More Bing cherries, sappy flowers, and burnt orange all emerge from the 2019 Pinot Noir Cote Bannie, and it's nicely textured, with building structure and juicy acidity. I like its balance, and I suspect another year in bottle will do it well. It should keep for at least 7-8 years in cold cellars.

Coming from the Anderson Valley, in the northern part of California, the 2019 Chardonnay Skycrest offers a medium gold hue as well as impressive dried citrus, white flowers, and chalky mineral-like aromas and flavors. Nicely textured, medium-bodied, and balanced, this rock-solid Chardonnay will keep for 3-5 years, if not longer.

There are two Sauvignon Blancs. Looking first at the 2019 Sauvignon Blanc, it's a Bordeaux Blanc look-alike with impressive peach, citrus, subtle mineral, and toasted almond notes in its medium-bodied, soft, forward, yet balanced and delicious style. It's going to shine on the dinner table and be incredibly versatile.

Peppery Cab with some jammy dark fruit feels. It has a very balanced mouthfeel with soft fruit and well-woven tannins. The structure of this wine is so sound, it sings on the palate. You can even go with duck here.

I’m a bit behind with this Yangarra Blanc 2020, but it’s still looking good. McLaren Vale white blend, in the mode of a Chateauneuf du Pape blanc. 62% Grenache Blanc this vintage, fermented in ceramic eggs and older barrel for 4 months. No sulphur until bottling. What a regime for a $27 wine!A nice, fresh and lively drink too. Soft and creamy at the edges but it’s a taut white underneath. I like this sort of frisky, yet not unripe, drink. It’s just a little bit phenolic and pithy to finish, but plenty of refreshment here.Yangarra Blanc 2020. Best drinking: nowish. Might even be better next year.

This gold straw colored Chardonnay opens with a nectarine and pineapple bouquet with hints of oak. On the palate, this wine is medium bodied, balanced and has rounded edges. The flavor profile is mild apple and gentle pineapple with notes of pie crust. Hints of oak and lemon. The finish is dry and its flavors linger nicely. This Chard is food friendly and would pair well with a roasted garlic chicken.

This estate-grown sparkler is lean and bracing, leading with scents of wild strawberry and orange peel. The flavors broaden to juicy apple, framed by fine toasty lees, rounded, composed and balanced for a filet of arctic char.

Distinctive, with dried sage, rosemary, cigar box and hinoki oil, complimenting the ripe plum and cherry cobbler flavors that are harmonious and savory on the finish, with feltlike tannins. Drink now through 2032.

This red blend has bright and spicy red and dark-berry aromas with a floral edge, as well as subtle, earthy and stony nuances. The palate is bright, light and focused on red-berry flavors. Drink now. Screw cap.

Very delicate on the nose, this rosé begins with clean and tight aromas of rose petal and red apple. There’s a line of chalk to the palate, where wet stone, pluot and light pomegranate flavors align.

From the Barham Vineyard, this bottling begins with deep and dark aromas of black currant, blackberry and purple flowers on the nose. The palate is loaded with candied purple fruit and flowers, cut by a line of intranet acidity and rounded with a bit of smoke.

Light lemon aromas meet with warm, toasty oak tones on the comfortingly familiar nose of this bottling. Salted lemon-wedge, pineapple and cantaloupe flavors arise on the sip, which lends into more sea salt and nuts on the finish.

Well-structured, with ripe spiciness to the dark plum, cherry tart and dried blackberry flavors, backed by fresh acidity and tannins. Cocoa powder and cooking spice accents power the lithe finish. Drink now through 2025.

