Tenuta di Arceno: chasing perfectionStrada al Sasso is the top cru of the estate. It lies at 400 metres above sea level, the ideal elevation to grow Sangiovese here. The 2018 vintage was more fleshy than structured in Castelnuovo Berardenga. This Gran Selezione is purplish, vinous on the nose due to its extreme youthfulness, showing a great definition of elegant cherry fruit completed by liquorice and graphite in depth. Floral notes of fresh violets enhance the flavour. Full, a bit warming with its 15% of alcohol but well balanced by brilliant acidity, this is a rich Chianti Classico with firm yet ripe tannins.

Tenuta di Arceno: chasing perfectionThis cru is based on 100% Sangiovese clones from Col d'Orcia. It's a flag of typicity, with polite use of oak (just 12 months in mostly second-fill barriques) and a greatly suited vineyard. In the dry 2017 vintage, Castelnuovo Berardenga suffered from the heat but benefitted from its cooler soils. The wine shows pleasant fruitiness, with a cherry jam and raspberry character, leather and hints of game. Full and ripe, it's lashed by firm acidity resulting a slightly austere finish.

This Monterey pinot noir pink is fermented in stainless to try and preserve freshness. Soft strawberries, cream, red apple, and a twist of mandarin fill the peach-hued, medium+ palate. The finish is snappy and brief. Chill well and drink this friendly, simple pink this summer.

The 19 Best Grenache Wines to Buy Right NowSand-based soils cradle vines planted back in 1946, and nurture a wine of fantastic aromatic complexity: First cherries, then raspberries, then brambly berries sweep in before the spice notes hit. All of it sets the stage for a plush, elegant, layered Grenache, with mountain berries, fresh-picked cherries, and cracked floral peppercorns. This terrific wine's concentration grows as the finish lingers on: It's nothing short of regal.

The 19 Best Grenache Wines to Buy Right NowThis is in a great place right now, with a razor's-edge balance between concentration and freshness carrying flavors of blood orange, licorice, dried herbs, violets, black and red cherries, green olives, and a touch of candied orange peel. It has another decade to go, at least, but I love this already. Note: 2017 was the last vintage of this wine; the fruit is now going into the Yangarra Hickinbotham Vineyard Grenache, and the 2019 will be released later in 2021.

Give quiche a chance – and give this Californian chardonnay the chance to stand up to the bacon, leek, and cheddar. This style will unite lovers of both new and old world chardonnay thanks to its rich butter, pineapple, and lemon curd on the nose and its fresher red apple on the palate, with enough rich butter and lemon curd flavours to balance its fresh acidity. A great lesson in how to balance fruit, oak, and acidity in a food-friendly white wine.

This bold, ripe pinot embodies the warmth of Sta. Rita Hills in Santa Barbara. It's not shy on dark berry fruit, with cola, rhubarb, and sweet spices. It's drinking well now with a nice combination of fresh fruit and tertiary complexity coming from bottle age at five years. Medium-full bodied, it's dense and concentrated with impressively supple tannins. If you like pinot that's at the riper end of the spectrum, but without being over the top or just a fruit bomb, this is a winner.

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.