Another prodigious effort is the 2012 Pinot Noir Arrendell Vineyard (nearly 300 cases produced), which comes from a site planted with the Martini clone of Pinot Noir in 1975. According to Don Hartford, this vineyard struggles to produce one ton of fruit per acre. This dense ruby/purple-colored 2012 offers up a big, sweet kiss of blackcurrants, black cherries, camphor, forest floor and violets. Round, opulent, full-bodied and lush with stunning purity and texture as well as a multidimensional personality, this unfined, unfiltered beauty can be enjoyed over the next decade.

Included in Wine Spectator's Top 10 List, 1989.

The 2017s From Sonoma The only other 2017 white I was able to taste, the 2017 Chardonnay Four Hearts Vineyards comes mostly from an old vine site farmed by Tom Dehlinger in the Russian River Valley. It displays a big, upfront nose of spiced orchard fruits, candle wax, hazelnut, and some crushed rock that gives way to a medium to full-bodied, rich, beautifully textured, layered, and long Chardonnay that has loads to love.

The 2017s From Sonoma Coming from the Green Valley region of the Russian River, the 2016 Chardonnay Fog Dance Vineyard was fermented and aged in just 17% new French oak, with the balance all in used barrels. It's an exotic, melon, brioche, and citrus pith-scented effort that has a touch of reduction that lends a beautiful sense of complexity. Rich and powerful on the palate, with medium to full-bodied richness, nicely integrated acidity, and a big finish, it's another wine that has one foot in the Russian River and one foot in Burgundy.

The 2017s From Sonoma Another heavenly Chardonnay is the 2016 Chardonnay Stone Côte Vineyard, which comes from a single block in the Durell Vineyard, on the Sonoma Coast. Fermented and aged in 30% new barrels, bottle unfined and unfiltered, it offers a huge bouquet of caramelized lemons, pineapple, hazelnuts, and white flowers, with just a kiss of toasty oak in the background. Made in a richer, more powerful style, it nevertheless has beautiful acidity, a fresh, focused texture, obvious minerality, and a great finish. Count yourself lucky if you have some of this in the cellar. It should continue drinking brilliantly for another 6-7 years and keep even longer in cool cellars.

The 2017s From Sonoma The 2016 Chardonnay Three Jacks Vineyard comes from the cooler Green Valley region of the Russian River Valley and was fermented and aged 16 months in 30% new French oak. It has a deeper, darker, slightly more earthy and mineral-laced style in its stone fruits, brioche, honeysuckle, and hazelnut aromas and flavors. It's deep, rich, and powerful, with beautiful depth of fruit and a thrilling finish. It's a gem in this lineup. There are a scant 327 cases made.

The 2017s From Sonoma The deep ruby/purple-colored 2017 Zinfandel Dina's Vineyard is also a field blend and comes from 100-year-old head trained vines planted in the Russian River Valley. Brought up in 56% new French oak, it displays a beautiful array of blueberries, apple peel, orange rind, and cedary spice. Complex, medium to full-bodied, and flawlessly balanced, it’s in the running for the top Zinfandel in the vintage. Drink it any time over the coming decade.

USA, Northern California, Napa Valley: 2016 & 2017 – A Tale of Two Vintages The 2016 Hartford Zinfandel Highwire Vineyard has a medium to deep garnet-purple color. Wow—the nose is a knock-out beauty of black cherry cordial, blueberry compote, fruitcake and liquid licorice with hints of roses, lilacs, Indian spices and garrigue. Full-bodied and beautifully structured with firm, grainy tannins and wonderful freshness, the palate is generously filled with fruit and spice layers, finishing long and perfumed.

The 2016 Zinfandel Highwire Vineyard is drop dead gorgeous! Black raspberries, potpourri, toasty oak, and cedar characteristics all soar from the glass. While it seems masculine and a little backward on the nose, this beauty hits the palate with awesome purity and elegance, fine tannin, no hard edges, and a beautiful finish. It has acidity, it has tannin, it has balance, and everything else I was looking for. It’s one of the top Zinfandels in the vintage!

USA, Northern California, Napa Valley: 2016 & 2017 – A Tale of Two Vintages Blended of 92% Cabernet Sauvignon and 8% Merlot, the 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Bosche Vineyard has a deep garnet-purple color and is scented of earthy nuances of truffles, dusty soil and underbrush with a core of crème de cassis, black cherry compote and blueberry pie plus hints of camphor and scorched earth. Full, concentrated, rich and densely packed with loads of earth and black fruit layers, it has a firm, ripe, grainy frame and oodles of freshness, finishing long.

Very deep, dark red colour with a purple tint; the bouquet dense and complex, with savoury rather than fruity personality, and neither variety showing out obviously. Very full-bodied, concentrated and dense, with fabulous ripe, powdery, fine-grained tannins in abundance. Very mouthfilling with a long, long carry. A wine of wonderful depth, power and texture. (57% cabernet sauvignon, 43% shiraz. 150 cases made)

Deep ruby red in colour. Aromas of woodland scents, sweet scented berry fruits and spice. Blackcurrant, dark plum, wild cherry, blood orange, fennel pollen, star anise, cedar notes, sweet tobacco and graphite. Cool silky entry, deep textural richness. Savoury. Slightly exotic. Epic on the finish.

A new single vineyard that's from just in front of Cardinale (just across from To Kalon), the 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Colline Vineyard is 100% varietal that spent 21 months in 55% new French oak. While this fruit previously went into the Napa Cabernet Sauvignon, Kristy Melton thought it was too special and would make a great single vineyard. Cassis, perfumed blue fruits, violets, darker chocolate, and graphite notes all define the bouquet, and it's medium to full-bodied on the palate, with beautiful tannins, a layered, balanced mouthfeel, and outstanding length. It's a gorgeous bottle of wine.

