Founded in 1979, La Crema was one of the pioneers that helped establish the Russian River Valley as one of California's most important regions for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Production has grown as focus expanded to encompass other cooler climate growning regions in California and the Pacific Northwest. La Crema's Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir builds complexity by blending multiple clones and multiple vineyards from the expansive coastal appellation. Quick count shows 10 different clones and 11 different estate vineyards, harvested over the course of five weeks, contributing to this rich and ripe expression that gains added interest from appealing warm spice and earthy notes. Firm structure and polished tannins add backbone. Three stars.

Libations yule love this holiday season These Chardonnays would work well with a traditional turkey feast, a better option would be a mid-weight, flavour-packed red. Look no further than the La Crema 2015 Pinot Noir from California’s Sonoma Coast region. Enticing cedar/sandalwood, cherry, tobacco leaf, and cinnamon aromas lead into a silky smooth, raspberry-tinged palate that finishes with subtle baking spice nuances.

22 Gifts For That Lady in Your Life Who's Always Throwing a Party A good bottle of wine is a pretty solid gift choice for most people. Even if your hostess friend isn't much of a wine drinker herself, chances are one or a few of her guests are. Give her a bottle of La Crema 2015 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir ($25), which goes great with just about everything, and call it a day.

5 Award-Winning Pinot Noirs to Drink Right Now Jackson Family Wines’ wineries are all class and this beautiful Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir is characterised by the rugged beauty of the region. It is a versatile pinot noir, very popular amongst sommeliers in the US as a wine by the glass. I can picture it pairing well with a variety of meats, and would work well with many items on our Cantonese dim sum tables. This was a silver medal winner in this year's HKIWSC.

Now in its fourth vintage, La Crema's Willamette Pinot Noir is made in the Sonoma-based winery's richly concentrated and silky house style yet offers an attractive mix of fruity and earthy aromas and flavours that reflect the quintessential Oregon flavour profile. Grapes were harvested from eight vineyards in the Willamette Valley, including the estate Gran Moraine vineyard in the Yamhill-Carlton appellation and Zena Crown vineyard in Eola-Amity Hills appellation. The result is a fragrant, elegant and exceptionally smooth Pinot that's ready to drink. Four stars.

Sweet Talk - Decadent dessert wines to top off your meal A riot of jasmine and lavender wraps around juicy apple, Asian pear, and Meyer lemon.

Holiday Wine Pick With all the holidays, parties, family gatherings and variety of foods, December might be the best month for adventurous wine drinking. It also presents challenges deciding what to drink and what you can afford. Not to worry; I'm here to help with a shopping list of good, affordable wines from my recent tastings. Chardonnay is the most popular wine among Americans. For the many of you looking for modestly priced but still flavorful versions: ...2015 La Crema Monterey...

Libations yule love this holiday season Wonderful Winter Wines On the twelfth day of Christmas the vineyards gave to me…wine. The obligatory bubbly and Chablis/Muscadet for the obligatory oysters aside, winter wines – red and white – need to be big and cuddly. Some ripe, plump California Chardonnay would kick things off nicely. Consider the 2015 La Crema Chardonnay in either the Monterey or Sonoma Coast versions. Both are full and lush, with the Monterey version showing fragrant caramel corn, browned butter, hazelnut, and tropical fruit aromatics and ripe pineapple, buttered nuts, and sweet vanilla flavours. The Sonoma Coast doles out whiffs of pear, honeysuckle, and clove that reappear on the palate in a supple, silky combination of flavour and feel.

Libations yule love this holiday season Wonderful Winter Wines On the twelfth day of Christmas the vineyards gave to me…wine. The obligatory bubbly and Chablis/Muscadet for the obligatory oysters aside, winter wines – red and white – need to be big and cuddly. Some ripe, plump California Chardonnay would kick things off nicely. Consider the 2015 La Crema Chardonnay in either the Monterey or Sonoma Coast versions. Both are full and lush, with the Monterey version showing fragrant caramel corn, browned butter, hazelnut, and tropical fruit aromatics and ripe pineapple, buttered nuts, and sweet vanilla flavours. The Sonoma Coast doles out whiffs of pear, honeysuckle, and clove that reappear on the palate in a supple, silky combination of flavour and feel.

Wines of the Week: Favorite Buys of 2017 (Under $20) Our tasting panel is always trying to hunt down great bargains and we’ve discover dozens of wines that really deliver unexpected quality for under $20. Each member picked a favorite in different categories and we invited wine drinkings (who enjoy a glass or two on a regular basis but certainly aren’t experts) to vote for the ones they liked best. Here are the winners: Favorite Chardonnay.

Wines of the Week From the varied topography of the Alexander Valley comes this Old World style Cabernet Sauvignon featuring shy aromas and a lean palate that expands with complexity as the wine opens up. Look for earthy spice around cherry and cassis fruit with notes of mint, mineral and toasty oak.

Wine suggestions for your holiday gift list Kendall-Jackson 2015 Vintner's Reserve sauvignon blanc from California is a beautiful bottle that would be a joy to receive and the wine within an even greater joy to drink.

For the past 25 years, Kendall-Jackson's Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay has ranked as the top-selling Chardonnay in the United States. Even more impressive, all of that volume comes entirely from family owned hillside vineyards that stretch along the California coastline. The winemaking team points out that Monterey County fruit contributes citrus flavours, Mendocino County provides green apple notes and Sonoma County imparts ripe pear. Further south, Santa Barbara County supplies riper tropical notes. This coastal blend is fermented and aged in French and American oak barrels for added richness and complexity. Careful sur lie aging with monthly stirring to keep the wine in contact with the dead yeast cells enhances the texture and creamy flavour. The smooth texture and polished, fruity character makes this easy to appreciate. Party planners take note. Four stars.

