This dramatically constructed Pinot wants time in the cellar. It's dry, full-bodied and tannic, with bigtime cherry, black raspberry, teriyaki beef and black pepper flavors, compounded with rich, smoky oak. The acidity is so acute, it will easily shepherd this wine through 5-7 years of bottle aging.

Stackhouse makes this wine from an estate vineyard just outside Navarro and another, near Philo, under long-term contract. There's laserlike focus in the foresty, wild fruit, a dark flavor that brings huckleberries to mind. The depth in the aroma continues on through the finish, where a hint of seaweed and tangerine-like acidity point up the freshness in this mouthwatering red. For bone-in pork chops roasted with hedgehog mushrooms.

There's nothing showy or pushed about this wine, and if you like your chardonnays heady and rich, you should look inland. For me, however, this is exactly what a California coastal chardonnay should be: cool, invigorating, with the briny spice and salinity of the sea. Its flavors drift with a calm persistence, like a gull coasting in the wind, as if the chardonnay grapes could absorb the texture of the fog and the slat air of the trade winds. The structure is focused and rather narrow, with a fine, lively acidity that keeps the flavor subtle enough for Hog Island sweetwater oysters, or freshly caught snapper grilled on the beach.

The 2017s From Sonoma Beautiful stuff, the 2016 Chardonnay Kelli Ann Vineyard comes from a site in the Russian River Valley and spent 15 months in 31% new French oak. It has a classic Russian River profile of orchard fruits, brioche, and caramelized citrus. Rich, medium to full-bodied, beautifully textured and ready to go, drink this hedonistic Chardonnay over the coming 3-4 years.

The 2011 Chardonnay Nine Barrel is very pretty in this vintage. Succulent and layered in the glass, the 2011 is laced with expressive apricot jam, honey, white flowers, spices and mint, all in a silky, resonant style with plenty of near and medium-term appeal.

An interesting and elaborate Chardonnay that shows intense winemaker intervention. It’s sweet in honey, butter and cream, with lees-inspired notes that give balancing bitterness to the tropical fruits. Soft and opulent now, it will hold for 4–5 years.

A very rich, oaky, dramatic Chardonnay. It's dry and crisp in acidity, showing powerfully ripe pineapple, orange, apricot and honey flavors, enhanced by toasty oak. Brisk acidity makes it clean and vibrant.

Rich and unctuous, with a viscous, glyceriney texture holding deep, opulent flavors of pineapples, lime custard, clover honey, Mandarin orange and cinnamon spice. Lees treatment brings a creamy, slightly sourdough tang. Good price for a Chardonnay of this quality.

Here is a deep, decidedly complex look at the grape that begs for a bit of patience insofar as, while very rich and leading with plenty appley fruit and creamy oak, it seems a wine of hidden talent and reveals a bit more with each successive sniff and sip. Fairly full on the palate, slightly oily in feel yet never heavy and always well-balanced, it is light on its feet without being a light wine, and it should prove first-rate partner to the likes of seared scallops or sole in buerre blanc.

Selected from 84 wines recommended over the past two years. Jess Jackson, whose family owns La Crema, had pushed for a Sonoma Coast appellation that would include most vineyards to the west of Highway 101. It gave winemaker Melissa Stackhouse at La Crema the flexibility to produce a great chardonnay at an astonishing price. The freshness of this wine, the flavors of pear and peach skin, give it a zest that feels true to the coast. It's layered and cool, a luscious wine for crab.

A wine this good, priced at $18, makes me wonder what some other people are doing with all their carefully selected Chardonnay fruit. In the case of Melissa Stackhouse at La Crema, she is keeping it brisk and clean. The vineyard sites are all located within 25 miles of the coast and the freshness of this wine, the flavors of pear and peach skin, give it a zest that feels true to that coastal influence. It's layered and cool, a luscious wine for crab.

