Whole bunches, wild yeast, open fermenters and all-French oak (35% new). The quality here is sensational. It delivers a power of fruit in the freshest of ways, its glove of smoky/cocoa-like oak the perfect partner. Seriously ultra-fine tannin, and accompanying length, completes what must be described as a beautiful picture.

An outstanding colour with a mulberry hue. Glorious sweet-fruited aromatics. Vibrant, pure, mulberry aromatics. Tight, pure, poised, lively. Not a foot out of place. Perfectly integrated acidity. Magnificent in its composure. Stylish. Will age gracefully. Vibrant and full-bodied.

50% whole berries, 50% destemmed, wild yeast open-fermented, matured for 10 months in used French oak. Just another $30 McLaren Vale shiraz? Absolutely not. This is profoundly exciting, another masterpiece from Peter Fraser, Wine Companion Winemaker of the Year '16. It's not often I'm tempted to sneakily swallow half a mouthful of a wine, it's almost as if an unseen force refuses to let me actually drink a little. The wine is spicy, textured, with a rainbow of dark fruit flavours - bloody gorgeous.

Hand-picked, wild yeast open-fermented with 25% whole bunches, matured for 15 months in French oak (40% new). A distilled essence of shiraz from two blocks within a single estate vineyard. It's in no way overdone, but it does have some of the authoritarian stance of top flight cabernet. The black fruits speak in one voice of the ironstone soil in which the vines are planted. Great vintage, great wine.

Estate-grown, cold soak, open-fermented, wild yeast, 25% whole bunches, matured in French oak (50% new) for 18 months. Great aromas don't prepare you for the full-bodied palate, every crevice of the mouth filled with velvety black fruits, bitter chocolate, licorice and spice. The balance is such that drinking it now is no crime, however far into the distant future the wine will run.

From two vineyard blocks on a gravelly ironstone outcrop, a barrel selection that is said to focus on ironstone characters. Hand-picked, cold soak, 25% whole bunches, wild-fermented, matured in French oak (40% new) for 15 months. Sombre, earthy black fruits are so intense they momentarily stop the heart from beating. The texture and mouthfeel are such that they throw down the gauntlet to anyone seeking to drink more than a glass at this early (indeed far too early) stage of its life. The balance is spot on the money, so the long term future is assured.

You could serve this alongside any other South Australian shiraz, at any price or prestige level, and it would either hold its own or better it, even allowing for style preferences. The Ironheart is a powerhouse. It's saturated with dark, inky fruit, is grainy and grunty, and for all its churn and wealth it's brilliant with balance. This is one for the deepest, darkest reaches of the cellar, to be forgotten for as long as you can hold out. The fact that it has herbal, spicy, coffeed notes pumping through its veins just compounds the attraction. In fact, for all that, it could even be argued that this wine has an elegance; or a ripped, muscular version thereof.

So polished, so poised, so well fruited. The flavours come in waves, the acid keeps them moving, the tannin gives them traction. Various dark-berried fruits, coffee grounds, spicy oak and sweet, perfumed herbs. Precision is its middle name.

The 2001 Le Desir (50% Merlot, 40% Cabernet Franc, 9% Cabernet Sauvignon and 1% Malbec) came from Alexander Valley Mountain Estate fruit (two-thirds), 30% from Chalk Hill and a tiny dollop from Knight's Valley. The most evolved of these three wines, it exhibits complex notes of spring flowers, underbrush, truffles, forest floor, camphor and red as well as black fruits. It possesses an opulent, full-bodied mouthfeel, fabulous purity and density and a long finish. The finish for all three of these wines lasts for close to a minute. Each represents extraordinary craftsmanship and, essentially, vinous confirmation of the vision of the late Jess Jackson. Those who think too many California wines are over the top may be surprised to know that the 2001 La Muse has a pH of 3.63 and a real natural alcohol of 14.1%. La Joie's pH is 3.65 and its alcohol is 14.2%, and Le Desir's pH is 3.68 and its true alcohol level is 14.1%.

A blend of 89% Merlot and 11% Cabernet Sauvignon (84% of the fruit from Sonoma and 16% from Napa), the 1999 is soft enough to be considered fully mature. Sweet aromas of espresso roast, plum sauce, black currants and forest floor are followed by a delicious, chewy, complex wine that should drink well for another 12-14 years.

Another remarkable wine from the complicated inaugural vintage of Vérité. A blend of 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, it spent 13 months in new French oak. It has a multi-layered bouquet of truffle, leather and spice along with floral scents of peony and rose. There's the telltale precision and freshness of Verité wines here, as well as a suavely-textured tannic glove that perfectly fits the core of the fruit whose finely judged density caresses the palate, showing liquorice and graphite notes on the finish.

Weekend Wine Picks Winemaker Pierre Seillan likes to talk about structure and precision both are in evidence here. The red fruit is intense but hardly soft, supported by a stony, mineral undercurrent. The mid-palate is filled in with earthy savoury, leathery notes before a denouement of lightly smoked blue and black fruits and silky, dense tannins that signal a decade or two of bottle age are possible. It’s a complex Sonoma star and the definition of world class. The fruit is highly selected by the fastidious Pierre Seillan, choosing from an impressive array of sites owned by Jackson Family Farms in the Alexander Valley, Chalk Hill and Knights Valley. Every block, every tilt of land, every exposure, and the multitude of places and facets that make up any vineyard are the storytellers.

