This dark ruby and opaque colored Shiraz from Hickinbotham is terrific. It opens with a unique Sprite and boysenberry jam bouquet. On the palate, this wine is full bodied, very well-balanced, refined and nicely coats your mouth. The flavor profile is a plum and gentle minerality blend with notes of mild raspberry tea and a touch of blackberry and oak. The finish is dry and its flavors and refined tannins are nicely extended and drift away nicely. This elegant Shiraz would pair perfectly with a filet mignon.

Fair bit of gum leaf perfume, and a truffle and flower water pong, mocha, blackcurrant and blackberry. It’s medium bodied, with a blend of sweet black fruit and undergrowth and savoury things, a touch meaty and the like, but with fleshy tannin and a solid finish. A little old school in its delivery but very nice, and almost certainly age-worthy.

Australian Charlie Seppelt and American Chris Carpenter are the blokes behind the Hickinbotham revival pushing this Clarendon cabernet front and centre. The wine is shaped by its texture and hence tannins which remain dense throughout framing the wine’s structure to perfection. Pure black fruit/cassis with bits of tobacco, menthol and dark chocolate. The fruit is hand-picked from Clarendon high country at 220 metres where it builds weight and flavour in the warm mornings and freshness and acidity through cool nights. The richness and density makes you think of Pomerol, while the drinkability and savoury aspects remind one Tuscany. First planted in 1971 by Alan Hickinbotham it remains well cared for today under the Jackson Family Wines banner. Delicious especially when decanted for three hours. Cellar through 2025.

Take Note: Real Australian Wine Is Here The nose here is refined, showing freshly picked blackberries, oyster shell, slate and a hint of undergrowth. Full body, grainy tannins and a chewy finish. Drink in 2019. Screw cap.

Plum, red fruits, gamey, tobacco, cedar and vanilla oak. Medium bodied, strawberry and plum, savoury, grainy graphite tannin, cool acidity, tomato paste flavour on the finish.

560 cases. From vines planted in 1976 and 1989. 18 days on skins. Basket pressed (some blended back; heavier pressings kept separate). All French oak (Bordeaux coopered). Sturdy wine but with plenty of flesh and flow. Tannin churns throughout but black cherry, boysenberry, blackcurrant and loamy earth notes carry the day. Mint, fennel and herb notes too. It’s drinking well now but it’s not going anywhere in a hurry; this will sail on for many a year. Clear quality, if not necessarily X-factor.

Toasty nose with lush plum and berry fruit; crisp and deep with a lovely style and long finish; made by Aussie master Charlie Seppelt and California superstar Chris Carpenter.

Deep red colour with the merest tint of purple; rich chocolate, vanilla, plum and dark berry aromas, without any leafiness. Medium to full-bodied and very soft, with supple, rounded tannins and a long carry. Very approachable. Drink 2016 to 2030

Take Note: Real Australian Wine Is Here The nose to this shiraz is quite unique with fresh citrus and orange peel running through layers of blackberry crumble, crushed stones and vanilla. Full body, ripe tannins, uplifting acidity and a fine finish. Drink now or in 2018. Screw cap.

The Cabernet Sauvignon Trueman offers an effusive bouquet of dark red fruit with hints of Christmas cake spices. It is huge and mouth filling, very broad and polished with firm underlying tannins. It is also rich and spicy at this stage of development.

Notes of chocolate-covered coffee bean add richness to the ripe blackberry and plum flavors, with fragrant details of dried violet and cigar box complementing the savory notes of meaty black olive on the finish. Shows plenty of intensity and focus, offset by fleshy tannins. Drink now through 2030.—M.W.

The most powerful, complete and long of the four 2013 wines tasted, this has a heady mix of liquorice, cassis, toasty oak spices and crushed purple flowers, really fresh, smells concentrated and full of ripe dark purple and black fruits – cassis, plum and blackberry, some redder fruits here too. The palate has a powerful core of deep tannin with density and depth, really assertive and long, immense composure, a superb wine with clarity, refined power and length. Best from 2022.

Notes of chocolate-covered coffee bean add richness to the ripe blackberry and plum flavors, with fragrant details of dried violet and cigar box complementing the savory notes of meaty black olive on the finish. Shows plenty of intensity and focus, offset by fleshy tannins. Drink now through 2030.—M.W.

Austere, tannic and chewy, this Cabernet could use a few years in the cellar. Classic mint and cassis notes are framed by cedar and vanilla, but the fruit comes through on the firm, dusty finish, a sign of positive things to come.

Broad and generous, this is supple underneath a layer of crisp tannins, layering chocolate and tobacco flavors with ripe currant and plum fruit. Has ample depth and complexity, and finishes with finesse. Drink now through 2022. 135 cases made.

The fullest, broadest and densest Hartford Pinot this vintage come from this tiny hillside vineyard in Green Valley. But it's not just muscular, it boasts elegant, floral aromas of plums and strawberries and a tantalizingly long finish filled with dried spices and chocolate.

Presented in a clean, mineral-scented, Chablis style, this youthfully austere wine should develop well. The oak influence is subdued, just hinting at caramel and toast, while the lees character yields a beeswax texture, dried honey and the scent of herbs and scrub along the Pacific Coast. Stone Côte is a small block of the Durell vineyard planted on an ancient riverbed, windswept and cool, and it's grown a firm and lasting wine, one to pull from the cellar several years from now for a plateau des fruits de mer.

At only 300 cases, this will be hard to locate, but worth the search. It's tightly wound, with citrus, herb and grilled-nut aromatics, rich, buttered-pear flavors and a silky, velvety mouthfeel that's to die for.

A California version of Chevalier-Montrachet, it is fashioned from an old Wente clone. Boasting an incredible earthy, liquid minerality intermixed with subtle lemon oil, pear, and white peach characteristics, this full-bodied Chardonnay possesses good acidity and a restrained personality. It is bursting at the seams with intensity as well as power. This stunning offering should age well for 5-6 years, possibly longer. Sadly, only 347 cases were produced.

Ripe and rich; intense and complex with plum and berry fruit; long and luscious with amazing layered flavors.

Lovely wild cherry flavors with notes of spice are the immediate draw here, and the sinuous texture is well worth noting as well. You'll find the projective fruit delightful, suggestive of young Pommard from a fine producer who would emphasize texture and fruit over concentration and wood. Consumption over the next couple years is most advisable, as you wouldn't want these remarkable pinot flavors to fade, especially at the price of admission.

Exploring The Best New Releases from Sonoma and Beyond The 2016 Pinot Noir MacLean's Block is plump, juicy and quite sensual in feel. Soft contours and silky tannins help push the fruit forward. Red cherry jam, pomegranate, blood orange, spice, lavender and mint build as this succulent Pinot shows off its considerable charms.