USA, California: All Along the Central Coast – The 2017 Vintage in Paso Robles and Beyond The 2017 Pinot Noir Santa Lucia Highlands is pale to medium ruby-purple, opening with fresh cranberries, Bing cherries, warm blackberries, pulverized stone, floral and citrus peel hints. Light to medium-bodied, it has a good core of spiced fruits, grainy tannins to structure and juicy acidity, finishing long.

USA, California: All Along the Central Coast – The 2017 Vintage in Paso Robles and Beyond The 2017 Pinot Noir Lemoravo Vineyard has a pale to medium ruby-purple color and open nose of crushed blackberries and black cherries, red cherries, warm cranberries, soil, underbrush and hints of citrus peel and dried flowers. Light to medium-bodied and concentrated, it has a frame of grainy tannins and juicy freshness, finishing long and spicy.

Vibrant and focused, with Meyer lemon, stony mineral and spice flavors that take on structure toward the finish.

USA, California: All Along the Central Coast – The 2017 Vintage in Paso Robles and Beyond This is a new vineyard for Siduri. Medium ruby in color, the 2016 Pinot Noir Lemoravo Vineyard has a broody nose of black cherries and blackberries with notes of black tea leaves, forest floor and earth. Light to medium-bodied with a good concentration of black fruits in the mouth, it has a soft frame of tannins and juicy acidity on the finish.

Estate of Arceno, Sense of Place Valadorna, on the other hand, is a blend based on Merlot grapes (61%), mainly from the Valadorna and Capraia vineyards, with 19% Cabernet Franc, 14% Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot ( 6%). A wine that significantly conveys the complexity and richness of the terroir. Notes of morello cherry, black figs and the sweetness of brown sugar are part of scents that taste like earth, iron and graphite. A rich and velvety wine with a full palate, a long and persistent finish characterized by the use of a new and of a second-hand French oak barrel.

Estate of Arceno, Sense of Place All the tastes of the Bordeaux blends that embody the diversity of the estate, are superb, in particular the Di Sotto, Curva, Colombaio and San Giovanni vineyards that originate Il Fauno di Arcanum and Valadorna Igt Toscana. The first, Bordelais blend, with a prevalence of Merlot (51%), 31% of Cabernet Franc, 17% of Cabernet Sauvignon and 1% of Petit Verdot, is a balsamic wine with scents of aromatic herbs, mint and cedar. The velvety tannin meets a decidedly persistent finish.

Estate of Arceno, Sense of Place In contrast (it is an absolute preview in tasting) Arcanum Igt 2016, 100% Cabernet Franc. A small number of bottles produced from about one hectare of vineyards. Wine of great charm and elegance, particularly suitable for long aging but pleasant even when young with its aromas of violet, rose and delicate spicy notes. At the nose dark fruits, black currants and berries are dominant. The palate is an explosion of cocoa and coffee, the fruit is well defined, the tannins are complete.

Estate of Arceno, Sense of Place Sangiovese find its full expression in Strada al Sasso, a vineyard planted in 1998, from which the Gran Selezione comes, the perhaps most intense and deep wine of Tenuta di Arceno. Complex wine, an olfactory palette of black fruits, undergrowth, bay leaves, roasted coffee aromas, nutmeg. On the palate it is dense and concentrated, fresh and savory. The acidity is typical of Sangiovese.

Wine for the Cellar Freemark Abbey is enjoying a renaissance under the Jackson Family Wines banner, and there is plenty made under the Napa label, now at 24,000-plus cases. Don’t let the production scare you. It is a reserve style red, fresh and vibrant with everything you want in a 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon. The blend is a tour of Napa soils, including valley floor well-drained loam and clay; western mountaintop soils shallow and acidic with low fertility; and eastern mountaintop soils that are volcanic based, with poor fertility and incredible minerality. Look for intense, spicy, fresh, juicy boysenberry and bing cherry with milk chocolate, cedar, and garrigue. There is plenty of life here, and there is no rush to drink this wine. The 2016 composition is 75.8 per cent Cabernet Sauvignon, 16.2 per cent Merlot, 4 per cent Malbec, 3 per cent Petit Verdot, and 1 per cent Cabernet Franc.

Zinfandel one of the best values in wine Good values for everyday: Edmeades. Established in 1972, Edmeades has long been respected as a zinfandel specialist, even as the winery has branched out to other varieties. The 2016 Mendocino County has juicy raspberry, admirable depth and a touch of herb.

Wells Guthrie made this wine after selling Copain to Jackson Family in 2016. A blend of syrah from the High Rock, Yorkville Estate and Hawk’s Butte vineyards, all between 1,200 to 1,600 feet in altitude, this was fermented with ambient yeasts, then aged in neutral barriques for 18 months. It starts out with the scent of a field of lavender. Then, between the wine’s tactile gentleness and lasting coastal forest scents, it develops into a glorious Pacific Coast red. Underneath, there’s something dark and disruptive about the wine—some tasters found the acidity overpowering or the stemminess overt. As for me, I want it in my cellar.

Peter Fraser chose this 4.4-acre block at the Yangarra estate for his top selection of shiraz. A gravelly ironstone hill, it was planted 20 years ago, so it isn’t the vine age driving this wine’s elegant power, but it may be the soil, exposure and the biodynamic farming. There’s energy at its core, driving the wine’s irreverent complexity in layers of fragrance—some root, some leaf, some currant fruitiness. The clean and gentle tannins build richness, the wine already offering a sense of McLaren Vale grandeur, and suited to a decade or more of evolution in the cellar.

