The 2018s from Santa Barbara CountySimilarly ruby/plum-colored, the 2018 Pinot Noir 459 has a big nose of spiced cherries, new leather, toasted spice, and spring flowers. These carry to a ripe, opulent Pinot Noir that stays flawlessly balanced, has good acidity, and a great, great finish.

Defined tones of red fruit and tangerine, alongside bright acidity, give this wine undeniable lift and life. It is sourced from a cool-climate block within the Arrendell Vineyard. Herbal in thyme and celery seed, it delights the midpalate with length and energy, expanding on the earthy theme with lasting freshness and specks of white pepper and cardamom.

The 2017 vintage of Upper Barn is Excellent! It is a light-yellow colored Chardonnay with a golden hue. It opens with a mild apple and pear bouquet. On the palate, this wine is medium plus bodied, extremely well-balanced and graceful. The flavor profile is a delicious delicate blend of pear, apple, vanilla oak, butter and refined minerality. There is a touch of cream soda and apricot mixed in as well. The finish is dry and it drifts away nicely. This Chard is super enjoyable and should certainly be enjoyed with your favorite Chard fan. You can drink this gem on its own or pair it with lobster with drawn butter.

Bright, deep ruby-red. Slightly high-toned scents of raspberry, coffee, milk chocolate and rose petal, plus some Old World hints of meat and earth. Utterly fine-grained and seamless on entry, with perfectly integrated acidity and a floral element giving clarity and lift to the red fruit, spice and mineral flavors. A first sample of this wine showed some porty high tones but this one is refined and pure, rich but not a bit heavy. In fact, it's wonderfully delineated, aromatic and fresh in the style of a top Pomerol. Finishes with firm, dusty, nicely buffered tannins, terrific thrust and sneaky rising floral perfume. This wonderfully elegant, pure, broad wine comes across as less wild than the Le Désir and La Joie bottlings. It should continue to evolve gracefully on its balance and palate-saturating breadth. Wow! Held up beautifully with aeration.

Sonoma: Another Brilliant Vintage in 2018One of the standouts in the lineup, the 2017 Pinot Noir Jennifer's comes from a vineyard south of Sebastopol, which sees lots of influence from the Petaluma Gap. Brought up largely in neutral oak (32% new), its deeper ruby/purple hue is followed by terrific notes of black raspberries, cedarwood, bay leaf, forest floor, and graphite. This head-turner is medium-bodied and has beautiful concentration, bright yet integrated acidity, and a killer finish. Locked and loaded, it needs 2-3 years of bottle age at a minimum, and my money is on it drinking brilliantly at age 20. It's a stunning, singular wine from this estate!

Sonoma: Another Brilliant Vintage in 2018Coming from a block located on a northern facing ridge north of Fort Ross, on the Sonoma Coast, the 2017 Pinot Noir Far Coast Vineyard was destemmed and spent 17 months in 32% new French oak. Bottled unfined and unfiltered, it offers a deeper, richer, more savory bouquet of black cherry and darker currant fruits as well as loads of ground herbs, chocolate, forest floor, and spice. This rich, opulent, incredibly sexy Pinot Noir has a wealth of fruit, a rounded, seamless texture, and a great finish. It's a rock star in this stacked lineup and a gem of a wine in the vintage. I love it!

This is so very complex and detailed and has an array of fine-ground brown spices with bright red berries and a gently herbal kick. The palate has drive and power with dynamic tannins whisking raspberry, strawberry and red-cherry flavors along in streamlined, linear mode. Excellent grenache. Drink or hold. Screw cap.

Wow, this is a phenomenal expression of this majestic Clarendon vineyard and is aptly named as the pinnacle of the range. The intersection of cabernet sauvignon and shiraz is so seamless, a selection of the best (and oldest) parcels form this blend. The fact they are both grown in the same contoured vineyard cements a deep bond in this wine. Dark cherries, blackberries, mulberries and blackcurrants with a gently leafy edge. The oak is perfectly integrated. Power and precision on the palate. So well defined and brightly flavored with raspberries, red plums, blackberries and a deeper, black-cherry and dark-plum build into the finish. Just superb. Drink over the next 15+ years. Screw cap.

