This is a lovely pinot noir with upfront bing cherry fruit. It has layered notes of cedar, cocoa and forest floor. Medium bodied. Smart. 3½ stars.

10 wines worth sharing for Thanksgiving Another chardonnay and pinot noir specialist from the Jackson family, this time producing wines from multiple appellations. The Monterey and Sonoma Coast wines are especially good values. The Russian River Valley wines are stars.

10 wines worth sharing for Thanksgiving Another chardonnay and pinot noir specialist from the Jackson family, this time producing wines from multiple appellations. The Monterey and Sonoma Coast wines are especially good values. The Russian River Valley wines are stars.

10 wines worth sharing for Thanksgiving Another chardonnay and pinot noir specialist from the Jackson family, this time producing wines from multiple appellations. The Monterey and Sonoma Coast wines are especially good values. The Russian River Valley wines are stars.

10 wines worth sharing for Thanksgiving Another chardonnay and pinot noir specialist from the Jackson family, this time producing wines from multiple appellations. The Monterey and Sonoma Coast wines are especially good values. The Russian River Valley wines are stars.

The La Crema 2016 Chardonnay (Sonoma Coast, Calif.) is deep gold in colour, and comes from a relatively cool region of California; on the nose it offers intense red apple and stone fruit (peach, apricot) as well as more subtle butterscotch and spice notes thanks to eight months aged in barrels. It’s medium-bodied and fairly creamy on the palate, with apple, peach and lemon meringue notes fleshed out by understated spice and vanilla bean flavours from the wood, but with enough focused fruit thanks to modest acidity. It’s a stylish example of Sonoma Chardonnay. ★★★★

La Crema draws upon vineyards spread through the Sonoma Coast appellation to fashion this ripe and generous Chardonnay, which delivers juicy apple and lemon flavours with spice and vanilla accents. A mix of vineyards, Chardonnay clones and barrels ensures there’s rich diversity here. 4 stars.

Wine Pairings for Your Favorite Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Characters The Pillsbury Doughboy: It’s hard not to love this little guy, with his infectious laugh and ticklish belly. He is also the Thanksgiving parade character most likely to get you in the baking mood for the holidays. From biscuits to crescent rolls to pie crusts, all Pillsbury products share one thing in common: butter. So there’s really only one choice for him in the wine department: Chardonnay. This one from La Crema Sonoma Coast is about as smooth and buttery as you can get.

10 wines worth sharing for Thanksgiving Another chardonnay and pinot noir specialist from the Jackson family, this time producing wines from multiple appellations. The Monterey and Sonoma Coast wines are especially good values. The Russian River Valley wines are stars.

Last-minute Thanksgiving wines This red wine, which also received 90 points from Wine Enthusiast, is exceptionally good for an inexpensive pinot noir. Elegant and well-balanced, it has much more body, flavor and complexity than you might expect at this price. It tastes of cherries, strawberries and raspberries with delicious earthy notes as well as hints of vanilla and toast from oak aging. This pinot noir is medium-bodied and smooth with soft tannins. It’s a food-friendly red that would pair with turkey, beef and salmon.

14 wines that will go great with Thanksgiving dinner (plus Champagne!) This is a very pleasing, easy to grasp, pinot noir from a cool region of Mendocino County. A whole range of berry flavors are expressed in this complex mélange of scents and flavors. Ready to drink now.

Merlot and More from an Exciting McLaren Vale Estate The wine called “The Peake” is a blend of 56 percent Cabernet Sauvignon and 44 percent Shiraz, sourced from vines planted in 1971, and at $150 it occupies a higher tier of production than the other three wines. The more time that elapsed in my evaluation of these four wines, the higher my opinion of this particular wine rose. It is a sleek, complex, complete wine that carries a dual varietal voice of red fruits and dark fruits, juiciness and earth. Given enough time, it could easily be the featured wine of this column. But right now, it is less dramatic than the Shiraz, and less charming than the Merlot.

Merlot and More from an Exciting McLaren Vale Estate The “Brooks Road” Shiraz is the richest of the four 2015’s. Its aroma suggests dark fruit, tar, leather and earth, and in your mouth is big and broad with soft flesh and substantial ripe tannins to match its substantial ripe fruit. But it is dry, and its fruit is fresh rather than baked. Its acidity gives definition to the wine, despite the wine’s weight.

Merlot and More from an Exciting McLaren Vale Estate The 2015 “Trueman” Cabernet Sauvignon shows admirable freshness of fruit and more weight than the Merlot. It is an excellent expression of Australian Cabernet. Although three years ago, I rated the 2012 Cabernet higher than the 2012 Shiraz, I would flip those rankings for the 2015’s.