If you’re a fan of Siduri you know their focus has always been pinot noir. That has changed. They have just released their first chardonnay coming from the Willamette Valley in Oregon. This is a mild chardonnay, subtle, subdued, not a big overwrought chardonnay. There is very much a lively quality to it, which makes it a very pleasant wine by itself and a great accompaniment to food. Though the elements of lemon lime, guava nectar, white peach and wildflowers, are all evident, these are all quiet elements. Even the fermentation, which one would expect would result in a larger wine is something more reductive. Therefore you end up with a chardonnay that is almost afraid to announce itself. And it is this subtlety that makes it all the more enjoyable. Aged in 25% new French oak for just 10 months, it was fermented in both stainless steel, concrete and barrel.

Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2018 Lassegue features expressive notes of stewed red and black plums, boysenberries and Black Forest cake, plus hints of damp soil, black truffles and tapenade. The medium to full-bodied palate delivers bags of black berry preserves flavors, supported by soft, approachable tannins and just enough freshness, finishing earthy.

Light orangish-pink with a tree fruit nose, intense fruit, even. It’s all about the peach on the palate, really peachy. But this wine works as well. Excellent.

From one of California’s finest cool climate regions, this Chardonnay is notable in many ways. The grapes, from coastal Santa Barbara County, deliver vibrant and bright flavors suggesting citrus and green apple, along with a touch of oak spice and a tweak of stony minerality. The wine’s appealing creamy texture is fine tuned with just the right amount of acidity and the finish is pleasantly long.

Light pink with a very fruity nose and some red flower. The palate is lovely. There might be a touch of RS here, but it works, at least for me. Excellent.

Smooth, juicy and lean with fresh acidity, clean, balanced and long.

COMMENTARY: The 2018 WillaKenzie Estate Willamette Valley Chardonnay packs excellent and finely-tuned balanced and structure on the palate. TASTING NOTES: This wine serves up aromas and flavors of sandalwood, savory spices, dried apples, and earth. Enjoy it with roasted game birds.

Firmly structured, with a spicy mix of ripe apple, pear and peach pastry flavors that are backed by lively acidity. Minerally midpalate, with notes of sage cream on the rich finish. Drink now through 2024.

Peter Fanucchi farms seven acres of 100-year-old vines on a rise above Wood Road. Jeff Stewart ferments the concentrated fruit without added yeasts, then ages the wine in French oak barrels (41 percent new). The old-vine fruit comes across in flavors of tiny purple berries, umeboshi plum and a lasting herbal savor. It’s pungent and perfumed, a sleek zin for yakitori beef.

Very pure fruit aromas with ripe cherry essence and some strawberry. The palate has a soft, creamy feel with a distinctive, kirsch-like core of flavor. Crunchy tannins cradle fluid fruit flesh. Drink now.

Opening to a delightful nose, the 2017 Chardonnay wafts out of the glass with delicate French oak notes, citrus blossom, yellow apple, Meyer lemon, hints of musk melon and underripe pineapple. Medium to full-bodied, the palate shows energetic acidity with succulence on the palate. Growing spiciness from the oak enters across the mid-palate, with subtle flavors of sautéed almonds and yellow apple with a kiss of reductive essence. The wine finishes texturally long and with a food-friendly, spicy conclusion. Nicely done.

The Peake is an ode to Edward John Peake, who planted the first vines in Clarendon, where Hickinbotham is based, in 1850. The vineyard used for this wine was later planted by the Hickinbotham family in 1971, and is sourced from four blocks. It's a classic Australian blend of cabernet sauvignon (55%) and shiraz (45%), with all lots left on their skins for at least 18 days. The cabernet is aged for 15 months in Bordeaux-coopered barrels, while a combination of puncheons and barriques are used for the shiraz. Only the best barrels, selected by Napa-born winemaker Chris Carpenter, go into the final wine. It shows quite lifted, high toned dark fruit that's lavishly ripe and complemented by eucalyptus and sweet chocolatey oak. It's a big, dense, powerful wine that's just starting to unravel and reveal itself, with tightly wound, fine grained tannins that suggest this has years, if not decades, of life ahead of it. Every time you return to the glass, something new presents itself. A sure sign that this will be worth the wait. Worth a lengthy decant if you open it now.