This is a rich, complex and attractively layered wine that opens with baking spice and black cherry aromas. The palate brings mouthfilling and concentrated black-fruit flavors with lingering dried fruit and cinnamon characteristics. It's a big but well-mannered wine that will cap any occasion with style.

The 2016 Pinot Noir Seco Highlands, which spent 12 months in 25% new French oak, has a vivid ruby/purple color as well as beautiful red fruits and spices on the nose. Strawberries, cranberries, and cherry notes and flow to a medium-bodied, beautifully elegant and seamless 2016 that shows the balance, transparency, and harmony that makes this vintage in California so special. Drink this beauty anytime over the coming 4-6 years.

Lush and spicy nose; smooth, lush and showing smoke, raspberry and savory notes; a bright, juicy and stunning Burgundian wine.

From the cooler Anderson Valley (450m - 540m) region utilising Dijon clones including 828 (36%), which winemaster Randy Ullom tells me the viti guys love, because the bunches stand upright. It immediately put me in mind of Phillip Jones of Bass Phillip fame, who observes a phenomenon he calls 'bunchus erectus' in some of his Pinot vines, and attributes it to bio-dynamics, rightly or wrongly. Candied violets, strawberry and raspberry, light vanilla and spice. Juicy and medium bodied, a fresh tasty wine with light sandy tannin and an attractive chalky finish. Pretty wine that's easy to appreciate, but has complexity and interest too.

Ripe blackberry and cherry fruit with great structure and balance and a long, smoky finish.

Alisos is cool-climate syrah that is 100 percent grown at Los Alamos in Santa Barbara County. Look for an intense red wine, with smoky, floral, peppery red fruit aromas and flavours. On the palate, the wine is meaty, with black raspberry, cherry cola flavours. The attack is round, the textures dense, almost beefy, with super ripe fruit. Alisos is becoming consistently good, year in and year out.

Pours dramatically dark and brooding, with an enormous burst of white pepper, blackberry and coffee and an edge of smoked meat and leather. Huge in the mouth, with masses of blackberries, plums, espresso. Bone dry, thick in sweet tannins, and long on finish. Drink now-2012.

K-J has a way with Merlot, and with this wonderful 2010, they’ve produced a wine that tastes far more expensive than it is. It’s silky on the palate, with wild berry, red currant and persimmon fruits. This could even develop bottle complexity over the next 5–6 years.

Lots of structure in this refined, polished Merlot. The tannins are strong but sweetly ripe, and with the crisp acids, they provide a rich framework to the cherry, cassis, cola and mocha flavors. Dry and elegant, this wine drinks well now should hold for five years before the fruit fades.

Intense, ripe-cherry fruit is the centerpiece of this deep and keenly defined young Merlot, and it is joined by lots of sweet oak spice, suggestions of chocolate and hints of fresh herbs that make for a genuinely complex and involving expression of the varietal. The wine is fairly plush and fleshy in feel as only a good Merlot can be, and, if arguably a little rough and rugged at the finish just now, it asks only for some three to five years of forbearance while it reaches for a fuller measure of supple richness.

The most limited production cuvee is the 2006 Trace Ridge Proprietary Red, a spectacular offering. It's deep ruby/purple color is accompanied by notes of sweet cassis, crushed rocks, licorice, earth, and graphite. Full-bodied and deep, it is another excellent example of what Knight's Valley can produce.

More vibrant than the '01 with anise and herb notes and a lush, chewy texture. Black cherry and spice flavors; long, velvety finish.

reveals loads of complex mineral, tobacco, black currant, blueberry, and licorice characteristics. Medium to full bodied, with sweet tannin as well as a firm, mountain-styled personality that begs for patience, it will be at its finest between 2010-2020.

Already bottled, this wine isn't scheduled to be released until March 2005. If you like your Cabs big, rich and chewy (and who doesn't?) it's never to early to start badgering your retailer or wholesaler to try to get you some of the 613 cases produced. Toasty notes accent dark chocolate and plum scents while intense cassis flavors fill the mouth. Sturdy; try after 2006