Favorite Oregon Pinot Noir Bottles from Jackson Family Wines A Pinot Noir by winemaker Shane Moore, our first sip of immediately lit up our palate. It tastes of earthy mushrooms with warm spices and a hint of citrus. Each glass is filled with aromas of juicy berries and herbs that instantaneously made us want braised meats or duck. Since you’re on an Oregon wine kick, make a mental note to check back in with Gran Moraine IN A FEW years. They will be releasing a Blanc de Blanc in the spring of 2020 that was already stellar when we tried it this fall.

Five of the Best American Pinot Noirs Under $45, Tasted and Ranked A “‘shroomy and zesty” wine, as one taster described it, the Gran Moraine Pinot Noir has great depth to the nose, which is full of cherry, earth, and floral notes. Rich with black fruit and cranberry flavors, it tastes truly “Oregonian,” while its velvety tannins provide a “smooth finish.”

Tasting Fine Napa Valley Merlots Freemark Abbey is storied in California wine history because its vintage 1969 Cabernet Sauvignon and 1973 Chardonnay were both included in the 1976 Paris Tasting. Winemaker Ted Edwards shared that their first merlot release was the result of an abundant 1985 harvest. Plans to sell off the excess changed after sampling the quality and they have released merlot as a single varietal wine since. Freemark Abbey produces a Napa Valley Merlot,aged 16 months in French oak, with 11 percent added between cabernet sauvignon, petit verdot, malbec and cabernet franc. However, the 2015 Freemark Abbey Merlot Bosche’ Vineyard, with 99 percent merlot from the Rutherford district, expresses exceptional depth of flavor and aroma. It’s rich, concentrated flavors of black cherry combine with nuanced spice elements.

Wines of the Week Sourced from vineyards on Howell Mountain and Atlas Peak, this Merlot offers a quintessential Napa Valley character that my tasters really enjoyed. Look for ripe black cherry on both the nose and palate with nuances of spicy oak, chocolate, anise and dried herbs.

Deep, dark red/purple colour. The bouquet is fresh and bright and at this stage shows the spice of the shiraz component, but the more you sniff, the more the cabernet blackberry and blueberry shines through. The fruit is perfectly ripe and the wine is superbly balanced; where it differs from the Trueman cabernet and the Brooks Road shiraz is its structure. It has a firmer backbone, which will ensure it ages well and long. Black, red and blue berry aromas and flavours, cedar and spice, the shiraz spice receding the longer the wine is aerated. A wonderful glass of red wine.

Deep, intense, youthful red/purple colour, the bouquet gorgeously loaded with blue and black fruit aromas, blackberry, blackcurrant and blueberry, with a lacing of violets. The wine is full-bodied and extremely elegant, with perfect ripeness, beautifully modulated fruit and tannins, and subtle oak handling. A thoroughly delicious cabernet, accessible right now but with the potential to mature gracefully for many years. Winemaker Chris Carpenter thinks this is his best cabernet yet.

Top 100 Cellar Selections of 2018 - #7

USA, Oregon: 2016 Vintage – Part Two The 2015 Pinot Noir Elevee Vineyard is pale to medium ruby in color with a gorgeous floral perfume of violets and lilacs over a core of warm blackberries and black cherries plus notes of licorice, pipe tobacco, forest floor and stewed Bergamot tea leaves. Light to medium-bodied and wonderfully silky, it fills the mouth with layers of fruit, earth and spice framed by plush, grainy tannins and juicy acidity to carry the epically long, layered finish. Wow!

Oregon Displays Collective Greatness: 400-Plus Wines Rated This is a polished and complex young pinot that offers deeply spicy and ripe, darker cherries with attractive freshness. The palate delivers a suave, upbeat and very long, spice-laced array of rich, black-cherry and licorice flavor and carries deep into the fresh, even finish.

Deep, bright red/purple colour, with a very appealing bouquet of black fruits, licorice and pepper spice. A hint of peppermint. There's an earthy, charcoal trace that is reminiscent of more conventional McLaren Vale shiraz. A delicious wine, the palate deftly balances fruit sweetness with savouriness and tannin dryness.

Oregon Displays Collective Greatness: 400-Plus Wines Rated A super rich pinot with so many attractive fruit aromas and flavors, as well as deeply plush and fluid tannins that carry ripe black-cherry flavors long into a convincingly deep finish.