The Surprise of 2015 in Napa and Other California Wine Reviewed Sensational aromas of blackberries, blueberries, violets and wet earth. Tar undertones. Full body, chewy yet polished tannins and a long, flavorful finish. A neoclassical wine with a great future. A majority of cabernet sauvignon in this Bordeaux blend. Needs two or three years to soften still.

The Surprise of 2015 in Napa and Other California Wine Reviewed Love the aromas of black cherries and blackberries, violets and roses. Stunning. Full-bodied, layered and dense with focus and precision. Full tannins, yet compressed and polished. A great cabernet franc-based red. Give this four to five years of bottle age before drinking but already beautiful to taste.

The Surprise of 2015 in Napa and Other California Wine Reviewed Fascinating aromas of blackberries and orange peel with dried flowers. Full-bodied and very structured. Superb density and length. Just starting to open up now. Fantastic merlot.

The Surprise of 2015 in Napa and Other California Wine Reviewed This is a soulful merlot with aromas and flavors of meat, currants and berries. Full-bodied, round and juicy with chewy tannins and a flavorful finish. Lemon-rind undertones, too. Drink now.

Weekend Wine Picks Lokoya Mount Veeder has been made from a selection of blocks within Veeder Peak Estate vineyard for almost 20 years. The Cabernet sits on a series of sun-bathed, western ridges of the Mayacamas Mountain range. Blue/black fruits with an intense floral (violets) aroma previews a classic mountain red with rich, dense long tannin. The structure reflects its 100 per cent Cabernet Sauvignon makeup fermented with native yeast, and bottled unfined and unfiltered. Smoke, cassis lined with exotic, incense spice, this is a magical wine only beginning its life. We love the dry, firm mineral undercurrent and red-fruit styling that signals its serious nature. Buy and hold for 15 years before you start to drink it. Impressive winemaking.

Weekend Wine Picks The Cardinale blends with 50 separate sample blocks and under winemaker Chris Carpenter the number is reduced to a handful of the most complex and aromatic awash in intensity, texture and length. A third of the final blend comes from Spring Mountain’s volcanic loam soils; Howell Mountain kicks in 25 per cent. The final blend is an 88/12 mix of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot aged 19 months in French oak, 94 per cent of which is new. Complexity is a big part of Cardinale, with additional fruit sourced in Stags Leap, St. Helena, Diamond Mountain District and Mount Veeder. It’s a wine for the ages from Carpenter and Napa that will repay a decade of bottle age. If you can’t wait, roast lamb would be a fine match.

Napa Cabernet Sauvignon worthy of your cellar 86% Cabernet Sauvignon, 14% Merlot. Youthful, intense and broad with a mix of red, dark and blue fruit framed by vegetal accents and notes of mineral spiciness. A massive wine with grippy tannins and tonnes of acidity which brings harmony and proportion. This wine easily will develop over the next 30-40 years.

The Surprise of 2015 in Napa and Other California Wine Reviewed This is dense yet agile young red with aromas and flavors of blackberries, black olives and black truffles. Full-bodied, layered and rich. Pretty ripe and melted tannins. Top merlot. Drink or hold.

Weekend Wine Picks At Vérité every block, every tilt of land, every exposure, and the multitude of places that make up each vineyard are the storytellers. Sweet herbaceous black fruit wafts from the glass streaked with tobacco and chalk. The texture is deep, soft and layered, revealing a little more of the wine every time you taste it. The blend is 53/21/21/5 Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec, reminiscent of the great St-Emilion wine, but this has a kiss of California sun that simply lifts this wine to a different level.

The Surprise of 2015 in Napa and Other California Wine Reviewed This is a solid and structured cabernet franc that is compacted and whole. Lots of blackberry and blueberry character. Orange undertones. Long and flavorful finish. Fantastic tannin structure and freshness with balance. Try drinking in 2021.

The Surprise of 2015 in Napa and Other California Wine Reviewed This is a beautiful cabernet sauvignon-based red with blackcurrants, blueberries and a light mint character. Full-bodied, firm and tight with a compressed fruit structure and polished tannins. Extremely long and focused. A beautiful wine. Mostly cabernet sauvignon. Drink in 2021.

Napa Cabernet Sauvignon worthy of your cellar 91% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Merlot. Opaque colour highly perfumed crème de cassis and raspberries mixed with a note of eucalyptus and smoke. Intensely flavoured and rich with volume well framed by savoury, partially resolved tannins and a juicy, vibrant aftertaste which lasts and refreshes.

Think Blewitt Springs Grenache and expect pretty, bright red fruit. Oh, this rattles the cage on that theory. I'll unashamedly admit this is the best Grenache I have ever seen come across my bench. It's pristine but a bit rustic all at the same time. It's tight yet doesn't come across tense. Dark berries and fruit are pinned together by measured minerality and dusty feels in the mouth. Grown in sand which runs two metres deep, these bush vines produce only five to six bunches each. I felt an air of calmness as I walked this vineyard with winemaker Peter Fraser only a month ago - a sacred site in Australia's wine history planted back in 1946. No irrigation, grown organically and biodynamically, there's so much to savour with this wine. Brilliant! This well cellar well beyond a decade.

