All destemmed and aged seven months in 18% new French oak barrels, the 2023 Pinot Noir Julia's Vineyard offers framboise, Bing cherries, sappy underbrush, and floral notes that develop nicely with air. It's medium-bodied, balanced, has good depth of fruit, and a complex, satisfying style that would best many a great Village-level red Burgundy. I'd happily drink a bottle. Drink 2025-2030. 

Based on 100% Chardonnay, the 2023 Chardonnay Katherine's Vineyard offers ripe stone and orchard fruits intermixed with honeysuckle and subtle spice. It’s medium-bodied, plush, round, and supple. Fermentation was split between 30% stainless steel and 70% barrel, and the wine was then aged seven months in French oak, 20% of which was new. This is a well-made, ready-to-drink California Chardonnay that delivers terrific value. Drink 2025-2027. 

Another outstanding effort, the 2022 Chardonnay Fog Tide was brought up all in tank and reveals ripe, honeyed lemon, orange, and subtle tropical aromatics. It's medium-bodied, round, supple, and plush on the palate, with solid purity and depth. Drink 2025-2027. 

Notes of cherrywood, milk chocolate, and rooibos tea stretch across the palate with brisk acidity. Sweet tobacco and dried rose and another layer from midpoint to finish

The 2023 Pinot Noir Julia's Vineyard is another fabulous entry-level wine, if you can even call it that. Bright, rich and forward, the oak is front and center, but it frames and braces the wine nicely. Spice tones and dark red cherry fruit form the core. There's real character and Santa Maria Valley identity here. This is particularly impressive at $25.

The 2024 Pinot Noir is very rich, ripe and forward, with bright cherry fruit and attractive textural suppleness. It's certainly not the last word on complexity, but it impresses most for its harmony and creaminess without exuberance. Purity of red cherry/berry fruit here is really lovely. Greg Brewer is certainly no one-trick pony, showing here that he can deftly handle Pinot Noir without stem inclusion (100% destemmed).

Dry and fruity, the 2023 Viognier Oregon is bright with white pepper, honeydew melon, citrus blossom, and wet stones. It's a refreshing and medium-bodied style that stays light on its feet, with a crisp finish. A quaffable and summery white to drink over the next couple of years, it would be exceptionally well-suited paired with sushi, crudo, and spicy papaya salads. It’s bottled under screw cap.

A fruity and floral wine on opening, the 2023 Chardonnay Willamette Valley leads with peach, powdery flowers, preserved lemon, and saline. Juicy and medium-bodied, it’s a straightforward and approachable Chardonnay, with a light savory touch and hints of tarragon. Drink over the near term.

A bright ruby color, the 2023 Grenache Flavorscape is playful and aromatic, with strawberries, candied flowers, white pepper, and sweet herbs lifting from the glass. This bright, medium-bodied red boasts a refreshing stony texture and a clean finish. Serve with a light chill and drink over the next 3-4 years.

A pale yellow hue, the 2022 Chardonnay Willamette Valley reveals attractive aromas of green melon, lime blossoms, fresh white flowers, and vanilla. Medium-bodied, it’s an approachable and charming white, with a delicately rounded feel and a powdery finish. Drink over the next couple years.

Pouring a dark red color, the 2022 Pinot Noir Willamette Valley is pure with fruity aromas of baked cherries, mossy earth, and pressed flowers. Medium-bodied and ripe, it fills the palate without feeling heavy and has a clean finish. Drink over the next few years.

Juicy and up-front but builds structure, along with cherry, red currant, tomato leaf and spice flavors that finish with snappy tannins. Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Drink now through 2030. 288 cases made.

Modestly juicy and forward in feel, this delivers a mix of cherry, blackberry and red licorice notes that tumbles through the singed apple wood finish. Drink now through 2030.

The 2022 Pinot Noir Willamette Valley wafts up with a fruit-forward blend of crushed raspberries, blueberries and autumnal spice. Soothingly round and pliant, it offers balanced inner sweetness as a juicy wave of wild berries and a nuance of clove wash across the palate. The finish is medium in length, with a gentle saturation of fine tannins yet remains fresh.

The 2024 Viognier is spicy in the glass, as a whiff of wild herbs and sour citrus gives way to crushed green apples. Zesty tension reverberates on the palate as salty mineral tones collide with lime-infused orchard fruits. The finish is clean and crisp, leaving the mouth watering for more as a hint of sour melon tapers off.

This tart and refreshing version offers lively tones of lemon, nectarine and orange blossoms that end on a vibrant accent. -T.F.

The 2022 La Crema ‘Russian River Valley’ Pinot Noir offers forward and juicy red fruits that meld well with orange peel and salty soils on the palate. Enjoy now. Drink 2025-2030

Honest and straightforward in its ripe style, this gutsy Cabernet achieves good balance between the sweet core of dark cherry and blackberry fruit with some pleasantly grippy tannins. The pure sweetness of the fruit will permit cocktail-style sipping for those who enjoy structured reds while enabling this to also work well at the table.

The first vintage of the 2023 Chardonnay Sonoma County, it comes from Cougar Ridge, with a splash from Matanzas. The nose opens to notes of fresh chamomile, dewy wet stones, fresh yellow apples, and honied citrus. The palate is fruity and fresh, with a medium to fullbodied frame, and it has a suggestion of sweet citrus and melony fruit along with a clean, silky finish. Drink 2025-2030.

A pale silver/straw hue, the 2024 Sauvignon Blanc Sonoma County comes from across 12 different vineyards in Sonoma County and is zesty with notes of citrus pith, fresh white f lowers, pear, and fresh mango. The palate has light white pepper spice upfront that gives way to a delicate fruity feel of sweet melon on the finish. It’s delicate on the palate and perfect for drinking over the near term. This is a lovely lens into this pretty style the estate offers.

A new wine in the range, the 2024 Chenin Blanc boasts a bright silver/straw hue and is fresh and savory with notes of salty earth, citrus pith, and melon rind. The palate is fresh, with a lightweight and lean frame, a haunting feel, and a delicate touch. It’s a refreshing wine with a clean, chalky texture that would disappear quickly at the table. Drink this lovely, fresh white over the next several years.

A medium ruby color, the 2022 Pinot Noir Russian River Valley is a ripe, spicy wine offering a generous perfume of cherry pie, baking spices, floral perfume, and cedar spice. It’s juicy and ripe on the palate, with a medium to full-bodied-frame, ripe tannins, and a clean, fruity, spiced finish. It’s a very charming wine to drink now or over the next few years. It was raised in French oak barrels for nine months.

The first time I have tasted this wine, the 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma County is a blend of 80% Cabernet Sauvignon and 18% Merlot, along with a small amount of Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc. A saturated dark red hue, it’s stylistically ripe and lush, opening to notes of plum, cassis, cedar, sweet tobacco, and vanilla. The palate has a plush, ripe, chocolate texture, with a rounded and approachable feel, although its undertones of more mountainous fruit come through on the finish. It will be best enjoyed over the next few years.

Bright and fresh aromas of red cherries, raspberry coulis and blood oranges. The palate is light-bodied with crunchy tannins and energetic acidity. Made for early drinking with lots of instant pleasure. Drink now

This wine is supple, with aromas of boysenberry, blackberry, molases, brown sugar and potpourri on the nose. The flavors on the palate are black currant coulis, olallieberry and dried sage, layered with lemon zest, mineral and dry, grippy tannins.Pair with meat loaf.