Top 100 Wines of 2019 - #86 The 2015 Helena Dakota Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon is absolutely fantastic in this vintage. This outstanding Knights Valley Cabernet was aged 13 months in 70% new French oak barrels and it shows a wonderful combination of ripe fruit and earthy characteristics throughout. As this slowly unwinds in the glass it releases profound aromatics of ripe black cherries and crème de cassis which are joined by fresh violets, loam, roasted coffee, warm gravel, cocoa powder and even roasted herbs which all come together beautifully. On the palate this is well-structured, with gorgeous textural richness, as well as outstanding concentration. It goes on to display wonderful opulence and depth, as layers of ripe dark fruits expand on to the long mouth coating finish. Even at this early stage the Helena Dakota certainly offers incredible appeal, however it will ultimately require some additional bottle age before it enters its optimal drinking window.

James Halliday's Top 100 Wines of 2019 Top Reds Over $30 75% destemmed, every berry optically scrutinised by a very expensive piece of equipment. Wild yeast-open fermented, plunged, 14 months in French oak (20% new). The pure singularity of this certified biodynamic wine relentlessly captures the senses with its dark spiced fruits.

Central Coast: The 2017s and 2018s The standout in the retrospective, the 2013 Pinot Noir Machado has that rare mix of opulence, power, structure, and balance that defines great wines. Beautiful blackcurrant fruits as well as notes of ground herbs, flowers, black tea, and forest floor all jump from the glass, and it’s just as good on the palate, with flawless balance, no hard edges, and a great finish. It’s a brilliant wine, from a brilliant vintage, from a brilliant winemaker. Drink it any time over the coming decade.

Central Coast: The 2017s and 2018s The 2010 Chardonnay 3D is another stunner, offering mature notes of crushed apple, citrus, salty minerality, and plenty of floral and more exotic nuances. Medium to full-bodied, beautifully balanced, and elegant, it’s the first wine in this retrospective to start to show more mature and nuanced aromatics. It will continue drinking brilliantly for another 4-5 years and have a gradual decline as well.

Central Coast: The 2017s and 2018s The 2015 Chardonnay 3D offers a more masculine, mineral, and salty style that carries incredible caramelized fruit, brioche, and spice-driven aromas and flavors. Full-bodied and powerful, with serious concentration, a stacked mid-palate, and a great finish, it’s in desperate need of 2-3 years of bottle age, but this magical Chardonnay will keep for 15 years or more!

USA, California, Napa Valley: 2017 — Napa's Perfect Storm Very deep garnet-purple colored, the 2017 Cabernet Franc is a little closed to begin, slowly revealing redcurrant jelly, blackberry pie, boysenberries and mulberries with nuances of Ceylon tea, raspberry leaves, tilled soil, pencil shavings and underbrush. The palate is wonderfully elegant with a medium to full body and very fine-grained tannins supporting perfumed cherries and black berries layers, finishing long and energetic.

The classic 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon Bosché Vineyard is 90.1% Cabernet Sauvignon and the rest 9.9% Merlot, aged 26 months in oak. This is one of the iconic wines of Napa, and one of the great vineyard sources coming from Rutherford on foothill bench soils at the base of the Mayacamas Mountains. This is one of the finest examples of this wine I’ve ever tasted, and there have been many. The wine shows plenty of loamy soil notes intermixed with blackberry, cassis, cedar wood and spice box. It’s full-bodied, shows terrific intensity, a multi-dimensional mouthfeel and moderate tannin in the finish. It still needs cellar time - and 5-6 years should bring forth plenty of magic, but this wine will also last 30-40 years.

North Coast Part 1: Napa Valley’s Incredible 2016s A relatively new release from this team is the 2016 Cabernet Franc Caladan, which includes just under 20% of Merlot. It has beautiful Cabernet Franc character in its blueberry and black cherry fruits as well as loads of complex forest floor, dried earth, camphor, and chocolate nuances. Medium to full-bodied, seamless and silky, it shows the inherent purity and freshness that’s the hallmark of the vintage, is perfectly balanced, and has the class to evolve gracefully for two decades or more.

