Dried cherry and berry flavors blend easily in this moderately fruity style. Notes of cedar and spice show on the finish. Drink now.

Try these 7 wines before summer fades This wine comes from the Bordeaux region of France and is a blend of 62 percent Merlot, 30 percent Cabernet Franc and 8 percent Cabernet Sauvignon. It offers up aromas and flavors of blackberries and plums, along with leather and spice notes. It is something fit for a steak from the grill, or try it with steak fajitas or even a burger.

A stark contrast to the above; this is an iconic bottling of California chardonnay, loaded up with vanilla, applesauce, and ample oak. A modest, lemon-driven acidity helps to cut through some of the fat, but by and large this is a wine that appeal primarily to California chardonnay purists. B+

Why more producers aren’t making unoaked chardonnay I’ll never understand. This bottling is loaded with fresh fruit — lemons, figs, red apples, and a dusting of spice — with a finish that offers hints of coconut and almonds. Fresh and lightly tropical, with enough body to add some gravitas. A-

This summer, try these 10 white wines produced by vineyards from California to Italy As the pendulum continues to swing back to more balanced and restrained California Chardonnays, I am continually impressed by La Crema’s quality and consistency. This wine, hailing from the heart of Sonoma County, has long been a favorite. Packed with tons of citrus, apple and lemon flavors and aromas, the La Crema Russian River Valley Chardonnay keeps things in check with a core of minerality and some nice acidity.

This dark red colored Pinot Noir from La Crema opens with a mild red plum bouquet with a faint hint of cola. On the palate, this wine is medium bodied, balanced and smooth. The flavor profile is a tasty mild strawberry with notes of red plum and gentle minerality. The finish is dry, and its well-managed moderate tannins stick around for quite a while. This Pinot is food friendly and will be a crowd pleaser. I would pair it with a juicy burger at your favorite bistro.

Napa Valley’s small but mighty white blizzard The juicy peach and red apple flavors of this wine are layered with rich lemon citrus and a touch of mineral complexity.

A toast to 40 years of wine-making excellence From the best vineyard sites and clones in Monterey, this wine is fresh, crisp and easy-to-drink. It is distinctive for its mandarin citrus characteristics as well as its strong mineral notes.

A toast to 40 years of wine-making excellence A delicious medium-bodied pinot with big aromas and flavors of red and black berries with hints of dark chocolate and tobacco.

A toast to 40 years of wine-making excellence Rich with good acidity this wine has citrus style aromas and lush flavors of pear, vanilla and almond butter.

90 Point Sips from Sonoma County A bouquet of lime, pineapple, minerals, and wild grass greets the senses. Flavors of citrus fruits, pineapples, and melons come together among nuances of bell pepper and minerals on the palate. Crisp, with a fairly lively acidity, open a bottle when you enjoy a shrimp stir fry.

This pale straw-colored Chardonnay from La Crema opens with toasted oak and red apple bouquet. On the palate, this wine is medium bodied, balanced and round. The flavor profile is an oak influenced green apple with notes of butter and toasted coconut along with a hint of nutmeg. The finish is dry and its flavors drift away nicely. This Chard would be a very nice glass pour. I would serve it with chicken cordon bleu. Very good.

Red Wine of the Week This is brilliantly shot through with the inimitable marks of world-class Cabernet Franc: Aromas of brambly purple fruits and licorice precede a rich, seriously structured palate vibrating with notes of spearmint, dark chocolate, allspice, charred rosemary, and something almost meaty pulsing through it all. It’s excellent right now, and promises to continue evolving in fascinating ways for another 30-plus years.

The 2009 Napa Valley Cabernets at Age 10 Dark ruby. Multidimensional aromas of cassis, dried cherry, black cardamom, black tea, juniper, violet and graphite. More minerally, pristine and polished than the Désir but also penetrating and backward, with its intense mountain berry flavors showing a restrained sweetness and compelling juiciness and energy. The tannins are firm but noble, with the wine's finishing fruits, flowers and minerals saturating the palate and titillating the taste buds. This beauty is built for the long haul.

