Central Coast: The 2017s and 2018s The 2017 Pinot Noir Sierra Mar Vineyard comes from 777, Pommard, and 23 clones and was close to 50% whole cluster and spent 11 months in 50% new oak. It offers a bright cherry, floral, cranberry, and orange zest bouquet as well as a medium-bodied, racy, seamless style on the palate, with bright acidity and a great finish.

Central Coast: The 2017s and 2018s Slightly backward and reductive at first, the 2017 Pinot Noir Nielson Vineyard has a terrific core of dark berry fruits as well as notes of blackberries, crushed rocks, graphite, and ground herbs. Tight, medium-bodied, beautifully textured and balanced, with good concentration, it's another brilliant Pinot Noir from this team that has loads to love. Made from a mix of clones 667, 114, Pommard, and Swan, all destemmed and aged 16 months in 34% new French oak, give bottles a few years and enjoy over the following 7-8.

Central Coast: The 2017s and 2018s Moving to the Pinot Noirs, the 2017 Pinot Noir Solomon Hills Vineyard comes from a great site in the Santa Maria Valley and was destemmed and brought up in 55% new French oak. This ruby/purple-tinged effort offers a beautiful bouquet of ripe cherries, black raspberries, crushed flowers, and spice. It's pure, clean, and medium-bodied, with terrific fruit and a supple, seamless texture. It's beautifully done.

Central Coast: The 2017s and 2018s Similar in style to the 2016, the 2014 Chardonnay 3D offers a medium to full-bodied, forward, supple style as well as classic pineapple, lemon, and rocky mineral aromas and flavors. It’s drinking beautifully today, and I would lean towards enjoying bottles over the coming 5-7 years.

Central Coast: The 2017s and 2018s Deep translucent ruby/plum-colored, the 2017 Pinot Noir 459 comes mostly from Machado with a little from Hapgood, which are cooler sites with richer soils. Big cherry, currant, ground herb, and salty/earthy notes all emerge from this beauty, and it's a rounded, fleshy, beautifully textured effort that's going to keep for 10-15 years.

USA, California, Napa Valley: 2017 — Napa's Perfect Storm The 2017 Chardonnay Upper Barn Vineyard is profoundly scented of warm peaches, green mango, baked apples and poached pears with hints of honeysuckle, orange blossoms and lime leaves plus a waft of crushed rocks. Medium to full-bodied, the palate has super intense stone fruit and mineral flavors with seamless freshness and a long, perfumed finish. 823 cases produced.

USA, California, Napa Valley: 2017 — Napa's Perfect Storm The 2017 Chardonnay Gold Run comes bounding out of the glass with all the exuberance of a new puppy, featuring rambunctious scents of pineapple upside-down cake, guava, acacia honey and cedar with hints of baking spices, lime blossoms and cashews. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is concentrated with exotic fruit and nut layers plus a wicked backbone of freshness, finishing long and savory. 295 cases produced.

USA, California, Napa Valley: 2017 — Napa's Perfect Storm Deep purple-black colored, the 2017 Cabernet Franc Mt. Veeder reveals expressive black fruits with a tarry, broody undercurrent, featuring baked plums, blueberries and blackberries with notions of chargrill, violets and tilled black soil. Medium to full-bodied, the palate has a lot of energy, with loads of freshness and finely grained, ripe tannins, finishing on a perfumed note. 448 cases produced.

USA, California, Napa Valley: 2017 — Napa's Perfect Storm Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2017 Merlot Howell Mountain reveals pretty baked plums, blueberry pie and blackberry compote notes with touches of cloves, star anise, cracked black pepper and black soil plus a waft of underbrush. Full-bodied, the palate is densely packed with crunchy black fruit layers, framed by very ripe, rounded tannins and just enough freshness, finishing long and peppery.

Polished and elegantly complex, with expressive cherry and blueberry flavors, accented by crushed stone and black tea notes, building tension and lively acidity toward refined tannins. Drink now through 2025.

This shows a vivid boysenberry and blackberry fruit profile, laced with licorice, roasted apple wood and violet notes, all backed by a solidly grippy structure and a late zing of minerality. Best from 2021 through 2038.

Intense, with açaí berry, plum and blueberry flavors pumping through, scored with briar, licorice snap and fruitcake notes. The roasted apple wood frame holds all the elements together through the finish. Show lots of youthful grip, so this will need some patience. Best from 2021 through 2040.

Central Coast: The 2017s and 2018s The 2015 Pinot Noir Machado shows the more briny, tight, firm style of the 2015 vintage as well as medium-bodied richness, terrific purity, building tannins, and solid length. As with a lot of 2015s, it needs another year or two of bottle age.

