Restrained, with delicate hints of green apple, grapefruit pith and white peach, while the herbaceous palate has a yellow liquorice finish.

Oaky nose and fairly heavy on the palate: rich, mouth-coating and lush, with a medium finish. Highly drinkable and fun if you like the ultra-rich style.

Evocative of club leather, yet retaining crunchy red fruits and cherry jam couched in spices and toasty oak.

Deep ruby color; cherry, black plum on the nose; cherry, raspberry, plum on the palate.Dry; dusty tannins. I’ve reviewed younger iterations of this wine where decanting was suggested. This is more mature bottle (nine years), and it did not require decanting. The vintage also may have played a part. I am happy I forgot this bottle in the back of my wine fridge. It makes a point on how bottle age affects a wine.Bold, voluptuous merlot flavors. Classic Bordeaux grapes with cabernet franc rivaling merlot in the emphatic presentation of fruit. A small amount of cabernet sauvignon rounds out the mix; 13.5% ABV.

Medium to light coral-pink colour, with a youthfully fruity aroma, toffee apple with hints of fresh herbs and strawberry, bright and straightforward. The palate is intense and dry, enlivened by fresh acidity which leaves us with a lip-smacking crisp aftertaste. No great hurry to drink this - indeed, a few more months in the bottle will help bring it on.

At first taste, if you picked up a handful of raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries and just crushed them, and then as it hangs out on your palate for a second, you get blueberry pie with nutmeg. A little bit of spiciness. When I smelled it earlier, I got more floral notes to it, so fresh roses, earthiness, and even sandalwood. But once opened a little, the floral toned down, fruit more balanced. This is really beautiful.

This clear medium purple colored Pinot Noir from Siduri opens with a slightly musty stewed plum and cola bouquet with hints of black raspberry and dried herbs. On the palate, this wine is medium bodied with medium-plus acidity. It is also satiny smooth and very fruit forward. The flavor profile is a spiced red plum and red licorice blend with notes of cinnamon and red raspberry. We also detected hints of fine minerality, lavender and some oak in the background. The finish is dry with gentle fine-grained tannins that fade away nicely. This Pinot is food friendly. We would pair it with Food and Wine’s fennel-scented duck breasts with Pinot Noir sauce.

Chateau Lassègue 2016, St.-Emilion Grand Cru, alters the balance with 60 percent merlot, 33 percent cabernet franc and 7 percent cabernet sauvignon. The color is an intense black-purple with a faint ruby edge; immediately come hints of cedar and tobacco, rosemary (with a touch of that herb’s woody resinous quality) and dusty dried porcini mushrooms, with concentrated notes of black and red currants and whiffs of blueberry and cranberry; yes, this is a highly structural wine — it received 70 percent new oak — yet it’s surprisingly fleet and buoyant on the palate, an amalgam of woodsy flowers and spices, heather and forest floor, bright acidity and layers of stalwart tannins and slightly leathery oak; the finish is very dry, dignified, Olympian. 14.5 percent alcohol. Try from 2022 or ’23 through 2032 to ’36.

The blend for the Chateau Lassègue 2012, St.-Emilion Grand Cru, is 70 percent merlot, 25 percent cabernet franc and 5 percent cabernet sauvignon, aged 12 months in French oak barrels. The color is opaque black-purple; the whole package is quite ripe and spicy — that is, slightly exotic cooking spices — but resolutely structured; notes of macerated black currants and cherries are permeated, in scent and flavor, by touches of cedar and tobacco, sage and dried thyme; give this an hour and waves of iron and iodine, graphite and mint emerge, wrapped about elements of lavender, bitter chocolate and walnut shell; dusty, velvety tannins gain power from mid-palate back through a finish framed by granitic minerality. 13.5 percent alcohol. Fine to drink now, with some airing and a platter of braised lamb shanks or a medium rare rib-eye steak, and with proper storage should develop beautifully through 2028 through ’32.

This wine is still aging, but it's drinking well now. The tannin is still a little ornery and will soften in a year or so. But it smells like ripe blackberries fresh off the vine and fresh-turned soil. This wine, with the texture of roasted pork, would be divine.

Here’s a rich and rewarding style of chardonnay from the Stonestreet estate in Alexander Valley, Sonoma County. There’s an enticing mix of fruit, toffee and oak derived notes that carry through to a long refreshing finish. Drink now to 2023.

Located in Santa Maria, Calif., the Cambria winery is home base for the Jackson family, who own and operate wineries up and down the coast of California and in other parts of the world, including Unsworth Vineyards on Vancouver Island. Katherine’s Vineyard is named for older daughter Katie Jackson. One of the winery’s larger production wines, this represents a blend of fruit from the 34 different blocks of chardonnay grown there. It knits together nicely for a juicy and refreshing white wine with a mix of appealing fruit, floral and spice notes. Drink now to 2022.