USA, Northern California, Napa Valley: 2016 & 2017 – A Tale of Two Vintages The deep garnet-purple colored 2016 Proprietary Red Wine is blended of 89% Cabernet Sauvignon and 11% Merlot. It opens with compelling chocolate box and licorice scents over a core of black and red currants, warm plums and baking spices with hints of cedar chest and pencil lead. The palate is full-bodied with layers of cassis and kirsch flavors framed by firm, grainy tannins and fabulous freshness, finishing long and spicy.

Ripe plum nose; dense and dark with a velvety texture and complex flavors of spice, chocolate, and black cherry. Intense but always refined and elegant, this is yet another Chris Carpenter masterpiece.

The 2015 Cardinale is heavenly juice made from 91% Cabernet Sauvignon and 9% Merlot that’s from a number of AVAs in Napa Valley. It offers a beautiful perfume of crème de cassis, black raspberry jam, graphite, and scorched earth. This gives way to a full-bodied, elegant, impressively concentrated 2015 that has the deep, concentrated fruit of the vintage, yet stays fresh, lively and graceful on the palate. This is high-class stuff that can be drunk anytime over the coming 20-25 years.

Weekend Wine Picks The Cardinale blends with 50 separate sample blocks and under winemaker Chris Carpenter the number is reduced to a handful of the most complex and aromatic awash in intensity, texture and length. A third of the final blend comes from Spring Mountain’s volcanic loam soils; Howell Mountain kicks in 25 per cent. The final blend is an 88/12 mix of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot aged 19 months in French oak, 94 per cent of which is new. Complexity is a big part of Cardinale, with additional fruit sourced in Stags Leap, St. Helena, Diamond Mountain District and Mount Veeder. It’s a wine for the ages from Carpenter and Napa that will repay a decade of bottle age. If you can’t wait, roast lamb would be a fine match.

Bright ruby color with a soft plum nose; bright cherry and boysenberry with notes of vanilla, toast, and spice; deep, intense, and ageworthy. Another Chris Carpenter masterpiece that's incredibly elegant, precise and generous.

Highest of the High-Priced The Top Ten Wines over $100 in 2018 (So Far) Bright ruby color with a soft plum nose; incredibly elegant, rich, and precise; generous with bright plum, cherry, and boysenberry notes with hints of vanilla, toast and spice. Another Chris Carpenter masterpiece – deep, ageworthy, and long.

The 2014 Cardinale is a captivating blend of 88% Cabernet Sauvignon and 12% Merlot from talented winemaker Chris Carpenter. This is truly an appellation wine, as it was sourced from vineyards across the entire region with Spring Mountain District (Yverdon, Wurtele and Spring Mountain Vineyard) the base, to which Veeder Peak and sites in the Howell Mountain, Diamond Mountain and other sub-appellations round out the blend. The result is an utterly complex Cabernet which immediately opens to profound aromatics of ripe dark currants and black cherries woven together with graphite, spring florals, pipe tobacco and touches of sweet spices. On the palate this is full-bodied, layered and beautifully polished with gorgeous ripe dark fruits at its core. It remains dense and concentrated as it builds up to the long, voluptuous finish. While the 2014 is already absolutely stunning, it also possesses all the characteristics to indicate a fantastic future ahead.

Bright ruby color; soft plum nose; another Chris Carpenter masterpiece; incredibly smooth and elegant, rich and precise but generous; bright plum, cherry and boysenberry with notes of vanilla, toast and spice; deep and intense, ageworthy and long.

Cardinale starts out with 50 different wines, and under winemaker Chris Carpenter that number is reduced to a handful of complex, aromatic samples awash in intensity, texture and length. In 2014 there were only a few heat spikes, leaving Carpenter to settle on 24 different wines, spanning six different appellations and 12 vineyard sites. A third of the final blend came from Spring Mountain’s volcanic loam soils, which Carpenter credits with fine tannins and delicate floral notes. Howell Mountain kicks in 25 percent, bringing dark fruit characters, herbs and weight adding complexity and depth. The final blend is an 88/12 mix of cabernet sauvignon and merlot aged 19 months in French oak, 94 percent of which is new. Complexity is a big part of Cardinale, with additional fruit sourced in Stags Leap, St. Helena, Diamond Mountain District, and Mount Veeder. It’s a wine for the ages from Carpenter and Napa that will repay a decade of bottle age. If you can’t wait, roast lamb would be a fine match.