The 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Knights Valley offers a beguiling mix of dark red fruit and the strong mineral/savory notes that are such a signature of the appellation. Black cherry, scorched earth, bittersweet chocolate, licorice and dried herbs lend notable character. This bold, layered Cabernet has a ton to offer. It's a terrific introduction to this range.

Spiced aromas of roasted sage, black cherry liqueur, and cedar emerge from the 2020 Il Fauno di Arcanum, which is composed of 41% Merlot, 34% Cabernet Franc, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon, and a splash of Petit Verdot. It is approachable and full-bodied, with generous fruit through the mid-palate, and reveals a silky texture with fine tannins. This is a solid and easy drinking wine to drink 2023-2030.

Tense and dynamic, with deeply structured wild berry, crushed stone and dusky spice flavors that build toward broad-shouldered tannins. Hands off for now. Best from 2024 through 2031.

Lively aromas of citrus peel, lemon blossom and grapefruit flesh entertain the nose on this bottling. The palate is pithy and ashy, offering vibrant acidity and a persistent texture that surround the rich, white-fleshed fruit flavors.

Knight’s Valley is a special and distinct district in Sonoma County brought into the spotlight by the Beringer cabernets going back at least three decades. It’s nice to see other producers’ iterations here in Ontario and Arrowood’s is a good one. Carries the kind of qualities that act upon the palate with great energy and vitality but the bones are also strong and age-ability definitely probable. The fruit has been given all the fodder and possibilities to set up for a whole lotta something and wood has quite a bit to do with all this. As an ’18 has it matured? To a small degree yes perhaps but in a curio meets secondary character to set up at the horizon for a truffled Italian cabernet-based IGT stylistic. Drink 2023-2026. Tasted January 2023.

A fleshy, textured chardonnay with aromas of apricots, honeysuckle, nutmeg, toast and persimmons. It’s medium- to full-bodied with bright acidity. Balanced, layered and very drinkable. Hints of flint at the end. Drink now.

Very good colour for the vintage; a very complex, full-bodied wine, with blackberry, plum, licorice and the mandatory regional dark chocolate all in abundance, the tannins ripe, the oak balanced. Most will presumably head to the US, where the alcohol (and attendant warmth) will please.

Deep, dense red/purple - very good colour. Earthy, humus, chaff aromas with quite a lot of oak. Full-bodied, rich and quite dense, with masses of tannins, smooth and supple, but quite gripping. Plummy, chaffy and borderline jammy flavours: full-bodied and chewy, dense and gripping. This needs food, and probably some more age. Impressive wine of real potential.

Deep red/purple colour. The bouquet is dominated by toasty oak, the palate is rich, dense and fleshy with again lots of oak character and a firm oaky-tannic finish that lingers long. Rather straightforward flavour at this stage, but has potential. Good, but oaky, and the rich flavours linger on the finish.

Yangarra’s Small Pot Shiraz is whole bunch pressed – though how much, I couldn’t say. The words Whole Bunch are prominent on the front label. Substantial wine. Glossy and a little jammy too. Rubbery, meaty, gluey aromas lead to a smooth, plummy palate showing only faint streaks of sap and twigs. Reckon the whole bunches worked pretty damn well, by the taste of this. Aromatically it won’t be for everyone but it’s a gorgeous to have in your mouth.

Fresh and cooked blackberry bouquet, with mocha and fruitcake spice aplenty; rich, warm and showing generosity and depth of fruit to conclude

Very deep, dark red/purple colour. Big chocolate and coffee/mocha aromas, the palate is very deep, dense and concentrated in fruit flavour and soft skin tannins. It's big and bold but not oaky. A thoroughly lovely big red, and more approachable than the Small Pot Whole Bunch version.

Ripe blackberry and dark plum aromas, peppery and earthy too, intense and concentrated; clean and lightly spicy. The palate is full-bodied and elegantly-structured, with refinement and linearity. Very attractive flavours, big on mixed spices. (10% whole-bunch; 50% whole berries; wild ferment. 5, 530 cases) Drink 2018 - 2030

Deep red with a good tint of purple, the aroma fumey and woodsy, fairly savoury, with a hint of super-ripeness. A rustic, full-bodied wine with flesh, density and grip, but going further than simple varietal fruit personality. It has good extract and could repay a little time in the cellar - though doesn't really need it. There's good richness, weight and flesh as well as drinkability. (Certified biodynamic. 50% destemmed; 50% whole berries; wild yeast. Older French oak for 10 months; filtered but unfined. 370 cases)

Deep purple/red colour with a coconut, slivered almond bouquet, fresh and bright. There's a stony terrestrial edge to it. The wine is medium-bodied and very dry but softly-textured, with abundant supple tannins and an aroma and flavour of dried banana. Medium-bodied, and very appealing. It's the antithesis of fruity. (Perhaps because it was fermented in concrete eggs?)