Highly Recommended

Three well priced and readily available wines that made the Wine Spectator’s top 100 wines of the year are the 2015 Kendall-Jackson Vintners Reserve Chardonnay…

The best holiday wines under $20: 2017/2018 edition These are 13 of the most affordable, crowd-pleasing bottles of vino you can bring to a festive feast. There's a reason this special bottle from Kendall-Jackson has been the No.1-selling chardonnay in America for the last 25 years. Hand-crafted in small vineyard lots in Sonoma County, CA, this quintessential chardonnay has notes of pineapple, mango, and citrus, a velvety hint of toasted oak and butter, and a luxurious mouthfeel that'll keep you refilling glass after glass. A sure-fire winner at any holiday party or dinner, serve this bottle with seafood or a creamy pasta.

Keep festive dinner wine choices simple… A masterful blend of California Chardonnay – 47 per cent from Monterey, 30 per cent from Santa Barbara, 22 per cent Mendocino with 1 per cent from Sonoma – Kendall-Jackson 2015 Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay (296566) $24.79 was judged #28 on Wine Spectator’s list of Top 100 wines of 2017. It overwhelms the senses with mango and pineapple aromas and flavours over a base of crisp citrus, honeyed apples and pears with persistent buttery oak notes.

The wine showed a dark ruby color. Blackberry, black cherry, raspberry, mosy earth, dried sage and oak each arrived on the complex nose. Blackberry, black cherry, raspberry, mocha, dried sage and oak followed on the palate where the cherry emboldened the blackberry as the wine opened up. The wine exhibited great structure and length, along with moderate tannins. This wine would pair well with a seared venison tenderloin or a braised lamb shank.

Top Wines of 2017 Two of my top wines of 2017 were made by the same winemaker with the same grape variety but for two different wineries on two different continents. Winemaker, Chris Carpenter's passion for merlot was on full display with the 2014 Mt. Veeder Merlot produced & bottled by Mt. Brave and the 2014 The Revivalist Merlot McLaren Vale vinted & bottled by Hickinbotham Clarendon Vineyard.

The Hickinbotham Clarendon vineyard is a source of several mighty fine reds and this merlot should change anyone’s attitude to the variety. This is a stunner, its plum/prune compote aromatics an awesome capture to your imagination, and though a third or so new oak does show a little influence now there is an extraordinary elegance and freshness to the wine, medium bodied with good structure and balance of aromatics, flavours, and fine chalky tannins. Five stars.

Merlot Can be Great – Try These from Winemaker Chris Carpenter Here the color was a bit more muted, and less vibrant. That was the first noticeable difference from the two wines above. Some orange hints crept into the rim. On the nose you get rich, ripe fruit and a good bit of earthiness. This seems rounder than the other two, and more mature. Caramel and blueberry make an appearance. It is rich on the palate, full bodied and quite complex. There was a nice balsamic note. To me it drank like a bit of an older wine, and Cheri absolutely loved it. This was her favorite. For me it was third, in a group of three great wines. You can’t miss here. SRP of $75.

Wine a gift that fits almost every taste and budget From the impossible-to-buy-for wine geek, to someone who has gone out of their way to make your life better in 2017, we have the solution. It’s a column tradition at this time of the year to offer several wine picks you might consider buying as gifts for friends and acquaintances. This isn’t the throwaway bottle, but rather the thoughtful selection tailored to the likes or wants of the recipient. From the impossible-to-buy-for wine geek, to someone who has gone out of their way to make your life better in 2017, we have the solution. Just remember no matter who you are buying for, you should never spend more than you can afford because it’s the thought that matters... THE CARNIVORE There will always be a market for big, rich, reds, although we draw the line at the surging trend of sweet reds with growing levels of residual sugar. In the dry sector, the go-to grapes are Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Shiraz and even Zinfandel — or most any red blend that combines these grapes. Origins span vineyards in Napa Valley, Sonoma County, the Languedoc, Uco Valley, the Maipo Valley, the Barossa Valley to start. Two we love: Hickinbotham Clarendon Vineyard Trueman Cabernet Sauvignon 2014 , (McLaren Vale, South Australia, $89.99)...

My Ten Best Wines of 2017 The product of a winemaking partnership between Charlie Seppelt and Chris Carpenter, this McClaren Vale wine is crafted from vines planted in 1971. It is deeply complex wine with layers of polish and finesse, dark black cherry notes and tart savory threads. A truly stunning wine with velvety contours that harmonize on the palate…drinks like an aria but has a bluesy soul.

Festive Sparklers From Around the World: Ferrari, Jaume, Bruno, Gran With grapes from one of the more westerly vineyards in the AVA where a cooling afternoon breeze rolls off from the Pacific, the wine is mostly aged in stainless for freshness of fruit with a few lots aged in French oak barrels for depth, complexity, and spice. After two years on yeast, the wine is disgorged and aged for six more months before release. A lot of work goes into this wine and it sure shows in the glass: it’s quite spectacular.

Pairing Wine with Swine is a Delicate Dance A Christmas ham calls for a light- to medium-bodied wine that won’t overpower the meat’s weight and flavors. The inaugural release of the non-vintage Gran Moraine Brut Rosé ($50) from Oregon’s Willamette Valley is a blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir with a precise texture and lively finish. Primary notes include brioche, tangerine and dragon fruit. The wine has a touch of sweetness to it, which is important when pairing with ham coated with a sugary glaze.