The Surprise of 2015 in Napa and Other California Wine Reviewed Aromas of lead pencil, graphite and hot slate. Blackcurrants, too. Full-bodied, very tight and tannic. Linear and driven on the finish. Very fresh and energized. Racy and focused. Primarily cabernet sauvignon. Needs three to four years to come around completely. Try in 2021.

Napa Cabernet Sauvignon worthy of your cellar 86% Cabernet Sauvignon, 14% Merlot. Noticeable maturity with lovely aromatics of dry cassis macerated in reduced balsamic and berries of the forest. Seasoned by spicy vanilla, clove and hint of charcoal. Rich, dense palate with sweet tannins and richly textured fruit leading to the lasting finish.

Vines planted in 1946. Hand picked, sorted, destemmed, crushed and tipped into two 657 litre ceramic eggs. Kept on skins for 191 days post ferment; this is full of grape tannin goodness. No oak time at all; ceramic eggs only. It smells of grapes. It smells of the earth. It smells wild or free or something like that. It’s red-fruited with a trace of licorice, shows a gentle line of chicory, is spicy and earthen, and has a keen insistence to the finish. Tannin here, silty, is quite gorgeous. It has flair but it also has understatement. It’s a wine to take to the world.

Hand picked (organically-grown) grapes. 25% whole bunches. Cold soaked, open fermented, wild yeast, 48% new French oak for 15 months. Brilliant wine. Its quality impresses from the outset. Full-bodied but polite about it. Blackberry, plum, a jellied sweetness, a full serve of cedarwood oak, florals, peppercorns. Pretty in part, gutsy in other, svelte. Tannin rolls and rumbles from the mid-palate onwards but it comes flooded with flavour. Generous and joyous.

Smooth and succulent with cherry notes; elegant, classic, and Burgundian; savory; balanced, and refined; a stunning example of what Oregon winemaking can accomplish.

Blended with small percentages of 12% Cabernet Franc, 5% Merlot and 5% Petit Verdot, and then aged in 90% new French oak for 19months, this stellar effort offers reduced oak, bark, toast and clove aromas and flavors alongside sizable, structured tannin and hearty ripeness. Black currant and chocolate dust a layer of tobacco. Enjoy best 2024 through 2034.

Bush vine grenache, planted 1946. Hand picked, wild fermented, 50% whole berries, cold soaked, open fermenters, matured in French oak but none of it was new. Certified organic/biodynamic. Released May 2018. Keen fruit, pure tannin, a keen line of acidity and stunning length. If there’s oak here it’s so hand-in-glove that you’re hard pressed to detect it. Kirsch, redcurrant, fennel and generous flings of dry spice. It needs a little time but it’s a ripper wine.

Copain's Syrahs are Aging Wonderfully My wine of the night – just a stunner. Dark purple color and lots of rich but tangy black and blue fruit on the nose, along with a deep sense of violets and scorched earth. Fleshy and plump on the palate but structured tannins and refreshing acidity. Blackberry and blueberry fruit, laced with smoke, violets, anise, black pepper, and a pervasive sense of minerals and iron. Gorgeous stuff that has years to go.

Napa Cabernet Sauvignon worthy of your cellar 88% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Merlot. Dark berry fruit complemented by vanilla and burnt caramel and clove. Fragrant with aromas of flower, liquorice and ripe raspberries resonating well with a note of dry herbs. Despite its youth, this wine feels approachable and I love its juicy vibrancy.

Red Elegant, offering raspberry, pomegranate and cherry flavors that are well-structured. Notes of forest floor show midpalate, with an enveloping finish of spice and brick.

A little history and some worthy new finds Found two beautiful Chardonnays made in the older style of the '80s. Brewer-Clifton Santa Rita Hills 2015 was given a glowing review by Jeb Dunnuck, "seriously rich, unctuous beauty that offers notes of buttered citrus rind, candied lemons, honeycomb and hints of minerality. Deep, rich and thrillingly textured, it's certainly the smart value play." Tough to find this quality at $27/bottle or $323.40/case, 94 McD and worth every bit of the effort to get some.

Weekend Wine Picks Anakota sits in Knights Valley over an ancient volcanic zone, reddish-brown, gravel/silt loam soils intermingled with some volcanic rock, with an affinity for the main Bordeaux grapes. Since 2001, Anakota has made two single-vineyard, single-varietal, single-appellation estate cabs: Helena Dakota and Helena Montana. The 2014 Helena Dakota is a 12.4-acre block of vines below Mount St. Helena’s two highest peaks at 750 feet elevation. Look for a rich dark red with savoury espresso, chocolate aromas and flavours laced with blackberries, cassis and some wet stone minerality.