Chocolate, red and black fruits and black olives with a floral lift – lavender and flowering basil perhaps. It’s firm and savoury, rather than sweet, with excellent shape and a lovely dry finish. Drinks beautifully and has a drier, more Euro food friendly feel than many locals. Impressed.

Destemmed whole berries, cold soaked, with wild yeast employed in small open topped fermenters. There's a distinctly sauvage feeling all about this wine which is entirely appropriate. It's sophisticated McLaren Vale shiraz in all its glory so to speak. Aromas and flavours purely of the black fruit from the red earth, and with minimal interference, here it is.

Strong red-purple; sweet, luscious, juicy berry grenache varietal character; soft tannins and subtle oak.

Made from vines planted in 1946 on, according to the back label, a sandy dune in McLaren Vale – overlying the North Maslin Sands. If grenache isn’t your thing then this won’t win you over – despite its quality. It’s not thick or dense, it is warm with alcohol, its main flavour is sweet raspberry and there’s not much oak to speak of. If you do like grenache though, these facets are a good part of why it’s so good. It’s fresh, jubey, alive and uncluttered. It speaks of beautiful grenache grapes, ripe and delicious. Not too heavy, not too light; just right. Best consumed young – and often

Bright, full red/purple colour and a fresh fruit, slightly lifted aroma of cherry and other red fruits. The wine is very tight and firm in the mouth, a little unready, with grip and a little hardness. There's a stoniness that is almost nebbiolo-like. If there is VA (volatile acidity) it is not obvious on the palate. Good length and resonating aftertaste. Some would describe it as minerally. I'd give this wine a year or two's cellaring. (94 cases produced; unwooded; fermented in two 675-litre ceramic eggs; 120-day post fermentation maceration. Source: Block 30, planted 1946)

Medium red colour with a tinge of purple. The bouquet is very smoky, earthy and savoury. Later, more floral and aromatic than its High Sands siblings. The tannins are quite firm. Savoury spice flavours. It's very dry and very different. A lighter, elegant style of grenache. It's not easy to see the value in this, a very left-field grenache, but I have to admit it grew on me. (Vines planted 1946. Biodynamic. Hand-picked, destemmed, berry-sorted, 50% crushed, wild fermented in two ceramic egg fermenters. Unfined. 1128 bottles) 29/6/2017

Roussanne is one of the white grapes of the Rhone Valley where it is often blended with Marsanne. In the past it’s been a co-star but is now moving into a solo part. There is a smell to Roussanne that can be described as slightly unpleasant, there is no richness or overt fruit nuisances. The smell is of the earth, a slight odor of sweet decay, there is also a tang on the palate - in short it’s not an easy wine but one that needs input from the drinker. Taste it and it’s easy to dismiss, taste it with some thought and it becomes a different creature altogether. This is a smart wine, perhaps not to every ones taste, but I give it 92 and think it well worth the $25 price tag.

This is the non ‘egg’ roussanne. Tasted side by side though. Fermented in barrels of which around a quarter used are new. Yangarra, Your Roussanne Specialists. Has a ring to it. It’s pretty tight but also kind of juicy, shows nice pear and quince perfume, whiffs of green herb too. The palate has this nice, tight, puckering character, breathy licks of nougat and cinnamon woody spice, a slurp then starts its roll to tension. It’s nice to drink. It shows complexity in its way. It feels fragrant and serious and frisky. It’s doing a lot, yet feels kind of simple too. I find this all good.

362 cases made. Looking back, I see the 2011 was around 12%, with 2012 and 2013 being more weighty. In 2014, the scales are running backwards again. This Viognier has no trouble seeing its…feet.
Nice perfume here, and some savoury funky stuff going on as well. White flowers, spice, nectarine, nuts. Light to medium bodied, crunchy rather than fat, but delivers flavour very nicely. The line is unbroken from front to back, and throughout finesse and perfume are the order of the day. Almost lemony acid to close, though not coarse or hard. I like what they’ve done here.

Green apple, lemon zest and herb, lavender and sea spray. It’s tangy and crunchy in texture, good grip and lively acidity, saline with sour green apple and real lemonade flavour and a dry and flinty texture closing out a finish of good length and energy. Excellent.