Composed of 90% Merlot, 7% Cabernet Franc and 3% Malbec, the 2015 La Muse sports a very deep garnet-purple color, leaping from the glass with exuberant crème de cassis, blueberry pie and licorice notes plus suggestions of Indian spices, dark chocolate, menthol, sautéed herbs and potpourri. Full-bodied, rich and seductive in the mouth, it delivers tons of black and blue fruit preserves flavors, accented by exotic spices, framed with velvety tannins and finishing on a persistent earthy/mineral note.

The Surprise of 2015 in Napa and Other California Wine Reviewed This is dense yet agile young red with aromas and flavors of blackberries, black olives and black truffles. Full-bodied, layered and rich. Pretty ripe and melted tannins. Top merlot. Drink or hold.

Weekend Wine Picks At Vérité every block, every tilt of land, every exposure, and the multitude of places that make up each vineyard are the storytellers. Sweet herbaceous black fruit wafts from the glass streaked with tobacco and chalk. The texture is deep, soft and layered, revealing a little more of the wine every time you taste it. The blend is 53/21/21/5 Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec, reminiscent of the great St-Emilion wine, but this has a kiss of California sun that simply lifts this wine to a different level.

The Surprise of 2015 in Napa and Other California Wine Reviewed This is a solid and structured cabernet franc that is compacted and whole. Lots of blackberry and blueberry character. Orange undertones. Long and flavorful finish. Fantastic tannin structure and freshness with balance. Try drinking in 2021.

Top Ten: California Vérité, or truth as the French would say, makes a trio of Bordeaux-shaped reds all grown at the foothills of the Mayacamas Mountains at the southern tip of Sonoma County's Alexander Valley, where winemaker Pierre Seillan works with Sonoma Mountain fruit. Seillan is a disciple of the cru concept and at Vérité his selections are released under the monikers of ‘La Muse’, a Pomerol-style merlot/cabernet franc mix; ‘La Joie’, a left bank, Haut-Medoc style cabernet sauvignon; and ‘Le Désir, a Saint Emilion-style blend of cabernet franc/merlot/cabernet sauvignon. In 2013, La Muse reaches for the stars blending a third of its fruit from the Alexander Valley vineyards, some 40 percent out of Chalk Hill and the remainder from the Knight and Bennett valleys. At 89 percent it is fair to call this a merlot especially when you consider its amazing, silky texture, bolstered by eight percent cabernet franc and three percent malbec. The perfect vintage spawned a 14.3 percent alcohol level that fits the harmony of this wine. The flavours are bright but restrained with impressive black fruit aromatics seemingly uninhibited by ageing in 100 percent new French oak barriques. A smoky, savoury, licorice and black cherry affair, but again without any boldness, seems as if it might age for decades. Each year the concentration improves but so does the finesse. A superb bottle of wine now long sold out but look for it in restaurants and private wine shops.

50 Wines That Inspired Us in 2017

The 2012 La Muse, which is 85% Merlot, 11% Cabernet Franc and 4% Malbec, is a smaller cuvée of 1,840 cases. The wine has plenty of spice box, cedar wood, Christmas fruitcake and Asian plum sauce, along with black cherry and blackcurrant fruit. Ripe, round, full-bodied and opulent, this is a wine that can be drunk now or cellared for another three decades. Interestingly, the alcohol levels are not all that high in any of these wines, with most of them rarely exceeding 14.3%.

The 2017s From Sonoma The 2009 Le Desir is mostly Cabernet Franc and is another wine drinking beautifully today. Classic cassis and dark fruits as well as notes of bay leaf, sandalwood, and spice all flow to a full-bodied, elegant, concentrated red that has fine tannins, perfect balance, and one great finish. Drink it over the coming 20-25 years.

The 2008 vintage presented challenges for Cabernet Sauvignon, but this Cabernet Franc-based blend succeeds wildly. It’s bone dry, tannic and enormously complex, with flavors of sour-cherry candy, red currant, licorice and spicy cola. Ninety-five percent new oak lends this a wonderful toastiness. Few wines could handle that much new wood, but this one can. However, it’s very tannic. You can drink it now, but it should blossom after 2014.

A spectacular wine that defines the upper limit of California Bordeaux-style blends. Based on Cabernet Franc and Merlot, with splashes of Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec, this is delicious and complex, offering a blast of blackberry, blueberry-concentrate and mineral flavors. Comprised of fruit grown throughout Sonoma County, this is a masterpiece of the art of blending. Absolutely dry and very hard in tannins, drink this from 2013–2022.

Dense aromas of creosote, burning wood embers, blackberries, blueberries, and violets are offered in the full-bodied, fabulously complex perfume. Full-bodied, with tremendous complexity, a voluptuous texture, and flavors of plum liqueur, figs, chocolate, espresso, and minerals, this is a tour de force in winemaking. It is the most approachable of these three 2002s. Anticipated maturity: now-2020.

The complex nose expresses subtle spice and mint notes on a foundation of ripe black raspberry. 93% Merlot and 7% Cabernet Franc. It has all the Verité hallmarks of density with freshness and lightness of touch on the palate, but also more acidic thrust than the 1998.

Why it's an exciting time for Sonoma Cabernet So many layers to this wine, from a year that saw a very late harvest with small concentrated fruits. It took a good 10 years to really open up, but is now displaying black olives, rich black truffles, bilberry, cedar, rich, generous elegant, an upkick of salinity shows it is...