Elegant aromas of toasted brioche with almond cream and white-peach compote make for a stunning nose on this bottling by Winemaker Jill Russell in one of her first complete vintages for the brand. There is a great sizzle of lime zest acidity to the sip, which gives way to creamier flavors of nectarine and crushed macadamia nut.

This excellent Pinot offers aromas of dried cherry, toasted sage and roasted strawberry that lead into a palate that’s snappy and light, yet with tons of weighty stuffing. Flavors of bright raspberry and wild thyme lead into a vanilla-kissed finish.

This impressive wine possesses just over 16% Merlot and touches of Malbec, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc. Using a small percentage of new French oak, it offers dusty texture and well-defined flavors of dark cherry, plum, rock and earth. A sweetness of oak doesn’t get lost in the overall structure and cohesion.

Mineral-driven and bright in acidity, this wine is smooth and supple, integrated and complex. With length and breadth, its forceful flavors of dust, juicy black cherry and dried herb combine effortlessly into toasted oak and a length of nutmeg and black pepper.

With the ease and verve of a wine minimally handled, this red shows fragrances of plum, rhubarb, blueberries and fistfuls of flowers followed by earthy, more mineral nuances. Yangarra’s signature tightrope walk of elegance and power on the palate creates a yin and yang effect that weaves taut, fine tannins through delicate fruit and nuanced texture.

Barbara Banke purchased the Field Stone estate in 2016, bringing its ancient petite sirah vines—survivors from 1894—into the Jackson Family Wines portfolio. Graham Weertsharvested the fruit from those vines when it still retained freshness, its dark flavors brisk and austere as a cold desert night. There’s a green note of agave to the flavors of deepredpeach and black-skinned blueberry, the fruit filling a vast tannic structure, remarkably nimble for a wine of this size. It’s the kind of wine that’s so big you can’t really take all of it in at once, but it’s not overpowering or heavy, just mysterious and anxious to rest in the cellar for years.

The 2016 Château Lassègue Saint-Émilion Grand Cru is an fantastic showing which shows a wonderful combination for ripe fruit and earthy twrroir driven character. It begins with a beautiful aromatic profile of ripe blackberries, dark cherries, loam, exotic spices, herbs, and hints if cigar bix that all take shape. On the palate this is medium to full-bodied and nicely structured with gorgeous polished tannins that create a wonderful texture. It goes on to display excellent depth, with a ripe core focused around dark fruit and exotic spices that continue to expand beautifully into the supple finish. While this is absolutely delicious now, it also has plenty of potential to age gracefully for years to come.

Fleshy, singular, golden. Harvested from four separate vineyards and matured in neutral oak barrel to add complexity and weight but not oakiness, this is a truly memorable bottle. It is golden and resinous offering aromas of yellow apples, pineapple chunks, spiced butter, vanilla and acacia flowers. Fleshy and ripe but with excellent acidity to balance--fresh weighty and the finish is nutty and spiced.

Black olive, cedar, pencil shavings and sage define and accent this beautifully made wine, made from high-elevation vines. Stony mineral components make for a chalky, dusty texture of integrated tannin and mannered oak, the wine undeniably earthy and complex.

Made entirely varietal from a vineyard scaling from 400 to 2,400-feetelevation, this red is balanced and elegant in style. Peppercorn, cedar and celery seed accent a mineraldriven intensity nuanced in black olive, currant and clove.

This delightfully bright, balanced wine tastes of freshly squeezed Meyer lemon and mango, with a breadth of texture and weight on the palate. Well made, it has ample acidity to keep it moving through a complex corridor of oak and supple tannin.

Tangy red-cherry and plum-skin aromas are leveled by slight hickory smoke and a pinch of wild herbs on the nose of this top-tier bottling from a large estate winery. The plummy flavors of the palate are cut by green peppercorns, which provide an almost extreme level of spice.

This is a tight, structured and youthful white wine, which develops nuance and complexity in the glass. Textured with a presence of toasted oak, it is rich and layered, opulently appealing in pear, stone fruit and vanilla.

With smooth, rounded edges of dark cherry, black currant and dried herb, this is a well-made and nicely structured wine with a strong tannin profile and integrated use of oak. Robust in clove, black pepper and a pinch of tobacco, it finishes with length.

Youthful and earthy, this wine starts with a blast of cherryand trumpet-mushroom flavor. For all its power, the wine is tight, the finish hinting at flowering herbs and roses. Impressively structured, this will prove itself with five or six years in the cellar.

Black-plum, rose-petal and violet aromas converge on the nose of this clonal selection from a historic vineyard. There’s an earthy array to the sip, where leathery and loamy flavors meet with tart cranberry tones.

For such a widely available wine, this is an extremely reliable bet. Aromas of clean and light lemon, nectarine and sea salt are pleasantly mellow, while the palate offers balanced brushes of lemon peel and white peach, wrapped in a soft yet acid-boosted texture.

Wonderful spicy, minty aromas and complex fruit, spice and toast flavors fill out a moderately tannic frame in this full-bodied, lavishly oaked and sophisticated wine.

Very much keyed on the incisive, cherry-like fruit specific to good Pinot Noir, Siduri’s Russian River bottling is a very well-balanced working that is at once fairly outgoing and possesses a sense of fruity depth and reserve that bodes well for further development. Despite being easy to taste now, it shows the kind of energy and tactile length to encourage optimistic keeping, and, while we admittedly would not refuse a glass or two with a juicy pork chop tonight, we see good reasons aplenty to lay it away and exercise a few years of patience.

This outstanding-barrel selection from the winery is sourced predominantly from the producer’s Alexander Valley estate. Bright, sweetly fleshy peach and candied lemon highlight a robust core of oak and softly integrated tannin, finishing in spice and power.

Made predominantly with Napa Valley grapes, and a supporting cast from Alexander and Knights valleys, this hearty red overdelivers on its price point, offering thick, dusty tannin structure and well-integrated oak. Cedar, tobacco and crushed rock provide earthy, savory elements from which its richness of black cherry contrasts and complements.

Clean lines of lemon juice, lemon blossom, pomelo zest, chalk and the faintest hint of butter show on the nose of this bottling, a relatively small batch from a coolclimate site. Tight citrus-pith flavors wrap up the plate, where light peach and guava flavors also arise.

A well-made red blended with 14% Merlot as well as smaller amounts of Malbec and Petit Verdot, this crowdpleaser is robust and leathery, with length and supple tannins. The oak is integrated and meshes well with the blackberry, cherry and currant, finishing in clove and toast.

This is a reserve-tier white wine, rich and rambunctious in style, with French oak, 50% of it new, at its core. The wine spent 10 months aging and it has a touch of reduction nipping at its thick, creamy layers of butterscotch and crème brûlée.

Clean lines of tangerine peel and orange flesh meet with pear slices on the nose of this bottling. The wine lands with a rounded mouthfeel, carrying flavors of orange, lime and lemon as well as a more broad Gravenstein apple component in the midpalate.