The Smart family planted grenache at the highest point in their Blewitt Springs vineyard in 1946, where the deep sands restrict the vigor of the vine as well as the amount of fruit they yield. Now owned by the Jackson family of Sonoma, the property is tended by Michael Lane, who continues to dry farm those vines, working under biodynamics. Winemaker Peter Fraser destems it, keeping half as whole berries, then ferments it spontaneously in open-top vats and ages the wine in used French oak barrels. It’s a complete wine, offering a completely different perspective on grenache to a Rayas fan, with the kind of textural pleasure that will satisfy (or create) a fan of McLaren grenache. It’s elegant, tense and floral, with crunchy red berry flavors and fine, persistent tannins: a powerful young wine with years of development ahead.

From a small block on the property’s eastern edge near a riverbed, this wine is sultry and attractive when first poured, with an inviting suite of scents—of smoke and allspice, clove and olive. It stays savory and spicy, with generous flavors of plum and black cherry, and a fine, supple texture. Match its dark generosity to a meaty boar chop.

A sleek syrah from Wells Guthrie, this comes from a vineyard only 25 miles from the Pacific, planted at 1,600 feet in altitude in the early 2000s. It feels rich and grand, with floral notes and meaty depths of flavor. It’s immediately appealing for the purity of its flavors and the subtlety of their earthy root notes. Rather than expanding on those elements with air, it grows quiet for now, a retreat that suggests it’s best to either drink the wine right now, or cellar it for five years or more.

The darkest wine in a flight of dark syrahs, this smells of blood, iron filings and menthol, its black fig and black plum flavors caught in the gravitational pull of its tannins. For all of its opacity, it feels balanced, even charming, ready for a tomahawk steak.

A new project from Greg Brewer, this syrah is drawn from Neely Vineyard, in Los Alamos, and Nielsen Vineyard, in the Santa Maria Valley. It’s sleek and rich, with aromas of lavender, violets and peppercorn, a burst of acidity and smoky, mouthfilling tannins. Well priced for steak.

Pierre Seillan and his wife, Monique, are based at this 60-acre vineyard on the south-southwest- facing hillside east of the town of St-Emilion. In 2003, the Seillans partnered with Jess Jackson and Barbara Banke to purchase the property and its 17th-century château, where Seillan made this broad, ripe 2016. As richly oaked and full-bodied as the wine is, it has elegance in a long line of black-currant flavor. A satisfying wine to drink now, it will gain complexity with extended cellar time.

Peter Fraser makes this wine from a parcel of grenache planted in 1946 and dry-grown (certified biodynamic) in the sandy soils at Yangarra. He allows it to spontaneously ferment and then rest on its skins in ceramic eggs, where its red fruit develops alongside an earthy, floral bitterness. The wine layers ripe strawberry flavors over notes of strawberry seeds, rooty radish tops and fennel. Pour it with roast eggplant stuffed with spicy chopped veal.

Named for Edward John Peake, who planted a vineyard on these ridges above the town of Clarendon in the 1860s, this blend is floral and spicy, with McLaren’s contrast of elegance and earthy rusticity. Its fragrant shiraz notes last, while cabernet adds freshness and fine, if substantial tannins. A wintry red to drink fireside.

The Jackson family of Sonoma bought the Hickinbotham family’s vineyard in the hills above McLaren Vale in 2012. Chris Carpenter, one of the group’s lead winemakers, now travels to Clarendon to make the wines with Charlie Seppelt. This is a floral cabernet with a tight structure that keeps giving juicy red berry flavors. The fruit darkens with air and the florals deepen to violet scents, all of it saturated with oak richness.

One of the bigger and happier surprises in our latest look at new Pinot Gris offerings, Kendall-Jackson’s is a medium-full version that is a fruitier effort than the bulk of its tighter, more minerally inflected kin and intimates a bit of juicy succulence that sets it apart. It does not, however, bog down in extraneous sweetness, and it is quite well-balanced with just the right degree of acidity keeping it lively and slightly crisp at the finish. Its slight percentage of Roussanne, Viognier, Muscat, Albariño and other aromatic white varieties might well explain its singular style, but whatever the reason, it is thoroughly tasty stuff that is well worth the price. Good value.

Although a bit reluctant to find specific Pinot Noir focus in its mildly mushroomy aromas, this pleasantly rounded, medium-full-bodied wine shapes up far better once in the mouth and tastes of spotlessly clean, straightforward, cherry-like fruit. It gets it right in terms of varietal texture, even if it could do with a little more brightness and bounce, and it is best tagged for drinking in the coming year.

I love a good Chardonnay to wind down in the evening and right now this beauty from Oregon is the one. Deriving from the Yamhill-Carlton AVA, this rich, fruity and balanced Chard is teaming with flavor and the most important thing for me in a wine like this – texture. Some people love oak, others don’t, but for me this has the perfect in-between balance for a well-rounded and quality driven Chardonnay. Rich but not overpowering, you can expect to taste apricot, buttery lemon, kiwis and clementines. For those who love Chardonnay, this is for you. For those who don’t, I’d dare say it will convert you.

Best Buys in the Market, 1 star When the discussion turns to white wines long on value, Sauvignon Blanc remains among the very best...while the * MATANZAS CREEK Alexander Valley 2017...are balanced, solidly varietal bottlings that give equal play to fresh fruit and herbs.