, Matanzas (along with Duckhorn and a couple of other notables) had the novel idea (at the time) to present merlot as a stand-alone wine. It had previously been used almost exclusively as a blending component of most cabernet-centric California wines. The Matanzas merlot of the 1980s was well-received and helped put the Sonoma Valley winery on the map. As if to confirm its faith in the merlot grape, nearly 30 years ago, the winery planted the Petrus clone of merlot and created its flagship red blend, Journey. Petrus, of course, is the infamous chateau in the Pomerol district of Bordeaux and 100 percent merlot. The 2015 Journey is an extension of the original concept: a rich, lush merlot-based red (approximately 70 percent merlot, 30 percent cabernet sauvignon) that is beautifully perfumed, with complex notes of red and black fruits, impressive depth and a structure that suggests it will age well over 15 to 20 years.

This is one of the gems in the Kendall Jackson portfolio. This is a world class Cabernet. Purple in color. The nose has cassis, cedar, milk chocolate, and a bit of char. On the palate, this has a wonderful muscular texture. Firm tannins. Lots of cassis fruit. Deep and complex if still tight. Lively with great balance and precision. Long finish. This is delicious but grabs your attention. It still has some upside as it ages and probably at least seven to ten years from peak. It should easily last two more decades, plus. It should be versatile to go well with most medium and heavier foods as it by no means an over sweet fruit bomb. It would be interesting to watch it mature as in twenty years it will drink like a St. Julien, Bordeaux. Grade: A+ Score: 97 Vintage: 2015

Tasting a Twelve-Year Vertical of the Napa Valley-Based Blend The Cardinale Rule Intense ruby color; velvety texture with notes of black plum and blackberry. Structured and generous with toasty vanilla and new oak; deep, creamy, and rich with length and beautiful balance. Unlike some Napa producers that expect you to wait years, Chris Carpenter makes wines that are immediately drinkable and delicious.