A site that they've worked with since 1968 (they're the only estate to work with this fruit, which went into the Beaulieu Private Reserve in the past), the 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Bosche has a big, complex bouquet of red and black fruits as well as savory herbs, baking spices, chocolate, and graphite. It's rich, full-bodied, has a rounded, layered mouthfeel, beautiful tannins, and a great finish.

The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Helena Dakota Vineyard
was matured for 15 months in 90% new French oak.
Currently resting in tank, it's aromatically pure and
layered with scents of warm blueberries and cassis,
licorice, mushroom and earth. The full-bodied palate is
seamless and youthfully coiled, with clay-textured
tannins and a finish that hints at more nuance waiting
to emerge.

The 2021 Le Désir is a blend of 87% Cabernet Franc,11% Merlot and 2% Malbec and was matured for 16 months in new French oak. Currently resting in the tank, it explodes with gregarious aromas of blueberry, dried thyme and lavender, fennel, coffee grounds and truffle. The medium to full-bodied palate is light on its feet, with ultra-powdery tannins, fi reworks of fresh acidity and a youthfully coiled finish featuring mineral, floral fruit.

The 2020 La Muse is a barrel-sample blend of 95% Merlot and 5% Malbec. Opaque ruby-purple, it has pretty aromas of cured meats, coffee beans, aniseed, underbrush and Morello cherries, with a streak of graphite. The full-bodied palate is powerful, with a dense core of black cherries and blueberries, a touch of chew to its tannins and bright acidity.

Tasted as a barrel sample, the 2020 Le Desir is made from 80% Cabernet Franc, 15% Merlot, and 5% Malbec. Deep purple-black colored, it sets off with fragrant scents of kirsch, redcurrant preserves, and black raspberries with wafts of dried roses, garrigue, and aniseed, plus a hint of black pepper. Medium to full-bodied, the palate has a solid structure of ripe, grainy tannins and just enough freshness to support the intense, tight-knit fruit, finishing long and mineral-tinged.

The 2020 La Muse, tasted as a barrel sample, is made from 95% Merlot and 5% Malbec. Deep purple-black colored, it comes bounding out of the glass with eager, exuberant notes of baked plums, black cherry compote, and blackberry pie with touches of licorice, sauteed herbs, and black soil plus a hint of graphite. Medium-bodied, the palate is surprisingly elegant, featuring a solid frame of grainy tannins and lovely, seamless freshness, finishing on a lingering licorice note.

USA, Northern California, Napa Valley: 2016 & 2017 – A Tale of Two Vintages A barrel sample blend of 75% Cabernet Franc, 20% Merlot and 5% Malbec, the 2017 Le Désir is very deep purple-black in color and sings of crushed black cherries, black raspberries and kirsch with hints of black tea, cigar box, new leather, licorice and forest floor. Medium to full-bodied, firm and grainy, the palate offers beautiful depth and perfume with firm, grainy tannins and long, lively finish. One of the few 2017s to rival its 2016 counterpart.

Seillan said that 2015 (which was still in barrel at the time of my tasting) was the finest vintage of his lifetime, which is strong praise indeed. Certainly, he has three titanic wines aging in the wine cellars. The 2015 La Muse is a blend of 89% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Franc and 4% Malbec. Sweet notes of unsmoked cigar tobacco, mocha, espresso bean, chocolate, plum, Asian spice, blackcurrant and black cherries soar from the glass of this opaque-colored wine. It has great fruit, real sucrosity and lushness in the mid-palate, and a super-duper inner core of glycerin followed by sweet, refined tannins in the finish. It is a strikingly flashy and flamboyant style of wine that should drink well for its first 30+ years of life.

Inky/purple/black in color, with a nose of graphite intermixed with acacia flowers, blackberries, cassis, and charcoal, this 2001 reveals profound intensity, superb purity, and a mulitlayered finish of more than 60 seconds. Aromatically, flavor-wise, and texturally, it is a spectacular tour de force in winemaking. More accessible than the structured, delineated 2001, the 2002 should be drinkable between 2005-2022+.

A barrel sample, the 2016 Hartford Court Chardonnay Far Coast Vineyard features fresh grapefruit, lemon curd and white peach notes with wafts of crushed stones and lime blossom. The medium to full-bodied palate is super intense and wonderfully layered, packed with citrus, floral and mineral notes packaged in a creamy texture and defined by a racy backbone, finishing very long. Wow!

USA, California, Napa Valley: More New 2018 ReleasesThe 2018 La Joie was tasted as a final-blend barrel sample, due to be bottled in January 2021. Composed of 76% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Franc, 5% Petit Verdot and 3% Malbec, it will have been aged for 16 months in 100% new French oak. Deep garnet-purple colored, it needs a little coaxing to reveal fragrant roses, violets, chocolate box and pencil shavings notes with a core of black currant pastilles, mulberries and warm plums. Medium to full-bodied, very tightly knit, elegant and refreshing in the mouth, the intense black fruits are mineral laced and perfumed, finishing with great length.

USA, California, Napa Valley: 2017 — Napa's Perfect Storm When I tasted this last year as a barrel sample, it was blended with some Cabernet Franc and Malbec. This is a finished tank sample made of 100% Merlot, the first time La Muse has been entirely made of Merlot. It is due to be bottled in January 2020 and will be bottled as a 20th anniversary edition (it will also be the 50th year of winemaking for Pierre Seillan). The 2017 La Muse is a little reticent to begin, giving glimpses at black cherries, fresh blackberries and warm cassis with hints of violets, star anise, charcoal and damp soil with a waft of tapenade. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is wonderfully spicy/minerally with a firm backbone of rounded tannins and plenty of freshness to lift the earth and mineral-laced black fruit to a long finish. 2,500 cases are to be made.