The 2015 Chardonnay Tous Ensemble is a silky, voluptuous wine with lovely creaminess and intensity, while retaining its mid-weight personality. Baked apple, pear, white flowers and mint all open up nicely in the glass. This is a striking, value-priced Chardonnay from Copain.

USA, Northern California, Napa Valley: 2016 & 2017 – A Tale of Two Vintages The 2015 Laureles Chardonnay features honeydew melon, nectarines and guava notes with suggestions of beeswax, cashews and chalk dust. Medium-bodied, elegant and lively in the mouth, it gives plenty of savory flavors and a toasty finish.

USA, Northern California, Napa Valley: 2016 & 2017 – A Tale of Two Vintages The 2015 Chardonnay Brosseau is scented of baked apples, apricots and poached pears with touches of fresh straw, allspice and lightly browned toast. Medium to full-bodied, it gives a good amount of restrained, understated flavors with great freshness and a citrus-laced finish.

This comes from vines planted on sandstone at 1,500 feet in the western coastal hills of Anderson Valley. The wine's oak feels raw for now, but the site comes through with a compelling vinosity - a bold salted-apple flavor that lasts. Decant it to reveal the wine's refreshing power.

In 2014, the Chardonnay Laurales Grade is an intense, powerful wine with a huge core of fruit and a palpable sense of weight. There is plenty of depth and richness, but the 2014 doesn't quite have the nuance or finesse of the finest Copain Chardonnays. Today, the 2014 comes across as a bit monolithic.

Pierre and Monique Seillan partnered in this property with Californians Jess Jackson and Barbara Banke in 2003. Its 60 acres of vines are located on a hillside of chalk and clay facing south and southwest. Pierre Seillan is not afraid of extract or new oak, and Lassègue is typically a rich wine. The 2014 is powerful juice, rounded with notes of cedar and spice. It’s a lovely wine in a clean style.

A lush, velvety and toasty style, with lots of linzer torte, plum and fig notes pumping along, spiked with anise, violet and black licorice snaps accents. Briar and toasted wood spice pack the finish, lending a slightly chewy feel that should unwind a bit in the cellar.

Powerful and rich, this has sweet tannins that overlay a juicy blackberry-jelly flavor. It is sumptuous and opulent, squeezing out every bit of richness. It has weight, and its tannins offer a fine future.

Its ferocious tannins still need some resolution, and the wine is definitely what the French call a “vin de garde,” needing probably 8-10 years of cellaring. It is certainly concentrated, dense purple in color, with notes of iron, crushed rocks, black currants, kirsch and toasty oak. This is a chancy wine given the history that tannins always outlast the fruit, but there is a lot here and I wouldn’t want to dismiss it, considering all the good stuff it appears to possess.

A french sommelier on our panel described the aroma of this wine as traditional, which is probably the best compliment winemaker Pierre Seillan and his American partner Jess Jackson could get. This is the second vintage of Lassegue since Jackson bought this property on a hillside adjacent to Pavie. It starts off with floral currant and blueberry scents; the fruit stands up to generous, satin-textured tannins and lasts right through the wine. The fine texture and lingering fruit is there, still fresh, a day later. Check on this eight to ten years from the vintage.

Big licorice, tobacco, spicy, peppery, orange, saddle leather, meaty, coffee, savoury, chocolate, mineral aromas. Round, dry, rich and supple but has some youthful, tight tannins. Black olive, licorice, coffee, vanilla, carrot, orange, plum, black cherry and resin flavours with a peppery, clove finish. Good acidity, length and potential, needs 5-7 years.

A beautiful cool-climate Pinot Noir made from Dijon clones 667, 777 and 115, this wine was aged nine months in 30% new French oak. The wine, from a high-elevation vineyard and one of the estate vineyards of the Jackson family, offers up notes of raspberry, strawberry, and a subtle hint of blueberry fruit. Lovely soil notes are intermixed in this decidedly cool-climate, fresh, lively, mid-weight Pinot Noir to drink over the next 3-4 years.

Bright ruby. A highly perfumed bouquet evokes sappy red berries, Asian spices, herbs and potpourri, with a smoky mineral nuance emerging with aeration. Offers intense red berry and bitter cherry flavors that become sweeter with air and pick up a rose pastille note. Clinging raspberry and vanilla qualities sweeten the finish, firmed by tangy acidity and dusty tannins.