The 2009 Napa Valley Cabernets at Age 10 Full medium ruby. Complex but brooding aromas of black cherry, blackberry, dark plum, licorice, bitter chocolate and minerals. At once sweet and tightly wound, with its black fruit and licorice flavors conveying terrific density and focus. This has the grain and balance of a top young Pomerol. Spreads out nicely on the very long, still-youthful finish, which features noble tannins and superb persistence. This remarkably structured Merlot possesses the stuffing and balance for a long and graceful evolution in bottle. In fact, I suspect it will continue to gain in breadth with more cellaring.

The 2009 Napa Valley Cabernets at Age 10 Bright medium ruby. Musky aromas of blue and black fruits, violet, licorice and minerals, complicated by a liqueur-like suggestion and some sexy oak tones. Densely packed and fine-grained, conveying lovely inner-mouth mineral lift as well as a distinct thickness of texture to its flavors of dark fruits, spices and crushed rock. This wonderfully suave yet penetrating Cabernet offers a terrific combination of sweetness, vibrancy and definition. Finishes tactile and very long. Delicious!

This white gold colored Chardonnay from Brewer and Clifton is very good. It opens with a mild oak and lemon meringue bouquet. On the palate, this wine is medium bodied, balanced and savory. The flavor profile is a tasty lemon meringue pie and oak blend with nicely integrated minerality. I also detected hints of green apple and a touch of white pepper. The finish is dry and it flavors and well-managed acidity show nice length. This Chard would pair well with chicken cordon bleu.

The 2009 Napa Valley Cabernets at Age 10 Bright dark ruby. Distinctly wild aromas of blackberry, minerals, game and leather, plus a whiff of Band-Aid. Dense, powerful, Cabernet Franc-dominated wine with vibrant, downright penetrating black fruit and licorice flavors. Fairly thick but still tight in the middle palate, with flavors similar to the aromas. Finishes with slightly edgy, building tannins that saturate the front teeth and incisors. Twenty-four hours in the recorked bottle brought a somewhat plusher texture and more breadth, but the leathery quality still impinged on the wine's fruit, limiting its complexity. While the wine's superb density of grain is undeniable, there's ultimately a bit too much Old World funk for me. I tasted two similar bottles.

The 2009 Napa Valley Cabernets at Age 10 Dark medium ruby. A bit less energetic on the nose than the Helena Dakota, with its medicinal kirsch, menthol and licorice flavors joined by some funky nuances of leather and game. Plusher than the Helena Dakota but more medicinal too, showing little easy sweetness to its dark fruit and tobacco flavors. Finishes rather tannic and distinctly dry, with a faint metallic quality. I would probably want to drink this wine over the next five or six years.

Crisp and juicy with savory dried cherry flavors; bright, tangy and dry, long and balanced.

This yellow colored Chardonnay opens with a fragrant lemon and pineapple bouquet. On the palate, this wine is full bodied, balanced and rich. The flavor profile is a tasty pear and oak blend with notes of minerality, almond, and with hints of nutmeg and honey. The finish is dry and it flavors linger nicely. This Chard would pair well with a chicken and wild mushroom ravioli in a mild butter cream sauce.

Siduri also makes a full-throttle Edmeades Pinot Noir 2017 that abounds in dark berry flavors. Lee uses grapes from the Pommard clone and exposes half of them to whole-cluster fermentation.

Our favorite of the tasting was the Siduri Pinot Noir Santa Barbara County 2017. Wild cherry and plum flavors dominated the nose and mouth with some interesting spice elements. There was a bit more acidity than the Russian River Valley pinot noir that created a bit more interest along with the abundant fruit.

Parsing the difference between the Russian River Valley pinot noir and the Santa Barbara version proved more difficult. We guessed wrong between the two California selections. The Siduri Pinot Noir Russian River Valley 2017 presented very ripe cherry fruit with cherry cola notes and the least acidity of the three samples. Overall, the Russian River Valley was the simplest of the three samples with the least apparent tannins.

We guessed the Siduri Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2017 because it was the lightest of the three samples. The Willamette Valley pinot noir exhibited sour cherry and rhubarb notes with a hint of spice and balanced acidity. Overall a lighter version would pair well with tuna and salmon dishes.