Dry, racy and clean. Shows real class, with plenty of zesty lemon and lime acidity, brightening the citrus, lemongrass, white peach and mineral flavors.

Bright gold. Ripe melon and peach aromas are lifted by zesty lemon pith and white pepper nuances. Juicy, focused honeydew and citrus flavors show impressive power and pick up toasty leesiness with air. Smooth and seamless in texture, with excellent finishing thrust and lingering smokiness.

The 2009 Chardonnay Nine Barrel is a selection from the estate's best barrels of Russian River juice. It is an effortless, gracious wine laced with tropical fruit, sweet spices, pastry and lemon. Although the wine is quite rich in its flavor profile, there is no sense at all of heaviness. The Nine Barrel was vinified in French oak barrels (34% new), with full malolactic fermentation and lees stirring every 2-3 weeks. This is an impeccable wine from La Crema and winemaker Elizabeth Grant-Douglas. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2016.

An exceptional effort, the 2008 Chardonnay Russian River was put through 100% malolactic fermentation. It exhibits a more honeyed style with notes of brioche, poached pears, and buttery citrus in its elegant, full-bodied personality. This impressively endowed Chardonnay should drink nicely for 3-4 years.

La Crema is something of a Chardonnay specialist, consistently producing excellent wines from this grape grown in various California appellations. The 2008 Los Carneros Chard is a good example of the winemaker's deft touch with this grape. Although this wine has a robust alcohol by volume of 14.5 percent, the delicate aromas of lemon oil and spice shine, and the wine is creamy and mouth-filling without being too hot or too heavy. It's big enough, though, that it needs a rich pasta dish or an oily grilled fish to show its best.

Juicy, bright and showing citrus and white flowers with racy acidity; complex and charming with a long, elegant finish.

The 3,000 case lot of 2007 Chardonnay Carneros is superb. Complex notes of hazelnut, popcorn, orange marmalade, and background oak are subtle yet persistent. Drink this beauty over the next several years.

A beautiful wine for the price. Aged nine months on its lees, it offers abundant quantities of pear, honeysuckle, and toast notes in a medium to full-bodied, exotic, fruit forward format. It is hard not to get excited about this delicious Chardonnay, which begs for consumption over the next 1-2 years.

It is a full-bodied, unctiously-textured effort revealing notes of tangerine oil, honeyed grapefruit, peaches, and a hint of cloves. This pure, ripe, lusty Chardonnay should be drunk over the next 1-2 years.

From this red hot AVA, this exciting Chard rocks with bold, penetrating fruit. You can taste the cool, ocean tang, which coaxed out apples and citrus, while winemaker bells and whistles, such as barrel fermentation and sur lie aging, provide welcome complexities. They completed the malolactic fermentation, which softens the wine a bit but makes it buttery and creamy.

A real mouthful, with rich, plush, chocolaty plum and blackberry fruit that's complex and concentrated, picking up herb, mocha, black cherry nuances. Shows a trace of heat on the finish, but also a gush of rich fruit flavors.

This offering reveals notes of spice, jammy plums, and dried cherry fruit intertwined with toasty oak. A concentrated, medium to full-bodied, complete, savory, delicious Pinot Noir…

Light oak spices shade lots of fresh red-fruit flavors in this medium-bodied, generous and nicely balanced wine. It is well rounded and smooth on the palate, getting better with each sip.

13 West Coast Pinots at 90+ Points New reviews of elegant reds from California and Oregon Broadly textured and rich, with mocha notes accenting the dark cherry, roasted plum and wild berry flavors. Chocolate and spice details show on the creamy finish.

A wine of impact, the 2016 Pinot Noir Outland Ridge offers striking depth to match its bold personality. Succulent dark cherry, plum, spice, new leather and licorice are all pushed forward in this deep, fleshy Pinot from Kendall-Jackson.

Pale to medium ruby-purple colored, the 2015 Pinot Noir Jackson Estate Sonoma Coast reveals attractive cranberry, pomegranate and rhubarb notes with touches of rose hip tea, menthol, lavender and fragrant earth. Medium-bodied with lovely a satiny texture and fantastic freshness cutting through the intense red fruit flavors, it finishes long and perfumed.

Mendocino County’s cool Anderson Valley, which runs east-west toward the Pacific Ocean, now rivals the Russian River Valley in the California pinot noir arena. The 2015 Outland Ridge pinot from Jackson Estate is another beauty from Anderson Valley, showing excellent concentration and beautiful aromas of cherry and spice, good balance and structure and a lingering finish.

This plush-textured wine effortlessly blends ripe fruit, light spices and touches of oak to glide easily across the palate. While full bodied it is not heavy, but well balanced by good acidity and fine-grained tannins.

Offers spicy raspberry, black cherry and wilted rose notes.

Deftly balanced, this is slow to build nuance and complexity, unfolding to reveal tiers of spicy raspberry, black cherry and wilted rose. Though medium-weight, the flavors build intensity and nuance.

Deftly balanced, this is slow to build nuance and complexity, unfolding to reveal tiers of spicy raspberry, black cherry and wilted rose. Though medium-weight, the flavors build intensity.

Jackson Estate's 2014 Outland Ridge is a meaty pinot noir from the Anderson Valley. Showing savory notes of wood smoke and somewhat rustic tannins, this wine is also packed with dark cherry and raspberry fruit. It drinks well now but will be best in another two to three years.

Weekend Wine Picks This has nothing to do with Burgundy but everything to do with the Anderson Valley and the wild Sonoma Coast — remote, distant, yet memorable. The nose is a mix of raspberry, pepper, smoky, blueberry, mocha with a savoury undercurrent of celery salt, plus vanilla aromas. The attack is clean, fresh, juicy and elegant but with intensity and more peppery, savoury, herbal, compost notes with a vanilla, licorice finish. Bring on the duck, quail, turkey and smoke meats. Private wine shops only.

Delicious fruit aromas and abundant spices waft up from the glass. The flavors follow suit, with ripe plum, strawberry and cinnamon all well supported by firm acidity and a medium-to-full body. This is a well-rounded wine that’s easy to enjoy.

This substantive Pinot shows definite toasted oak character along with ripe fruit, full body and firm tannins. Hints of oak smoke and caramel waft over the ripe plum aromas. The flavors go to dark cherries and coffee, the texture is attractively astringent from tannins, and the finish carries a little bite. Well done but not overdone.