USA, California, Napa Valley: 2017 — Napa's Perfect Storm The 2017 Chardonnay Red Point has a very chalky, white pepper-laced nose over a core of fresh Golden Delicious apples, white peaches, cashews and cedar plus a hint of dill seed. Medium-bodied, the palate delivers mouth-filling stone fruit and apple flavors plus a racy line of freshness, finishing long and spicy. 372 cases produced.

Fresh and vivid, offering a transparent mix of pineapple, Meyer lemon and tangerine flavors on a supple body. Impressive for the details of nutmeg and honeysuckle, with a long, sleek, expressive finish. Drink now.

Central Coast: The 2017s and 2018s The 2017 Pinot Noir Santa Lucia Highlands is a smoking value. Racy cherry, cranberry, and floral notes all emerge from this juicy, clean, and classy effort. With good acidity, loads of sweet fruit, and a clean, balanced style, it's a beautiful wine.

Central Coast: The 2017s and 2018s From a site just beside Gary's, yet planted in 2008 and 2009, the 2017 Pinot Noir Soberanes Vineyard was completely destemmed (Adam doesn't like the stems from younger vines) and spent 11 months in 40% French. It offers plenty of black cherry, scorched earth, black raspberry, and forest floor notes as well as a medium to full-bodied, rounded, nicely textured, layered style on the palate.

Central Coast: The 2017s and 2018s Moving to the Sta. Rita Hills releases, the 2017 Pinot Noir Sta. Rita Hills offers a darker style as well as more blueberries, currants, black cherries, earth, and graphite aromas and flavors. Rich, medium to full-bodied, concentrated, and beautifully balanced, drink it over the coming decades.

Central Coast: The 2017s and 2018s Coming from a windy site on the eastern edge of the Sta. Rita Hills, the 2017 Pinot Noir John Sebastiano Vineyard saw one-third stems and spent 16 months in 57% new French oak. It offers a more classic Sta. Rita Hills bouquet of salted cherries, leafy herbs, flowers, and forest floor. Fruit forward, fleshy, beautifully textured and structured, drink this richer, fleshy Pinot Noir over the coming 7-8 years.

Central Coast: The 2017s and 2018s The 2017 Chardonnay Nielson Vineyard is a richer, more voluptuous effort offering loads of ripe orchard fruits, crème brûlée, white flowers, and toasted bread aromas and flavors. Rich, textured, and opulent, it's made in a delicious, fun style you unfortunately don't see very often from Santa Barbara County. It's beautifully made and well worth enjoying over the coming 3-4 years.

Central Coast: The 2017s and 2018s A smoking value from the talents of Greg Brewer, the 2017 Syrah Santa Barbara County comes half from the Nielson Vineyard in Santa Maria and the other half from the Neely Vineyard in Los Alamos. Not destemmed and brought up in neutral oak, it has a classic Syrah gaminess as well as notes of black raspberries, bacon fat, crushed violets, and tapenade. This peppery, medium-bodied, elegant, beautiful Syrah has no hard edges, terrific balance, and just a complex, satisfying style.

Central Coast: The 2017s and 2018s From the 3D vineyard in the Sta. Rita Hills and all Hyde Clone (vines are 11-years old), the 2018 Chardonnay Santos Road offers plenty of beautiful citrus and pineapple notes backed up by lots of spice, white flowers, and salinity. With medium-bodied richness, beautiful balance, and a great finish, it should drink nicely for at least a decade.

Central Coast: The 2017s and 2018s I’d say on the earthy slopes of its prime drinking plateau, the 2011 Pinot Noir Machado offers a medium to full-bodied, balanced style that has resolved tannins, beautiful red and black fruits, and complex notes of smoked applewood, black tea, spice, and forest floor. I love it today, yet it’s certainly going to continue drinking nicely for another 4-6 years, probably longer.

Central Coast: The 2017s and 2018s The 2014 Pinot Noir Machado is another rounded, full-bodied example of this vineyard and has complex notes of ripe cherries, incense, applewood, and exotic spices. With beautiful fruit and no hard edges, it’s another candidate for drinking any time over the coming 8-10 years or so.

Central Coast: The 2017s and 2018s Still lively gold-hued, the 2011 Chardonnay 3D comes from a cooler, more challenging vintage yet offers beautiful notes of caramelized citrus, orange blossom, toasted bread, and a touch of minerality. Beautifully done, balanced, and with a medium-bodied, fresher, focused style, it’s drinking terrific today yet will certainly evolve for another 7-8 years in cool cellars.