It’s a medium-bodied Syrah with flavors of blackberry, tart cherry, plum, earth, and white pepper. The finish is clean and balanced with some vanilla and spice.

Raise a glass to women in wine this month This month we toast women. March 8 marks International Women’s Day, with the entire month of March celebrating Women’s History Month. To celebrate, enjoy a few wines made by women. Though the number of female winemakers nationally and internationally is still small, the number is growing, with female owners, winemakers, enologists, and vintners taking their rightful place at the table, producing stellar wines from all over the world. Consider one of these selections to honor women, all available throughout Hawaii Island. As the first female winemaker of note in Oregon, Lynn Penner-Ash has led the way for women in wine throughout the state, particularly in Willamette Valley. She and her husband, Ron Penner-Ash, started their Penner-Ash Winery in 1998 with a focus on producing premium pinot noir from throughout Willamette Valley. Today, Lynn leads her all women winemaking team to create elegant, expressive wines, like Penner-Ash Viognier ($42) layering wisteria, honey, melon, and apple.

Mt. Brave’s Chris Carpenter (who is also the winemaker at nearby Cardinale) produces wines from the elevated Mount Veeder area, which draws cool air off San Pablo Bay. The 2013 cabernet sauvignon has perfumes of blueberry and black plum with hints of tobacco and toasted walnut. Its substantial palate cries out for a rare T-bone steak.

Spectacular, aromatic, balances lush fruit with taut structure. 3 stars, superb

100% Cabernet Sauvignon. 22 months in new French oak. Rich nose but fresh underneath. Very chewy still. 16.5/20

2015 La Jota Howell Mountain Merlot – for those of you who don’t understand the complexity of Merlot, you have never tasted a Merlot from mountain fruit. And Howell Mountain Merlot is some of the best that Napa Valley has to offer. This wine has notes of dark espresso, chocolate, blackberry, spice, and herbs. It is a blend of 90 percent Merlot and 10 percent Petit Verdot.

75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10.5% Merlot, 4.5% Cabernet Franc, plus Petit Verdot and Malbec. 19 months in French oak, 89% new. Fresh and very Cabernet Sauvignon. Quite a bit of tannin. Chewy but not too sweet. 16+/20.

Rosé is breaking out of its stereotypes The pinot noir grape is thin-skinned and temperamental, but proper care before and after harvest can result in unmatched finesse and elegance. In rosé, pinot noir is crisp and dry with a firm acidity, but with time I have found releases that also express a true flavor profile of the grape with limited skin contact. One such wine, the readily available 2018 La Crema Pinot Noir Rosé from Monterey County, expresses balanced flavors of watermelon, strawberry and grapefruit with mineral elements and a vibrant acidity.

Getting to know the wine of the La Crema Winery When it comes to Pinot Noir wines, I am known to be mean, sarcastic and curmudgeonly. Having experienced the very best of the best it is hard to warm up to the ordinary. Not only did I warm up to this wine, it actually impressed me. The first thing that caught my attention was the color, which is much darker than most California Pinot Noirs. Next, I found the aroma and the flavor to be extremely complex and multi-layered. The aroma is an ever changing display of black cherry, blackberry, and plum with leather, coffee and clove in the background. The flavor is just as expansive and explosive as is the aroma and concentrates on plum, blackberry, and boysenberry with oak in the background. This is a grand wine, in both meanings of the term; it is big and it is regal. Please do not miss this wine.

This is a lovely Pinot Noir that succeeds vintage after vintage and has a fan base that looks for it every year. The 2016 shows attractive, fairly concentrated and nicely complex fruit that’s balanced by fresh acidity. The texture is smooth and inviting and the tannins are relaxed. There’s simply nothing not to like about this wine. Four stars.

The right kind of stepping-stone Pinot La Crema makes a lot of wine, and that is good news, because you can find this bottle almost anywhere and it's a great expression of the balanced side of Pinot Noir on a large production level. There is a lot going on here, with vanilla and cherries on the nose along with some fun earthy aromas such as clove, mushrooms and a hint of beetroot (soil). On the palate the wine is comfy and chewy with added aromas of slight cola and caramel along with a rhubarb tinge finishing with a whisper of black olive. You can’t go wrong with this wine, it’s a nice stepping stone to higher priced, focused bottles from this region.

Wines to celebrate St. Patrick's Day! Irish Beef Stew with hearty beef, carrots, and herbs is uncharacteristically deep and complex for cuisine that tends to favour simpler flavours and cooking processes. La Crema Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir has bright berry notes to contrast the thyme and Worcestershire flavours of the stew. It also brings an earthiness to complement the root vegetables, allowing for a cohesion of flavour.

Medium transparent ruby hue; black and red cherries and plums; cloves, sassafras and sandalwood, fairly exotic; sleek, lithe and supple, energized by bright acidity; a finish packed with loam, violets, slightly dusty tannins. Now through 2022-’24. Very Good+.