This Bordeaux-style wine is a study in contrasts, and a super delicious one at that. The 2018 Capture Pine Mountain Sauvignon Blanc has lush tropical flavors of lychees and kiwi, super sharp acidity and flinstone-like minerality. And somehow it all ties in really well together. It begins with aromas of exotic fruit, leads to an explosion of citrus flavors, and finishes on a chalky limestone note. Sam Teakle, Winemaker recommends some great pairings, “This wine pairs beautifully with oysters. Or, if you’re building a cheese board—the laserbeam acidity cuts through the richness of goat cheese, fresh and dried fruit to make the notes of the wine pop, and fresh herbs like rosemary and sage to complement the aromatics of the wine.”

This has very fresh strawberry, peach and watermelon aromas with plenty of red-floral perfume, too. The palate has fresh, mouthwatering strawberries and a glossy, more-ish finish. Drink now. Screw cap.

This light straw-colored Chardonnay from Copain opens with a mild oak and pineapple bouquet with notes of pear. On the palate, this wine is medium bodied and slightly acidic. The flavor profile is an oak influenced green apple with notes of butterscotch. I also detected hints green tea and spice. The finish is dry and its flavors are nicely prolonged. This Chard would pair well with chicken cordon bleu.

Mango, melon, pear and juicy peach supported with citrus flavors and a cleansing acidity.

Pale copper color. Aromas of white peaches, honey, pineapple, with white flowers, fresh laundry and clover. Peaches and green melons lead the way on the palate, a creamy texture with bright acidity works nicely, and the wine has this interesting chalky, flinty aspect. White tea, verbena and mint, even some minerality showing through, this has a lot going on for a budget-friendly Pinot Grigio.

Freemark Abbey Napa cab is a reserve style red, especially in the outstanding 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon. Look for intense, spicy, fresh, juicy boysenberry and bing cherry with milk chocolate, cedar, and garrigue. There is plenty of life here, and there is no rush to drink this wine. The 2016 composition is 75.8 per cent Cabernet Sauvignon, 16.2 per cent Merlot, 4 per cent Malbec, 3 per cent Petit Verdot, 1 per cent Cabernet Franc. It is a tour of Napa soils, including valley floor well-drained loam and clay; shallow, acidic western mountaintop soils with low fertility; and eastern mountaintop soils that are volcanic based, with poor fertility and incredible minerality.

We love the direction this Chardonnay is heading, mainly dropping weight and fat and soft for the purity of tropical Santa Barbara fruit. The site is located on the coastal Santa Maria Bench in Santa Barbara County. Typically fog-blanketed and cool, its fossilized seashells, shale, limestone, and sand soils are planted to the Wente selection and clones 4, 76, 96. We love the brightness, and shocking citrus drenched apple, pink grapefruit, and tangerine with plenty of fresh west coast acidity. Much improved oak finishes leave it a new world delight. Freshly cracked crab, anyone?

Made from early-picked Yarra Valley pinot noir grown on the highly-regarded Sexton and Tarraford vineyards, it has a delicate blush of colour and a perfumed aroma that’s immediately inviting. Notes of red berries, cherry pits and blossom give a springtime feel, and it’s dry, soft and gently constructed in the mouth with a mild, quenching finish.

Features a smoky aroma, while the palate exhibits notes of toasted hazelnut and brioche that frame the core of peach and citrus flavors. The beautiful texture expands over the palate. Sweet spice details emerge on the mouthwatering finish. Drink now through 2024.

Eight Of The Best Values In Italian Wine Right Nowil fauno di Arcanum, 2017: An elegant Bordeaux styled blend from Tuscany, this wine is primarily Merlot-based, and says winemaker Pierre Seillan, “it’s a great value; it is high quality for a great price.” Indeed, Seillan and Lawrence Cronin hand-select micro-lots of fruit across the vineyards, fermenting each one separately and then making a final, optimal blend that sings with freshness, complexity and richly woven fruit. Drink now or consider aging it 10 -15 years. The exceptional quality will last.

10 World-Class Australian Wines You Should Be Drinking NowThis elegant red from Hickinbotham winemakers Chris Carpenter (of Napa’s Cardinale, Lokoya and more) and Peter Fraser belies any rustic reputation this signature Australian blend might harbor. In fact, Carpenter and Fraser were inspired to make a Cabernet Shiraz their top wine by a bottle of Penfolds Bin 60A they shared over dinner on one of Carpenter’s first trips to Australia. In their 2017 version, beautiful aromatics on the nose combine red fruit, earthy damp loam and high-toned florals. The palate is generous, vibrant and balanced, its raspberry and blackberry fruit layered with dark chocolate, spice and lovely minerality.

10 World-Class Australian Wines You Should Be Drinking NowThis flagship Shiraz from Yangarra comes from the cooler, northern edge of McLaren Vale, where an outcropping of ironstone earns the wine its name. Concentrated, vibrant and perfectly balanced, it opens with toasted spice, blackberry fruit, pungent tobacco leaf and gravelly notes. The wine harbors plenty of structure, but it’s tamed and wrapped in juicy blackberry and blueberry flavors with delicious hints of cured meat.

Grapefruit, grassy, floral aromas. Melon and grapefruit on the palate. Good.