Only a single wine, the 2012 Pinot Noir (5,548 cases) emerges from this Kendall-Jackson-owned estate vineyard near the town of Booneville. Planted at 1,400- to 1,800-foot elevation with Dijon clones 667, 777 and 115, this wine spent nine months in 32% new French oak prior to being bottled. The soil layers are alluvial, uplifted seabed, stuffed with natural sea shells embedded in many of the fractured rocks. It’s also above the fog line in this area. The resultant wine from these soils is lush, with raspberry and blueberry fruit, a seductive, flowery bouquet, medium body, sweet velvety tannins and a layered finish, which seems to build incrementally on the palate. This is an impressive Pinot Noir that sells at a realistic price. Drink it over the next 5-7 years.

Generous, juicy and inviting Californian Pinot Noir, with fleshy red cherry aromas and flavours. Full-bodied and satin smooth. Pair with planked salmon.

Hélène Seillan, the daughter of Verité’s Bordeaux-trained winemaker Pierre Seillan, works alongside her father; but she also has a new label of her own: Cenyth. This crisp and refreshing rosé, made from Cabernet Franc, nods to Bourgueil with its notes of rose hip, white cherries and chalky soil. A delicious bottling from a name to watch.

The 2013 Red Wine (Sonoma County) is powerful and incisive, with plenty of Cabernet Franc top notes that add lift to the dense fruit. Linear and pulsating with energy, the 2013 is super-expressive today, but will be even better in another few years. Sweet red berry, pomegranate, spice and mint are all nicely delineated on the vibrant, saline finish.

The 2012 Proprietary Red (3,847 cases) is a blend of 60% Cabernet Franc, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Merlot that was aged in 30% new oak. It is a delicious, fruit-forward, delicate, Bordeaux-styled red revealing notes of blackcurrants, blueberries, licorice and earth. Medium to full-bodied, round and easygoing, it is best consumed over the next 7-8 years.

The 2009 Red Wine Sonoma County is dark, rich and enveloping. Black fruit, mocha, cloves, licorice, menthol and new leather explode from the glass in a huge, mouthfilling red. This dark, sumptuous Cabernet Sauvignon-based red is still incredibly primary. The 2009 can be enjoyed today for its intense fruit, while more tertiary notes are just beginning to develop. The 2009 is 47% Cabernet Sauvignon, 28% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc, 8% Petit Verdot, 7% Malbec.

Cenyth's 2016 Sauvignon Blanc is bright, crisp and full of varietal character, with plenty of citrus, mineral and floral notes. The Sauvignon emerges from two parcels; one in the Chalk Hill District and the Jackson family's Alexander Mountain Estate. The 2016 was fermented mostly in steel, with a touch of new oak.

The 2015 Pinot Noir Panorama Vineyard First Row offers up aromas of wild berries, sweet soil and cocoa powder. On the palate, it's medium-bodied, velvety and layered, delicate and understated in style but attractively balanced and nicely concentrated. I'd expect this to improve with a year or two in bottle.

A solid performance, the firm, yet lively 2015 Carmel Road Pinot Noir delivers beautifully ripened black fruit aromas and flavors on the palate. The wine's smooth and rich finish makes it a natural with grilled hamburgers.

This vintage of a widely available bottling is a solid everyday sipper for the price, with aromas of star anise, fresh red cherry and snappy hibiscus punch. The palate is fresh and vibrant with raspberry fruit, thyme and white pepper dust, with a warm baking-spice note on the finish.

California Pinot Noir Light ruby color. Smells of tart strawberries, red cherries, McIntosh apple peel, along with rhubarb, cola and roasted coffee. Refreshing acidity on the palate, full-bodied with a chewy texture, and plenty of tangy cherries, raspberries, rich back cherries. Flavors of cola, rhubarb, rose hips, sweet tobacco, along with coffee, chestnut and vanilla. Packed with flavor but stays fresh. Aged 13 months in 20% new French oak.

There’s great amount of minerality on the nose of this bottling, with crushed slate and muddy soil aromas overcoming the mint herb and red-fruit scents. There’s minty lift right away on the sip, with bay leaf, fennel pollen and dusty leather flavors decorating the boysenberry fruit.