This marks the third time in the past four vintage that La Crema has earned our top rating for its flagship Willamette Valley Pinot Noir. Maryland native Jennifer Walsh came north from the Russian River to take over the Oregon program from Craig McAllister, who now heads up the La Crema team for Jackson Family Wines. This flashes a bit more new French oak (30%) than the prior vintage, yet the fruit expression from Gran Moraine in the Yamhill-Carlton American Viticultural Area and Zena Crown in the Eola-Amity Hills is simply superb. Perfumy notes of toasted coconut, filbert skins and Indian spices are joined by blueberry with plum. Those lead into flavors of Bing cherry and rich plum, making for a gorgeously fleshy texture of blueberry and dried strawberry. Suggested pairings range from pepper-crusted prime rib, rosemary rack of lamb, sautéed salmon and lentil soup with fresh tarragon to curried mussels and chicken masala. Outstanding!

Nine months in French oak, 21% new barrels. Transparent medium ruby color; cloves and allspice with a whiff of cumin; macerated black and red cherries and currants, an undertone of citrus; a pinot noir of the meadows and forests, heathery and woodsy in floral and fruit elements; dense, chewy, supple; dry and lively; dark forces, a bit untamed, notes of raspberry, raspberry leaf and graphite. Now through 2022 to ’24. I liked this pinot noir’s air of unbridled glee. Excellent.

Highly Recommended Deep purple-ruby colour. Spicy plum bouquet with evident oak at the moment. Medium-bodied, dry, well-extracted sweet plum with balancing acidity.

La Crema was established 40 years ago in California’s Russian River Valley. But in 2012 they extended their Pinot Noir portfolio to include wines made from the highly acclaimed Pinot Noir vineyards of Oregon. Starting in 2012, they began making wines from the AVAs of McMinnville, Eola-Amity and Dundee Hills and now harvest fruit from their own vineyards. They make several Pinot Noirs, a Chardonnay and sparkling wines from Oregon fruit. Expect impressive brightness overall; however, it is an earthy and more sleekly muscled version of their California styles. Tangy wild berries, fine spice and dried roses with forest floor and tealeaf best describe this wine’s aromatic profile and palate. The tannins are polished. Four stars.

Getting to know the wine of the La Crema Winery A Chardonnay wine brings out the critic in all of us. It is either a wine that you love or hate. The La Crema 2017 Russian River Valley Chardonnay is one that you just have to love. The vintage is 2017, where the growing conditions for the Chardonnay grapes was picture perfect. Put all of that together and you have the makings of a great wine. And so it is. The aroma is a complex of peach, mango, apple and lemon with hazelnut, caramel and vanilla in the background. The flavor is as complex as the aroma featuring apple, nectarine, peach and apple, ending in a creamy butterscotch and oak finish. This Chardonnay could easily be among the best from the Russian River Valley 2017 vintage.

Wines to celebrate St. Patrick's Day! Leek and Potato Soup is a delicious Irish classic. It’s creamy, savoury and satisfying, and pairs well with La Crema Sonoma Coast Chardonnay. Chardonnay grapes from California’s Sonoma Coast are lighter and leaner due to the cooler climate. This gives the wine a creaminess that matches the soup and refreshing acidity that balances its richness.

The Vancouver International Wine Festival opened this week. The eight-day extravaganza is Canada’s biggest wine show with 54 events, 1450 wines from 16 countries and 160 wineries. The festival had humble origins when it began in 1979 with only one winery, Robert Mondavi from the Napa Valley in California. This year the theme region is once again, California. On Monday, I was at Joey’s downtown for a media launch and on deck were five delicious wines from the Golden State. Third was the Kendall Jackson Vintner’s Reserve Rosé. If you plan on tasting whites and reds at the festival, consider having some rosés as a transition. I loved the pink colour and the bright fruit. It is mainly Pinot Noir and Syrah with fruity bouquet and flavour of grapefruit, watermelon, and apricot.

Wines to celebrate St. Patrick's Day! Colcannon are mashed potatoes reimagined, they are extremely creamy, and herb-driven with chive and earthy greens like kale or cabbage. Kendall-Jackson Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay has a balanced acidity that compliments the richness of the potatoes and the sharpness of the kale, while the citrus flavours add a refreshing contrast to this buttery Irish staple.

Truly great old-vine Grenache for Pinot Noir lovers Another Jackson Family Wines-owned property which they're probably just waiting for the world to appreciate. This wine is actually overseen by winemaker Christopher Carpenter, whose main job is making some of Jackson Family's highest-end California Cabernets (Cardinale, Lokoya.) To be honest, that doesn't sound like the right resume for making a great old-vine Grenache, and the winery web page boasts Wine Advocate scores for all the wines on it -- and this wine isn't on it. I'm not sure what's up with that; I hope they're not planting on grafting these vines (also right near the Yangarra and Smart vineyards) over to Cabernet so they can more effectively extract dense 97-point flavors. Grab the wine while you still can. It's light-bodied, with red currants and berries and some surprising tannin on the finish that means you might want to hold onto it for a bit.

Spectacular, well structured, complex with very long finish. 3 stars, superb.

Stunning, extremely high quality, layers of flavors, balance and finesse. 3½ stars, superb.

Elegant, crisp, lightly floral, with pear and apple flavors, great dinner wine. 3 stars, superb.